Assignment 5: Greeting Card (Theme - Love)

This assignment required us to design a greeting card to convey a message of love with emphasis on the use of colour.
So here are my 2 prototypes:

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

In tutorial, everyone pretty much loved the 'note' design. A couple of people even said they'd buy the card if they saw it in the store.
So on developing the first prototype, here's the improved version:

The improved design.

In A4 layout.

Assignment 4: Poster Design (Part 1)

The title is pretty self-explanatory - I have to create a poster.
For my theme I chose 'breast cancer' because recently the mother of someone I know was diagnosed with very advanced breast cancer, which could have been detected earlier if she had gone for regular mammograms.
I chose to use only a woman's silhouette because even though it is abstract, its shape is distinctive and recognizable enough. Plus placing the heading near the breast seems to draw attention to the area.

The body copy beneathe the head is small because the poster is meant to be printed out in A3 size ie. it's meant to be read after the poster has caught the attention of the reader, who wants more information. The body copy reads "Early detection can increase your chances of beating breast cancer. Schedule your mammogram today."

Comments from tutorial
My classmates loved the poster (even the girls). It was simple and effective. Even my tutor had to admit the poster's message and layout were clear (but not before asking me why the silhouette had no arms or why the breast didn't look diseased).

Again, simplicity rules! Go Occam's Razor!

Assignment 3: U C What I C (Redux)

Here's my second go at the assignment. Hope photoshopping skills are not taken into account because they're minimal in this series. Anyway (I think) this module is less about photoshopping and more about the visual.
I'm working on this concurrently with the poster assignment so don't mind me if I sound curt.



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Scene 10

Big thanks to my models Ryan and Yonghui.

Some finer points that might not be noticeable at first glance (foreshadowing):
Scene 1: Note that the boy exerts no weight on the bed.
Scene 5: No teddy bears were harmed in the making of this picture series.
Scene 6: Boy has no reflection in the mirror.

Comments

Tutor:
"The twist is that the boy is a spook though it is not apparent at first glance. He exerts no weight on the bed and has no image. These are the only two most significant evidence you want to impress upon the viewer. The fact that you have to describe the story goes to show that the intended message is not transmitted to the viewer?"

Yes, I was a little peeved that my tutor had miscontrued the extra information offered as me thinking my own work so weak I had to explain myself. I believe in my own work, and wanted everyone to appreciate all the little details that many will miss on first glance (which doesn't matter since they are not necessary to understanding the story). I wanted people to appreciate the thought I put into it, and especially the efforts of my two good friends who gave up their free time to help me.
That being said, I realise my tutor thought the pictures were weak (I just didn't like him thinking that I felt they were weak - rather insulting). And after hearing that everyone else had problems with understanding the final picture, I finally had to admit that this second series was indeed weaker.

So I will just be sticking with my first picture series.
Lesson learnt? Simpler (or blander) is always better, especially if your message is clear and uncluttered. I guess when I pushed for the entertainment factor in Series 2 my story got lost. Series 1 is better in every way on the communicative front.
I've also learnt to not try and please everyone. After all my lecturers have preached the end of mass media, so who am I to try and please all audiences? I should be happy that most people can get my work, and not aim to please the few that don't. It's just not worth the time or the effort.

Assignment 3: U C What I C (Part 1)

I'm required to tell a story (with a twist) in not more than 10 pictures. The film-maker in me squealed with joy.
Again I decided to keep the story simple because I wanted to focus on creating clear visuals.
Notice I used a 16:9 aspect similar to a movie because I feel it helps people to pick out the focal points of the picture better (if the picture is set up correctly). I also chose to work only with arms because I wanted to challenge myself to depict emotions sans facial expressions.


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Scene 3
*This was a composite of four pictures. I wanted to convey the idea of a passage of time.


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Scene 10

Comments from tutorial

Classmates: Most were extremely positive about my picture series. They understood the story easily and each picture flowed well to the next. Picture 3 confused one or two - they thought there were four people in the room rather than the same person doing all the actions. That picture could use some tweaking.
Portraying the expired milk was difficult, but I worked around it by creating my own expiry date on the milk and enlarging the 'March' on the calendar. Almost everyone understood what the last 3 pictures meant.
Most especially liked Picture 7 in its depiction of the onset of stomach pains.

Tutor: He never got around to seeing my work in class. But addressing the whole class, he remarked our work was "bland" and "lacked the 'wow' factor". I guess my simple story of expired milk causing food poisoning isn't exactly very "wow". I suppose my zeal for simplicity made my work "bland". I tried so hard to communicate visually (which I thought was the point of the module) that I forgot about impactful content.
So in the interest of wow-ness, I will be scraping this series of pictures and working from scratch.

Assignment 2: Making Images Talk (Part 2)

I've added back the handle to Level 4 as suggested and simplified Level 3 even more to show a better transition from Level 2. Going to develop Level 4 into a symbol.

Assignment 2: Making Images Talk (Part 1)

This assignment was a tough one. Who knew simplifying something visually would be so difficult?
I settled on my beloved coffeemaker, and with each subsequent step I omitted some details and simplified as much as I could. But by the third level of abstraction I had to add a coffee droplet because the image was losing recognition. I also enlarged the droplet in step 4 because the meaning it carried grew more significant as the surrounding graphics became more abstract.





Comments from tutorial
People mostly had a problem with the transition between the 2nd level of abstraction and the 3rd level of abstraction.
Many also suggested retaining the handle in Level 4 so the image bears more resemblance to a coffee pot.

Assignment 1: Me, Myself & I (Part Four)

So here are the final products:


I merged the two middle books of the 'D', so I hope it won't be confused with a 'B' anymore.


I made the planes bigger as suggested. But I decided against labelling the destinations because I felt it would take attention away from the flight paths. Anyway, it's clearly a map of the world, right?

It was a new experience for me to go through the phases of the design process. I found the most important step to be getting feedback from others, because, after all, the message has to be clear to the receiver.
I've learnt that simple is best, to avoid over-cluttering the design/message. I didn't receive as much criticism as I expected during tutorial, so I'm taking it that my name, and message, is very explicit in the pictures. I'll leave subtlety to the experts...