Well, I have finally come to the end of the journey in my second CNM design module (my first was NM2217 - Creating Interactive Media). It has been a good learning experience for me that I hope will prepare me in good stead for future design modules or projects. Besides learning about the technical aspects such as how to use software such as Photoshop and Freehand, I have learnt other "softer" skills as well, such as creativity, the correct application of concepts, working effectively with others and taking other people's criticism of my work in good faith to help me further improve.
The fact that we have to keep a learning journal is also a refreshing experience for me, because most other modules do not have something similar. I suppose that actually penning (or typing) our thought processes can be more helpful to ourselves and others than keeping them to yourself because there is always much to learn and reflect on by reading about past experiences.
Although many of the things we had to do in this module was time- and even money-consuming, I am sure all of us have taken away something useful which could help us as future NM majors or designers, as well as generally being armed with the necessary skills to survive in a media-intensive society where forms of visual communication such as advertisements are a key component in marketing, advertising, championing social causes etc. whose messages we are in a better position to decipher and interpret accurately than others who have not taken this course.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Mr Reddy, the tutors Ms Siti and Ms Swati, my fellow coursemates and any others who have made my experience in taking this module an unforgettable one.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Lecture 11: Assignment 7 - God Created Fly and Forgot Why (Final Presentation)
Finally, it is down to the last leg of our storybook production. First things first, I generated additional images for the page numbers, one for each page and depicting a character or object used in that particular scene. It was challenging at first to decide on and tweak the images, especially in 'fattening' the pitchfork so it is wide enough to fit the page number, but here they are:
This is to depict the star-shaped fruits of the strange magic tree.
I decided to trace out the outline of the baby angel to use as the page number for this page because I did not want too many details to distract readers away from the main illustrations, hence the level of abstractions lesson came in handy here.
Page 10: Devil's pitchfork
I hope this 'fattened' pitchfork still looks like one.
I used the universally-recognized devil head shape, again another example of an abstract symbol, to represent the devil in the story.
This depicts the flames that consume the devil after the adult angel casted a magic net on him.
In the end, Jasmine decided to implement only the first four images as page numbers and rotate them for the next four pages and so on. Other changes that were made included the changes to the font to a Serif font, Johnyokonysm, as below: 
Though this is a Serif font, it does not look serious or formal but instead has a rustic and 'laid-back' feel, which I feel is not as heavy as Eras Bold ITC font and hence is more suitable for a children's book. We also varied the size of the text to fit the page to give it more balance, ie. if there are few words, the size of the text would be bigger to fill up the space and vice versa.
Pages 2 and 17:
Pages 3 and 16:
Pages 7 and 12:
Pages 8 and 11:
Page 2: Mushroom
I changed the colour tones of the mushroom so that they look brighter and more luminous, tying in with the illustration's colour scheme.
Page 4: Plant
Page 4: Plant
This is to depict the strange purple plant that Ethan found in his garden.
Page 6: Star
This is to depict the star-shaped fruits of the strange magic tree.Page 8: Baby angel
I decided to trace out the outline of the baby angel to use as the page number for this page because I did not want too many details to distract readers away from the main illustrations, hence the level of abstractions lesson came in handy here.Page 10: Devil's pitchfork
I hope this 'fattened' pitchfork still looks like one.Page 12: Devil Head
I used the universally-recognized devil head shape, again another example of an abstract symbol, to represent the devil in the story.Page 14: Flame
This depicts the flames that consume the devil after the adult angel casted a magic net on him.Page 16: Baby angels
This depicts the multiple angels popping out of the star-shaped fruits.
Page 18: Apple
This apple is representative of the variety of edible fruits that were hanging on Ethan's tree at the end of the story.
In the end, Jasmine decided to implement only the first four images as page numbers and rotate them for the next four pages and so on. Other changes that were made included the changes to the font to a Serif font, Johnyokonysm, as below:
Though this is a Serif font, it does not look serious or formal but instead has a rustic and 'laid-back' feel, which I feel is not as heavy as Eras Bold ITC font and hence is more suitable for a children's book. We also varied the size of the text to fit the page to give it more balance, ie. if there are few words, the size of the text would be bigger to fill up the space and vice versa. Another change was to the storyline itself. Instead of burning the devil in a violent fashion, Jasmine's friends commented that maybe trapping the devil in the cage was perhaps a less "violent" approach that was more suitable for younger kids. Hence, we decided to implement this suggestion. Lastly, we changed the ending to include the words "happily ever after" as this very recognizable phrase indicates a happy ending as well as unambiguously signifies the end of the story.
We had arranged an appointment with Reddy in his office to show him our print-outs as he requested. He thought that our work was nice, except that the text could be changed to a dark grey instead of black so that it looks even less heavy. We decided to take his advice since the pure black and white contrast might be too stark and hence not in line with the 'kiddish' feel evoked by the colourful illustrations.
