Athena Wu @atheenaaa-blog - Tumblr Blog

illustration by Thomke Meyer

Jackson Joyce

Reflection

It is the last Tumblr for this semester. I am glad to know you guys on Tumblr and class, happy to see your works, design process and ideas in this app. Communication design has been such an interesting class for me. I learn a lot, not only the knowledge but also learning the way of doing experiment and design. My personal objective for communication design studies is to share ideas with others and knowing what my fellows are thinking about. I think sometimes other people’s ideas can inspire me. I think I achieve this objectives through Tumblr, everyone is posting things that interested them. And the other objective is to learn more about myself (What I am interested in, finding my design style and so on). I can not say that I achieved this goal but better that last year. I am still growing and learning. I gain knowledge about Pop-art, Bauhaus, Modernism… Pop-art is the one that moved me, I think Pop-art is like a landmark that brings a different style of design to this world. I was influenced how art can be so fancy. And Bauhaus, a house of building, it brings modernist to 20 century. I like the activity that we have to work in groups and write a pangram with one single line. I did not expect the outcome could be so elegant so that I use it as the main technique for the first assignment. Overall it is a amazing semester with Karen and Andy, Thank you for bringing so many interesting actives and giving me feedbacks on every question that I have. I am really looking forward to seeing you guys in 3rd year.

nothingtochance

Visual Identity by Abingo Wang

wmud

emile aillaud - ensemble wiesberg, forbach, france, 1961-63

popularmodernism

Assignment 3 “Ask me anything” Final work

I design the zine in a pretty conventional way. I make almost everything rectangular like to match Cici’s artworks. I asked Cici once why she made all her illustrations in rectangle, she said that she wants readers to focus on the content and meaning behind her artwork instead of the fancy layout. I want to express this in the interview. I used muted colours with transparency to express the feeling that I have toward Cici, which is soft and gentle in her artworks. I did a catalog on the bottom of each two pages to let readers know where they are looking at and how many pages to go. Cici gives me a pretty long answer for one of the question, I seperate the answer so I think giving readers the information of where they are looking at is pretty important, they are not likely to confuse what the zine is telling about. It is an amazing project that I can go to interview a creative from real life. However it is not easy for me because the rate of process is not only depending on me but also the creative. And the answer creatives give may not match our expectation. I learn how to be flexible and always have plan B in this project. From the beginning of this class, we are asked to prepare not one but five creatives on the list just in case the one that you want to interview does not reply you. I am lucky because the creative agree to be interviewed immediately, however, it took me some time waiting for her reply. I enjoyed the whole process although it drives me crazy sometimes, because I am interviewing a person that I really want to know more about. I have to say thanks to this project because it gives me a chance to know more about Cici.

Assignment 3 “Ask me anything” Process

It cost me a lot to print them…I print for more than 10 times…This project really drives me crazy on printing. The colour, the position of image in each side of paper, seems like everything could went wrong. I tried different quality of paper and print some for experiments. I try the pop up section that I thought before. I tried in tracing paper and transparency paper, the second one does not work because the colour of the font and portrait are too similar. For the tracing paper, I think it does not work well either, because it seems like the creative is in jail(if the reader can only see her photo in striated tracing paper). For the second pop up, it is aiming for emphasising those three sketches on the left side. However, after talk with Andy, I thought it might be better to not giving readers too much things in one small zine, I already have so many artwork from Cici.

I struggle a lot on the layout for page 8-9. I suppose to show readers all the images form Cici’s story because it is a coherent story, however, I can not pour so many images in two pages it will be too messy. So I decide to pick some of the most weighted artwork.

Week 11 Workshop

InDesign Skill

I learn some useful skill in InDesign today, they are pretty basic but good to know them.

wenqing-zhang-design-blog

＃Week 7 Lecture

The Week 7 lecture focused on the Bauhaus school

So I did some researches on the Bauhaus school and I found one of my favorite designer! Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Here is some information about him

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect.[1] He is commonly referred to and was addressed as Mies, his surname. Along with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture.

An innovative architect in 1920’s and 1930’s Germany, Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus, a seminal school in modern architecture. After Nazism’s rise to power, and with its strong opposition to modernism (leading to the closing of the Bauhaus itself), Mies fled to the United States. He accepted the position to head the architectural school at the Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago.

