Assignment 6

Initial Design

This is my first infographics, so I decided to stick to what I know - Physics. And I alwasy think it is exciting to build an atomic bomb.

During the tutorial, I realize some of my explainations need to be clearer and more informing. Ms Chiang commented that I need a background to highlight my content; and I need to visually link the chain reaction to my step 3. Below is my final design:

Assignment 5

This postcard is about Samurai and Bushido. The theme is “Discover the Lost Culture in Japan”. The Samurai family still exist in Japan today, tourists are able to see them during annual ritual ceremony.

On the left is a flag with the character representation of Bushido.

To the right of the flag is a lone Samurai staring into the sunset which symbolizes the dying culture of Bushido.

Further right to the Samurai is the sakura blossom. I feel the teachings and beliefs of Bushido are as pure and as beautiful as sakura blossom.

Final work

I like all three designs. I chose the red Samurai because the overall color is neither too bright nor too dark.

In memory of my laptop

This post is a tribute to my laptop, whose monitor was wiped out by a morning rain on the 15th July 2009. I owe my thanks to his dedicated service of 4 and a half years. Though I've bought a new replacement, he shall continue to live in my memory.

Assignment 4

initial design

This iN2015 poster emphasizes on the connectivity of the masterplan, it's about people having easy access to information any where and any time, at just a click away. The illustration is 4 hands pointing at different items on the touch screen.

During the tutorial, Daryl suggested I should use icons for each item on the touch screen, and put a frame on the screen. A classmate pointed out my words are too large. Ms Chiang pointed out that I used too many fonts. Another classmate commented I should move down the words or else they may turn people down at first glance. I realized my background design is too small to be seen from a distance. I made some changes to produce the final design below.

Exercise C

Distress 1

Distress 2

I used chain to represent distress because it relates to tension and pain. But I don't know if the two designs really bring out the the pain and suffering.

Heroic

I feel it's hard to design abstract pictures. The heroic design is less abstract. Through this exercise, I learnt something about abstract expression using simple lines and shapes. But to be frank, I still don't understand abstraction, to me 1+1 adds up to 3 in abstraction.

Assignment 3

Draft

The story is about a physicist's journey of research and discovery. The ending is a twist saying that he went through all this trouble just to look for the right laser to cook cup noodles.

Because some of the photos were taken in the lab, I was rushing through the photo shoot under the lab technician's supervision (there were 3 of us so she was afraid we were gonna break something =.="). So I did not really have time to play around with the camera angle, and the laser lab is kind of dark. Another difficulty is to control the model's expression. I could never get him to do the expression I want, in particular the pondering look in the 2nd photo.

Meanwhile I have some new ideas about the first 3 photos. I really hope I'll have a chance to retake them next week.

These are the new set of photos. I retook the first 3 photos in order to build up a contrast between he's thinking hard about the problem and the final smile on his face.

Through this assignment, I learnt how to formulate a storyline using photos.

Assignment 2

To design a pictogram, one has to first identify the message he wants to communicate. Before the design process, I took a photo of the underpass near YIH which is inside nus campus.

• My 1st representation is a person going towards some stairs leading down to a tunnel, which has some stairs leading up at the other end. On top of the tunnel is the road and the car.
• In the 2nd reduction I took away the car.
• The 3rd reduction I took away the road.
• The 4th reduction I took away the person.
• The 5th reduction I changed the stairs to slope.

For the final design I chose the 4th reduction, because I feel the stairs provide the up-down orientation.

My initial designs have one arrow on each of the staircase. During the tutorial, Ms Chiang commented those arrows could be confusing as people may mistake them as sigh of one direction. I realize the pictogram could still work without those 2 arrows as the stairs are strong indication, so I took them out in the final design.

The important thing is to let people know the drawing is a tunnel, I feel the stairs did the job well, so I'm satisfied with my design, it is simple enough.

Through this exercise, I learnt the logical steps to simplify designs while retaining the essential message in the design.