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creatures roam under my bed secretly

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week 12

I feel that there was no need to revise my vision statement as most of the comments were more positive than opinionated. One work of design that resonates with me is the NIKE N7 collection that features Native American culture into their products. They collaborated with indigenous designers to create athletic wear that incorporates traditional symbols and patterns in order to support native youth programmed whilst paying tribute to the history and importance of indigenous cultures. The collection was designed by Lauren Thomas, an indigenous designer from a tribe from prince Edward island and design was inspired by petroglyphs from caves in Eastern Canada and the music band The Halluci Nation.

Lauren Thomas inspires me by how they are able to bring light to native American culture and incorporate traditional elements in today's modern time!

As an illustrator who is strayed from my own culture, it inspires me to try something similar in the future. I hope to create designs and illustrations that combine both aspects of my Chinese and Indonesian heritage. They also encourage me to explore and find inspiration from elsewhere such as music. Another work of design that really resonates with me is local company Wild Dot Singapore. Wild Dot was Co pounded by Shirin and Liz in 2019 through their combined love and passion for Art and nature!

Shirin is an illustrator and Liz is an outdoor nature educator. Their watercolor dyes are made using plants and upcycled waste found locally. Through their craft of botanical ink-making, wild dots intend to promote sustainability and appreciation of the gifts of our natural environments. I was fascinated by how they were made by mango leaves and how vibrant the pigment was. As an illustrator with plenty of acrylic markers, I often would rather go to digital art as I feel traditional art requires lots of material that can contribute to waste and pollution if the plastic markers and materials are not discarded properly.

Seeing this paint palette made naturally allows me to feel more at ease and inspired to try traditional artwork with these sustainable materials allowing me to also explore new means of mediums in illustration and design\

Wild Dots inspire me to think more openly about sustainability and how I can make a difference as a designer through means of finding efficient and environmentally friendly ways to create artwork or find ways to promote and inform people of these groups and organizations that solutions for an environmentally friendly and sustainable future for people and the country. These two works of design pushes me to be more creative and open minded by finding ways to incorporate sustainability into my future endeavors.

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week 11

What we wanted to do for our manifesto was to write out what we feel about design, how one gets their inspiration and opinions towards design. All of us had different ideas and ended up getting restless. Therefore to make it more fun and exciting, I decided that we doodled and drew. One of my favorite parts while doodling was finding out about Adelyn's snake. When we shortened everyone's quotes it made more sense. For example, Aarushi's  shortened quote is “inspiration from everywhere”.  Mine being “ design is my curse and comfort”. Jo’s being “comparison kills creativity” and Kara’s “No Matter what Start”

If I were to create a manifesto for the group combining all our shortened quotes, it would go like “ Inspiration is everywhere, but creation is both a curse and a comfort. Comparison kills creativity. Despite doubt, we commit to one truth : No matter What, Start. This is our Promise to embrace inspiration, act with courage and reject comparison. This is our manifesto.” This allows one to feel empowered and reassured. Moreover, it acknowledges the struggles of creativity like self doubt and offers encouragement to embrace inspiration and take action despite all odds. This allows one to feel motivated , confident and free to focus on their journey without pressure of comparison to others.  One of the many ways critical thinking was significant to me was the activity we had in week 10 where we wrote about our design strengths, what we wanted to become in the next five years, what we will do to get there, why we would do as such and how we would do it.  When we shared what we wrote to our classmates, I had the opportunity to learn a lot more about my classmates' goals and aspirations. Moreover we had the opportunity to give feedback or write comments! So I was excited to see what my classmates said about what I wrote. I was glad and surprised to see that many of them were quite supportive of my future endeavors. It allowed me to bond with classmates a little more. Additionally, the manifesto has recently allowed me to do my work with a clearer state of mind since I have been struggling to keep up in terms of quality. The manifesto allowed me to push aside my doubts and insecurities and focus on the task at hand and that Allowed me to be more fulfilled in my activities and assignments.  One example would be the studio module. There were plenty of struggles that I was facing such as figuring out the layout of the poster and illustration.

