💧 Final Project

Saturday, October 26, 2019

💧 Final Project

30/10/19 - 27/11/19 (Week 10 - Week 14)
Ng Mei Ying (0340563)

Typography

Final Project

INSTRUCTION

Final Project: Part 1 / Protest Placard Manual Making

30/10/19 (Week 10)

Last week, Mr Vinod had briefed us about part of the final project through a Facebook page posting. We were going to make a protest placard. We would need to hand letter our featured manifesto on the board manually. Furthermore, we were informed about the materials that we should get before today class. The materials we need to obtain were as shown below:

Approximately A2 size cardboard or corrugated board,
5 feet or 7 feet long wooden stick/PVC pipe/ (broomstick)
Painting materials like thick brush, marker, paint
Newspaper and so on
Recycle materials were preferable

On the other hand, we had to prepare a single line Manifesto about your belief about "design" and "society" for example "DESIGN MUST SERVE SOCIETY". Any lettering style was free to use as long as it was well associate with the manifesto we created. Mr Vinod added that we must finish it by today.

To start with, I try to figure out what design was meant to me? This time we had to find out how we defined the design. Steve Jobs once said: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Design was a work process which had a user perspective at the same time it drove development based on specific user’ needs. Design is basically not equal to art. The function of design was far more than just a purely visual aesthetic enjoyment. Design was a comprehensive yet systematic process to turn ideas into concrete and innovative solutions to iron out the problems.

My Manifesto

Design to redefine the world
Redefine the world through design
Design is a revolution, not a resignation.设计是场革命，不是认命。

(Fig 1.0) The first manifesto I created was "Design to redefine the world." but Mr Vinod suggested me to change into " Redefine the world through design". Later on, Mr Vinod told the class that we were free to use our native language to create the manifesto. I was indeed excited to know about that as I love the beautiful stroke and the form of Chinese word that was as wonderful as a masterpiece to be applied to my protest placard! I started to create a new manifesto in Chinese “设计是场革命，不是认命。” (Chinese pinyin: shè jì shì cháng gé mìng, bù shì rèn mìng) which mean "design is a revolution, not a resignation."

Fig 1.0 The idea brainstorming.

(Fig 1.1 & Fig 1.2) After confirming the manifesto, I searched through the web to get some inspiration on the design and paragraph arrangement. Below were the posters I found to study the Chinese calligraphy art and also the slanted text alignment. It was very interesting to have a natural and casual design without neglecting the principle of consistency and regularity.

Fig 1.1 Reference 1.

Fig 1.2 Reference 2.

(Fig 1.3) I continue to sketch out the idea of the paragraph arrangement to experiment on how would it roughly looked like. "Design" was the core word in the sentence so it should be the obvious title in the arrangement. Another sentence that should be highlighted was "Revolution", hence a smaller text size with vivid red colour was proposed to create a hierarchy in the arrangement. The red cross stroke was drawn on the sentence of "not a resignation" to emphasize the strong denial attitude.

The first two sketches tried to show a good blend between the Chinese and the English text. The last two sketches showed the separated language arrangement; Chinese text was arranged at the upper area and the English text was arranged at the lower area. The last sketch was using a formal centred alignment. Durig consulting with Mr Vinod, he said that the slanted text alignment was interesting and the second sketch was preferable.

Fig 1.3 Design idea sketches.

(Fig 1.4) In the beginning, I wanted to use the markers to draw out the letter but soon I made up my mind and decided to use the paintbrush as it would definitely much easier for me to draw out the stroke of the Chinese text with a subtle difference in the thickness. Firstly, I drafted out the line and the text on the A2 paper and started to write the text on it. After finishing the drafting, I used a marker to write the English words as a clear reference line. Then, I used tempera paint to draw out the stroke of each of the text. I did not draw an extra red stroke on the sentence of "not a resignation" as it would seem to be a little messy. Hence I decided to leave the sentence in black paint without adding an extra red stroke.

Fig 1.4 The final outcome.

Final Project: Part 2 / Protest Placard Digitizing in AI

06/11/19 (Week 11)

This week, Mr Vinod had briefed us about the second part of the final project. He mentioned that his project was aiming to create awareness of design towards Taylor's University communities. This time, we were going to digitize our manifesto in Adobe Illustration that would create a conceptual typographic expression. We should know how to inject idea and feelings into it with logical thinking in a memorable way. We had applied all the knowledge and technique that we had learned through from all of the previous exercise and project into this final project.

The format to follow for this project:

A3 Size
Maximum 3 colours
Distortion is not allowed
Maximum 10% of graphic art allowed
Use the 8 typefamily given in google drive
Fonts other than English are allowed to download from the web.

