U C what I C

'U C what I C' is a visual assignment which requires us to take up to 8 photos to narrate our story. We were given a choice of whether we want to include a twist in our story or not. Which I did as you can see from my final images.

I first wanted to do a story of an ugly girl. She is looked down upon in school and she is an introvert. One day, she was scouted by a modeling agency and they felt that she has the potential to be a outstanding model. So she went for a photoshoot and all. And in the end, those people that laughed at her did not manage to recognise her and is reading the magazine she modelled it.

Moral of story: Ugly duckling; do not look at people superficially.

I did some sketches but as the day nears for my official photoshoot with my 'model', I find it impossible to get so many people to help out. Furthermore, I was not able to confirm the timings exactly with them and this ended up being scrapped.

I spent another 3 hours scratching my brains for more ideas and in the end I decided to focus my assignment on the topic of 'stress'

My storyline borders on the idea of: what you think of in the day = what you dream of when you sleep. It is kind of like the chinese proverb ---- fill in proverb!---

This is actually a personal experience. I was having some trouble coping with stress when I was about to take my A 'levels'. So here goes:

Do you understand what I am trying to portray over here? Yes, all the blood and gore happened in her dream, and she was actually 'slicing' with a ruler. (That is my twist!)

I presented in class and the comments given were generally good:
- Good angles
- Colour composition is fine (Thank you Fuji)
- Story is clear

Since no bad comments were given (my friends are all so shy!), I still feel there is room for improvements. Yes, I have decided to blurred the first 7 pictures more so that it contrast with the last picture and try to photoshop my blood to make it more real. (:

Abstraction

This is our second assignment of the semester: Creating a pictogram.

Some definitions;
Pictogram: an image created by people for the purpose of quick and clear communication without language or words, in order to draw attention to something.

My understanding form the sentence above is that a pictogram has to be representative of something one is able to easily recognize upon looking at it. It has to be simple to be able for people to understand.

For this assignment, students are required to create a pictogram suitable for the NUS community and it has to be placed in school. Thus it means that the target audience are the students and staff and possibly for visitors of NUS.

My idea came from my experience as a freshmen. During my first 2 months of school, I encountered some troubles locating the bus stops in NUS. This is especially so when I have lessons in AS4 and AS5. These 2 places are situated quite a distance from available bus stops and I got lost sometimes. So I decided to come up with a 'bus stop' abstraction to help visitors and future freshmen navigate their way more easily.

I was not able to capture a picture of the NUS bus, so here is one from around my place. And the abstraction begins!








This is the pictogram i chose to present in class. My Ideal location would be along the walkways of AS4 and AS5 where they are located quite a distance away from the bus stops.


The comments given by classmates were:
1. It looks like a van more than a bus.
2. Looks a little like a taxi stand?

I agree that it does look a little like a van instead of a bus, so I did some editing in photoshop to elongate the bus and put it closer to the stand. However, i disagree that it looks like a taxi stand because my abstraction is based on a photo I took of the bus-stop.

So this is my final pictogram!

Me, Myself and I

This is my first official assignment for visual design and it is about designing a name to fit me. It has to convey something about me to my audience, be it my character, personality, likes or even weaknesses.

I am actually quite excited about this assignment as simple as it sounds, it is challenging to be able to accurately convey who i am to the person viewing the artwork. First, we were tasked to brainstorm concepts associated with the self by writing down the words and come up with 4 preliminary sketches. As this is focused on the process of learning about the self, i came up with the following 4 themes: Flowers, Music, Curly Hair and Anti-smoking. It is a combination of my likes, hate and something that is part of me.

I love flowers! Weaving my name into flowers with a butterfly reflects my love for nature. If one looked closely, my flowers are generally those with petals blooming out, unlike a rose. It signifies me as an outgoing person and if i could colour it, it would be orange!


My next love is none other than music. I was in the school band since 13 and music has since been an integral part of my life. Although I put in some musical instruments (ie, the piano & violin), this design poses a problem in terms of final composition of color. And also, it did not bring out much of my personality and who i really am.


I come from a family of smokers. It is no coincidence that I came up with this. I do not like smokers who are inconsiderate and to be exact, i hate the act of smoking. I will never understand why would anyone smoke. However, this design did not bring out my feelings that strongly and also, after showing this to my friends, they felt like I was actually endorsing it more that condemning it.

Last but not least, this is something that is part of me. Although I look like i have straight hair now, I used to have curly hair. I integrated the cursiveness of my name into the curls of my hair. And in the end, I chose to work on my 4th design: Curly wurly pearly!

I developed the idea into 2 larger scales pictures as shown below. The first one focused on my hair only and that the fact that i like to smile as seen from my smiley face. The second one was a little deeper as I tried to incorporate more of what I like to do when I'm free, which is talking on the phone!

Comments given were good
- Majority of the class preferred the second design,
- I should work with proportions, meaning the head is too small and the phone is too big
- I can include what i like to talk about at the background
- Do not repeat my name on the phone dial

I heeded my classmates' advices and render the second design in inkart for the painting effect. So this is what i presented in class in the subsequent week. I added in musical notes and a heart which signifies my love for music and that I like talking to the person in my heart.

Comments given:
- the name and the hair are too separated, try to integrate them as one
- the phone does not look like a phone without the dial

And ta-daaaah! my final copy!