Assignment 6: How Things Work

• Description
– Choose a system and describe how it works
– Show stages of development
• Form: Infographics (Information graphics)
• Size of actual artwork: variable
• Maximum size: fit in A3
• Artwork to be used in: book, magazine,newspaper, newsletter, brochure, manual etc.



Description

Bowling lane is used as a time-line with bowling balls as markers, to create a visual representation of the history of bowling

Explanation

I have always found the vague origins of bowling very intriguing and thought it would be interesting to explore the historical value of the sport.

Creative Process

I tried to use the bowling lane as a metaphorical path, something similar to what I had originally tried without success in assignment 1. The sketches are shown below.



I tried using the second one to showcase a local sports statistic, but the effect was too simplistic. The CG is shown below.



It was only after that, that I came to realise that outside of a bowling context, the bowling lane idea becomes very irrelevant and out of place. So, I decided to stay within the bowling context and do an infographic on the history of bowling. The idea of a bowling lane as metaphorical path, finally came to realisation as a time-line with bowling balls as markers, as shown below.



Due to the international nature of bowling's scattered history, I decided to characterize each ball as symbolic of the nation it represents. This took some character design, requiring some research into the symbolic dress of various countries at the relevant period in time.

Assignment 5: Colourful Asia

• Theme focus: …cultural, political and social aspects of Asia
• Form: Postcard (both front & back)
• Size of actual artwork: A6
• Please avoid design of touristy postcard (i.e. picture of a sightseeing scene)




Description

Four ghosts from different countries across Asia - The Aswang from the Phillipines, the Yurei from Japan, the Chinese vampire and the Pontianak from Malaysia and Singapore.

Explanation

My opinion is that foundations stones of a culture is laid firmly within its superstitions. For example, the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year with loud fanfare, literally painting the town red with red decor everywhere. Legend has it that they do so to frighten away monster known as "Nian" that comes around at the same time every year.

Ghosts, demons and other supernatural phenomena is one kind of superstition and I believe that this is an interesting way to showcase the cultures of Asia. While it is true that such a concept may not appeal to everyone, and may even frighten some people, the supernatural has its own unique draw. The horror genre is popular among movie goers and as well as in other media. I think this postcard would be very suitable for people who celebrate festivals such as halloween. Still, I wanted to soften the image of the ghosts, so I went for a cartoony look, giving them a different sort of appeal

Creative Process
The key part of my design is the ghosts, which will be the focal point of the postcard. Hence, I spent a lot of time on character design, researching the appearances of a number of ghosts. Since I wanted to do a cartoon version, doing a trace was not practical, so I did sketches of how I imagined the cartoon versions would look like and scanned them into my computer, as shown below.



The following color explorations were done to determine the most suitable color settings for the image, as shown below.




I chose the fourth one as the red sky created a very eerie unnatural setting while still maintaining a good contrast with the characters.

Assignment 4 iN2015

• Content: Poster design
• Size of actual artwork: A3
• Color: full color
• Targeted audience:
– General public of Singapore
• Locations of poster:
– Bus stops
– Notice boards on busy streets
– Neighborhood & community centers



Description

Poster depicting a bespectacled dog surfing the internet, tweeting on Twitter.

Explanation

In 2015, technology would be advanced enough that we will be able to communicate effectively with animals, as machines will be capable of reading and interpreting their brainwaves.

In this poster, this same technology is employed to allow a dog to surf the internet, complete with a user interface configured to interact with a dog's primary senses. This enables the dog to do some social networking such as going on Twitter.

Creative Process

My main idea for the poster was to portray the effect that iN2015 could have on the lives of domestic animals. The sketches below depict my initial ideas.

Assignment 3 U C what I C

• Visual narrative: Telling a story in 8 photos
(without using words to describe your story)
• Story telling: Your story can be with or
without a twist
• Media: Photography (with or without photo
manipulation via software)
• Equipment: Point and shoot Camera or a
good handphone camera (min. 3MP)
• Size: Approx. 3R each photo.



