Reflection: Parting words

In week 1, we were warned that this module is not for the faint-hearted. I didn’t quit then, but saw myself week after week, questioning my decision to stay. This module consumed most of my time on the Adobe Design Suite (although it did get me well-acquainted with it) and left me little time for other modules. I agonized, panicked, cursed and lost sleep doing these assignments. But upon completing my work, I beamed with pride and self-satisfaction.

It’s only been what, 12 weeks? I cannot deny that through the process of forcing every creative bone in my body to design something for this module, I have learned plenty and more. Not only did I learn more about design elements and the design process, I also saw a side of myself that was creative, determined and motivated. Only by pushing your limits will you realize your potential.

Well, I shall not bother you any further with my mushy rants. My NM2208 journey is finally coming to a close. It’s feeling of ambivalence; of relief and dread, achievement and disappointment. There were ups and downs. But I know I have grown through this process and now see myself more capable of communicating my ideas visually. And I will carry the lessons learnt, both design-wise and on a personal level, with me through this humble journal, a remnant of my experience.

Lecture 6 Reflection: Of shapes and lines

As I confessed in my first entry, drawing and designing is not my forte. I consider myself to be an artist in many other ways though. I can produce a radical idea but would readily admit incompetence when it comes to expressing it visually. Lines, shapes, tones and values were all undifferentiated in my cluttered mind. Visual theory was something I avoided with my life. Not surprisingly, this lecture scared the hell out of me.

There are a lot of theories about aesthetics and some were mentioned in the lecture. It never really occurred to me before why these elements of art is important. But I believe it forms the very basis for design. Without these elements, there will be no art. And more importantly, it allows an expression of the artist’s emotions and ideas. As a novice, there is still much for me to learn but I dare say I have a better idea of the theories I’ve shunned all these years.

Our class exercise was to design something that would describe any of the given adjectives. My partner and I did the following.

This is an image representing power. The tower of grey blocks is meant to create a “peaking” point that will intimidate and at the same time give a majestic and supreme impression.  The sharp edges reinforce this notion.

This is the symbol for ‘change’. Green was used as it represented momentum and movement. The crisp lines and curves are meant to create a spinning illusion to represent continuity and change. The edges of the symbol are pointy at the corners as sharp lines give an energetic feel as mentioned in lecture.

Lecture 5 Reflection: Framed! Part 2

After lecture proper, we were told to do another class exercise and experiment with framing by taking photos around the school. My partner and I set our subject on a little curvy walkway outside the LT, right smack in between 2 blocks (very random structure for a relatively “ulu” part of the school). Here are some of the many photos we took.

Bird’s eye view

Being amateur photographers, we decided to experiment with the rule of thirds and compare them to centre-framing from different angles.

Centre-framing

Line-of-third framing

Looking comparatively at the 2 photos above, I personally prefer the second photo. The centre-framing looks strange and I believe this can be attributed to the lack of symmetry in framing. The start of the walkway is curved and distracts the viewer from the subject which is the people walking further ahead. However, that said, although I prefer the second photo, the subject (in a checkered shirt) is too close to the railings and due to the visual complexity and hue similarity of both the subject the railings, it can be quite jarring aesthetically.

Canted low-angle off-centre

Low-angle centre

Like the centre-framing photo, the canted low-angle off-centre photo has details of the railings on the left that tends to make the photo look unbalanced. The photo is also at a canted angle which would be useful to create a sense of confusion. However I don’t think it worked for this particular photo. The placement of the subject is also weak as it is off-centre but not along the line of thirds. I prefer the second low-angle centre photo which has a sense on symmetry with equal details of the railings on both sides. The subject is distant but impactful due to its placement which I feel somewhat embodies the typical dramatic scene of the western hero riding into the sunset.

Looking again at the photographs, I realized that the little things, however small, like the trash bag in front of the structure (refer to “bird’s eye view”), can really be an eyesore. I suppose it’s the attention to detail that differentiates the good photographer and a great one. Hopefully, I will be able to make it point to pay attention to details while doing assignment 3 and not just be too obsessed with the framing.

So I left you with some food for thought in my previous reflection post.

The question was: Is this photo breaking the rule of thirds?

My photojournalism lecturer in another institution once said that as long as the eyes are in focus, the whole person would look in focus. He also said that the eyes should be used to fulfill the rule of thirds, not the whole person. In this particular photo, the subject’s eyes are slightly off centre (and so is the rose she is holding) so it seems as though the rule of thirds have been almost fulfilled. Except that it doesn’t exactly lie on the line of thirds.

Given how the rule of thirds is really the lazy scam to the Golden Mean, it really can sometimes be a rule to be broken. So although it looks like it followed the rule at first glance, it actually did break the rule if you look at it rigidly. But it doesn’t make it a bad photo, in fact I thought the framing was genius (intentional or not) cos lo and behold, guess what I realized?

The fibonacci spiral fit perfectly! Although this could be accidental (it probably is), it explains why the framing is so pleasing to the eye despite not having fulfilled the “lazy rule of thirds”!

Lecture 5 Reflection: Framed! Part 1

One of my favourite lectures for the module yet. Although I’m not a stranger to most of the concepts mentioned in lecture, the lecture was still interesting due to my interest in photography. It made me refer to some of my past photos and notice those that fulfilled the rules of framing. I realized I’m a huge follower of the rule of thirds but occasionally break those rules.

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I believe the “rules” mentioned are good guidelines but sometimes, breaking the rules can sometimes result in an even more interesting composition. Here are some photos I found on the internet (I do not take credit for the following photos) that broke the rule of thirds and yet still managed to achieve a wonderful photo.