Below is the completed work, with the pages of images and text arranged in a printer-friendly order (as in printed on the same piece of paper in a stapled book), hence the page order appears mostly jumbled up:
Cover page:
Inner Cover Page:
Pages 1 and 18:
Pages 1 and 18:
Pages 2 and 17:
Pages 3 and 16:
Pages 4 and 15:
Pages 5 and 14:
Pages 6 and 13:
Pages 7 and 12:
Pages 8 and 11:
Pages 9 and 10:
Now, the next task which I had was to get the book printed. We had decided to print our book using a thin cardboard-like glossy paper for the cover (instead of hard cover which might be costly) and glossy inner pages (normal paper might be easier to tear, especially with young children handling it). I decided to follow the example of my Wind Symphony concert programme booklet which was similarly done and looks quite professional.
Next, I had the option of going to a lower cost printing company which might not have the materials we wanted or a more expensive, “professional” one that had everything. I opted for the latter because even though we might have to spend more, our work would most likely be professionally done and after all, it is only a once off thing. My friend from another tutorial group recommended a Queensway printing company (“Ultra Supplies”) that is apparently quite popular with NUS students, hence I decided to try my luck there.
Their service was convenient because all I had to do was to bring a CD or DVD and they could print from there. However, I had a hard time describing the page sequence and all to the staff member who served me, probably because he does not seem to be a local. Nonetheless, he managed to get a book printed; however the page numbers were cut off, so he advised me to go back and adjust them from my own computer which would be more convenient than their computer that doesn't have the fonts we were using. Furthermore, he recommended me to adjust the image resolution to a higher one so the text on the back became clearer. Although he charged me extra for the book, I was willing to pay because it was part and parcel of being inexperienced in such an area (it was my first time having something like this printed at a printing company).
The following week, I did as the guy told me to and finally managed to get the book printed without much hassle. However, to my surprise, Jasmine said she did not like the purple colour of the printed cover as she had chosen a dark blue background instead. Although I was puzzled because it did appear purple on my screen, and I thought it looked ok, she had a point when she said that kids would have many questions to ask if they see the sky as purple in the cover, because in real life the night sky is rarely purple.
In any event, she printed another book with the dark blue background separately and we presented it during the lecture, where Reddy's son and wife were among the "special guests" present. I think all had a good time during this lecture, especially those who interacted with Reddy's playful boy. Although our book did not stand out amongst others such as the jaw-dropping pop-up animal texture book (which was incidentally done by my two friends from the other tutorial group) as well as the "double-meaning" Mother Swan story, I felt our book was intriguing enough for any child between ages 5 to 7 to read and we had no regrets choosing the direction that we had chosen for our storybook to take.
Tutorial 9 / Lecture 10: Assignment 7 - God Created Fly and Forgot Why (Design Document)
For this week, we continued to work on our storybook. For me, I concentrated on the text and its placement while Jasmine continued to work on the illustrations using Fireworks (a software which she is familiar with). After trying out a few fonts, I decided to use a Sans Serif font because it has rounded edges which may appeal more to kids (a softer look perhaps). Furthermore, serif fonts like Times New Roman seem too "formal". Hence I choose Eras Bold ITC, as below:
Pages 7-8:
Pages 9-10:
Pages 11-12:
Pages 13-14:
Pages 15-16:
Pages 17-18:
Lecture day has arrived and it was time to show Reddy what we have done so far. Jasmine had to leave earlier, so I stayed back to wait for my turn to present our work to Reddy. Generally, he commented that the text was too heavy and that the illustrations seem rather static in that the expressions and body positions of the boy and the devil were mostly similar from one scene to the next and lacked a dynamic quality which kids are more attracted to. He also felt that we could vary the mushroom image for the page numbers by including other images relevant to our story such as a devil's pitchfork for different pages as kids do not like to see the same image all the time. Regarding our page layout, he thought that it was a "safe" one. As we did not have a print-out of our work then, Reddy requested to see a print-out some other time because it might look different from a computer screen. Hence, after relaying these comments to Jasmine, we continued to improve on our work based on them.
I thought it should be bold so that younger kids will have an easier time reading it.
