Assignment 5: A simple card..

Well, well, this had been a really interesting lecture I must say, and I really like this week's assignment. A Love Card! Wow..

haha well, the brain storming is a big headache to really list it, because I'm a Piscean, and Pisceans are known to be hopeless romantics. So well here are some of them:

- Beach
- Waves
- Stars
- Constellations
- Soft toys
- Cute little animals
- Simple love songs
- simple love stories
- deep insightful touching stories
- love song lyrics
- bearbears
- He/She views

Notice these are really generic themes, because I don't think it would be viable to list out all the nitty gritty details of all my ideas and even some that I have already done in the past.

Well, In the end I quickly zoomed into the essence of this project: I wanted the card to say soemthing about me. Something that says about my love values, my love perspective, as well as my devotion to someone I love. For that, I am going for a very mild, somewhat sweet and simple idea. I thought of a song which I really like:


歌曲：爱情复刻板
Song Title: Love Template
歌手：可米小子 专辑：hey hah
Singer: 可米小子 Album: hey hah

老唱片听到一半突然有了灵感
I suddenly had a bout of inspiration, as I hear this old record
整理之前的混乱爱原来不难
Realising that it was not that difficult afterall, to clear out my thoughts.
Love is not that difficult, somehow, suddenly.
它存在太多虚幻终究是古老模样
Love consists of too many illusions, but ultimately, it is the same old concept
原来你要的是那么单纯而简单
So, all along, what you wanted had always been this simple and innocent..
在雨天为你撑着伞
To shelter you during the rainy days...
星期天陪你到海边踩踩沙滩
To walk with you on the sandy beaches on Sunday..


要给你最传统的浪漫闪着烛光的晚餐
I want to give you the most traditional romance, a simple candle-lit dinner
神奇的力量打开你平凡认真的心房
A miraculous power opening your loving, tender and serious heart
要给你最古老的幻想
To give you the oldest and simplest fantasies
扬起白色的风帆晒一晒久违的太阳
Sail you on a simple white boat, and enjoy the long-forgotten sun
我的求爱复刻版不用包装
My ideas on love need no packaging or beautifying,
呵护你不会偷懒
Just simply to protect you, to take care of you, and never be lazy in doing so.


无所谓老掉牙不需要时髦想法
It doesn't matter if one day you lose a tooth when we get old together, you don't need any fashionable new thoughts..
没创意不需害怕真心看见了吗
You don't have to be afraid if you aren't creative, just take a look, can you see my sincerity?
山顶上公园的花卡片那句情话
The flowers in the garden on top of the hill, that simple line in that card,
真爱的表达还是热咖啡能催化
Those feelings are simple expressions of my love and how I shower you with love in my own ways.
天黑了陪你走回家
To walk you home when it's dark..
清晨的信箱会看见我的鲜花
To let you see those flowers early in the morning at the mail box..
要给你最传统的浪漫吹着晚风到天亮
I just want to give you the most simple, traditional romance, to enjoy the cool night breeze with you from dusk to dawn.


No Discrimination for my non-chinese viewers, so I included my own translation to the lyrics. The translation is copyrighted to me, so please do note that ;P Lyrics courtesy of baidu.com. This is a very, very sweet song in Chinese, and I apologise if the translation is bad. ( You may email me your version of translation, and I'd credit you fully :D) Well, As you can tell, I really appreciate a simple, and sweet romance. So I thought of using one of the lines in the song. In particular:

原来你要的是那么单纯而简单
So, all along, what you wanted had always been this simple and innocent..
在雨天为你撑着伞
To shelter you during the rainy days...

I wanted to show a simple idea, that if everything else fails you, if you feel the world collapsing around you, if you feel that you are alone in the rain, let me shelter you from the rain, let me be your support. I'm not rich or handsome, but at least, these simple things are things I can do..

So my idea is simple.. a guy, holding an umbrella, sheltering a lonely girl, in the rain... It's pretty symbolic, and might not be immediately apparent at first. The colour scheme would be blue, with a touch of warm colours around the guy and the girl. I wonder how this would turn out...

Asugnment 4: An Impression Made

Well, The class received it pretty well, to what I feel. Itt sparked off a big debate on how the picture should be viewed. Comments include:

- It might be making a big anti-nazi statement
- It looked like Bush
- Looked like a movie poster: Add some text below to diminish that effect
- Is Hitler the most evil person?

