Considering that this blog is specific only to a particular module, I would like to start it off with an entry detailing my thoughts, opinions as well as the expectations that I have for this module. You might say that this entry is merely an introduction, but it'll be interesting to look back four months down the road and see if I still feel the same way about this module as now.

NM2208 Principles of Visual Communication will introduce me to "basic principles of information design, methodology and digital image creation" (taken from CORS). It's non-examinable and completely CA-based, which significantly increases the weightage of the weekly assignments, portfolio and final project. This means that consistently delivering quality design pieces is a must to do well for this module, or more simply, the pressure is on already.

Expectations

I've gone through the plan sheet provided by the lecturer, and to be honest the prospect of doing some of these projects do excite me. But beyond just the hands-on, I'd really like to develop a better understand of the concepts that this module aims to impart. I learned a lot from my previous New Media module, NM2216 Introduction to Interactive Media Design, and most likely I'll do the same with this module.

Goals

This module is a core module for my major, so doing well is definitely my top priority. But besides just having the end in mind, another goal of mine is to enjoy getting there, and that means being passionate and enthusiastic about the assignments and even the final project. There's no limit to learning, and the challenge of this module is also an opportunity to develop my design skills.

Expression

So what is Expression? Well, it's a corny title for this blog, no doubt, but it also underlines what I feel is most important about all sorts of communication, whether verbal, visual or written. I believe that communication isn't just about words, sounds or images, but rather it's an expression with meanings and metaphors attached to those mediums. Effective communication is about truly expressing oneself and the aesthetic conveyance of one's ideas and thoughts, and through this blog I hope to document the important lessons I've picked up about visual communication.

Guidelines

The purpose of this blog is actually to fulfill my module requirements, which means that it's success or failure will ultimately be reflected in my CAP. I've decided to include the guidelines here taken from the lecture slide, so that I'd constantly be able to check if I'm going down the right track.

A learning journal should address module's learning objectives and should clearly document (for every assignment, classroom activity and project) following issues in an on-going fashion. - Efforts in researching and developing concepts
- Thought process and decisions while dealing with design problems
- Efforts involved in production
- Knowledge gained and applied
- Peer feedback and your reflection on peer feedback
- Self-assessment

So there, I think I've covered most of what I'd like to say in a first post, and I'm excited about the rest of this module that awaits me. I'll be updating more in future, so check back often.

So in the very first lecture, I was given a class exercise to come up with a machine which will improve my creativity by a 100 times. I've never considered myself a particularly creative person, and I feel that creativity is an innate trait of an individual. Nevertheless, I tried designing a device which would serve to boister my creativity a hundred fold, and maybe just somewhere in this clumsy sketch of mine, is the possibility of an idea.

Creativity is something often associated and dealt with in the realm of the arts and rarely in the fields of science. Considering changing one's innate creativity would be nearly impossible, my machine focused on creating opportunites for creative idea by drawing inspirations from past, great external sources.

Examining this device, you will notice it's a thinking cap in every sense of the cliche. One reason to justify such a design would be that it's portable, easily disguised as a common article of clothing and lastly, has all that it needs to serve its purpose. My device, after all, is a collection of creative works of the past and present.

What exactly does the cap do? The mp3 player stores all worldly masterpieces of scores and musicals, ranging from Mozart to Beethoven and whatnot. Connected to the earphones, it lets the wearer listen to any piece and can easily be adjusted (rewind, pause, etc) from the earphone. The visor, on the other hand, contains visuals of all great artworks in the last two milleniums and more. Not just paintings, but murals, architecture, sculptures and everything aesethetically beautiful.

The memory chip, lastly, contains the best collections of poems, literature and stories in written history. With nodes within the inside of the cap that communicate to the wearer's brain via electromagnetic pulses, the recollection of any play, movie or verse is a thought away. With these three sources, inspiration is never far from a single thought, and wearing this thinking cap will definitely increase my creativity 100 times.

Assignment 1, titled "Me, Myself and I", was announced quite expectedly at the end of Lecture 2. Prior to the lecture, I had done my own bit of research on past semester's students' works, so I thought I was pretty prepared for the topic. However, the assignment this time around was slightly different. It was still based on the theme of the individual, or me, but instead of focusing on what I love or hate, the theme was slightly more abstract, and I had to present my innate characteristics through this assignment.

