My mind goes on a drip.
Profile
Amanda, 19
Studying Media & Communication
Singapore Polytechnic
A blog created for Design&Illustration module
Peace
Tag
Your tagboard codes here. Best is <110px, yep!
Links
Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 6:18 PM
Trip to the national museum!
In the blink of an eye, we've reached the end of our design and illustration lesson, which is a trip to the National museum. I realize I've not been to the museum for so long such that I can't recognize it anymore. I think I've been to the older building? (the one before it was restored.) nevertheless, this restored museum is really looking good. I think the efforts of trying to keep some of its 'roots' from the original one should be applauded because that's the building that has become a part of the history in some Singaporeans' minds.
A camera sitting in the center of a ermm, wall? :D The walls and pillars are all designed in a colonial manner!
Stained glass panels which still look as good as new despite its age!
An ionic capital. I think this gives off a really grecian look. Something that might look like it originated from the greeks.
I remembered looking at these red lanterns and asking Joel or somebody whether it had been especially hanged there due to the Chinese New Year Festival, I must be really stupid or something because it isn't! After a thorough explanation by our guide, I came to realize this is actually a designer piece which is worth millions! It is specially designed to suit our locals, as depicted by the red colour used which is an asian colour as well as the way the lanterns are swung so that it looks like a dragon! It's a really unique design that's true to our culture~
The ceiling is made of many glass panels like the one in the picture and it looks so gorgeous from below. You can see how the clouds are being swayed slowly by the wind (:
A spoof of my poster -_- HAHAHAHAHAHA.Speaking of which, I never realized the girl was looking at an explosion until Ms Nga pointed it out to me. Neither did any of the classmates I showed the poster beforehand to. I think we all need better spectacles/contact lens.
This is also the first time I've given a second look to such an ordinary looking arch. So the keystone is the one in the center of the arch and has to be positioned such that it can withhold gravitational pull and pressure from the ceiling so that it will not sink down as the time goes by... I shall notice more arches in the future.
These staircases are the modern ones. I think they gives off the British vibes due to the marble white colour. & the dary greyish hues of the steps contrast with the white colours nicely!
Pretty stairs
The corinthian capital looks really elegant :)
escalators for easy accessibility :D
This should be some wedding plastic bag because there's a 'xi' word on the top left corner which is a chinese word commonly used for weddings.
I think this statue is particularly scary but well its amazing so many sculptures and mummies' tombs have been preserved till this day! That exhibit is extremely cold as well, we were all freezing!So i guess it is a GOODBYE to D.I. and HELLO to the new electives
Thursday, February 11, 2010, 12:44 AM
threadless.
Threadless submission! :D click here for more details..
inspired by Lady Gaga's Poker Face :)
HAHAHA i don't know why as well..!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 1:49 AM
Missy Shelbe is BORN!
Missy Shelbe.
That's the mascot created for CA3! Honestly speaking, I think I how she came about was very largely inspired by Mr Bean. (Even though she looks nothing like him?) This is because I love the light colour schemes approach Mr Bean had used, it just makes the viewer feels very at peace with it which is rare because most brand mascots are really vibrant loud and sometimes attention-seeking - which isn't a bad thing as well but they just don't appeal as much to me. A typical consumer who's going on 20 and is part of the generation Y group who likes to use IT?!
I think she looks pretty too, yes? ^_^
Anyway, it was fun creating Missy Shelbe. Her hairstyle had finally morphed into something brownish and wavy [with wind blowing in the background] after all the other old-school or retros one I had originally styled her in. (I think I sound like some hairdresser here). By the way, I think shading is really fun too, difficult as well. I don't think I did a really good job in shading there but I did try my best! and I'm so going to try and shade more stuff to improve my skills. :)
DI module is also fnally coming to an end. Looking back, I had learned so much indeed! Am now looking forward to the other electives I have chosen which is art direction and copywriting!
Not to forget, I'm also super duper looking forward the long break that's coming up in March after our exams!
Till than, I'll still have to be focused back on DI's threadless tee design as well. Have brainstormed about it and came up with some quirky/interesting idea.
Stay tune!
I think she looks pretty too, yes? ^_^
Anyway, it was fun creating Missy Shelbe. Her hairstyle had finally morphed into something brownish and wavy [with wind blowing in the background] after all the other old-school or retros one I had originally styled her in. (I think I sound like some hairdresser here). By the way, I think shading is really fun too, difficult as well. I don't think I did a really good job in shading there but I did try my best! and I'm so going to try and shade more stuff to improve my skills. :)
DI module is also fnally coming to an end. Looking back, I had learned so much indeed! Am now looking forward to the other electives I have chosen which is art direction and copywriting!