Furthermore, I came up with a small sketch of some mushrooms and a flower to be placed at the bottom right of each text page to serve as a decorative element, otherwise a white text-filled page alone might be too plain for young kids. Here is my sketch:
At the same time, Jasmine came up with the backgrounds of each scene in our story using Fireworks. Here are some examples of how they look like when combined with the text and small sketch (the text is different because her computer did not have my font):
Pages 1-2:
Pages 3-4:
Pages 5-6:
For the placement of the text, I did not follow any grid layout or anything but I tried to make sure it is centralized on the page; I would tweak the text further so that it does not wander too close to the edge of the page, hence controlling attention better. However, Jasmine felt that the text might seem too crammed together, and that the colours of my sketch did not go well with the more luminous tones. Furthermore, there was a faint grey background to my sketch since I scanned them into my computer. I would touch up on these issues but firstly, we showed these images to Siti after the tutorial. She was ok with it except for my small sketch which she felt did not serve any useful purpose. One of our classmates who was in the room at the time suggested that maybe instead of using this sketch, we can use a mushroom image which has page numbers on it, so at least, it has a purpose. Jasmine and I thought it was a great idea, so after I got home, I proceeded to generate a mushroom image as follows (the digit in the middle is the page number):
In addition, I created paragraphs for the text so that it does not look like a big chunk and hence might be easier for kids to read. When combined with Jasmine's illustrations, our yet to be completed work looks like this:
Pages 1-2:
Pages 3-4:
Pages 5-6:
Pages 7-8:
Pages 9-10:
Pages 11-12:
Pages 13-14:
Pages 15-16:
Pages 17-18:
Lecture day has arrived and it was time to show Reddy what we have done so far. Jasmine had to leave earlier, so I stayed back to wait for my turn to present our work to Reddy. Generally, he commented that the text was too heavy and that the illustrations seem rather static in that the expressions and body positions of the boy and the devil were mostly similar from one scene to the next and lacked a dynamic quality which kids are more attracted to. He also felt that we could vary the mushroom image for the page numbers by including other images relevant to our story such as a devil's pitchfork for different pages as kids do not like to see the same image all the time. Regarding our page layout, he thought that it was a "safe" one. As we did not have a print-out of our work then, Reddy requested to see a print-out some other time because it might look different from a computer screen. Hence, after relaying these comments to Jasmine, we continued to improve on our work based on them.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Tutorial 8: Assignment 7 - God Created Fly and Forgot Why (Story and Full Scale Roughs)
This is, as Reddy put it during lecture, the "mother of all assignments", as we had to create a full colour illustrated storybook for children in groups of not more than 3. Jasmine and I teamed up for this assignment, and since they were only two of us, we were thinking of doing something simpler and suitable perhaps for younger children to read. We had 3 weeks to a month for this task, the first week being the development of the story and full scale roughs, the second for the design document and the third/fourth weeks for the final presentation.
Concept generation, on my part at least, was quite a daunting task as I went through several of my old storybooks and tried to find something in common in them, the X-factor that endears such books to children's creative and questioning minds. While I found it hard to put myself into the same shoes occupied by myself more than 10 years ago, I tried my best, and discovered that most stories had familiar characters for readers to identify with in the beginning, with conflict and obstacles faced by these characters soon after followed by the resolution and the "happily ever after" ending. They also usually have a moral to the story, something that teaches kids about the lessons of life, from self-discipline to helping others in need. Although my creative juices were running dry, I managed to come up with an underwater-themed storyline (inspired by the cartoon strip Sherman's Lagoon) with fish as protagonists but with very human-like morals and behaviour. Its lesson is to teach people, especially siblings, to share their belongings with each other. Here is the story, along with the description of how I visualize the illustration to look like in the sketch:
1. It is Christmas time in the Finns’ underwater home. “Time to open your presents!” Mama Finn told her two sons, Sunny and Cloudy.
Description: Inside of a home (simple wallpaper), Christmas tree with two wrapped boxes under it. One is cube-shaped, the other is rectangular. Mama talking to her two sons who have smiles on their faces.
2. Sunny and Cloudy happily unwrapped their presents under the Christmas tree. Sunny got a ball and Cloudy got a train set. Both liked their presents. “Thank you Mum!” They told Mama Finn. “Now go share your presents, my sons!” She replied.
Description: Sons holding their new toys with unwrapped boxes on the floor, again with excited looks on their faces. Mama beaming at them.
3. However, Sunny and Cloudy did not want to share their toys. They wanted to keep them for themselves.
Description: Showing split images of Sunny playing with his ball and Cloudy playing with his train set alone. What should the line separating these two images be, if it is necessary?
4. One day, Sunny woke up to find his ball missing. He searched all over the house for it but could not find it.
Description: Sunny sitting on his bed with a cloud speech bubble showing his ball with question marks surrounding it. He has a puzzled look on his face.
5. Upset, Sunny swam outside to find Cloudy playing with his ball.
Description: Sunny from a short distance away (with simple ocean background), spotting Cloudy playing with his ball, probably bouncing it.
6. Angrily, Sunny yelled at Cloudy, “Give me back my ball!” But Cloudy refused. Sunny then tried to snatch the ball away from Cloudy.
Description: Both brothers engaging in a tug of war with the ball with vexed looks on their faces.
7. However, the ball slipped from Sunny’s fins, flew across the water and landed on a sea urchin. The ball burst.
Description: Ball in mid air, motion lines emanating from Sunny’s fins to the ball to a sea urchin some distance away (draw shreds just above the sea urchin to represent the burst ball). A ‘POOM!’ (or equivalent bursting sound) in bold, caps above the sea urchin. Both brothers staring with shocked looks on their faces.
8. Mama Finn swam by and scolded her two boys, “Look what happens when you refuse to share your belongings! I hope you two have learnt your lesson.”
Description: Mama yelling at them angrily; both sons looking down in guilt.
9. Sunny and Cloudy went back home and thought over what they had done. Sunny said, “I am sorry for yelling at you just now.” Cloudy said, “I am sorry for stealing your ball.” They shook fins.
Description: Both brothers shaking fins with each other with contrite look on their faces.
10. The brothers then decided to play Cloudy’s train set together. They learnt that sharing their toys with each other is more fun than playing alone.
Description: Both brothers lying on their stomachs looking at the train set.