Putting on the thinking cap

Brainstorming ideas around a topic based on me was ironically a lot harder than I thought. I decided to take a more methodical and system approach to this, by simply listing out words and terms that I felt described the important aspects of me, including my interests and personality traits. Staring at the sequences of words did not help much, and ideas did not come as thick and fast as I had hoped.

Designing my name to represent my characteristics was already not going to be easy considering the length of my name and my lack of an English name. My explorations of others' work found simple four-letter English names, and at that moment I regretfully wished that my parents had called me 'John' or 'Tom' or something along the lines of that, just so this assignment would be a lot easier. If you're wondering why I didn't just do 'Hong' (and I know you are), well, it's because it's just a part of my name, and if you're going to argue why I didn't do my full name, let me say that I would have if designing seven letters wasn't already enough to kill me.

Making scant progress

A few ideas come to my head eventually, and I decided to go along with presenting my interests. I combined 'drawing' and 'design', two of my main interests, and drew out my name using various stationery that could be associated with them. It was pretty straightforward to do, placing pencils, erasers and an assortment of other tools I found in my pencil case in an arrangement to show my name. Reassessing this attempt, it looked rather trivial, and showed really nothing much about me except that I might possibly be a stationery freak.

I moved on to another interest of mine, computers, and sketched out my name using different components of computer hardware. Stuff like USBs, speakers, a CPU and keyboard letters were all thrown into the fray, with relatively messy results. I could make out my name still, but somehow I wasn't satisfied with it. Undeterred (in truth, I was battered weary) by my failed attempts, I tried another theme, sports, something which I quite really like. Finding appropriate representations for this theme wasn't easy, but I managed to pretty much come up with something of legible form.

For my last sketch, I decided to take a different approach, and tried to draw out images that would not only show the letters of my name, but would each represent a trait of mine that starts with that letter. So from my initial list, I drew out words like 'hardworking' and 'optimistic' while adding in 'ambitious' and 'kind', etc. This was definitely going to be the most awesome idea, or so I thought. I ended up with a collage of random things ranging from batteries to vegetables to a sun.

A fusion of ideas

For the roughs, I decided to merge the last two sketches I had drawn, meaning I would use sports not only to represent the letters, but also my traits. This way, the image would have a certain degree of depth (although no one would probably guess this plan of representation) while showing my sports interest at the same time. The requirement was for two roughs, so I drew out two variants with different letters showing different things. Explanations were definitely going to be needed in the presentation, but I was quite happy that what I drew at least meant something more to me.

My presentation during the tutorial was quite rushed, considering there wasn't enough time near the end. But I got crucial feedback from Jing when she proposed that I would have to come up with a suitable background to link the individuals letters in proper composition. I admittedly had not thought of that, and was keen to find a way to address the problem.

Thoughts

The first assignment was fun but stressful everytime I encountered a mental block. One of the objectives of this assignment was to learn about myself, and what I did learn was how I dealt with the problem of coming up with ideas. I definitely need to be more creative, if it's even possible, but till then, I'm going to stick with my pencil and paper when brainstorming.

The second part of Assignment 1 was translating my sketch into a prototype, meaning I had to get it done using computer graphics. I didn't have any experience in Adobe Illustrator, so I decided to design the prototype in Photoshop only. The final size of Assignment 1 was to be A5, so I set out the canvas accordingly. Jing also mentioned during the previous lecture about selecting the proper pixels per inch (PPI) for printing, and I was careful to follow her instructions. With it set, I set about to scan my roughs and get started on the task at hand.

Getting down to it

I used Photoshop to cut and move around the letters from both by roughs until I was satisfied by the images I had chosen. It was a mix of my two roughs, but I thought it looked good enough to give it a try. Reflecting on what Jing had said at the tutorial last week, I decided to start with a background and then work from there.

