Final Project: Hype, Crook and Lyric

A group project this time. Kind of different from the previous assignments. For this assignment, we had a choice of either doing a storybook for children age 6-9 or a comic strip for teenagers. I was more towards doing a comic strip due to my strong liking for Japanese manga but my group wanted to do a storybook. Hence, I went along with them as I thought that it would be a good learning experience for me who have not had much exposure to children's storybook. (I read Enid Blyton's books from young and it did not have much illustrations or any at all except for those on the cover)

So we came up with a few ideas of what to do.

Idea 1: Back in Fairytale Land

A young girl/guy was reading a storybook of fairytale and accidentally “fell” into the book. He/she ended up in Fairytale Land where all the famous fairytale characters like Cinderella, Peter Pan etc. lives. While exploring the place, he/she met the different characters and helped them with to find things which were crucial for their respective stories to carry on. As he/she is well-versed with fairytale stories, he/she is able to help them. At the end of the day, he/she misses home so the Fairy God Mother who helps to send him/her home.

Idea 2: The Fallen Star

A young girl likes to look at stars every night and on one fateful night chance upon a fallen star. As the star wants to go back to the sky to its home, the girl helps it. Using various methods, she attempts to help the star back home but fails repeatedly before succeeding. In the process, she and the star became good friends and the star finally manages to get back into the sky.

Idea 3: Life in Virtual Reality
A little boy insists on playing a particular computer game for five hours every day, even when his homework is undone. One day when he woke up, he realizes that he has been sucked into the virtual reality of the game. An oracle in the game tells the boy that he has decided to keep him here, since he likes to spend so much time playing the computer game. Initially the little boy was elated, but when he realizes that the monsters have become real instead of just being characters in the game, he decides that he prefers the warmth of his own home better. However, the oracle refuses to return him back to the real world. After completing various difficult missions, the oracle finally decides to let him go, on the account that he never turns back again, nor leaks out his experience to others. The little boy returns to the real world and hardly plays computer games anymore.

Out of the 3 ideas, we picked Idea 2: The Fallen Star, as most importantly, all of us liked it and had a good feel about it. At the same time, we thought that it would appeal to children of the target age group.

We further developed the story in terms of the plot and character. Our story revolves around our 2 main characters, Alegra and the Star. Much thought was given as to the gender of the hero of the story but it was finally settled on a young girl. When we first drafted the story, our mental image was that of a girl and hence, the rest of the storyline and personality was developed around this mental image.

Alegra:

The Star:

To bring the characters to life, a storyline which can bring about eventful interaction between the two was needed. The story started with the introduction of the heroine, in terms of age and personality so as to provide for a positive image and a character the reader can relate to or even aspire to be. A chance meeting where the Star fell from the sky and was found by Alegra was created. This allowed for the story to progress towards the main plot of attempts to get the Star back into the sky and where friendship between the two characters eventually blossomed. The climax of the story is built up with each failed attempt to help the star which was resolved with the successful last try and as always, the story ended with a happy ending of Alegra finding a friend in the sky.

The moral of our story is: The positive qualities which we hope to instill in the readers, or in other words the moral, is to be kind, helpful and willing to sacrifice or be at the losing end to help those in need. And in turn, one may gain something of greater value in return.

From this stage on, the difficult part of the developmental process began. I learnt that creating a storybook was more than just putting together some words and illustrations. Instead, many things like typography, grid, representation, use of words and colour scheme had to be taken into consideration. And when we thought that all these was done and finally sent it for printing, we encountered some problems with bleed and size. Little things which I usually would not take note of suddenly seemed so important. Since then, I told myself that I must develop a habit of being more meticulous in my work.

And the final product of our hard work:

Alegra and the Fallen Star

Assignment 5: Your Notion of Colourful Asia

When I first saw the theme of this assignment, many different things like food, clothing, dance, etc. raced through my head. To give myself a focus, I decided to concentrate on Chinese and Japanese specifically due to me being a Chinese and also because I am highly interested in Japanese culture. So I decided to to look at areas which are highly similar in these 2 cultures and merge them together.