First thing first, I tried to search for the Chinese Calligraphy font from the search engine. However, it was quite challenging to find a suitable Chinese calligraphy font design which was similar to my manual writing style for free. I tried to search for more website with my friend and luckily we were able to get a suitable font design that suited our manifesto.

In the beginning, I was facing difficulty in choosing a suitable Chinese font for the design. Hence I decided to work with the layout design that would allow me to observe which of the Chinese font suited the layout composition. To maintain a strong and powerful design style, I decided to utilize the original layout arrangement from the handwriting protest placard. Below was the first design attempt in AI. This time, I added the red colour stroke on the sentence of "not a resignation" to highlight the message of disavowal.

(Fig 2.1) Below was the first design attempt in AI. This time, I added the red colour stroke on the sentence of "not a resignation" to highlight the message of disavowal. Mr Vivod said there was too empty space around the composition, he suggested me to make the composition more compact to create a connection for all of the words.

Fig 2.1 Placard Design 1

(Fig 2.2) The first design was too plain and boring to me, hence I continued to create a second layout design with some simple shapes applied as the background design. I changed the Chinese font into the traditional version to get more interesting stroke with a simpler font style. Nonetheless, lecturers pointed out that the clean Chinese font was somehow lack of visual aesthetic comparing with the previous version. They said that it was better not to use boxes to decorate the background.

Fig 2.2 Placard Design 2

(Fig 2.3) For the third attempt, black colour was applied as the background colour. Mr Shamsul said that I should avoid creating a frame for the layout. The colour composition of black, red and yellow was too distractive, I should make it simple and straight forward.

Fig 2.3 Placard Design 3

(Fig 2.4) The frame was removed in this stage, the medium lower part was remained white to create a visual balance but it seemed not related and quite meaningless.

Fig 2.4 Placard Design 4

(Fig 2.5) I removed the background shape aiming to keep the background clean and simple. (Fig 2.6 & Fig 2.7) The second layers of the white filled Chinese headline with outline were placed underneath to create a 2D stand out effect.

Fig 2.5 Placard Design 5

Fig 2.6 Placard Design 6

Fig 2.7 Placard Design 7

I downloaded some vector stroke and ink splash for AI in order to avoid the monotonous visual effect for the overall layout design. (Fig 2.6 & Fig 2.7) The second layers of the white filled Chinese headline with outline had removed. Background solid colour was changed to experiment with the visual effect brought by yellow and black colour.

Fig 2.8 Placard Design 8

Fig 2.9 Placard Design 9

Fig 2.10 Placard Design 10

After consulting with the lecturers, they pointed out that the overall design was nice and cool, I could proceed to create the animation for the (Fig 2.9) Placard Design 9 with some design adjustment as the message was delivered in a strong and powerful way.

Fig 2.11 Final Placard Design

Fig 2.12 Final Placard Design PDF

Final Project: Part 3 / Protest Placard Animating in AE

13/11/19 (Week 12)

This week, Mr Vinod briefed us about the final part of the final project was to create an animation effect for the protest placard design in GIF format. I decided to use After Effect to create the animation as it could produce subtle movement effect efficiently comparing with using Photoshop.

Firstly, I needed to switch the Adobe Illustrator file into Photoshop file as to retain all the layers in when I imported the file in After Effect. After launching the After Effect, I imported the PS file as a composition file and start working with it to create a subtle animation effect.

Fig 3.1 Import PS File into After Effect.

Fig 3.2 Create the slanted moving direction effect for the calligraphy red lines.

Fig 3.3 Adjust the position values.

Fig 3.4 Create the scaling effect on the splash ink to create a splattering effect

Fig 3.5 Adjust the scaling values.

My idea for the animation was I would like to make all of the words in the placard moving swiftly in a slanted way in order to highlight the strong and firm belief delivered by the manifesto. Besides, I wanted to make a calligraphy writing effect to the red underline to further emphasize the strong denial attitude of the sentence "Not A Resignation".

Below was the first attempt for the animated GIF. I limited the duration of the animation within 2 minutes to ensure that the whole video was fast and accurate. During the consultation with Mr Vinod, He pointed out that there were too many things happening around that and I had to ensure that the moment of all of the elements was well adjusted. Through his recommendation, I should make it more simple by maintaining all the words in a state of rest. Besides, I just needed to animate the Calligraphy writing effect with some ink splattering effect will do.

Fig 3.6 The first attempt of GIF.

Below was the second attempt for the animated GIF. I remained all of the words in a condition of rest. The only animated part was the calligraphy red underline and the ink splattering effect as an extra highlight.