To me, this was a rather "safe" storyline but it somehow lacks excitement and creativity. Jasmine suggested writing a story based on the theme of magic and fantasy since this is the genre that seems to appeal to kids. After reflecting on the widespread appeal and success of fantasy-themed books like Harry Potter and computer games like Might and Magic, I thought that was not a bad idea. While trying to generate an idea for such a story, Jasmine came up with the following idea:
"Once, there was a boy who lived in a forest. His house might probably be the shape of a mushroom.
This boy will go to his garden to pluck mushrooms to make stew every day. so one day...
he realized there was a new plant at his garden. He had completely no idea where this plant came from and what plant it was.
However, he watered the plant and decided to continue growing it in his garden. The next day, he realized the plant had grown much taller than the other plants and also had berries in the shape of a moon. Also, he realized that these berries will glow at night.
Something woke him up in the middle of the night. he heard someone talking over at the garden. he peeped out of his window. He saw a few angels working at the garden, plucking the berries from the plant.
He went out to the garden and one of the angels started talking to him and explained to him that the plant will only grow when someone showered the plant with love and care. It also mentioned that the berries are for baby angels. The boy promised the angel that he will continue to look after the plant.
After the angels have left for that night, he went back to sleep with a smile on his face."
After reading this story, I felt that it was a pretty good idea, but it lacked something (call it the X-factor) that might hook children to the story. Then, it dawned on me that such a story would be more interesting if it had a conflict as well as its subsequent resolution. Hence, I thought for some time about what kind of conflict it should have. Logically, since it had angels in it, an appropriate villain that might stir up a conflict would be none other than.... a devil. Furthermore, I refined the storyline so that there would only be one adult angel involved, and that the strange fruits will actually burst to "give birth" to a baby angel, giving the plant/tree an even more mystical quality, hence being a suitable target for a devil to destroy. Here is what I had:
1. Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Peter who lived in a forest. His house is the shape of a mushroom, and he will go to his garden to pluck mushrooms to make stew every day.
2. One day... he realized there was a new plant at his garden. He had completely no idea where this plant came from and what plant it was.
4. Suddenly, an angel came by in a flash of white light and said, "Hello little boy. My name is Arne. Would you mind looking after this plant for us? Please water it regularly; it is very important to us." Peter agreed to do so.
5. Over the next few days, he watered the plant regualrly and soon realized that it had grown much taller than the other plants and also had strange fruits in the shape of a moon. These fruits glowed brightly at night.
6. One night, Peter was walking by the plant when suddenly, one of the fruits burst and out came a baby angel in a flash of white light as brilliant as that surrounding Arne. The boy stood rooted in awe. "So that's how angels are born," he marvelled. More angels were born during the next few days.
7. Another night, as Peter was sleeping, he was awoken by the sound of wicked laughter coming from the garden.
8. He came down to the garden and found an evil devil holding a pitchfork and approaching the plant. "Stop!" Peter yelled. "You shall not harm this plant!"
9. The devil laughed again and said, "If I cannot harm this plant, then I shall destroy your house instead! Wahahaha!" Peter thought of the adorable baby angels, resolved to protect them, and replied, "Sure. Go ahead then. Destroy my house!"
10. As the devil turned around and began to approach the house, a flash of white light appeared and Arne emerged from nowhere. He yelled in a loud voice, "Go away devil! You do not belong in the land of the living!"
11. The devil screamed, "Noooooo!" He then turned into a bat and flew away into the night sky.
12. "Thank you for being so brave to protect our children, little boy. Here is your reward," Arne said to Peter gratefully. Suddenly, all the fruits of the angels' plant burst and were replaced by edible fruits that Peter enjoyed for a long time.
Although I did not manage to send the whole storyline to Jasmine (because my laptop crashed soon after I wrote it), I managed to describe it to her in bits and pieces. She suggested that perhaps we should have the boy (whom will later be renamed as Ethan) water the plant on his own accord without the angel having to tell him to do so. This is so as to make the boy's act seem even more noble. Also, she suggested to have the boy beg the devil not to harm the baby angel while coming between both of them. I agreed with them and also felt that there was room to compress the story even more so as not to lose children's attention (since younger children have shorter attention spans). In any case, the moral of the story is to elevate bravery and self-sacrifice when helping others (as shown in Peter daring the devil to destroy his house instead) and that one would be rewarded for doing so. With that, she agreed to do the sketches while I continued to work on the storyline as well as any other relevant logistical issues, which pretty much set our roles for this assignment.
At this point, I would like to redirect my readers to Jasmine's blog/journal when it comes to discussing the thought process regarding the illustrations for our book. I would still comment on the storyline and miscellaneous logistical issues that we have faced.
Here is the compressed storyline. Note that there are some changes from the previous one:
1. Once upon a time, there was a boy called Ethan who lived in the hills. He goes to his garden to pluck mushrooms every day.
2. One day, Ethan discovered a new plant with purple leaves in the garden. He had no idea what it was or where it came from.
3. He decided to water the plant. By night, it had grown into a huge tree with strange, crescent-shaped fruits that glowed brightly in the dark.
