Portfolio

I used a dog theme for my portfolio. I decided to use the same dog, which is one that is similar to assignment 2.

However, as I wanted to use rhythm, I decided to put the dog(s) in bubbles (since bubbles can be repeated, with different sizes and colours, like the X'mas balls in assignment 5).

The dogs and bubbles change according to the assignments. For example, in page one, the dog wears shades as it "attends" the pop/rock concert (my name design).

I'll use all different dogs from my assignments in the cover page. This is a draft.

I hope the bubbles do not overshadow the dogs as my theme. I tried to prevent this by making the bubbles smaller and using them as a background...

Assignment 6 (Improved Again)

Some of the words were difficult to read, so here's the updated version. I've removed some fonts I'd drawn, and used more standard fonts. Hope it's better...

Storybook project – final reflections

My final reflections would be on coordinating with my group mates. In the previous posts, I presented our design process in a more organized manner to make it easier to understand, but we were actually quite uncoordinated and confused at times.

This was because Yin Lam and Melissa had finished tracing, and I had finished colouring a few pages when we consulted Julian on the story. So when our story was changed, some scenes were cut or had to be drawn again. This messed up the number of pages, and it was confusing for us to refer to any scenes or even the versions of the story.

I was particularly confused as I had to do the margins as well. I had lots files of different stages of the book: tracings, coloured pages, pages with margins, etc. I had lots of source files as well, from the different production stages, and some from Melissa, who helped me colour. As a result, I had to burn 2 CDs to contain all of them :S

Still, I enjoyed working on the book (though not the sleep-deprived nights) (;

Storybook project – printing

Melissa and I went with Exel to print, as we were more familiar with the final design of the storybook.

We had a minor problem organizing our files, as they were in alphabetical order and not in printing sequence. Also, as we’re printing double-sided, we had to tell the printer which pages are back to back. However, we usually think of the book as facing pages, so we took some time organizing. Moreover, I forgot to add the blank pages (facing “this book belongs to” and the title page), which the printer kindly added for us.

Despite the brief confusion, we managed to print the pages immediately, and we even got a chance to check them. That was when I noticed the typo in “copyright” on the details page, so we changed it (Melissa brought her laptop). As the hardcover takes a week to print, we went back on 3 Nov (the day before deadline) to collect the book. Luckily, all was well.

The minor problem was that the colours were darker on print. Thus the background colours were not as faint as I would like them to be. (I wanted to use faint shades as children may question why an igloo is pink/green/orange on the inside, though the unusual colours can also be attributed to creativity.) Also, the background of page 21 is supposed to look more orange than yellow.

The text and illustrations could also be further from the edges. However, I’m relieved that no text or illustrations were cut out, and no margins were printed. This means I’ve done relatively well with the margins, so I’m not complaining. (;

On the whole, I’m happy with the printing outcome (:

Storybook project – text and margins

* I forgot to add… We also added pages such as the title page and the maze after looking through past students’ works during the last tutorial.

Text

After colouring and finalizing the story, I added the text to the storybook. (The source files were large and it was difficult to hand them to Natasha for adding the text. Since the files were mainly shared between Melissa and me, she offered to add the text. However, she had problems exporting the source files to 300 ppi, so I added the text and Melissa helped me colour instead.) Generally, I added the text at empty spaces and tried to align them to the drawings. For example, in page 8, I aligned the text to the outline of the road.

I had problems adding the text to some of the pages as the drawings took up almost the full page. Thus some of the font sizes are smaller. I didn’t want to use the smallest font size as the standard as I thought it was too small for a children’s book.

Also, for page 21, I had to split “Mama taught him how to do some household chores” as the sentence was too long. Thus “household chores” had to be on the other side of the split frame. If I were to put the sentence on the same side (where Peanut is cooking), then I would probably have to write “He stirred soup” in white, and on the stove. However, I thought the layout would look ugly. So “household chores” stayed on the side where Peanut is serving tea. I hope readers will be able to perceive “household chores” as part of the same sentence.

Melissa also did the page number design from Peanut, and I typed the respective page numbers on that.

Here’s how the book looks like:

Cover

Details

*We noticed a typo in "copyright" just before we printed. Luckily...

Montage Page 1

Montage Page 2

Back Cover

Margins

After I finished the pages, I added a 0.5cm margin around all pages. The margins are white as I couldn’t extend the drawing. (We only realized we have to add margin after a friend who took 2208 before reminded us to. It’ll be too much trouble to extend the tracings and colour again: we were already finishing the book and we had to print a week before it’s due.)

However, I managed to extend the background of the cover and the back cover by 1cm all around (for folding in when we print the hardcover) as there were only 2 pages.

Then we sent the book for printing... 