Description

This photo essay is about my dog Maxi and how she gets lured out of hiding to take a bath.

Explanation

Most dogs dread taking baths and would do whatever it takes to avoid them. Maxi usually goes into hiding when its bath time. We don't like to drag her out by force so we use bait. Dogs love food and forget just about everything when presented with a snack. This photo essay is about my passion for dogs and everything that makes them silly enough to be man's best friend.

Creative Process

Before jumping into the photo taking, it was necessary to plan carefully how I want the story to take shape. Below is my storyboard sketch.

Assignment 2 Less is More

Create ONE pictogram for NUS community
and this pictogram will be placed within NUS
campus.
• You need to do 2 steps:
– Step 1: 1 set ‘degree of abstraction’ comprises
1 original (photo) + 5 steps of reduction
process.
– Step 2: Choose 1 out of the 5 steps (most
effective) and develop it into a prototype.



Description

Pictogram showing a sleeping person in between two persons who are awake. The sleeping person is colored red to show that what he's doing is wrong.

Explanation

It is quite commonplace for students to doze off occasionally, be it due to sheer exhaustion or the length and nature of the lesson. However, seeing as doing so would be detrimental to a student's academic pursuits, I felt it might be a good idea to install a no sleeping sign in lecture halls to remind of this vital issue.

Creative Process
I started with a pictogram of a lecturer teaching a class of students, with one person asleep on his desk. My process of abstraction was "zooming in" as each degree of abstraction increased the focus on the sleeping person, while removing more and more of the surrounding detail. The process is shown below.

Class Exercise C

Partnered with Jodi Ong Gek Ping for this exercise

The two words are Order and Passage.

Assignment 1: Me, Myself and I

• Design your name to fit YOU (i.e. your
personality, character, outlook, strength &
weakness, inner self...)
• In other word, communicate your design
through manipulation of the letters in your
name.
• SELF is a very complex subject. The challenge
is how do you introduce yourself through
effective visual form.

Image A



Image B



Description

A. Initials "D.M." (Daryl Mcintyre).
The half bowling ball forms the "D" and the bowling pins form an M.
A chain ending with a trophy spell "Daryl"

B. Broken glass. Blood splatter forms "DARYL"

Explanation

A. I have a strong interest in bowling and wanted to portray the bowling lane as
a pathway and the pins as a destination, so as to create a metaphor for life.

B. The broken glass and blood combine to create give the effect of a violent
aftermath. This presents a darker side of my personality, representing pain
and anger.

Creative Process

When I first started this assignment, I had bowling firmly rooted in my head for some
reason and almost everything I came up with had something to do with bowling. Below are my four prelimary sketches.




I chose the third one and developed it further, as well as creating the CG version(Please scroll up to refer to Image A), as shown below.



However, I was not satisfied with the result, and the critique during tutorial wasn't paticularly good with issues such as poor clarity and irrelevant choice of images added together (the bowling alley in the sky).

I really like the stained glass effect I created with my developed sketch, but I was not able to succesfully evoke the same effect on the CG version. This inspired me to attempt a broken glass effect, to portray my darker side. Below, are the sketches I made.




The result was quite cool, with the blood and smoke, achieving exactly what I wanted. With that, I chose (B) as my final design for assignment 1.

Class Exercise A: Sketch a machine that enhances your creativity 100 times

• Tools: A4 paper, pencil, pen, marker, colorpencil etc.
• Rules/tips:
– The sketch should be detailed enough to express your machine.
– Describe how does it work in few lines (point form will do).
– The machine doesn’t need to be working realistically.
Just an idea, be imaginative.
• Upload class exercise A on your blog.

INSPIRATRON X100


My idea of a machine that enhances my creativity is one that provides inspiration and stimulus to one's imagination.

The Inspiratron x100 is a pair of special glasses that visually transport you to scenic locations of your choice. I believe that visual stimulus is one of the most effective ways to look for inspiration and hence, enhance creativity.

My drawing depicts half the pair of glasses and what the user will see in contrast with what he would see without it.