In the end, people commented that using Hitler might be abit targetting on the anti-nazi theme. In my context, I would think My poster would appeal to the American Culture. But point noted. Some people suggested using an array of different evil people. This I think would be difficult, because I had originally thought of adding nuclear weapons behind hitler, but removed the idea because it was too cramped... I wanted the message to be simple and straight forward, uncluttered... too many figures would make the image too "full", taking away essential negative space and lowering the overall aesthetic appeal. What do you think?

Many people also suggested using a more generic figure to represent evil. To this, I have done a simple sketch of a mad scientist for it, and would photoshop it in as soon as I find time. Your valuable comments would be appreciated in this case, because in my perspective, I feel that the message is no longer as apparent with the use of the scientist. However I also realised one thing in design class: This is not an art class, where the artist reserves the right to remain truthful to his or her own ideas and expressions. Design classes generally require the designer to alter his initial designs to suit the audience, the context as well as various factors before coming to the final design. So well, I might not find the poster as appealing, but if it satisfies the objective better, that would be the ultimate goal at the end of the day.

Your valuable comments on this subject is greatly appreciated.

Assignment 4: A poster

I apologise to anyone who frequents my blogs for the late update. Had been a crunch time last 2 weeks to churn out mid term assignments and tests, and as a result I did my assignment a long time ago but only just managed to get started on the blogging process. This week's assignment was on a poster: Save, Prevent, Kill.

Well initial ideas were plentiful:

Save: Promises
Tears
Your Breath
Money
Lives

Prevent: Crime
Discrimination
Cloning
Vandalism

Kill: Bugs

Well, after initial brain storming, I decided that kill was too strong a msg to carry across without being extreme: you generally have to kill an object that is real and exists, and any such msgs are debatable at best. Well, I went for cloning, for the simplicity of the idea. Human Cloning has alway been a big topic and as of this time of post, has not been fully recognised, even as scientific research. And the results for its full blown use is catastrophic. Imagine 2 hitlers, 3 Osama's or 4 Bush's running around... you get the idea. So well on with creating the images...

Hitler First look.

Well, Why Hitler? Many might ask this question. Well, the answers could be many fold. Firstly, Singapore, and in particular, the younger generation has been much influenced by the western (in particular, the American) culture. Many shows have protrayed hitler close or very close to being one of the most symbolic "evil" people of all time. That aside, Hitler is also prolific as one of the most improtant people in modern history for his actions notably in genocide of the jews as well as the starting of the second world war, which horrors have laid scars til this very day. Nuclear weapons were invented and used in that war, and brought a new threat to humankind. If you think about it, what would happen if someone were to start a war that involved the world and used nuclear weapons to that effect? The scary proposition of that idea is the simple truth to how close that idea might be true.

Well, enough ranting about history, other people whom I rejected were: Osama, Bush, COmic Super heroes, etc. Simple reason being this: All these people surely made their name known world wide, but their "evil"ness is pretty subjective and thus only affect certain people. The same could be said of Hitler of course, but it is undeniable that he caused despair to his people alone: he dragged almost the entire globe along in his aspirations. I can also see now that this would be a very debatable topic. And somehow, this is interesting to me. I wonder what others would see. This would surely arouse interest.

The drawing of Hitler was not that tough, though I'm still not that happy with how it turned out. The smile had to have a self-knowing, evil smile with a certain confident, madness smurk to it. That I think I managed alright. I wanted the background to be black, to be a solemn feel, and probably use red to emphasize the serious feeling.

Understanding Dr Reddy's lecture's points gave me pretty many useful insights on this. Firstly, I would bring the figure to the center, so that it is perfectly balanced, and probably mirror it in the center to give the picture its balance. The two figures would look outwards towards the viewer as a form of challenge, as well as too retain the viewer's attention to the poster. Contrast by colour is also used, with the brighter colours in the fore ground, and the black silhouettes of the other cloned figures showinga detail of the enormity of the cloning process. The nazi flag would serve as a secondary point of focus to show his revived aspirations taken literally from the grave. The words are simple: Save humanity - Prevent Human Cloning. Simple words to keep the viewers attention withinthe picture and with just enough emphasis on the top and bottom to keep the viewer focused to the central image. Care is taken to ensure that the details of the silhouettes do not accidentally lead the viewer out of the poster.

This is what I achieved in the end:

From Assignment 4:...

Overall, I am satisfied with how it turned out, although it might be a little plain.

What do you think?