http://www.tumblr.com/blog/analysisofpoe

Our story is called Yummy Wars: The Adventures of Buniverse and Coolala.

their pose is inspired by a combination of Pretty Woman and Mr and Mrs Smith!

this is Buniverse (SORRY THE COLOURS HAVE BEEN…ALTERED BY THE UPLOADING):

and this is Coolala:

Let’s take a tour and visit Buniverse haha.

and now let’s go to Coolala..

Our book promotes the culture of sharing, as well as involves 2 created cultures, namely that of the Buniverse and CooLaLa. I’m proud to say I came up with the script for our lovely book! :D We took into account the fact that there might be some words and phrases that 6-8 year olds might not understand, so we did up a Vocabulary page for them.

this is our storyboard:

We first started by brainstorming for names for our 2 planets. I thought that the leader of Coolala (which is coined from Cola + Ooh La La) should be Lady LaLa because it was planet CooLaLa after all. Lady LaLa is based on Lady GaGa. while drawing and colouring her, we drew inspiration from her hair, make-up, and her love for wearing veils and bodysuits.

Buniverse’s leader is Burger King. We were discussing our project in MOS Burger one day, and I was just talking about how we should give the planets leaders, and I accidentally said Burger King. The whole group started laughing and we got really excited about the pun. Anyway, Burger King is based on the traditional old king who has a moustache, a belly and a cloak and sceptre.

The citizen of Coolala is this tofu-like little thing, and is milky yellow in colour. The citizen of Buniverse is more lanky and is blue. The shapes and colours of the citizens are actually determined by the shapes and colours of the planets. This is because of the Gestalt principles we applied, to ensure that the images are aesthetically pleasing.

For example, the Buniverse citizen is blue (cool colour) because the planet is filled with warm colours as it’s a “flame-grilled” burger planet (ha ha! love our book cos it’s full of puns). Also, the Buniversites (as they are known) are tall and thin, as the shape of the burger is round and short. Contrast is very important!!

Here’s a look at our stars!

All of us agreed on the watercolour style for the colouring, and I was especially taken with this album art. I think the watercolours are so beautiful!

However, we were concerned that this particular look might be too mature for our young audience, so we decided to determine our style as spontaneous and free-spirited. Definitely, our choice of bright colours helped to contribute to this particular feel we were going for. The cohesiveness of our drawings and text played a big part too.

We had also contemplated making our book in the Accordion style, like this:

unfortunately the printers we contacted couldn’t guarantee that they would be able to print the book according to our specifications. that said, it would also be quite difficult administratively to delegate work among ourselves due to the MEGA file sizes etc.

This is a sample of some of the fonts we shortlisted for our text:

This one is called Incognita. We didn’t choose this one as it looks too much like handwriting. Since we are already using the hand-drawn style for our book, we needed some contrast or it would be too messy.

We also considered Garamond, but in the end we decided that it was too plain and we wanted a more unique font.

Finally, we decided on Sleeptalk! It is pretty much the perfect font for us as it is not too angular or too round, not too bold or too thin. Also, it’s not too plain and doesn’t look too messy.

I think one important thing to note is that we had the end in mind when we started. What I mean is that we had this image of a burger and a soft drink together in the galaxy. This would allow the children to recognise that sharing is necessary, and can have its benefits too. This is because we often think of fastfood in pairs (ie. a burger and a drink), thus the ending picture can help to reinforce the educational message of sharing we are promoting in our book! By the way, if you noticed, our cover page already “hints” at sharing by combining the burgers and Coola into a stream filled with burgers!

my area of Climate Change interest is regarding MEAT. basically, there have been some radical campaigns lately to promote going vegan, or vegetarian, as scientists believe that you can cut down on pollution by cutting down on the amount of meat we eat.

so i did some research and put together an article that addressed the issues of methane and livestock-rearing.

i wanted to do either a calendar or an “earth-bomb” to emphasise the importance of time regarding this issue, so i sketched out the preliminary ideas:

as for what would go inside the rectangles either in the bomb or the calendar, i did a preliminary draft of the rough feel i wanted to go for:

which resulted in combining the calendar and draft together to make this:

i chose brighter colours and a slightly more playful font for my infographic because i wanted it to look like something that would appeal to children. our target audience is supposed to be readers of Newsweek and Time etc. however, the reason i made something that would appeal to children is because something bright and cheery would definitely attract alot of attention, regardless of the demographic of the audience.

secondly, readers of magazines like Newsweek and Time tend to be middle-aged, and would thus probably have a family of their own. although the infographic seemingly targets the child-psyche, parents are also likely to be drawn to such images as they would be reminded of their own children when they see such images. it thus invokes the link between their children’s future and the subject matter of the infographic. which is more likely to prompt them to take action based on the information presented. hence, i feel this kills 2 birds with 1 stone! rather than losing out on the critcal mass of children as an audience.