4. One of the fruits then burst open and out came a crying baby angel. Peter stared in amazement and said, “So this is how angels are born”. Suddenly, a devil holding a pitchfork came by and tried to shoot at the baby angel but missed.
5. Ethan burst into tears and begged the devil to spare the life of the baby angel. But the devil laughed madly and got ready to harm the baby angel again.
6. Out of nowhere, an adult angel flew by and cast a magic net onto the devil, trapping and burning him. “Noooo!” cried the devil before he melted away in flames, sent away to hell forever.
7. The angel looked gratefully at Ethan and said, “Thank you for trying to save the life of my little child”. All of a sudden, all the fruits of the tree burst open to reveal more baby angels. One by one, they followed the adult angel and disappeared into the night.
8. The next day, Ethan discovered that there were many different edible fruits such as bananas, apples and grapes hanging from the tree. He enjoyed a never-ending supply of fruits for a long time to come.
During the following week's tutorial, we presented our rough sketches and Siti wanted us to decide on a suitable age group for our storybook as well as the book size. We then set the former to be ages 5 to 8 years old and the latter to be 8.5 inches by 7 inches (a size suitable for a full page illustrated book like ours. In response to where we would place the text, we tentatively stated that it would be on a white blank space, even on a separate page if necessary (so as not to clutter up the image). One of our classmates thought that the location of our story was rather static but we explained that all the action happened in one boy's garden, so we did not have much flexibility to change to other locations.
Concept generation, on my part at least, was quite a daunting task as I went through several of my old storybooks and tried to find something in common in them, the X-factor that endears such books to children's creative and questioning minds. While I found it hard to put myself into the same shoes occupied by myself more than 10 years ago, I tried my best, and discovered that most stories had familiar characters for readers to identify with in the beginning, with conflict and obstacles faced by these characters soon after followed by the resolution and the "happily ever after" ending. They also usually have a moral to the story, something that teaches kids about the lessons of life, from self-discipline to helping others in need. Although my creative juices were running dry, I managed to come up with an underwater-themed storyline (inspired by the cartoon strip Sherman's Lagoon) with fish as protagonists but with very human-like morals and behaviour. Its lesson is to teach people, especially siblings, to share their belongings with each other. Here is the story, along with the description of how I visualize the illustration to look like in the sketch:
1. It is Christmas time in the Finns’ underwater home. “Time to open your presents!” Mama Finn told her two sons, Sunny and Cloudy.
Description: Inside of a home (simple wallpaper), Christmas tree with two wrapped boxes under it. One is cube-shaped, the other is rectangular. Mama talking to her two sons who have smiles on their faces.
2. Sunny and Cloudy happily unwrapped their presents under the Christmas tree. Sunny got a ball and Cloudy got a train set. Both liked their presents. “Thank you Mum!” They told Mama Finn. “Now go share your presents, my sons!” She replied.
Description: Sons holding their new toys with unwrapped boxes on the floor, again with excited looks on their faces. Mama beaming at them.
3. However, Sunny and Cloudy did not want to share their toys. They wanted to keep them for themselves.
Description: Showing split images of Sunny playing with his ball and Cloudy playing with his train set alone. What should the line separating these two images be, if it is necessary?
4. One day, Sunny woke up to find his ball missing. He searched all over the house for it but could not find it.
Description: Sunny sitting on his bed with a cloud speech bubble showing his ball with question marks surrounding it. He has a puzzled look on his face.
5. Upset, Sunny swam outside to find Cloudy playing with his ball.
Description: Sunny from a short distance away (with simple ocean background), spotting Cloudy playing with his ball, probably bouncing it.
6. Angrily, Sunny yelled at Cloudy, “Give me back my ball!” But Cloudy refused. Sunny then tried to snatch the ball away from Cloudy.
Description: Both brothers engaging in a tug of war with the ball with vexed looks on their faces.
7. However, the ball slipped from Sunny’s fins, flew across the water and landed on a sea urchin. The ball burst.
Description: Ball in mid air, motion lines emanating from Sunny’s fins to the ball to a sea urchin some distance away (draw shreds just above the sea urchin to represent the burst ball). A ‘POOM!’ (or equivalent bursting sound) in bold, caps above the sea urchin. Both brothers staring with shocked looks on their faces.
8. Mama Finn swam by and scolded her two boys, “Look what happens when you refuse to share your belongings! I hope you two have learnt your lesson.”
Description: Mama yelling at them angrily; both sons looking down in guilt.
9. Sunny and Cloudy went back home and thought over what they had done. Sunny said, “I am sorry for yelling at you just now.” Cloudy said, “I am sorry for stealing your ball.” They shook fins.
Description: Both brothers shaking fins with each other with contrite look on their faces.
10. The brothers then decided to play Cloudy’s train set together. They learnt that sharing their toys with each other is more fun than playing alone.
Description: Both brothers lying on their stomachs looking at the train set.
To me, this was a rather "safe" storyline but it somehow lacks excitement and creativity. Jasmine suggested writing a story based on the theme of magic and fantasy since this is the genre that seems to appeal to kids. After reflecting on the widespread appeal and success of fantasy-themed books like Harry Potter and computer games like Might and Magic, I thought that was not a bad idea. While trying to generate an idea for such a story, Jasmine came up with the following idea:
"Once, there was a boy who lived in a forest. His house might probably be the shape of a mushroom.