Not to forget, I'm also super duper looking forward the long break that's coming up in March after our exams!
Till than, I'll still have to be focused back on DI's threadless tee design as well. Have brainstormed about it and came up with some quirky/interesting idea.
Stay tune!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 9:45 PM
ALL about sketches!
After reading the article...I feel that sketching with a pencil on a piece of paper feels entirely different from drawing your stuff on a tablet using adobe programs. I think sketching feels more personal because it's like giving life to an inanimate drawing because you're drawing on a solid piece of paper and I suppose drawing on a piece of paper is a more spur of the moment thing, because it shows that you're not afraid of drawing and expressing the ideas in your mind.
I remembered the very first time I learnt how to sketch those 3D objects by my art teacher in secondary school year 1 and 2 in my giant sketchbook. It was such an awesome learning experience!
We started out by sketching objects like our pencil, eraser, water bottles etc.
He than taught us how to shade nicely so that it will actually look more 'real' and viola, came an actual sketching with the right shades and all. After that, he would want us to develop the object we just drew, eg. Tomato by morphing/distorting the original fruit into whatever we want. Of course, the shadings and all should still be presented. How fun was that? (:
So there would be a few sketches developed from the original one. Until we decided to stop at the one that we wanted to use.
& I must say developing your sketches bit by bit was really useful and fun and to do. It also helps you see what changes were made throughout the process as well as note down the ideas that had formed in your mind
Which explains why I really enjoyed my art lesson in my secondary school days.
I guess this article made me reminisced of the happy past :)
On the other hand, technology had made us empowered with the tool to draw easily as well. Some people may prefer it that way because its more hassle-free with the virtual eraser and selection/colouring tools. I must admit it is really more convenient!
credits: iconmintiesI decided to look for some sketches in deviantart after reading the article too and this caught my eyes! The author had created a brand new character based on original characters from various mmorpg games like final fantasy. You get to see where the new character's features came from and I guess sketching all the other characters also help him observe which area he wanted to extract from the game characters.
In conclusion, start sketching today!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 1:05 AM
CA submission week.
We submitted our CA which is to redesign a nanyang optical ad last week.I guess designing an ad is really hard afterall,was thinking with madness about what kind of concept to come up with because it had to have some link to the spectacles (obviously) yet capture the christmas spirit in it due to the xmasy tagline 'tis the season to see clearly'.
Also, we learned that what appears on our laptops may not necessary be nice on ink and paper. Hence, some changes had to be made here and there after printing because the colour may turn out different, or the image may turn our blurred or too obscured by other colours etc.
& I also learned from Joel that photoshop has this function to centralize our layers, I guess I'm quite a greenhorn at it after all :( Haha but it's good to learn something new as well. Thanks to Joel because that function is really useful!
We later mounted the ad (which is really tedious too), measuring the board ensuring the ad is placed at the direct central position.
Next up would be about creating a mascot for Sobe, 'Tradition. Every day," that's what our group came up with for their new tagline with regards to our campaign.
All right. Good day.
Saturday, December 19, 2009, 9:48 PM
The Corporate Look.
So, this was the last week of school and Ms Nga had assigned us to redesign a poster for WMG. The original poster was just a piece of something filled with words! So after a taxing time of 'see see look look' and brainstorming and what's not, a light bulb popped in my mind, literally.This light bulb eventually popped up in the redesigned poster too!
The light bulb actually represents 'Ideal', something that says 'This is it!"
Also, chancing upon this picture which shows a hand holding it kind of explains what I want to bring across to. In my opinion, the target audience want to grasp this Ideal solution in their hands! They need someone who can give them the assurance of a firm grasp.
All right :D
Anyway, happy birthday to me! Today's my 19th!
Ms Nga must be honored that I'm blogging for DI on my birthday. :D
Saturday, December 5, 2009, 10:01 PM
Designer's Day 2009!
This is honestly the first time I've ever been to an art exhibition/gallery I believe, and I must say Designer's Day Festival 2009 was awesome! It feels pretty wasted because I never got to visit the other exhibitions other then the ones we went to for our DI field trip. Hence, I've made a mental note to definitely go check out next year's Designer Day 2010 exhibition. :)
To kickstart the day, Joel, Clarissa and I went to a courtroom which was featuring CCC Character Festival. Inside, we found many cartoon drawn characters in these black bubble like things.. The cartoon characters were all brightly coloured and cute! These drawings are Japanese productions and has a form of 'zenny' feel to it. Some of the characters were ninja, while some just look like the random cutesy characters you can find on your game console Japanese music games! One of which is a taiko drum (Picture below)
One of the key features of the characters drawn is this exhibition is the way they are shaped symmetrically. In my opinion, this may sometimes work if you want the character to look slightly flat and in shape (neat). For example, the Chang Er (Moon Princess) character below. She looks neater and tidier in a way because of the symmetrical effect, also it is easy on the eyes and it is also simple to imagine and understand what kind or character is that.