anyway, i used the design principles of COLOUR. apart from using Functional Colour to support and better communicate my message, i have also used both Attention grabbing and Visible colours in my infographic. however, i deliberately stayed away from GOOD TASTING colours! haha so that the audience would not associate my cow with meat and feel hungry!!

by the way, this is hilarious:

For this assignment, we were to choose a youth theme and create a postcard to publicise it. So i started brainstorming, and i knew i wanted to work on something very dear to me.

this is a t-shirt design i did for my CCA in junior college. it’s called Artery, and it functions as an Arts Council, planning Arts-related activites for the students. i decided to continue working on the same theme of “Arts for the Heart”.

i drew some sketches, keeping in mind that i wanted to specifically stay away from the heart shape ♥♥, and specifically use the real human heart instead, cos the heart shape is way too cliche, and using the real human heart would lend an interesting twist!

which resulted in this:

i had several other colour choices as well, and in class, there didn’t seem to be a ‘favourite’ among my classmates. i think this is because the other colour schemes were quite diverse and appealed to different people, based on individual tastes.

(if you noticed, i also cleaned up some of the lines, to make it neater and less cluttered)

however, during consultation with Siti, she suggested that my current background was quite plain, and during tutorial, one of my classmates Eugene suggested that i try a notebook paper kind of background to give it the more arty-farty look.

i tried different types of paper, namely blue lined, and blue squared:

i crumpled the paper, and also tried scribbling on it but that didn’t turn out so well. this is the sample background that i experimented with:

so, here’s the final front design:

and the back:

this is the original design for the back that i did:

as you can see, the font is different. this is because i needed to change it to the former so that there would be a more cohesive arty-farty look for the postcard. this one is too scientific and medical almost. the new one is more dynamic and definitely suits the crumpled notebook paper theme more!!

this.

this.

or this.

then i would be happy.

For this exercise, I wanted to play around with circles specifically, and colours. It was very interesting to see how we could arouse different feelings simply by manipulating colour! I really enjoyed this exercise.

ENERGETIC!

FLASH!

HARMONY :)

firstly, i have to say a big THANK YOU to my beautiful actors (Daryl + Darren) /actress (Dawn) as well as my behind-the-scene moral support girl (Diane). i REALLY appreciate the 4Ds putting up with me as i experimented with different camera angles and settings for particular scenes.

anyway, i hope you have already understood what the photos are about. and in the unfortunate case that you still have no idea what’s going on, here’s a synopsis/ story “board”:

1) Guy holding shoe (Context shown- multi-storey carpark)

2) Zoom Out. Both Girl and Guy can be seen now. We now understand Girl to be contemplating suicide on the rooftop.

3) Guy runs up stairs (slow shutter to show movement)

4) Guy helps Girl down. Pretext: He managed to convince her not to commit suicide.

5) Guy and Girl are in a cafe. Guy puts hand on Girl’s shoulder in the “I hope you are okay” way. Girl seems touched at his.. touch. (haha) Okay, at this particular display of what she deems as affection.

6) Girl leans forward (making a move on Guy). Guy shrinks back and indicates with his hands that he is shocked and does not want to reciprocate.

7) Guy leaves. Girl has a disappointed look. (Originally I wanted to show both the Guy and the Girl’s expressions, but I decided to zoom in on the disappointment on the Girl’s face instead. This also better shows that the guy is leaving)

8) Girl runs. (Movement shown again)

9) Double-frame shot. This time, Guy 2 is walking along the same place where Guy 1 first picked up the shoe. In the second frame, the Girl has taken off her shoe and is getting ready to throw it down.

sou desu ne?

Seen in plain daylight

the firefly’s nothing but

an insect

For this assignment, I knew I wanted to do a sign about No Jumping Queue because I was really annoyed one morning when someone cut my queue for the lift at the Central Forum.

(i started gathering some inspiration from the MRT station)

So at the MUSE concert on 3 Feb, I took a semi-staged picture of my friend jumping the queue and used those pictures for reference.

I wanted to incorporate the idea of queue-jumpers being bad bad people, so I came up with the idea of Angel vs. Devil. I had initially thought the assignment wanted us to simplify as much as possible, so I took the whole Angel-Devil theme away and replaced it with the idea of emotions shown on the faces of the people in the queue instead.

But at tutorial, my friends were very encouraging about the Angel-Devil idea, and I realised that the pictogram was really meant to convey the idea across effectively instead of being a simplified version of the primary photo, so I have made changes to my final pictogram, with the Angel-Devil theme incorporated.

