Visual Communications

2007-04-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

Please click on the archive months under "PAST"
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Thanks!
Hope you'll enjoy looking through my learning journal =)

2007-04-19T03:48:00.000-07:00

Assignment 7

For this last and final assignment, we have to design and prepare a story book for children. And the whole execution was a tedious and problematic one. We devoted all our time we had on this. And I practically neglected all the other modules just to complete the story book. But we managed to persevere and pull it through till the end.

Thanks to the others in the whole production for making this story book possible. Especially to Kayvern… without his drawings, the book wouldn’t be achievable…

Timmy and the Blue Beanie

We encountered many problems throughout the whole development, from writing to printing to cutting to binding. Many things didn’t turn out the way we anticipated. We wanted the book to be in a certain way but we only realized that it wasn’t going to be feasible at the printing shop. Nevertheless, we made do with whatever we can and try to make the best out of it.

Here's our storyboard...

and design document...

[Thanks to Joseph for uploading all these]

Even though, this project gave us load of problem, but in the process of it, I learnt many things. I actually learn the proper way we should plan our book in regards to the pages organization. Kayvern gave me some colouring tips before I proceeded with the colouring. In addition, we should always keep in mind the problems we might meet during printing, so that we will be more prepared, and probably have alternatives and act as accordingly to overcome the problems. It’s always the unexpected that makes everything go wrong. With the limited time we have, it is essential that we have to be doubly cautious, so as to ensure that everything flows smoothly. Despite all the difficulties we faced, we managed to overcome all the obstacles as a group. Therefore, I felt a sense of achievement when everything was completed and was ready for submission. All in all, it was an interesting and enriching project.

2007-03-16T02:50:00.000-07:00

Assignment 6

Theme: Gestalt Principles (Group assignment)

For this assignment, we have to select two posters - one good and one bad design. Thereafter, analyse both the designs based on visual principles. So I've selected two movie posters...

The Good Design: The Butterfly Effect

The Bad Design: Napolean Dynamite

Click on this to download powerpoint presentation.

2007-03-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Assignment 5

Theme: Love - Greeting Card

For this card... I didn't managed to present in class as I was having high fever =(

Anyway since this assignment is suppose to let us understand the concept of colour. I decided to use sky blue and the rainbow colours to express Love.

Sky blue symbolise divine love. While the pink colour used on the heart represents blushing, love and vigor. The green grass patches symbolise spring, life, nature, youth, vigor, hope, cheerfulness, abundance and immortality. The yellow bench shows richness, nobility, sun, warmth, radiant goodness. All these can be used to depict what many perceive LOVE as.

2007-03-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

Assignment 4 [Modified]

Theme: Protect Yourself

I redrew the whole poster on illustrator this time. The lines are much neater and straighter this time round. I changed the font as well, as I felt the previous one look a little too rigid. The tail of the stalker was changed to a devil's tail, as suggested by the class.

2007-03-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

Assignment 4

Theme: Save this/that

This time we have to design a poster that goes along with the theme of Save, Prevent, Kill, etc. My original idea was “Prevent Robbery”. So I started my illustration on Photoshop, using the writing tablet again.

I was quite satisfied with the ‘hot babe’ before I went on to draw the robber.

After I drew the robber, I realized that the poster seems a little too kiddy because of the ‘mini robber’. It doesn’t seem to go well with my ‘hot babe’ at all. Looking at the hot babe, I then ask myself why not change to something like ‘Save Yourself’ since the hot babe portrays the ‘dress to kill’ impression. Any pervert would sure be tempted to stalk her. Hence, I replaced the ‘mini robber’ with a ‘gentleman’. The idea was to signify that looks are deceiving, he may appear as harmless but in actuality he might be a bad person. To further depict this point, I added a wolf’s tail at the shadow of the man.

So this was this poster i presented in class...

But it's not the final version yet. Instead of using "Save Yourself", I will change to "Protect Yourself". And I will have to modify the tail of the stalker. Moreover, after printing I felt that the lines of the hot babe look a little pixilated because I drew the poster with the writing tablet instead of using Illustrator. So I will redraw my whole poster using Illustrator.

2007-03-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Assignment Three

Theme: U C what I C - Telling a story with 10 pictures

For this week's assignment we are required to narrate a story with the use of no more than 10 photographs, preferably with a twist at the end.

Given the time constraint, I was not able to try out a few plots that came to my mind. So I decided to settle with just one story.

I called all my friends to my house for BBQ session. After the BBQ… told them about this assignment that I have to do and needed their help. I told them about my idea and asked them whether the acting of the storyline is feasible. They all agreed that it sounds interesting and funny. So I started sketching out the 10 scenes and showed them. They were very helpful and were excited about the whole ‘acting’ thing. Thereafter, we headed to the playground and fitness area at my area. And there the story begins…

Got the whole picture?
.
.
.
No? Yes? Not sure?
.
.
.
Okay. Let me tell you the whole scenario...

A sexy lady was on her way home, walking through the neighbourhood park. She caught the attention of all the guys who were at the park. The guys were stunned at the sight of her. They were totally mesmerized by the hot irresistible body of hers. But in actual fact, it wasn't what they all perceive to be. The moment she reached home, she immediately released the deep breathe that she has been holding. Her tummy then returns to its original form.