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I especially like the 4th picture. It is with the idea of symmetry that allows such emphasis on the subject hence producing a powerful imagery. I believe one of the ways to break the rule of thirds is by producing a symmetric image that places the emphasis on the subject in the centre of the frame and works well if you have a dominant subject. In creative photography, it’s not uncommon to find photos that intentionally break the rule (and some other framing compositions) to defy tradition but does that mean that the photographer is incompetent? I think not.

Food for thought: Is this photo breaking the rule of thirds? (will upload my thoughts in the following post, together with the class exercise)

Lecture 4 Reflection: Gimme a sign

Who knew that a pictogram with a red diagonal dash across like this could be implied to represent the letters that form the word “NO”? That was the most interesting fun fact from the lecture. There are so many ways to represent things with something as simple as a symbol and pictograms can be seen as a genre of design on its own.

Pictograms for London Olynpics 2012

In my humble opinion, I believe a good pictogram should be simple, uncluttered and clear in its message to its audience. But although pictograms are meant to be simple representations, it can be further categorized under sigmatics into 3 different types; the icon, symbol and index forms. It was baffling trying to grasp this concept at first and differentiating the 3, but a further discussion with my lecturer and peers during the class exercise led to a better comprehension of this concept.

During the class exercise, we were tasked to come up with a symbol to represent a photo. We selected a photo of an ice-cream cart…

Photo of ice-cream cart and seller

And decided to create a symbol to direct people to the cart for some ice-cream lovin! We decided that the cart with the ice-cream man would be too complex for a sign. Since the product sold is ice-cream, we decided that a symbol of just ice-cream would be enough to imply its presence. And where there is ice-cream, there should be an ice-cream seller who comes with a cart/booth. Hence we created a simple symbol with an arrow to suggest to its audience that there is ice-cream just around the corner.

Final symbol

Lecture 3 Reflection: Tech nitty gritties

For years, I’ve relied on the prowess of photoshop to digitally manipulate, enhance and work miracles on my personal photos. Most of these photos never make it beyond the computer screen and onto hardcopy; I mean, who prints photos anymore when you can store and share your photos online? I never bothered myself with resolution and quality of the photos and I believe this applies to many of us who frequent Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr to view photos and other images instead of in print.

As I’ve been told today, low-res images (72 ppi) work fine for the web. In fact, it makes a lot more sense to upload a smaller compressed file (eg. JPEG) online than say an much larger high-res file (eg. TIFF or RAW) especially since the difference it will be virtually unnoticed on web. My interest in photography led me to a site which elaborates on the difference between RAW and JPEG files when taken with a DSLR. Although RAW files gives you more freedom to digitally correct the errors (such as exposure) without sacrificing too much on quality, JPEG files are a lot smaller and process faster hence allowing you to take more photos.

Of course there are various other formats out there, many of which were mentioned in lecture today. I found it interesting how there are so many formats available (kind of reminds me of the various video formats available) and yet most have their own unique quality that gives them an advantage in particular situations such as the RAW vs JPEG example mentioned above. Even colour is in itself such an apparent yet complex element of graphic design and know how and when to use it appropriately can have significant impact on your design.

The lecture activity today required us to critique a design. My partner and I picked the following outdoor ad we found online:

Image credited to http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/creativeadvertising12.jpg

My partner and I thought the ad was a true genius concept that encapsulated the crux of the message in both its design and placement. It literalizes its message of watching around the water for your child with an image of a drowned child at the bottom of a swimming pool. The ad tries imitate reality with a prominent blue accent that blends in with the colour of the swimming pool and having an image of a life-size child (using the actual child beside the ad as a gauge). To accentuate the illusion of a real child in the water, shadows are placed appropriately around the image of the child.

The ad is otherwise minimalist with text large enough to indicate that it is an ad although the colour of the white and blue text seems to need a little more contrast with the background to bring out the text. The dull colours of the ad brings about a somber mood that foreshadows the serious message behind the initially stupefying ad.

While we thought it could be slightly morbid for a place that is frequented by children, the disturbing image of a drowned child is necessary to emphasize the gravity of the situation and arouse concern among parents for the ad to succeed. Overall, the ad is effective in conveying its message to the correct target audience and highlights the unfortunate dangers of losing sight of your child at a swimming pool.

Lecture 1 Reflection: A confession

Confession: I’ve never been much of an artist. Having given up on drawing/designing during my adolescent years, I turned to other forms of art such as photography, film and literature to appeal to my senses.

I took up this module in hopes that I would be inspired and somehow, the designer in me can be somewhat ignited. Honestly, the first lecture was intimidating. Looking at past students’ works drew (pun intended) me back to my feeble attempts in art class and feeling like a failure whenever I glanced at my classmate’s drawing. I toyed with the idea of dropping the module, but I’m not a quitter and hope never to be one. In that spirit, I willed myself to persevere. Perhaps design is nothing like drawing. Perhaps I will achieve more than I can imagine. Perhaps I will succeed.

In the first lecture, we were told to design a machine or device that would enhance creativity by 100 times. Here’s what I managed to come up with:

This machine processes the source (limitations, research, other relevant information etc.) from both ends, “digests” them in the in centre and releases creativity that will enable the user to instantly come up with ideas. Its resemblance to gears is no coincidence. I believe creativity can be cultivated as long as the mind is willing to try and everyone has the ability to be somewhat creative (although the extent of this ability varies). The gears represent a person’s mind (or will) and ability respectively. If these two are “activated” and worked simultaneously, it will gear up and “generate” ideas, and hence able to realize your full creative potential. Creativity sets the cornerstone to a broader perspective of even the slightest details. And I hope in this module I will regain my confidence in art and design and learn to see life from behind an artist’s eyes.