Week 10 Zine mockup

This is the first mockup of my zine, I did it in a conventional way. Since those artworks from Cici are rectangle-like, I decided to make it in rectangular shape.

I did try with other shapes of the zine, still, I think conventional one will be better.

I thought I can make a pop up section to make my zine looks interesting.

“Ask me anything” Process Collecting images and answers Imagination CiCi Suen About the creative Before we start the journey of knowing Cici and her artwork, I would like to give a short introduction about Cici Suen. She is a creative that I have been following for years. I knew her in Sina Weibo. I love her style of drawing, her illustrations are soft and gentle. I like the way she shade everything, the muted colours match and meanings behind her illustration. She is the one that makes me fell in love with colour pencils and water colour (these two are her favourite drawing tools). She also taught me how to draw illustrations on Qianliao APP, I learned different illustration style and method. Illustrator & Cartoonist CiCi graduated from University of the Arts London with MA illustration diploma. Comic is her life passion. She enjoys the process of brainstorming the plots and studying the composition of each drawings. She seeks for inspirations from her daily life. The visual and mental impacts of travelling to many different countries also feed her mind. Recently, she starts her self-challenge to explore the world of children books and adult novels. 1.What makes you decide to study illustration design as a major? I love drawing since I was a kid. All I know is that I want to keep drawing. After I knew there was a major called illustration I decided to pick it as my major without hesitation. 2.Where is your inspiration comes from? Can you tell me any stories behind your artwork? Normally, my inspiration comes from my daily life, including visiting gallery, traveling and observing people in the street and underground as well. There are three comics. The stories are about three paintings that I am really interested in: The Scream (Edward Munch) , The Intrigue (James Ensor) and Jan and John enter the kingdom of heaven (John Wilde). I based on painters experiences, background, what they wanted to express and my feeling when I saw this painting. I selected some elements in their paintings and tell a story between painting and viewer. The Scream. this is a story about the famous oil painting The Scream. Munch suffered a lot throughout his life, he expressed his pain in this painting. I think the pain happens in everyone. I can feel that strong emotion from his work. The story shows a process of visiting gallery accompanied by Munch’s poem. When he stand in front of the painting, some strange things happen... The Intrigue. There are lots of masks in James Ensor’s painting. These masks are able to see through your mind. They will laugh at your life because your life is fake. If you can not recognise which life is true then you’ll lost and never come back. However the protagonist decide to come back to the real world at the end. Jan and John enter the kingdom of heaven. There are very little information about the painter John Wilde, so I based on elements from the paintings and some words from the painter, creating a story from my point of view. The story is about memory, life, and love, this is the only one of my story that the protagonist stays inside the painting. 3.Work from the inspiration to the final work, how do you make your design process? My inspiration are from my daily life. I will have a small sketch book with me. If I saw something interesting will record them with my pencil immediately. Sometimes inspiration could be a glance from a elegant old lady sitting next to me in subway. Let’s see what will it becomes when it finish. Just let it happen. 4.Where is your favourite place for work? My desk. It got everything I need and it is a place that I feel comfortable and free. My desk is a place for work development, I do not need to struggle with inspiration. 5.What is your plan for the near future? My plan about the near future is take cases from magazine and children illustration book. I'm going to keep creating personal work, including comics and big size oil painting at the same time.

Why in this industry female are likely to be doubt?

Week 9

Collage workshop

In this workshop I did some experiments on making collage. We have to work in groups, scan our collage and make a zine. I learn how to scan and print our collage in double sided.

weirdlandtv

Costumes for Oskar Schlemmer’s “Bauhaus ballet”, Triadic Ballet (1922).

kristinaaaaali-blog

Designer can make anything interesting and different😍

Week 8 workshop

How to make a zine

In this workshop I learned how to make a zine. I have to consider double-sided of the paper, considers how the position of each page (or hollow-out area) changes from I am making it to the final work. I leaned that there are variations ways of making zines. The best way to design a zine is to do experiments just in case that there is no mistakes in composing. The experiment will be making small zine model and check with pages are belong in one paper.

Week 8 Lecture

How did Modernism end up ruling the (design) world?

Blank space is part of the design!

Using negative space in design wisely.

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