Design Principles - Project 1
Week 03 - 04 (17/1/2022- 28/1/2022)
Lean See Phing |0353393
Design Principle| Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 1
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| Fig 1.0: Thumbnail |
Instruction
Project 1: Self-portrait
Immediately following the exercises, we are expected to continue with our project 1, self-portrait. It may be expressed in any form, most importantly, it must literally be, who am I in depth.
In this composition, I primarily applied the principles of balance and repetition, as well as the concept of action dolls, to present the many mes.
Definition
A self-portrait is a piece of art created by an artist or designer that may or may not be a visual depiction of the artist or designer, and it may be filled with any colors, forms, and may or may not look like but it represents them.
It may include how you feel, what you think, your imagination, and, in a nutshell, exploring yourself on a piece of paper, drawing, etc. It is not limited to how you appear or a realistic depiction of yourself.
Process
(a) Self-research and exploration
To be honest, I've always spent time alone with myself, and I'm practically the only one with whom I communicate. It may seem strange, but I always think that I'll have to know well about myself and talk to myself when no one wants to.
As a result, I don't think it is really hard for me to describe who I am, but what's hard is to express it by art. I don't want to make things complicated and want to be objective about myself, so I decided to observe myself from my own perspective and the perspective of the people surrounding me.
i. My perspective of myself.
I noticed that I'm rational in the morning but I'm getting emotional at night. I, therefore, chose to observe myself at two different times.
- Morning
(a) Gallery
I'm the kind of person who loves to capture every moment and so I'll take picture of what I'm doing at any time and have an album specially for morning.
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| Fig 1.1: My morning album |
Pictures can't tell a lot about me in the morning, but if I have to say, it's about energize, motivated, cherish, fulfill, positive vibe about the new day, new things that will happen on this day.
- Night
(a) Diary
However, when it comes to the night, I will automatically lose the motivation of the day or be energized like how I am in the morning. This can be proven by my diary.
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| Fig 1.2: My diary |
I usually write my diary at night, which is why my diary will always be filled with sad, tired, unmotivated emojis with less exception of smile emoji.
(b) Social media account
I have an Instagram account which I never allow anyone to follow because that is my little place for me to express the real me that I didn't get to share to everyone. I always write all the things I think, I tried to figure out and so on to there.
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| Fig 1.3: Instagram account |
I found one interesting post from my account that is about the thing I was trying to figure out.
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Reason I said why is it interesting is that I aware of this consciously in pain because I know I'll never ever get rid of this norm.
ii. Perspective of people surrounds me.
I only ask 1 question to those who are close to me, my parents, friends, and partner.
Use a phrase to describe me. And why, better to tell me a story.
This is what I get from my friends, and I chose to share those with interesting stories.
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| Fig 1.4: Replies from my friends and family. |
*Summary*
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| Fig 1.5: Summary of different views |
(b) Inspiration
After deciding what I wanted to draw about myself, I was intending to put only a few of me in a composition, but then I discovered something really interesting and cute when shopping at a place called Mano Plus Select Store in Penang which then inspired me to incorporate this idea into my design.
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| Fig 1.6: Illustration of Hoger Chan. |
It is one of the illustrations of a few people in a book, but I can't remember what the book is called and I couldn't find it either. In this artwork, the artist draws Hoger Chan using a toy design pattern and an action doll. This inspired me to create action dolls that reflect different aspects of me.
(c) Visual Research
After getting inspired by the artwork, I immediately search for similar ideas on Pinterest. As I do more research, I find that the small accessories, in addition to the action doll, make me feel more fascinated. I believe it can be utilised by me to interpret the reasons and explain the feeling that go along with those various mes.
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| Fig 1.7: Toy design example #1 |
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| Fig 1.8: Toy design example #2 |
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| Fig 1.9: Toy design example #3 |
(d) Sketch
Without further ado, I quickly sketch six boxes that would be used to display the various me action dolls, and I chose to arrange the boxes in an overlapping pattern.
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| Fig 2.0: Sketch of boxes #1 |
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| Fig 2.1: Sketch of boxes #2 |
I also do rough sketches of various action dolls that symbolise myself.
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| Fig 2.2: Sketch of action dolls. |
I'm doing six different me and boxes according to the order but the action dolls are not according to which can most represent me.
i. Overthinking me
I always have a poor tendency of overthinking at all times, which I really want to break since it causes me to be very self-abasing, worried, and stressed, and it's more severe than how I relax write here.
As a result, I've attempted to represent this in my design, in which I've placed the sub-topic on the thoughts cleaning centre.
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| Fig 2.3: Overthinking me making process #1 |
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| Fig 2.4: Overthinking me making process #2 |
Those negative thoughts are constantly present in my head, but I always have the option to ignore them. Therefore, I sketch a "me" with an empty brain, a normal brain, and a bunch of dark stuff, which represent bad thoughts.