Most of the sports to draw were field sports, so it made sense that part of the background would be an expanse of grass. The perspective of my name was two-dimensional (side view), so the other half of the canvas became the sky. It seemed like a corny and cliche background to do, but yet it was crucial in terms of the composition of my name.

I started tracing out the sketches and drawing shapes for the prototype. Most of it was quite straightforward to do, but adding in the details was quite tedious at times. I chose to outline the images and use solid colors to depict a more cartoon-like image, as knowing my own limitation, I'm unlikely to succeed attempting anything abstract or life-like. With respect to the colours, I went with a contrast of dull and bright colours, which hopefully would present a certain vibrancy. I added a few gradients as well to show the (obvious) existence of sunlight upon the vast field.

Finished, but not perfect

After about four hours of drawing and frequent undo-s, I more or less finished what I had started out to do. The background did seem to bring the letters together, and I was pretty satisfied with the outcome. I added a few more details (like the snail to depict how long I took) but most of it was trivial. However, I then noticed a few possible flaws in my prototype and was worried that it wasn't legible, especially certain letters. I was too tired to make any reasonable amendments though, so I decided to see what the tutorial class had to say and make changes then.

The presentation was, at expected, a firing range for my prototype. Most of it was because the rest of the class were an average of more than two metres away from it, and as an A5 piece of art I meant for it to be inspected at about half a metre thereabout. Certain letters were indeed illegible, notably the 'g', and the motion lines were also not very clear. These were all very valid points, and I admit there's much to be improved.

Thoughts

My first graded assignment was a challenge, as I've never used Photoshop for a single image for so long before. I hope I was able to meet the requirements, and I'll be making modifications as suggested by my classmates above. I'm also glad that my printer had enough colour ink yesterday, or else I wouldn't have been able to get any feedback for my work. The schedule is a bit tight with regards to the assignments though, and I'm quite envious of those from Friday's tutorial class. I think having another three days would indeed make a difference, but I guess I can't complain.

Assignment 2 was on a pictogram, and after a very interesting lecture involving that topic, I was tasked to do one on my own. The context for this pictogram was to be used in school, that is, NUS. I brainstormed for ideas for useful pictograms, and was reminded of the time I was trapped in school by a downpour while trying to get to the bus stop at Heng Mui Keng Terrace, and without an umbrella. I came across an umbrella dispensing machine at the Business canteen a couple of weeks later, and how I wished I had known about its existence earlier.

The concept

I decided that picking the umbrella dispenser for my pictogram design would be something unique and probably uncommon. One of the requirements for this assignment was to specify the location my pictogram would be used, and I felt that having this displayed on a map (those in school) would be helpful to anyone needing an umbrella on a rainy day.

I didn't have a camera with me, so I roughly made a note of how the dispenser looked like, and sourced for a picture from the Internet. From there, I proceeded to filter out the less important details on the machine through the process of abstraction. It was quite simple to do, as I started by tracing out the dispenser with as much details as possible. In the subsequent levels, all I had to do was remove them and rearrange the layout of the remaining shapes to form a simpler pictogram.

I chose the last one for my prototype, as I felt that most of the other details weren't necessary. After all, in the context of it being put on a map, it is best to only have relevant information so as to be able to convey the information as succinctly as possible.

Suggestions and corrections

During my presentation, one of my classmates pointed out that the umbrella I originally used in my pictogram was very commonly understood to denote shelter to motorcyclists, and would easily create confusion in its intention. Great piece of feedback by the way, and the irony is that I had to learn Class 2B while in Army and somehow I totally forgot all about. Jing suggested using a more "pointy" umbrella, and I recall an ideal one used in those "Take one for your umbrella" signs.

Thoughts

This was a really fun piece to do, definitely less stressful than the last. Going through the process of abstraction was also enjoyable, but this assignment was made more fun by the interesting lecture Jing gave that preceded it. It was interesting to see some of my other classmates' assignments too as some were really creative yet easily understandable.

Assignment 3 was a photo story, and the requirement was to tell a story with or without a twist using photographs only. I didn't have a camera, so I had to make do with my friend's video camera. I saw a few past semesters' works, and felt this wasn't going to be that easy an assigment.