Kotomi sketchbook
Chang Er cartoonSo i reckon, Sobe can probably be related to... more beans? -_-
All right. I'm really just kidding :D
Next up, theres the typography 101 gallery too!
That place is really pretty cool, the first thought that came to my mind when I stepped into it was...
"Somebody must have switched off all the lights!"
It's because the place was entirely in darkness. However...
We later found out the magic of it. There were several posters hanging around from the ceiling. And attached to each poster was a mini torchlight... and the cool thing was! You get to read the stuff written on the posters by shining the torchlight over the posters! The words on it were sentences that were related to the Singapore Culture I reckon. :D
Really interesting stuff that I'd never seen before in my life. Hahahahaha
Sad to say I didn't take much pictures for that because of my lousy handphone's camera. :(
However, I can totally remember how the whole thing and place looks like!
Another random picture for the typography gallery! It created a 3D effect for it and I love the colours orange, fuschia and yellow. So retro! :OAll in all, it has been an eye-opener to be able to have the chance to have a good look at all the exhibitions and talented works/galleries that day.
& It has certainly enriched my DI learning experience!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 12:10 AM
SHRED it.
This post will be a combination of our week 3 and week 4 lesson because it's about the same monkey/animal.So we learnt about SHRED, which stands for Science, HUH?, Emotion, Response, Deconstruct.
For this, we have to work backwards when analyzing/designing a print ad.
I shall try to apply these on the recent print ad I made for Mon Mon Marshmallows.
Mon Mon MarshmallowsDeconstruct: Breakin down; dismantling what I want to convey
So I wanted to convey a fun and vibrant message to my TA, to tell them that MMM is a really exciting snack that they'll want to taste!
So I guess I can break down that print ad into...
- the happy bouncy monkey
- the bright colours used
- the tagline
Feel happy about it! Think positive~
Response: Call-to-action
Persuade their parents to buy it because it looks so fun.
HUH?: I hope it grabs attention because of the bright colours! So children will go 'HUH' when they look at it.
Science: Using proven methods which works.
One of which is that children likes bright colours.
Hence the usage of bright colours.
A cute and friendly looking monkey helps too.
In conclusion, SHRED is important because it helps us understand how the print ad should look like. I guess we can also SHRED advertisements we see in our everyday lives.
All right, that's it for today. Sorry about the long overdue post! :D
All right, I'm bringing back my Mon Mon Marshmallows poster again for yet another reason! During week 4 lesson, we were all asked to critique each other's work.So for mine, it was pretty obvious!
The font for the tagline. I bet no one can see it properly as well.
Next, it was the Mon Mon word, I was told to change it to give a more 'Blocks' feel to it.
Lastly, the bananas on the tree. My group suggested to change them to marshmallows instead.
I shall edit the poster and put it up next week! So, till then, See you! :D
P/S:
Oh and I almost forgot, I have a surprise mascot awaiting too.............
Her name is Yubaru and she's a pregnant ninja.
She was borned out of my Events Management and Promotions group's brainstorming session during a tutorial with Ms Lum!
Yubaru also became our group's name, 'Yubaru Ninja Assassin Squad' due to unforeseen circumstances! Hence, she is now a proud representative of our group.
& I must say, she would never have been born if not for the tablet. Hence, I must thank Ms Nga and the module DI for that. Muahahaha.
Sunday, November 1, 2009, 4:10 PM
Lesson 2: Adventures of the Monkey King
Lesson 2: Single Point ActivityThis week, we're dealing with animals again!
Once again, we got to draw lots from a box and fortunately or (unfortunately), it was a monkey for me. So we paired up with another person who had the same animal and anticipated the next activity that was to commence.
Monkey~!Some points noted for the day...
Point 1: It reinterated what we're learning in our current modules.
Say, in Public Relations, we have to constantly remind ourselves what is the key message(s) we want to convey, who's our target audience (TA) and what action we expect the TA to take once we execute our plan. Hence, this DI lesson also taught us the essence of designing for an advertisement/mascot by taking into account who our TA are.
So there were a few important points that have to be decided between my partner (Shawn) and I before we began designing our mascot. The product designated for us was bananas initially, but we later requested for banana marshmallows instead because we felt that thinking up ideas for a product like banana was a bit tough.
So these were some of the things we came up with when we were brainstorming.