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| Fig 2.5: Overthinking "me" making process #3 |
I drew a stress level measurement instrument to demonstrate how my overthinking is causing me stress.
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| Fig 2.6: Overthinking "me" making process #4 |
As well as a "thoughts" bin at the bottom to represent what I said "get rid of" at the beginning.
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Fig 2.7: Overthinking "me" making process #5 |
While designing the boxes, I had the great idea of adding a motto alongside or in front of the boxes that is pertinent to the topic.
The motto for overthinking me is:
"Control your mind."
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ii. Adventure me
There was an interesting comment from a friend. I have many adventure legend stories based on what she said, but in short, my friend believes that a girl with no art foundation but a real talent in the business field transferring to the design field is a super adventure thing just to pursue her dream; I'm not sure why she thinks it's so memorable, but I agree with her, adventure.
If I were to sketch something to represent adventure, I'd choose an astronaut because of his or her spirit of discovery, which is comparable to my own.
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| Fig 2.9: Adventure "me" making process #1 |
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| Fig 3.0: Adventure me making process #2 |
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| Fig 3.1: Adventure "me" making process #3 |
I chose to leave the head unfilled and transparent since I don't know how to portray my emotion by drawing it into my facial expression because it's too complicated. I sometimes wonder if I'm doing things correctly, and other times I'm delighted I'm making this decision.
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| Fig 3.2: Adventure "me" making process #4 |
The motto for adventure me is:
" I want to and I am, living a life full of adventure. "
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| Fig 3.3: Adventure "me" outcome |
iii. Iron man me
Iron Man is my all-time favorite Marvel character, and even though everyone criticizes him for being selfish in the infinite war, I can understand his struggles; he loves his family, friends, teammates, and everyone, but he never tells, and he is so kind, but everyone wrongs him, as one of my friends comment of me. And I decided to sketch this "me" in the style of Iron Man, using the Iron Man to express me.
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Fig 3.4: Iron man "me" making process #1 |
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Fig 3.5: Iron man "me" making process #2 |
For the accessories besides the Iron man "me", I decided to be straightforward and use heart shapes to indicate love with different colors.
Red heart shape: Family
Yellow heart shape: Friends
Green heat shape: society
AND, a break heart shape to indicate, he loves everyone except for himself.
Violet break heart shape: self
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| Fig 3.6: Iron man "me" making process #3 |
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| Fig 3.7: Iron man "me" making process #4 |
"If you know me, you would know I didn't do all this for myself."
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| Fig 3.8: Iron man "me" first outcome |
iv. Freedom me
Freedom "me" is my dream and my wish; I have always imagined myself as having real freedom and have never allowed myself to be restricted by the boundaries that people or society have imposed on me. I always wish I could have it, and I adore freedom because I feel it is usually associated with being yourself. As a result, I incorporated it into me.
I drew a wing behind my back to represent a free bird that can fly freely.
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| Fig 3.9 : Freedom "me" making process #1 |
I planned to sketch iron shackles and iron shoes that have been unravelled to represent how I have broken things that bind me. As a result, I attempt to find a few images to assist me.
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| Fig 4.0 : Reference image for iron chains |
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| Fig 4.1: Reference image for iron shoes |
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| Fig 4.2: Freedom "me" making process #2 |
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| Fig 4.3: Freedom "me" making process #3 |
The motto for freedom is:
"Leave me alone, set me free."
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| Fig 4.4: Freedom "me" first outcome |
v. Walking dead me
The Walking Dead "me" is both related to and opposed to freedom "me" because I believe I'm the type of person who is always concerned with other's opinions and am aware of the norms and expectations that society places on everyone, such as finding a respectable job by the age of 23, getting a car at the age of 25, getting married before the age of 30, and so on. If freedom "me" is my wish, the actual me is the walking dead "me."
As a result, I drew an action doll with no face and only a bar code to represent how I am obedient to others without feeling or thinking.
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| Fig 4.5: Walking dead "me" making process #1 |
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| Fig 4.6: Walking dead "me" making process #2 |
I also drew a traffic light and a right or wrong to represent how society tells you what is right and wrong; you are only allowed to stop, and continue as everyone tells you.
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| Fig 4.7: Walking dead "me" making process #3 |
What society wants me to do is be a good girl and follow their rules, which I represented with a good girl handbook.
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| Fig 4.8: Walking dead "me" making process #4 |
For the box design, I purposely use all rectangle shapes design because I think rectangle indicates a boundary, a limit.
The motto for walking dead me is:
"I'm lost."
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| Fig 4.9: Walking dead "me" final outcome |
vi. Justice me
I am a Libra, and being fair and just is in my nature; I strive for fairness and justice in all situations. The pursuit of fair human rights might range from pursuing equitable contribution for group assignment to pursuing fair human rights. And I've always believed that being that way is a need, therefore I've always done it. I scolded someone for not being fair to my buddy and chastised a competition organiser for not being fair when it came to ranking. Everywhere I go, I carry justice with me. (It's kind of funny)
As a result, I created an action doll with lawyer wigs to represent myself as a lawyer who spends their entire life seeking noble morals, justice.