As I was on my way home one day, I happened to pass by this Wayang performance and I noticed their highly colourful makeup. Hence the idea of masks, mainly Chinese Opera masks and Kabuki (Japanese Opera) masks. After deciding on what to use, I had to think about how to go about merging these different masks together. I ended up going with dividing the different masks into quarters and putting them together. I drew a quarter of a different kind of mask. The top right was a typical Kabuki mask, top left a Chinese Opera Mask, bottom left being Monkey King mask and the bottom right a Japanese demon mask. I chose the most outstanding feature of each mask to decide their placement.

After coming out with the outline of the masks, it was time to colour it. To explore the different combination of colours, I did 9 different colour schemes.

For the back of the postcard, I did a simple postcard design with a black and white version of the image.

However, after much thought, I thought that it might be better to put a few masks with different colour schemes into the postcard. Hence, i redid 9 colour schemes.

I varied the size of the masks so as to make it more vibrant and not so monotonous. I ended up choosing the one on the bottom left corner, the one with the red hue. This is because I though that the colour red can better represent the Asia which is closer to heart to me, which being the Chinese culture. From the colour scheme, I changed some shades of the colours so that they can better compliment each other.

Front:

Back:

From this assignment, I learnt the importance of colours and shades. The colours used in a single illustration must be able to compliment or even contrast each other, to better bring out the meaning behind the illustration. I also realise the usefulness of doing up a colour scheme where the different effects of different use of colours could be seen at any one time so as to do a better selection. I would apply this usage of colour schemes in future design process as it greatly aids in producing a good piece of work.

Assignment 4: Save, Prevent, Kill...

This assignment involved the designing of a poster with the general public as the target audience. I thought about a few themes like Child Abuse and Hunger but finally settled on something which frustrates me almost daily when travelling on public transportations.

Taking note that the poster must be able to capture attention and put across a message at a glance, I decided to adopt a simple design. Hence, I made use of stick figures in my illustration.
In the illustration, 2 forms of drawing were used, one being very clean lines when drawing the people and the handphone and sketchy lines when drawing the "noise" to make it look out of place and to illustrate just how "off" it is to be there. The person on the right was also intentionally cut off to show him being "forced" out of the scene due to the noise.

For the fonts for the heading and subheading, "Lucida Console" was used. Although it may look a little informal, it was intentionally used as this message is being communicated more towards the younger generation who are the contributors of the "noise". In addition, a similar font was used by a previous campaign of anti-piracy and the tagline was "File Sharing" which was highly focused on music and videos. Hence, by using a similar font, it is somewhat a parody to highlight another context of music "sharing".

For the main text or copy, it talks to the audience by addressing them directly. There is a little sarcasm used as the whole poster adopts a more sarcastic kind of tone. Arial font is used in here as it is easier for reading especially if it is a little wordy.

Stop blasting your music on public transportations.

We would rather listen to the rusty engines of the bus

and random honks from cars.

Be considerate to the sleep-deprived

and help create a peaceful resting environment.

I ended up with 2 colour schemes of the poster as I can't decide on which one would look better. However, after a consultation session, it was decided that my original poster of World Food Programme can better convey the message. Hence, some editing was done.

From this assignment, I took away a valuable lesson with me. That is to say that something which makes sense to me may not be that easily understood by others. This is especially so if I am the creator of a visual representation. By creating something, it means that I have already pre-defined its meaning which may not be easily understood when seen by others who are totally new to it.

In a poster, there must be a strong graphic element to capture the attention of passer-bys. If the graphic is unable to do so or is not easily understood, the audience may not stop to notice the other elements of the poster. Besides the graphic, the heading which is made up of the largest words on the whole poster, must be able to have a hold on the audience, relate to them and make them want to find out more about what the poster is actually about. This is when the cover will come into play, to provide more information about the poster. On the whole, the poster must be able to create an impact on the audience.