Storybook project – colouring

After Yin Lam finished drawing the story, Melissa traced the sketches in Illustrator, and exported them as high-quality JPEG (300 ppi). I then coloured the JPEG images in Photoshop, as I felt that the soft brush gave me more flexibility to shade and produce more realistic illustrations.

I soon realized that colouring in Photoshop was more time-consuming than I’d expected. I had to keep changing the brush sizes to colour the finer details of the drawings. Also, I had to erase strokes that I coloured outside of the outlines, so I had to change eraser sizes too. (Maybe I didn’t find a better way to do this.) In the end, Melissa had to help me colour almost 10 pages to speed up the process.

Characters

I started colouring the characters first. I used conventional colours for the penguins, except light yellow for their fronts, to make them more colourful. I also used analogous colours to colour parts of the penguins to make them look more realistic, e.g. orange and yellow for the beaks. I also used the dodge/burn tool to shade the penguins.

Character Accessories

Initially, I used feminine shades of pink and purple for both Mama and Grandma. However, my group mates suggested using green for Grandma, so as to better differentiate between the two. I changed accordingly.

Different shades of pink and green were used to colour Mama’s skirt and Grandma’s apron respectively, so as to add texture and interest to the illustrations.

Background

Although colouring was tedious, the most difficult part was deciding on a suitable background colour. This is because I did not want to leave the background white, as I thought it will make the storybook look boring and plain. I also did not want to use too much blue background (e.g. page 9, below) to fit in with the icy cold setting of Antarctica, as too much blue will make the book look boring as well.

Thus I chose light yet bright colours for the backgrounds of the interior of the igloos (e.g. page 21, below), so that the book will appeal more to children.

Although colouring was tedious, (I stayed up to around 2 a.m. for about 3 to 5 days doing nothing else but colouring) I think the experience gave me a good idea on how work is like if I were to work in graphic design, or probably any other design-related fields. (Working is probably worse?) Hmm, I shall ponder if this is a job for me after the exams ;)

Storybook project – the story of Little Peanut

My group members are Melissa, Yin Lam, Natasha and Exel. We decided that we should each take up different aspects of production to ensure consistency, as opposed to us illustrating different pages of the book.

Yin Lam drew, and Melissa traced the sketches. She compiled the design document as well. I coloured the tracings, and Natasha wrote the story. Exel was in charge sourcing for printers. Nonetheless, we helped each other as necessary.

When we first met up and started brainstorming for ideas, Natasha brought a children’s book, which has its main character as a penguin. We all thought the book was cute, and moreover, penguins are easier to draw than humans. (Penguins can be drawn simply and yet look cute, unlike… stickmen?) Thus we decided that we should use penguins too.

Next, we brainstormed about the story.

We decided to follow the suggested story, which is about teaching children how and why they should take care of their grandparents. Thus the story revolves around a little penguin and its family, who lives in igloos and would go fishing and skiing (stereotypical settings and activities we can think of, that are associated with the North/South Pole, also similar to Eskimos).

This is our initial plot:

There was once a little penguin named Peanut. He lives with his parents, and his Grandma lives in an igloo next to him. (We decided on the name Peanut, as both “peanut” and “penguin” start with “p”, and “peanut” is listed in a website that provides names for babies.)

One day, when Peanut brings his Grandma to school to celebrate Grandparents’ Day, he noticed that all his other friends have both Grandpa and Grandma with them, but he only has Grandma.

So that night, Peanut asked his mother where his Grandpa has gone. Mama (the rest of the penguin family don’t have names, as the focus of the story is on Peanut) then tells him the story (presented as a flashback).

A long time ago, before Peanut was born, Grandpa and Grandma asked Mama and Papa to go fishing with them. However, Mama and Papa wanted to go skiing instead, so they parted ways.

While Mama and Papa were skiing, an accident happened to Grandpa and Grandma. They were fishing when a polar bear attacked Grandma, and Grandpa was killed while defending her.

Luckily, there were other younger penguins who chased the polar bear away, so Grandma remained unscathed. (This is to show that the attack wouldn’t have happened if Mama and Papa, who were young, went fishing with Grandpa and Grandma.)

When Mama and Papa returned home and knew what happened, they were guilt-ridden and thus decided to make it up to Grandma.

(Back to the present) Mama then finishes the story by telling Peanut to be filial to Grandma. Peanut agrees.

Thus the next day, Mama and Papa brought Peanut to Grandma’s house, and Mama taught Peanut to do household chores for her. Grandma was happy, and praised Peanut.

And this is how Peanut learned to be filial.

Comment

Julian commented that the story focuses on the wrongdoings of the parents, when it should be on Peanut. Thus we had to change our story.

For the second version, we decided to remove the flashback, and also make Peanut a spoilt child.