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| Fig 5.0: Justice "me" making process #1 |
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| Fig 5.1: Justice "me" making process #2 |
I drew gravel and scales here to represent everything has its fair.
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| Fig 5.2: Justice "me" making process #3 |
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| Fig 5.3: Justice "me" making process #4 |
"The right will always be the right and for the wrong,
Karma knows your address."
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| Fig 5.4: Justice "me" first outcome. |
(f) Receiving feedback #1
I asked for feedback from Dr. Charles in the midst of my work, but I opted to modify it after I finished the entire design because Dr. Charles's suggestion is to:
- Add boxes to the background to improve the visual quality and make use of continuity principle.
- Better to see details.
Dr. Charles drew an example for me as well, and I think it's pretty intriguing, and I was like "wow," which motivated me to do so.
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| Fig 5.5: Example given by Dr. Charles |
(g) Improvement #1
I begin by sketching it in the same way as Dr. Charles, but I keep the upper boxes blank since I don't want it to obscure the word on my box.
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| Fig 5.6: Improvement sketch |
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| Fig 5.7: Improvement outcome |
(h) Receiving feedback #2
i. Telegram
As a result, I decided to present Dr. Charles with my first outcome that without grey boxes.
My question:
- Is it okay to not apply the continuity principle as Dr. Charles suggested and leave the background plain?
- Is there any part that I could improve to make it better?
Dr. Charles's original feedback was:
- It's fine to not follow what I suggested because it was just exploring.
- There are many possibilities and always be more developed versions of this.
- However since you're using a box packaging which requires text then there will be some things to observe.
ii. Class
Dr. Charles then encouraged me to post in the chatbox during class so that we could discuss it more and benefit my classmates because everyone could hear it.
- Increase the contrast of the text in the justice box to ensure that everyone can read it.
- You may combine your real face with a cartoon version to make it look like an action figure.
- Change the background somewhat, and bring the boxes out a little more (Example: boxes are on a platform and that we can see a little bit of shadow)
(I) Improvement #2
i. The contrast of the text
I carefully checked every text after Dr. Charles suggested it, and I discovered that there is a major problem with the text on the justice box because the font colour is too light and close to the bright background of the text, causing people to be unable to read it properly. As a result, I strive to make it darker and more contrast.
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| Fig 5.8: Before and after of improvement (text) |
ii. Background
To be honest, I have no clue what to do to make the background feel more complete, so I decided to explore and loosely throw some shadow into it.
I don't like this outcome since it appears odd, and I'm not sure what the point of doing so is. But I'd want to try again and see if I can obtain a better result.
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| Fig 6.0: Before and after of improvement (background) #2 |
I believe it looks fantastic for me now, so I'm going with it.
Final outcome
Named: The six untitled
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| Fig 6.1: Final outcome |
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Feedback:
Specific for action doll:
This is really interesting and it's really a good representation, good idea. So if you do something with your packaging and the text you have and attempt to have a feeling of promotion in some way, it may be situations where you can combine your real face there so that it's you, unless you can cartoonize your face and make it appear like an action figure, which would be fantastic.
Specific for background:
I believe you should bring the boxes out a little further, perhaps on a platform or something. It can be plain, but I believe the boxes should be on something so that a little bit of shadow can be seen. A little light issue, but you don't have to take my word for it; simply change the colour to something darker to make the boxes stand out a little more.
Personal feedback:
Imagine you had three weeks to complete this project; this might be the final idea, and you could build a real one. That will be fantastic. So, please keep this concept in mind and perhaps you will be able to develop more different sorts of personality action dolls to encourage people, or perhaps an event business will be able to produce this for you and people will pay for it as they would for their own as a nice keepsake.
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Reflection:
By working on this project, I've realized how difficult it is to put your thoughts, the thoughts of others, and even how you feel or what you want into art. As I'm doing box package design, I'm utilizing words to better express what I'm attempting to say in this composition. But what if I don't do it? What if I don't want to use words and instead just draw? Will this be that simple? I believe it's a great question for me to think about, as well as study and learn more about it, so I can better translate words into compelling images when it comes to art.
Aside from that, I believe I need to do more in-depth study on design principles when this short and rushed semester is through, since whenever I need to apply design principles to my composition, I can only think of a few that are very easy, such as balance, repetition, movement, and so on. However, I feel I can still apply additional principles, but I haven't been able to do so due to a lack of comprehension. As a result, I feel it is a great chance for me to reflect on myself.
Anyway, it's an exhausting yet satisfying project, and I've given it my all, and it exceeded my expectations, so I'm feeling pretty good about it.
My feeling right now:
hahahaha! you should feel GOOOOD! Well done!
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