My draft includes my exploration of the various positions of the queue, as well as ways to show anger and the motion of jumping the queue. I also thought of “No Cutting Queue”, which, if you refer to the top right hand corner of the picture below, is basically the letter “Q” that has either been cut or bandaged.. Interestingly enough, I haven’t seen anything like that on the net. Maybe I’ll try it out when I have the time..

[P.S. To view a larger version of the images, right-click and click on View Image]

so anyway, i decided to keep the Angel vs Devil theme, and rework the abstraction process:

so this is my new final prototype:

and here we are at the scene of the crime!

interesting toilet sign here: (iconic much?)

i like this one best though HAHA

Class Exercise B

• A constructive model for critique would include the following:

– Description – A verbal account of WHAT is there

Two school students, possibly a couple, sharing a happy moment on a swing in school. The swing looks to be painted black and white.

– Analysis – A discussion of HOW things are presented with an emphasis on relationships

The focus of the picture is on the two students in the foreground, and the distance between them and the other people in the background of the picture serves to give the impression that they are in their own world. The notion that they are in their own world also hints that they are a couple in a relationship. This is further emphasised by the blurring of the background and the clear focus of the camera on the interactions between the girl and the guy.

We notice that the couple is of different race. The guy is Malay, while the girl is Chinese. The Malay guy is sitting on the white side of the swing, while the girl is on the black side of the swing.

– Interpretation – A sense of the meaning, implication, or effect of the piece

The fact that the picture is black and white corresponds to the idea of interracial love that the picture evokes. This particular juxtaposition seems to challenge the stereotypes people often have about interracial love and the members of the other race, in that the physically darker skinned person is sitting on the white side of the swing.

The couple looks to be sharing a laugh; and this light-hearted moment on something as mundane as a swing serves to reinforce the normality of this particular sighting. They look to be completely at ease with each other, and even if they were not in a relationship, the picture suggests that people of different races can indeed be good friends with one another.

– Judgement – Evaluating the successes and shortcomings of the piece

I think the picture has successfully captured the essence of the moment, and this candidness is very heart-warming. The placing of the subjects in the frame and the resulting way that they interact is subtle yet effective.

Perhaps the fact that the girl’s face is hidden from the camera has made it a little difficult to see that she is of a different race from the guy. This lack of clarity could hamper the message the photographer is trying to get across.

I came up with 4 thumbnail sketches with each representing a certain aspect of myself. My initials are seriously LLL, as my name is Leanne Lim Li-Ern. So as you can see, the letter ‘L’ features pretty prominently in my name. And some of my friends call me Lady L, which is partly a joke, but endearing for the most part.

the sketch on the left is a representation of how I am currently finding my way in life, with the sign a reminder of how I need to stay true to myself along the way.

the sketch on the right is actually my name in hieroglyphs. because I am fascinated by the Egyptian culture, especially with mummies and tombs and so on.

the sketch on the left is testament to my love for shoes (especially sneakers). i actually collect shoes and don’t wear them because they are nicer to look at than on my feet. and i can’t bear to throw away my old sneakers as well. the legs and the shoes are actually making 2 ‘L’s, in case you were wondering what the picture has to do with my name. it was partly inspired by this drawing i did

the sketch on my right is my (as well as my classmates’) chosen piece. because i live in Singapore, i thought i would combine both my love for shoes as well as how chewing gum is banned in the country. the point of this particular juxtaposition is to say that i do agree with the government’s ban, because if not my beautiful shoes would be dirtied with chewing gum.

and since i didn’t like the perspective of my sketch, i took many pictures (way too many to post here) to try and find the angle that could capture the L as well as the L shape of the gum perfectly. i tried with my friend’s foot first (which was a mistake since i really needed a shoe to get a proper perspective)

so then i tried with a shoe on, which worked better for me. except this time i explored way more with the angles. tried out perspectives from under the sole, the side view, and top down etc.

but i chose the first composition in the end, and for my draft i added in colours and the gum wad, which was made out of blu-tack, cos you know, real gum is illegal.

during tutorial, my classmates suggested that i add highlights and shadows to make it seem more realistic, and to further emphasise the visibility of the L shape, perhaps by changing the angle/perspective of the shoe.

so i came up with this and went for consultation with Siti.

although Siti was quite keen for me to stick to the previous perspective because she liked the details on the sole of the shoe, i decided to combine the original 2 shoe sketches instead as i felt that it would best showcase the 3 L’s.

i trimmed the length of the legs and cut off the knees to make it less distracting. i think that it is easier to focus on the L shapes without those unnecessary lines.

Runaway/ Phenomenon/ Black Tongue/ Pin/ Dull Life/ Gold Lion/ Zero/ Miles Away/ Skeletons/ Hysteric/ Cheated Hearts/ Heads Will Roll/ Y-Control;

Encore: Maps(Acoustic)/ Turn Into/ Date With the Night

i will play with you another day.