Fig 3.17 The second attempt of GIF.

During the second consultation with lecturers, they said that both of the version was very interesting. Te first attempt had a really fast yet rich pace in animation yet the second version had a strong and powerful sense delivered through the ink splattering effect. They suggested that the combination of both of the prominent elements would come out the best final outcome. Hence I came out with the final outcome as shown below.

Fig 3.18 The final outcome of GIF.

FEEDBACK

30/10/19 (Week 10)

Specific feedback: During the consultation session with Mr Vinod, he found that the slanted text alignment was very interesting compared with the formal centred alignment. Besides, he also mentioned that it would be better if I could further illustrate the stroke of the Chinese words. Mr Shamsul said that the Chinese stroke was very interesting either.

General feedback: Mr Vinod said that we should have prepared our manifesto quote before this class. We had to sketch out the idea efficiently and effectively. Moreover, we could use any of the typefaces styles and we could use our native language for the manifesto. The whole process would be alike how we did our project 2 font design.

6/11/19 (Week 11)

Specific feedback: For the Blog of project 2, Mr Shamsul said that I should include the Jpeg file in it. For the final project, Mr Vinod said that I should avoid leaving too much space at the surroundings of the space. He even made a joke of it asking me "You want the runners to have a 400-meter running competition all around here ah?". He also prefered the Chinese Calligraphy font with thinker stroke. Mr Shamsul said that I should avoid using too much shape at the back of the manifesto words as they aware quite distracting.

General feedback: Mr Vinod reminded the whole class that we should update our blog every week as he had told us all the things and information for the blog. Moreover, we were suggested to use the private or an incognito website to check our blog without using our normal google website with our own Gmail logged in to ensure that all files are visible. For project 2, many of us had the alignment problem. We had to try out a different type of positioning and avoid too much white space around the text to show the possibilities of the typeface.

13/11/19 (Week 12)

Specific feedback: Mr Vinod responded that the overall placard graphic design was cool and nice. Mr Vinod prefered the placard design with the yellow background as it the message was strong and powerful. Adding a white background layer underneath the title will be better. Besides, he also added that he like the way I sort the files.

General feedback: Mr Vinod reminded us we should apply the knowledge of typography into the poster design like doing tracking, kerning, letterspacing and so on but not just putting all of the words on the poster. He also said that we should finish the poster animation by today.

REFLECTION

Experience:

Week 10; The overall process was quite stressful and time rushing as we had to finish creating the protest placard by today with very limited time. I tried my very best to overcome the pressure upon the time restraints and enjoyed the whole process of creating the protest placard. However, It could not be denied that it was a peculiar activity to create a protest placard at my campus as I thought it might be an illegal yet prohibited activity. I indeed enjoyed the naughty and rebellious form of doing the project. Week 11; It was great that we cloud have a chance to create a protest placard digitally in AI as I could do a better amendment on the alignment and the manifesto design. It was almost the end of the semester, which means we only had a limited time to finish our final project so we had to work very fast and effectively to hit the deadline. Week 12; Everyone was very excited about the intercultural trip for next year but we still had to adjust our mood and catch on our lessons.

Observation:

Week 10; Some of the students were quite lost on creating a suitable manifesto for themselves but yet some of the students had a strong and clear direction on creating their own unique manifesto. Furthermore, it a great chance to appreciate the beauty of every diverse and multiple languages that appeared in this lovely and sweet environment. Week 11; I realise that the way to design work digitally and manually could be very different although I was doing the same design for the protest placard design. There were pros and cons for both digital and traditional manual working way. Week 12; I observed there were some new frames hanging in our class. They were the poster design of the Trouble Maker Manifesto Event which showed the interesting and powerful main idea of design.

Findings:

Week 10; I was very regretting that I did not buy myself some acrylic or tempera painting as I thought that I was able to do it just by using markers. Thus I had to borrow some paint from my friend to finish the lettering. I had to be well prepared next time :') Week 11; I found that it was quite hard to find a nice and suitable Chinese calligraphy font on the website without charging any fees. I patience was beginning to wear thin as I felt that I had taken too much time to search for the suitable Chinese calligraphy font. The searching process was much more effective when I search together with my friend and I really appreciate the kind help of my friend. Week 12; I found that I had some problem to deal with the design software especially Adobe Illustrator. I still cloud not figure it out the reason why some of the layers will automatically merge together when I export the file to PS from AI... Besides, I realise it more convenient and efficient to create GIF in AE rather than using PS.

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🌻 NG MEI YING (0340563)

💧 Final Project

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