Here’s the summary of the second version:

Peanut was a spoilt penguin. One day, he wanted his parents to bring him to ski. However, Peanut’s grandparents wanted Mama and Papa to go fishing with them. Peanut threw a tantrum. Thus, his parents had no choice but to bring him to ski. As a result, Grandpa and Grandma went fishing alone and Grandpa was killed by a polar bear. This made Peanut guilty, and so he learnt to do household chores for Grandma so as to make it up to her.

Comment

This is not suitable as Grandpa was killed because Peanut made a different choice: to go skiing and not fishing. It’s better if Grandpa was killed because Peanut did something morally wrong.

And so we changed our story again. (This is the last version.)

Summary of the final story:

Peanut was a spoilt penguin. One day, he wanted his parents to bring him to ski. However, Grandpa wanted Mama and Papa to go fishing with them. Peanut threw a tantrum and snatched Grandpa’s fishing rod. Then he ran outside and threw it into a fishing hole. Grandpa was dismayed when he finally caught up with Peanut. At that time, a polar bear appeared. Peanut was scared and Grandpa protected him. However, Grandpa was hurt in the process. (We decided that it was too morbid for a character to die in a children’s story, moreover, making up for Grandpa’s death by doing household chores seem too trivial.) This made Peanut guilty as he was rude to Grandpa, yet Grandpa sacrificed himself for Peanut. So Peanut helped Grandma do household chores while Grandpa was in hospital. Peanut also learnt his lesson and became filial ever since.

Natasha wrote the first version of the story. Melissa then added rhymes, and I finalized the story.

Assignment 6 (Improved)

I've edited my design according to the feedback. I think I forgot to mention that my classmates suggested for the word "winds" to be more cursive, with swirls, which is what I've done here.

I hope the fonts are not too small. I think the design will look messy if they were any bigger.

I also hope that the first two lines look similar. I've added different colors to the emphasised words to add interest to the design, but since they are different words, the two lines still don't look particularly similar. I also didn't arrange them in a straight line as I wanted "see" and "hear" to be above "clouds" and "winds" respectively. I'd tried arranging them differently and I think this is the best I can do...

Lastly, I've made the blue color of "out" and "sea" lighter as I think they blended into the blue portion of the background when I printed the design for tutorial.

Assignment 6 Critique

The critique was that I fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, but I can improve on the layout. Since the first two lines were repeated, I can use the same layout for them. I shall try that to further improve the harmony of my design.

Also, after seeing other designs, I realised that my fonts were too small. I'll make them bigger. Hope the layout works out.

Assignment 6

To continue with my dog theme, I chose Gene Hill's quote on dogs for this assignment. It was the longest quote I could find that has imagery that I can use.

The full quote is “He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.) When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant. His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever - in case I need him. And I expect I will - as I always have. He is just my dog.”

I found this to be too long, so I used the first three lines of the quote. I find it easier to express their literal meanings than “forgive,” “loyalty” and “thumps his tail” etc. as I thought abstract words, movements and parts of a dog were difficult to express. However, I realised that dogs were not mentioned in the first three lines, so I added the last line to put the three lines in context.

Then I took the literal meanings of the quote and designed the typefaces. For example, I drew eyes for the words “eyes” and “see,” and I placed “see” above “clouds,” since the quote was “see above the clouds.” I drew sound waves to express “hear,” and slanted the font of “winds” to signify wind blowing at the words. “The part of” is a part of “me,” and “me” is joined to (“reaches out into”) the word “sea.” “Out,” however, is disjointed (out of “me” and “see”). I modified the dogs of my previous assignments to form the word “dog,” as I thought this may provide consistency for my portfolio.

I finished my design rather quickly, but I was stuck at the layout. I found it extremely difficult to make my design harmonious. The first two lines were repeated, and since I used the same font except for the key words that I drew, they looked consistent. On the other hand, “the part of me that reaches out into the sea” and “just my dog” looks like two separate designs. I tried many different layouts, and decided on continuing the S curve of “the part of me that reaches out into the sea,” but I still had harmony problems. In the end, I decided to use a theme.

Since “sea” was the biggest font, I wanted to do a theme based on the sea. However, I thought the design will look weird if dogs were in the sea. Hence I changed my theme to a beach, so the dogs can be on the shore, and the word “sea” in the sea. Moreover, the first two lines had “clouds” and “winds,” which exist in the sky, so it would make sense to put them at the top of the design.