This boy will go to his garden to pluck mushrooms to make stew every day. so one day...
he realized there was a new plant at his garden. He had completely no idea where this plant came from and what plant it was.
However, he watered the plant and decided to continue growing it in his garden. The next day, he realized the plant had grown much taller than the other plants and also had berries in the shape of a moon. Also, he realized that these berries will glow at night.
Something woke him up in the middle of the night. he heard someone talking over at the garden. he peeped out of his window. He saw a few angels working at the garden, plucking the berries from the plant.
He went out to the garden and one of the angels started talking to him and explained to him that the plant will only grow when someone showered the plant with love and care. It also mentioned that the berries are for baby angels. The boy promised the angel that he will continue to look after the plant.
After the angels have left for that night, he went back to sleep with a smile on his face."
After reading this story, I felt that it was a pretty good idea, but it lacked something (call it the X-factor) that might hook children to the story. Then, it dawned on me that such a story would be more interesting if it had a conflict as well as its subsequent resolution. Hence, I thought for some time about what kind of conflict it should have. Logically, since it had angels in it, an appropriate villain that might stir up a conflict would be none other than.... a devil. Furthermore, I refined the storyline so that there would only be one adult angel involved, and that the strange fruits will actually burst to "give birth" to a baby angel, giving the plant/tree an even more mystical quality, hence being a suitable target for a devil to destroy. Here is what I had:
1. Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Peter who lived in a forest. His house is the shape of a mushroom, and he will go to his garden to pluck mushrooms to make stew every day.
2. One day... he realized there was a new plant at his garden. He had completely no idea where this plant came from and what plant it was.
4. Suddenly, an angel came by in a flash of white light and said, "Hello little boy. My name is Arne. Would you mind looking after this plant for us? Please water it regularly; it is very important to us." Peter agreed to do so.
5. Over the next few days, he watered the plant regualrly and soon realized that it had grown much taller than the other plants and also had strange fruits in the shape of a moon. These fruits glowed brightly at night.
6. One night, Peter was walking by the plant when suddenly, one of the fruits burst and out came a baby angel in a flash of white light as brilliant as that surrounding Arne. The boy stood rooted in awe. "So that's how angels are born," he marvelled. More angels were born during the next few days.
7. Another night, as Peter was sleeping, he was awoken by the sound of wicked laughter coming from the garden.
8. He came down to the garden and found an evil devil holding a pitchfork and approaching the plant. "Stop!" Peter yelled. "You shall not harm this plant!"
9. The devil laughed again and said, "If I cannot harm this plant, then I shall destroy your house instead! Wahahaha!" Peter thought of the adorable baby angels, resolved to protect them, and replied, "Sure. Go ahead then. Destroy my house!"
10. As the devil turned around and began to approach the house, a flash of white light appeared and Arne emerged from nowhere. He yelled in a loud voice, "Go away devil! You do not belong in the land of the living!"
11. The devil screamed, "Noooooo!" He then turned into a bat and flew away into the night sky.
12. "Thank you for being so brave to protect our children, little boy. Here is your reward," Arne said to Peter gratefully. Suddenly, all the fruits of the angels' plant burst and were replaced by edible fruits that Peter enjoyed for a long time.
Although I did not manage to send the whole storyline to Jasmine (because my laptop crashed soon after I wrote it), I managed to describe it to her in bits and pieces. She suggested that perhaps we should have the boy (whom will later be renamed as Ethan) water the plant on his own accord without the angel having to tell him to do so. This is so as to make the boy's act seem even more noble. Also, she suggested to have the boy beg the devil not to harm the baby angel while coming between both of them. I agreed with them and also felt that there was room to compress the story even more so as not to lose children's attention (since younger children have shorter attention spans). In any case, the moral of the story is to elevate bravery and self-sacrifice when helping others (as shown in Peter daring the devil to destroy his house instead) and that one would be rewarded for doing so. With that, she agreed to do the sketches while I continued to work on the storyline as well as any other relevant logistical issues, which pretty much set our roles for this assignment.
At this point, I would like to redirect my readers to Jasmine's blog/journal when it comes to discussing the thought process regarding the illustrations for our book. I would still comment on the storyline and miscellaneous logistical issues that we have faced.
Here is the compressed storyline. Note that there are some changes from the previous one:
1. Once upon a time, there was a boy called Ethan who lived in the hills. He goes to his garden to pluck mushrooms every day.
2. One day, Ethan discovered a new plant with purple leaves in the garden. He had no idea what it was or where it came from.
3. He decided to water the plant. By night, it had grown into a huge tree with strange, crescent-shaped fruits that glowed brightly in the dark.
4. One of the fruits then burst open and out came a crying baby angel. Peter stared in amazement and said, “So this is how angels are born”. Suddenly, a devil holding a pitchfork came by and tried to shoot at the baby angel but missed.
5. Ethan burst into tears and begged the devil to spare the life of the baby angel. But the devil laughed madly and got ready to harm the baby angel again.
