Darkness vs Light

Is the light penetrating the darkness, or is darkness swallowing light?

Fundamental Failure

I meant to print out the colour wheel to refer to for a brochure project.

A Saucy Affair

Ooh yes baby, give it to me, let's rock till the Titanic turns belly up!

Man Driven Crazy by his Music

Figure and Ground

Mix them up a bit and you have the figure swallowing the ground - in this case, the historical Ipoh tree that contains poisonous sap used for the natives to lace their blowdarts with.

Don't You Wish

You could wake up every morning to this sight? Only found in the limestone caves that have been made into temples, in Ipoh.

Good vs. Bad Design

Alvin and I critiqued two items. The good was Little Miss Sunshine's poster and the bad was a flier given out during the IT Show 2007 period at Suntec City Convention Centre.

We discussed the aesthetics of the artwork using criteria like the Gestalt Principles.

View the slides to see the details, or right click here and choose "Save Target As"... to download.

Polished - Save the Panda!

Special thanks to Kate for spotting the patch on the right nail. It's been fixed with the Patch Tool and Spot Healing Tool.

The idea for this poster was conceptualized in her presence as well, with her valuable suggestions that led to this final product.

Redone - Save the Panda!

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Which one is best? I like 1 the most, but if there's a strong enough reason to use otherwise, my decision may be swayed!

The revamp struck me in the face in the form of subtlety, because that's what pandas are (anyone know what their cries sound like?)! They are peaceful creatures and the previous top-heavy poster did not make the grade as it was anything but subtle.

Redone - Greeting Card

Decided to listen to friends' suggestions that the picture should be printed on the colour paper instead, and got this done at Sunshine Plaza, printed on 250 GSM Sky Blue Perfumed Paper. But the image's background colour didn't go well with the card's colour. Not a pleasing contrast. So there went $1. It smelt really good too!


















Special thanks to Aaron for suggesting this paper, bought at NUS Co-op bookshop. It's metallic by nature and printing the photo on it using my Canon PIXMA iP1500 at max resolution made it look even better than getting it done in shops. The image's background colour blends in with this shade of blue, and the whole glistening effect achieves the effect of a golden memories of love, for older couples who have been together so long, it doesn't quite cut it to buy those passionately coloured cards when you know that the stage is long over, but you just want a card to remind your signifcant other that you still love him/her. Good to go!

Redone - Representation Exercise

Reworked with the 3D effect and colour removed at the step 1 of distillation. Also made the details clear - the figures are made of only solid lines.


















Final design - somethat that doesn't totally wipe off the idea of a stringed instrument, just that you won't know what brand (because the headstock is missing, and most guitars are identified by their headstocks), whether or not it is a guitar in the first place.

Greeting Card

The card before folding. Took in suggestions to remove the white border from the picture, as the effect of the card showing a framed memory doesn't seem to carry across nicely, and is distracting to the appreication of colours, which is the purpose of this exercise. The photo will be printed on glossy photo paper instead of matte, which was used for the prototype. Seems a glossy paper would bring out the colours better.





















Poem written inside the card, printed on matte photo paper,















The card seen as it should be.

Redone - Me Myself and I

As suggested by classmates, I have made another pack of cigarettes that's being burnt to illucidate the incineration. Also, The conveyor has been extended towards the furnace to suggest the fate of the remaining packs. The fire has been made more realistic with the gradient tool.

As suggested by many classmates, the headphones are now a red shade to show my passion for music. The details of the headphones and the flight adapter are less sketchy.

Coming Next: updates for Representation Exercise and Colour Exercise.

26/2/07 - Save the Panda! (Presentation)

In this poster, the natural colour for the panda and its surrounding is used. The title does not explicitly shout out "Save the Panda", but it's red in colour that may help achieve that attention grabbing effect.

In this poster, I listened to my classmates and made the panda's surroundings look withered and in dire straits. The title became more explicit, and the copy text has changed slightly.

15/2/07 - Representation Technique (Classroom)

My idea of showing success and secure.

Success is shown by the fist clenched as if having achieved a great feat.

Secure is shown by an airtight container with its lid on.

Apparently, appealing to others' sense of shared reality is not as easy as I thought.

Things that could have helped - colours to show the feeling of success, and security. Adding of a corporate suit as the sleeve to the fist may help understand.

For secure, perhaps I should have stuck with convention, that is to use a lock to represent something secure, like how https websites have this lock showing at the bottom of internet browsers.

12/2/07 - 10 Pictures (Presentation)

12/2/07 - Storyboard (Classroom)

Instructions: Tell a story in 10 pictures or less, ending with a twist.

Idea 1

Working Title: Wishful thinking

1. At the performing stage stairs, a pair of pants walking up the stage

2. The pants has reached the mike stand on stage and stands still

3. The person wearing the pants bends to pick up a guitar from a stand nearby

4. He starts playing the guitar and is seen yelling into the mike from the audience perspective

5. The next scene shows his back to the camera and the audience can be seen. They look disturbed

6. The frame zooms out to show more of the stage and another person walks towards the man

7. Scene zooms back in. The newcomer puts a hand on the guitar player's shoulder

8. Two other pairs of legs reached the guitar player

9. The guitar player is hauled off the stage by the owners of the two pairs of legs

10. Newcomer plays the guitar to cheering audience

Idea 2

Working Title: Unconditional Love

1. Scene of a dark room with someone sleeping on a bed

2. Light shines in through windows and person wakes up. It's a woman

3. She is seen walking out of the room

4. The next scene is in the kitchen where the woman is preparing breakfast with a saucepan

5. She prepares a meal for two at the table

6. She then shakes at a bundle of blanket in another room as if waking someone up

7. She is seen smoothening the creases on a set of army uniform

8. The bundle of blanket is uncovered, and all that is underneath are bolsters and pillows

9. She is seen crying in her room holding on to an army identification tag

10. Zoom in on the tag and an identity card stating that the person has died

8/2/07 - Telling a Story (Classroom)

The story here is how nature and human development are separated by a barrier indicated by the fence. At the top right of the frame a solitary leaning stalk of grass stands out, prone to the pollution and destruction brought about by humans.

Received feedback that there was too much details in the first draft. This is now edited to show the ships in outlines and perspective. Then the attention would be on the oil rig instead, to represent development.

5/2/07 - Indexical Representation of Guitar

The sketches follow the guitar from actual object to indexical imagination.
















The Illustrator version of the guitar. Received feedback to remove the 3D effect. Will change that, thank you!

1/2/07 - Indexical Representation (Classroom)

I stripped a Casio watch down to a generic clockface, but it was still iconic. In order to make it indexical, the strap can be used instead to suggest a watch.

29/1/07 - Me Myself and I Prototype

The prototype done in Illustrator. The mp3 player and earphones and the airplane adapter form my name. That's as good as saying music forms my life!













My prototype for what I don't like. Some did not get the conveyor belt idea =c So the final one in my portfolio will work on this. Thank you for the feedback!

18/1/07 - Me Myself and I Thumbnails & Roughs

These are the thumbnails where we use items to form letters of our names. The items can be something that we like and(or) dislike.















These are the roughs of something I like - Music















This is one of the roughs for something I dislike hate - cigarettes and their by-products of bad air and health. Here they're being sent to the incinertor.














Another rough on what I dislike. Here they're getting taken down one by one by a sniper rifle.















The first prototype before being scanned and traced by Adobe Illustrator.















The second chosen prototype with the colours filled in so I can remember what colour the cigarette brands are, just before they are digitized in Illustrator.