Drawing the storyboard

I decided I wanted the story to be simple and easy to understand, and with the least number of actors as possible to minimise the distractions. Hence, my story only involves me, and the story is written in first-person (although the photos are a mix of third person and first person point of views).

The story

The story shows me studying for a test the night before, and I unwittingly fall asleep amidst studying. I wake up to find it's 9 in the morning already, and checking with my laptop shows that the test is due to start at 915. I rush to pack my stuff and leave my room. However, it is only then I realise that it's only 9pm at night.

Visual elements

The story is simple, but I used certain representations to conceal the twist of my story, namely the analogue time to make it impossible to distinguish night and day. The story involves third person and first person POVs to engage the audience more easily, although the twist at the end might appear too obvious. Hopefully, you were able to see what I saw!

Assignment 4 was a poster design, and theme we were to work on is the title of this post. Fortunately, we did not have to include at least one of the above words (although many people did). The size of this piece was to be A3 and the target audience was to be the general public. It was also to be a full-color piece included with the NUS logo and the tag "Supported by Communications and New Media".

Stopping piracy

My idea for the poster was to focus on "kill" (or stop, to put it in a less violent manner). Being a computing student, I chose a theme relevant to the industry and decided to go with the issue of software piracy. While piracy has been discussed ad nauseum in our society, most of this has been focused on music and movie piracy, with not enough emphasis on software piracy. The effects of such piracy harms the industry and stifles innovation, as developers would no longer have any incentive to develop software if piracy is rampant.

Settling on a style

I've often come across crime and warning posters (such as the dengue fever one) and I found that they mostly adopt a grunge style to emphasise the seriousness of the issue. I pondered whether I would be able to take this on in a different style, but eventually felt that there wasn't much alternative if I wanted to have a similar sort of impact. After all, people would already be able to associate such poster styles with a certain degree of seriousness to the message, and I didn't want to compromise that in my own poster design.

Sending the message

For my message, I didn't want to do it like most posters where they simply tell you what is wrong and instruct you not to do it. This, while informative, is hardly educational, and I wanted readers to be able to not only learn, but be encouraged by my poster message. Thus, I went with the usual informative message, "Software piracy is a crime." followed by a recommended solution, "Go open source." in order to push them in the right direction. I contrasted these two messages as I felt that they were both important messages that I wanted to convey to my audience.

Spelling out the problem and a solution

In the copy, I briefly described the problem and ways to solve it, while adding rhetoric elements like the question "Why criminalise yourself when there are free and legal alternatives?". The intention of such a message is to convince the reader to reflect on their actual reasons for using pirated software, be it convenience or cost. I also added an impactful warning message at the end, "Committing a crime is binary. Either you're guilty, or you're not". This was to emphasise that piracy is inexcusable and that there are no grey areas.

I believe my poster was sufficiently able to convey my message of information and education to the target audience. A simple message such as this might not solve the problem entirely, but I feel that it'll be able to push people in the right direction of reflecting on their own decisions. Hopefully, increasing the awareness of alternative solutions would be able to stem this tide of piracy.

The second class exercise given to us for the semester required us to use elements and principles of visual communication to represent words chosen from a list. I had the opportunity to work on this class exercise with Ryan, and we decided to work on 'Crash' and 'Energetic'.

We both designed one word each, with me taking the latter word. Here are our representations of the various words using simple shapes, colours and shades.

Assignment 5 was a postcard design based on the theme of Colors of Asia. It was quite an interesting assignment to do as I had never really used postcards before in my life. Hence, I had to look up a few examples of postcard design as I wasn't really sure how I would go about an A6 piece of work to fulfill the function of a postcard. A key aspect of this assignment was also to come up with variations of the design of different colour schemes. This was also to be the more challenging part of the assignment.

On Asia

The topic for this assignment seemed rather vague and general, so I didn't have much direction when I began brainstorming the design. Eventually, I came up with different representations of Asian countries to include in my design. For simplicity and flexibility when applying the different colour schemes, I decided that these images would be silhouettes (distinct enough to see what they are).