6. Out of nowhere, an adult angel flew by and cast a magic net onto the devil, trapping and burning him. “Noooo!” cried the devil before he melted away in flames, sent away to hell forever.
7. The angel looked gratefully at Ethan and said, “Thank you for trying to save the life of my little child”. All of a sudden, all the fruits of the tree burst open to reveal more baby angels. One by one, they followed the adult angel and disappeared into the night.
8. The next day, Ethan discovered that there were many different edible fruits such as bananas, apples and grapes hanging from the tree. He enjoyed a never-ending supply of fruits for a long time to come.
During the following week's tutorial, we presented our rough sketches and Siti wanted us to decide on a suitable age group for our storybook as well as the book size. We then set the former to be ages 5 to 8 years old and the latter to be 8.5 inches by 7 inches (a size suitable for a full page illustrated book like ours. In response to where we would place the text, we tentatively stated that it would be on a white blank space, even on a separate page if necessary (so as not to clutter up the image). One of our classmates thought that the location of our story was rather static but we explained that all the action happened in one boy's garden, so we did not have much flexibility to change to other locations.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Tutorial 7: Assignment 6 - Design Analysis (Powerpoint Presentation)
For this week's assignment we had to break up into groups of 2 to analyze one good and one bad design using all the design principles we have been taught so far, including Gestalt principles. I teamed up with Jesse for this one; he would analyze a good design, and I would analyze a bad one.
While surfing the www.allposters.com website for appropriate posters to choose, I came across the below poster which I thought would be an obvious choice for a bad design:
While surfing the www.allposters.com website for appropriate posters to choose, I came across the below poster which I thought would be an obvious choice for a bad design:
Here are my comments on it (the bulleted points I included in my Powerpoint slides):
1. Visual Balance
-Lack of balance of space – empty space too little
According to Reddy's lecture, a good design should have the empty space (which is also significant) balancing out the design elements; however, in this case, there are too many design elements and too little empty space, lending an imbalanced feel to the poster.
2. Unity and Contrast
-Confusing, too many elements competing for attention, too cluttered, don’t know where to focus
-Lack of contrast – No dominant image that stands out
There is a lack of unity due to the presence of a large variety of different elements cluttering up the whole poster. From the tall men in hats to the apples to the monster heads to the weird-looking DJ, one simply does not know which one of these images portrays the central theme of the poster. Two words immediately come to mind here - information overload. Incidentally, the main object that one's attention should have been drawn to here - the yellow submarine, may be located at the centre of the poster and "framed" against a grey background but it is still not obvious and dominant enough since there so many bigger and louder images cluttered all over the poster. Hence, there is a lack of contrast that fails to highlight the prominent image(s) of the poster.
3. Gestalt Principles
-Figure and Ground - yellow submarine and beast heads in the lower section are hardly visible against the dotted background
If you look closely, there is a small yellow submarine just to the left of the beast heads. However, the visibility of such an apparently significant object is "lost" as it is set against a dotted background which causes the submarine to be "camouflaged" against it.
-Too little unity; poster as a whole has too many colours and too few “common elements” (similarity is absent even though there are some common elements)
Basically, as stated under point 2. There are so many different types of images that even common ones which are present, such as the Beatles' framed faces are not being adequately brought out. Another point to take note is the use of colours in the poster. There is no dominant colour scheme that adequately frames the main subject matter prominently by contrasting it with other less important objects; the yellow submarine seems lost in a myriad of bright, dark and gaudy colours and the grey background hardly makes it stand out. Hence, there is no predictable pattern, of the colours (value) of various images, that focuses one's attention on specific dominant elements.
-Proximity – different images are too close together, don’t know where one image begins and the other ends
This makes it hard to associate certain "common" elements, such as the afore-mentioned framed faces, with each other, since they are so far apart from each other but so close to other seemingly unrelated elements.
4. Controlling Attention
-Lack of control of attention; too many images at the edges, letting eyes slip
Although there are images such as fingers and heads at 3 of the 4 corners pointing inwards in an attempt to keep one's attention within the frame, there is no such "pointer" in the bottom left corner of the poster, thus allowing one's gaze to fall off the poster's frame.
Here is Jesse's example of a good poster and his points:
1. Visual Balance
Dominance – The silhouette of Batman dominates the poster which gives it the most visual weight
Positive and Negative space – Clearly evident
Balance – Balance in the asymmetrical form
2. Controlling Attention
Visual Centered
3. Gestalt Principles
Continuance – His head is slanted down which leads the audience’s gaze to the bottom where the title of the movie is
The presentation went well without additional comments, except for comments that the finer details of the Batman poster such as the logo at the bottom cannot be seen (due to the "screen" effect, as opposed to having an actual print-out).
Lecture 8: Design Principles - Gestalt Principles
We learnt about the use of Gestalt Principles in design during this lecture, after which we had to complete a lecture activity by demonstrating three Gestalt Principles using three different simple shapes. For this exercise, I chose the triangle, rectangle and oval.