- Name of product: Squishy Nana, Nana Marsh, Boosh, Mojo Softies, Squish Squish, Mon Mon Marshmallows
- Description: Soft, chewy, organic banana juice contained, soft pale yellow colour, bite size, nutrional
- Product Benefits: Healthy, fun, tasty, flexible, soft enough to avoid choking
- Target Audiences: Children
In the end we decided the end product which will be called...
Mon Mon Marshmallows (MMM)
...because the name sounds catchy.
I can imagine children chanting 'Mon Mon, Mon Mon, Mon Mon,' whenever they enter the sweets section in the supermarket with their mothers.
So what is this product exactly? It is a fun and exciting marshmallow with real organic banana juice contained. It'll be so juicy it will spuirt in your mouth like a xiaolongbao (chinese soup dumpling).
Here's a rough idea of how the mascot will look like as well! It's gonna be the Monkey God (Sun Wu Kong) that almost every little children will have heard of! Pardon the Halo I drew in the picture below though, as I said: This is a rough sketch so nothing's confirmed yet. :)
Drew this ah beng while discussing about our product. Even Ah Bengs love our new banana product. Just look at the tattoo near his chin which expresses his love for Mon Mon. We even joked about having him as our seller for the marshmallows. But of course he's going to scare all the children before they even see the product!In my opinion, an appropriate seller would most probably be a young female in her late teens who has a friendly face and a wide smile all the time! Someone like...
.
.
.
.
.
.
HER.
Okay, I'm really just kidding. The red hair is photoshopped by the way, so erase the Ah Lian thoughts. HA!
This is our intended response from our TA (children)! For them to say I Love Mon Mon and pester/persuade their parents to get them some!
We also received a tablet for a semester. After a few trials, it's actually pretty fun and easy to use! Drawing on a pc has never been so easy, seriously. I think I'm totally saving up some money to get a tablet for myself now.Now that I have a tablet, MMM's mascot is going to come alive!
I'm sure the MMM will be the next big hit!
"Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon Mon"
Monday, October 26, 2009, 12:57 AM
Tribal rocks! stone.
Some background information about my history with drawing before I start proper!I've loved drawing since I was hmmm... Primary 1?! YES. That's how young I was! I love doodling nonsense and drawing female characters I think, it was particularly fun to draw different hairstyles and outfits for the fictional characters I'd imagined and... it relieves stress. Anyway, I think what you draw changes along with you as you age too. I no longer draw these imaginary female characters as much as I did when I was younger. Instead, I like drawing houses and buildings now! But of course it isn't those 3D or complicating architecture stuff! (:
So thus began the first lesson of my semester for an elective module called Design & Illustration. This module is taught by Ms Nga which is not much of a surprise because she was the one who taught us in year 1 for an art module as well.
The first lesson started with a bang! We were all given a small piece of cardboard paper. We were asked not to look at it but we did anyway. It was sort of an icebreaker game for the class because all of us come from different classes.
It was a cartoon dog on the paper for me. Feeling all mystified by it, Miss Nga explained what we needed to do. We later got into tribes with people who had the same animals on their small paper. My tribe members were Sharon and Josiah!
We were all asked to sketch the cartoon dog as shown below and to later critic each others' drawings and improvise on it afterwhich.
There were a few points noted when drawing this seemingly cute and harmless dog.1st point noted: A dog's body is really circular.
2nd point noted: I couldn't draw circles really well.
~~~Which leads to my first drawing!
1st Drawing
If you can observe carefully, my first drawing (above) differs so much from the original one! I actually thought it was quite close, but I realize how wrong I was at the end of the day. :( The paws were supposed to be in the shape of a bun. Thanks to Ms Nga, Sharon and Josiah; I saw the flaws in my drawing which included the feets, mouth and ears! There's so many! So it was time for all of us to proceed on to the second drawing - which was supposed to look better and closer to the original drawing.2nd Drawing
I don't know if it's just me or something, but I kind of feel that the dog looks a bit anaeroxic in this one. Actually Sharon and I discussed about it and wisened up after the first drawing. We decided to draw the dog in a smaller size to save our efforts. However, I think there's no difference in the amount of tedious effort being put in. Anyway, this time we criticize each others' works again and I realized it's time to draw a better circular body!3rd & Final drawing!
I guess I can't say my final drawing is really close to the original one, but comparing it to the first and second, I must say this is definitely the best one.Hence, a true learning point from the first lesson of DI is that every single detail counts. The shape, lines, angles, shading (and more) are necessary stuff to take note of if one wants to get a decent or even good piece of drawing done!
We're also supposed to design our sketchbook. This is what mine looks like now. I shall post my designed sketchbook at my last entry in this blog to see the changes made!Good bye!