I sketched out a dragon to symbolise China, an elephant for India, the Taipei 101 for Taiwan, the Petronas Towers for Malaysia, Mount Fuji for Japan, the Merlion for Singapore, a bear for Russia and the Palm Jumeirah for the United Arab Emirates.Ultimately, I settled on the former five because the rest weren't that nice or clear. Hence I moved on to my postcard design which was minimalistic, with circles as placeholders for the images and a simple text which said "Colours of Asia".

Colourful

With this, I proceeded to try out different colour styles as required. I first experimented with excessive rainbow colours, and came up with two roughs. The colours were bright, and one of the roughs in particular had an extremely gaudy background. The two colour styles are similar in nature, but have differences in terms of the backgrounds and text.

Gothic

My next attempt was a gothic style using dark colours to evoke a sort of gloomy feel. I wanted to see how this would look in contrast to the previous attempt of colour extravagance. The results were okay, rather boring and a tad lacking in personality. The first of this style has usage of only three colours - black, white and red (which may also be considered usage of one color - red).

The design seemed a bit patterned in the sense that the images looked almost alike. The second had more colours, bordering on the gothic side, but the dark, greyish text evoked a certain dullness which pretty much is able to ruin anyone's cheery mood.

Elemental

I then tried a kind of elemental colour scheme, the first revolving around an ocean theme while the second a sort of rock/mineral theme. I used different shades of ocean blue, contrasted on white, and I felt that the result was pretty nice. Probably the only thing that was wrong with it was that it was only made up of one colour, althought it was quite soothing and well-composed.

The next design had more colours, and I deliberately chose them to be a bit dull (to symbolise rocks). It worked out quite well in terms of composition, but it was slightly too stale for my liking. The dark-coloured text also didn't stand out too well.

Prototype

With the experimentation done, I sought out a balance of the above styles. I wanted the design to still be colourful, although probably more moderated than my first attempted style. I also decided to apply gradients to produce a more vibrant feel. It ended up quite nice, with just the right amount of simplicity, colours and emotion. I then proceeded to design the back of the postcard, simply by sourcing for some references and designing a suitable one.

For our final project, my group was given a choice between designing a storybook or a comic strip. We decided on a comic strip as we felt that it was more challenging to do. Furthermore, previous classes had not attempted a comic strip before, so this piqued our curiosity and we thus wanted even more so to try it.

Third time's a charm

The first idea we brainstormed was a Sci-Fi themed story in the not-so-distant future where Earth is facing its imminent death. A further exploration of the idea led to its abandonment as we could not come up with a suitable ending. Our second idea was a detective story depicted Film Noir style, but we did not go with it as it was hard to convey a moral of the story. We ultimately went with our third idea, a war/love story set in the Great Northern War in Sweden. It had a bit of history and a bit of moral, as well as a convincing storyline based on fact.

The plot

A young soldier named Sture joins the Swedish Army, leaving behind his girlfriend for glory and fortune. He rises in rank rapidly during his service, but holding the post of NCO is not enough for his desires of an officer rank. He volunteers for a dangerous and suicidal mission against his friends' warnings, and during the ensuing battle his life is saved by a fellow soldier who takes a shot for him.

After the victory, Sture returns to find out how the wounded soldier is doing, only to realise that the person is actually his girlfriend who had cross-dressed as a soldier all this time as she was worried about him. They reunite at the end of the story, but Sture has learnt a harsh lesson of nearly losing the person who mattered to him the most.

Moral of our story

We hope to be able to educate our target audience group of teenagers that one should not neglect one's loved ones even as one is trying to establish his or herself in one's society or community. Teenagers are maturing readers and we felt such a theme and historical context would be more suitable for their reading.

Colour

The foreground of the comic utilises solid colours while the background has a water colour effect applied to it. The colour schemes we chose for our project varies also, in terms of the uniforms, buildings, scenery, etc. Ample research was done to ensure that the color of the buildings, attires and weapons were all depicted as accurately as possible.

Typography

We enlisted the use of Gabrielle for the title and the narration. This script font was found suitable to the era in which our comic is based, and is clearly legible. For speech, we chose a common font used in comics - Anime Ace, as readers exposed to comics would already be familiar with such typography. Furthermore, such a font is best used to subtitle comics.