In order to bring focus to “the part of me that reaches out into the sea,” I made the first two lines and “just my dog” smaller. As a result, “just my dog” looks like a logo. Still, I think the design is more harmonious now =)

Assignment 5 (Improved Again)

Ok, I've edited according to the feedback. I think I forgot to mention that Natasha suggested to have a more "chocolatey" Chocolate, i.e. darker brown. I took her suggestion as well, although there's white chocolate ;) I've also added red to "Bright and Sunny." The font and string colors were also changed as necessary to stand out against the background. Most importantly, I've changed "Nature" to "Neon." I think the colors look much nicer now. Love the feedback, really useful =)

Assignment 5 Critique

The most common critique was about the "Nature" color scheme. Most people did not like the purple, as they find it clashing/unrelated to nature. I actually had problems with the purple too, but I thought to keep the colors since they remind me of lilac and orange flowers on a meadow? But after today's critique, I think I'll change it.

Someone suggested for me to use a black background with neon/retro colors. I think it's a great idea, so maybe I'll do that to replace the ugly "Nature" scheme.

Another common comment was to change the font color for lighter backgrounds, which I'll do. There were also comments to change the color of the dog. I didn't want to do that because the dog may look unnatural, and natural colors for dogs are only black, brown and white. Black seems too stark to me, and I think brown looks to similar to orange. Nevertheless, I may give it a try, if I have time.

Someone suggested to add red to the "Bright and Sunny" theme. I think that may be interesting, so I'll try that as well.

Another comment was that the "bells" were nice. I hope she means the X'mas "balls," and has not mistaken the hat for a bell :S Otherwise, I'll have to work on the hat drawing.

Will update the blog soon =)

Assignment 5 (Improved)

Julian commented that the previous design was good, but it can be more creative/unique. So here's my new version:

This is sort of surreal/whimsical (?) as the X'mas balls (for want of a better word) and the dog are out of proportion. I also used rhythm. Hope this is more interesting =)

I kept my idea of the dog wanting the hat for a X'mas gift though, so the hat's hanging on the string. I also outlined the dog and the hat only, so as to bring focus to them.

Next, I did the color schemes, which are the same as those in the previous Asn 5 post.

Assignment 4 (Improved Again)

From the last design, Julian further suggested that I can align the right margin of the copy to the dripping blood. He also suggested to shorten the copy, although it is less than 150 words. Here's the new design:

I do agree about the copy. I had lots of trouble writing the previous version, maybe because I don't read poster copies often. I find it really difficult to capture the right tone. I actually did a Chinese version first, as I'm more familiar with Chinese media. I got it done reasonably quick, but then I was stuck again at the translation. Anyway, I hope this is better.

"Last year, 22% of 600 primary school children indicated in a study that they have suicidal thoughts. Depression, the major cause, may affect up to 17.2% of them.

"Your child deserves a happy childhood. Too much academic stress may indirectly cause his or her death. You would not want to regret when it is too late.

"If your child displays depression symptoms, seek help immediately. For more information, call the Child Guidance Clinic, Health Promotion Board at 6389 2200 or email to hpb@imh.com.sg."

For the layout, I think by aligning the right margin with the blood, the design looks more balanced. (There is white space to the left of the image and to the right of the copy.) I find it interesting, the way this design turns out =)

By the way Julian also mentioned that the many triangular shapes made by the penknife make the design great. I just realised that, but I don't know how many triangles there are. There's really a lot to count. If anyone drops by here, you can count for me if you don't mind ;)  

Assignment 5

For this assignment, I chose to do a Christmas card. I think Chinese New Year cards are not suitable as those are usually in red, and if I were to experiment with color schemes, they'll look funny? Thus, I drew a dog looking at a snowman. This is also to continue with my dog theme. The postcard's composition follows the rule of thirds. Here's the sketch:

The postcard shows that the dog wants the snowman's hat as a Christmas gift (since Christmas is a time of giving and sharing). To make the idea more obvious, the text reads "Can't wait for Christmas?" In addition, I used the same contrasting colors and patterns for the dog's sweater and the snowman's hat.

After working on the Illustrator version, I found the text in the sketch to be too small. Thus I experimented with the layout and decided to put it below the horizon, on the snow.

The four colors I used are blue, green, red and orange. Blue and green are cool colors while the other two are warm colors. This creates contrast, which brings attention to the sweater and the hat. Initially I used bright red and green, but I found them to be too vibrant, so I chose darker shades.

I wanted to keep the design simple, thus I did not draw clouds, snow or the sun in the sky. Instead, I added a gradient to the background to depict light (due to the sun). This color scheme is hence known as "bright daylight." Here are my other color schemes:

 

I named the color schemes after the feelings they evoke (e.g. passionate, warm and cozy), or the objects they remind me of (e.g. nature, chocolate). Most of the color schemes have contrasting colors, except "chocolate," which is monochrome.

Next I did the back of the postcard.

I followed the example in the lecture notes. I only changed the image (where the stamp should be) to the dog on the front, so as to reiterate my theme.

Experimenting with colors is fun! =)