To represent closure, I tried to imitate the example of a shape occupying an empty space in the lecture by having an oval shape take up the empty space between the triangle and the rectangle. If you had shaded the empty area, it would look like a triangle sitting atop a rectangle. Siti told me to make the oval shape more obvious, which I did below:
To represent similarity, I simply grouped shaded rows of rectangles, triangles and ovals together in a predictable sequence, hence making it obvious that they belong to the same pattern, as shown below:
Finally, for continuity, I tried to make the oval continue from the main shape of triangle and rectangle by placing it at the top, as below:
However, Siti was not convinced that the oval helped to portray a continuous action, hence I decided to detach it from the main image and shade it black to create an effect just like the black dot below an exclamation mark, drawing viewers' eyes towards the top of the narrowing peak and culminating in the black oval:
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Tutorial 6: Assignment 5 - Theme - LOVE
After having learnt about the colour pallette and various possible colour combinations in the lecture, we were given this week's assignment: Design a Love Card focusing primarily on colours rather than design elements to get our message across. Not being a romantic at heart with average design skills, it was a rather hard challenge because many love cards out there are usually artistic in design and have elaborate textures in the background (including in the lecture examples) and it would be tough to match up to these standards. Nonetheless, my aim is to keep the design simple but effective and let the colours do the talking.
Having got down to work, coming up with a creative and original idea for a love card is never going to be easy. Nonetheless, I had two ideas which I toyed around with, both with a central object being 'split into two' in the centre of the design to represent the coming together of two different people:
1. Autumn Spring Romance
Having got down to work, coming up with a creative and original idea for a love card is never going to be easy. Nonetheless, I had two ideas which I toyed around with, both with a central object being 'split into two' in the centre of the design to represent the coming together of two different people:
1. Autumn Spring Romance
This is a cheeky and humorous idea with the left half of the card showing half a tree growing its leaves against a backdrop of cool colours to represent spring while the right half features the right half of the same tree with falling reddish leaves against a backdrop of warm colours to represent autumn. The text reads: "When it comes to Love.. Age is but just a number ." Speaking of opposites attract...
2. Jigsaw Puzzle Romance
Heard of the phrase "the other half" to refer to one's Significant Other? Basically, this design banks on this idea by using the idea of a jigsaw puzzle which can be seen to portray love by fitting two jigsaw pieces which form a heart when put together, as shown in the above design. I decide to use a jigsaw border to represent the jigsaw theme but colour-wise, I have not quite decided yet but it would most probably feature contrasting colours (such as complementary or triad colours) to reflect the child-like theme of play. The text reads: "You are the missing piece in my life."
In the end, I chose the second idea because I can't draw trees very well and the jigsaw idea seems more original (since using seasons to represent love seems to be quite common) and the theme is not directly related to love itself, which makes it more refreshing. I decided to use a B5 size for the card because it seems the ideal size; not too big and not too small. An additional change I made to the design is that instead of fitting the two pieces nicely together, I made the right piece tilt at about a 45 degree angle to make the jigsaw pieces seem more dynamic, as well as to make it more obvious that it is a jigsaw. I have finally settled on the colours of purple and green for the puzzle pieces and orange for the heart because according to the lecture, these three are complementary colours so they should go well together. I used a cooler shade of green (more like blue-green) for the background so that it does not clash with the more vivid colours of the centre jigsaw pieces, while I used purple for the text to make it seem more romantic while I separated it into two lines to give more balance to the design. The back part of the card would feature just the same coloured background with Cupid Greetings' Logo and URL (I did not think I should spend unnecessary time adding a barcode and all as I wanted to focus on the main design).
To add the icing on the cake, I adorned the centre puzzle pieces' edges with a rose pattern to bring out the theme of romance, as well as add a '3D' effect to the heart so that it does not seem flat. To give the whole card a 3D look, I added gradient to the colours, including the alternating purple puzzle pieces of the border, as well as the background and the centre pieces themselves, so that the whole card would come 'alive' by not seeming to be so 'flat'.
Here is the card before the gradient effect:
Here is the card after the gradient effect:
However, my classmates did not like the use of gradient on the border, with one of them suggesting embossing the purple puzzle pieces instead. Also, some of them questioned the usefulness of the border. When it comes to the most important thing - the colour scheme, they also thought it did not appropriately convey my message across because the colour combination seemed too "delicious", more suitable for a birthday card instead. Siti said it was good that I utilized techniques from the lecture (triad colours), but suggested I go down the pallette to see which colours best convey my message. Hence, I had plenty of food for thought, no pun intended, when it comes to re-colouring my card.
After experimenting with different triad colours, I found most of them to be rather inappropriate since a variety of contrasting colours and the theme of love do not seem to go hand in hand. Hence, I tried analogous colours instead, centering my choices within the pink-red-orange-yellow paradigm instead as I feel these are the best colours to convey the warm fuzziness and tenderness of love. Also, I removed the border to avoid unnecessary distractions. I first tried using a light yellow background, as shown below:
However, I felt that the yellow was rather out of place, for some reason. Maybe because I used too many colours already (purple, pink and red) and the yellow seems like the odd one out as it does not go well with the rest. Hence, I changed the background to light pink instead, which I feels gives more unity to my work and its underlying message:
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