This is the sketch that I did before we proceeded to the playacting...

Scene 1: Guy 1 drool at the sight of a sexy lady

Scene 2: Girl’s back view

Scene 3: Girl’s side view

Scene 4: Guy 2 stop doing sit ups and stare at the sexy lady

Scene 5: Lady smiles back at Guy 2

Scene 6 & 7: Cyclist (Guy 3) and guy on the scooter (Guy4) crash into each other at the sight of her

Scene 8: Sexy lady reach her house doorstep and opened the door

Scene 9: Sexy lady panting

Scene 10: Sexy lady release her breathe; tummy returns to its original form

2007-02-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

Assignment Two [Modified]

Theme: Needful Things- Making images talk

Well, I basically redrew everything for this assignment. The one I presented in class was hand drawn on my sketch book. Although Ms Siti commented that my hand drawings were good, but I felt that there was a need to produce a better quality work. So after the presentation, I decided to execute this assignment on Illustrator so that the stages will look more consistent and neater. At the same time, I did many changes to the extraction process. There are 6 stages in the new version while there are only 5 stages in the earlier one. And the extraction process in the later version seems more gradual as each stage goes. It links from stages to stages. Whereas in the first version, the stages are quite unorganized.

Extraction process (Version 1):

Extraction Process (Version 2):

I've choose stage 4 to represent a bee...

p/s: click on images to have to larger view

2007-02-08T07:05:00.000-08:00

Assignment Two

Theme: Needful Things- Making images talk

I have chosen to create an indexic representation of a bee. I had to distill the image of the bee through the five levels of abstraction.

Stage 0

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

At this point in the abstraction process, the bee looses its specific identity. It communicates its generic meaning of a bee.

Stage 4

Stage 5

This is what I've presented in class. I'lll take the suggestions given and do the drawings again.

2007-02-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

Assignment One [MODIFIED]

Theme: Me, Myself and I

I ended up redoing the whole of Assignment One. This time I redrew using Illustrator instead of Photoshop. Previously, I relied heavily on my writing tablet to draw because I really couldn’t figure out how to use Illustrator. [Thanks to Kayvern, I managed to grasp the basic techniques within a short while.] Anyway, yes back to the Assignment, the first attempt was kind of messy, the lines ain't straight, and was kind of obvious that it was ‘hand drawn’ using the tablet.

I Love Glamour (Old):

I Love Glamour (New):

I really didn't like the alphabet "f" in my former attempt. So during the second attempt, I really tried hard to change the alphabet F.

Sketches of F:

In the end, I settled with a simpler alphabet F as compared to my first attempt to balance the focus throughout my name. And i also took Ms Siti's comments into consideration, improved on the the first A, S and C.

I Hate Spiders (Old):

I Hate Spider (New):

In my initial attempt, my name was hardly readable. It took everyone quite a while to figure out where’s ‘FRANSCA’. So in the following attempt, sticking with my initial concept, I was all out to make sure my name would appear more obvious. In fact, some suggested to use the concept of the words ‘Spiders’ in my earlier attempt on my name =( but it was kind of disappointing when I heard that, because I really squeezed out all the juices in my brain and came up with my name ‘Entangled in Web’ concept. And I pretty much do like the idea of it.

So ‘stubbornly’, I continued to work on my idea. Anyway, these are what Kayvern suggested.

I drew a few sketches to try what seems to work best.

After formulating a few new ideas, I started my work on illustrator...
And after drawing this...

I begin to improvise and improvise...
till I was happy and satisfied with my final masterpiece.

2007-02-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

Assignment One

Theme: Me, Myself and I

For this assignment, before i started on my draft, i listed a couple things that i like...

From the list above, I have selected 'Glamour'. This is simply because I have always been captivated by pretty things, stuffs that are very flamboyant and eye-catching. After deciding upon Glamour, i started to brainstorm ideas and things that depicts glamour.

With this mind map, I was able to have a rough idea of how my concept would look like. I began by sketching several thumbnails of my name associating with the conceptualization of glamour.

Sketch1:

Sketch 2:

Sketch 3:

Sketch 4:

I presented these four sketches in class, and everyone felt that the first one was the best among the three. The reason being, it looks more consistent as compared to the other two.

After I was done with 'Glamour', I came up with my hate list...

I picked 'spiders' from the list above as my concept and went on to develop different illustrations.

Sketch 1:

Sketch 2:

Sketch 3:

Among the three sketches as shown above, the class prefers the first idea. But still I felt that it wasn't creative and unique enough. So I continued to attempt more sketches. In the end, I managed to draw one that I really like.

Sketch 4:

I felt that it could depict my hatred for spiders as my name seems entangled within the web. As a result, it gives me a feeling of being trapped within the spider web.

I develop two selected sketches, one from each theme, into prototype using Photoshop and Freehand.

My name is FRANSCA and I love GLAMOUR.
My Name is FRANSCA and I hate SPIDERS.

Prototype 1:

Prototype 2:

This is all I have done for Assignment One so far. I will continue to improve on both the designs and produce a final prototype