However, remembering  the manifesto, I was able to pull through and am currently happy with what I am creating.

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Week 3 critical thinking

27 august 2024

For this week's lesson, we studied how being a designer, we can be socially engaged with the world and allow our creativity to benefit other people. For example in class we talked about Sep verboom and how he collaborates with local craft communities providing jobs and allowing their skills to be apart of artistic projects.

Another example would be the MINI ExtraOddinary 2019 show where they use odd materials to assist with the environment such as fortune cookies made with algae, concrete made with mushroom, ink made from sewage and edible plastic!

For our class activity we were told to create a short video talking about a social issue that people in Singapore live in. We decided on the topic of inflation.

The video we made portrays how prices are increasing each day and soon enough our daily necessities could be very costly.

Using the trade of organs as banter to how our daily needs could be as expensive as the cost of an organ. We had a good time discussing how we wanted to make the video and decided on the types of shot we wanted to take to create a more immersive video. We used povs to showcase the perspective of the store owner showing the customer the price of the item using things such as mortgage loans or a bank cheque to banter on how expensive the same item can be. In my opinion, our video was very clear in message and introduced some lighthearted banter.

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Week 2 critical thinking

20 august 2024

For our lesson this week, we studied about identity and how it affects us as creatives.We watched a video by lecturio medical in class that talked about identity and based on the video I learned that they classified personality into the acronym “addressing” and that identity can be subdivided into two categories one being personal identity and the other being social identity.

My personal identity would usually consists of my own personal attributes such as being introverted and extroverted, loud and creative whereas my social identity would consist of being friendly, easy going and reliable as it helps me in my job and out of my circle.

As an illustrator i allow my personal identity to be apart of my artwork which usually results in loud colourful and word artworks.

During our Class activity, we were tasked to find 5 images and words to resemble our identity.

It was interesting to learn about what our classmates identify as and what they relate too. Another activity was when we were supposed to draw what we thought a designer would look like in our eyes, however we were now tasked to do this in groups. Since everyone took turns to draw certain parts of the illustration, I realised we all had different opinions and views on how we see our designer and when we combine them it can create something really unique. Although the character was personally an eyesore, it was an experience to see everyone contributing parts of their personality traits. Overall, our identity shapes how and what way we can contribute to the world.

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week 1 critical thinking

13 august 2024

For our first lesson, we studied the use of critical thinking in creative practices. Both are similar in the action of problem solving where critical thinking requires analysing and evaluating a problem to find the best solution while the creative practices refers to finding novel solutions and generating new ideas. During the class,in the video “find your way ” we can see that the use of nostalgic items illustrated with arrows, helped the man with dementia to find his way out of the MRT station. This shows us that with critical thinking, we are able to set goals and subjects for our creativity to solve the problem!

For our class activity, we were tasked to write a short story about a social issue.i decided to write about mental illness. At first I struggled writing but then decided to find creative ways to express some issues faced with mental illness in my story. For example I wrote “I sleep late into the night and deep during the light” to indicate people who face insomnia and/or hypersomnia. Another part was when i wrote “Thoughts about the blade on the skin or falling to the ground often enter the cracks of my frontopolar complex” this refers to how suicidal tendencies caused by depression affecting ones ability to make a proper decision.

Lastly as an illustrator,this teaches me to be more critical with what my design or illustrations are portraying or how it can help people in any way possible.

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Woii Summary

As a designer, the module has taught me about the important aspects I should adopt to be a more creative and critical designer and thinker. Topics such as Phenomenology helps me understand the science behind design and allows me to be considerate when designing for my target audience. i am also still trying to adopt the proper use of the critical analysis skills as i see how it can help me understand the purpose of ones work or design choices which i can reference and adopt into my own practices. The topics on modernism and post modernism was my favorite as it took me sometime to accept and understand why people would go against modernism and its simplicity. then it reelected on me and it showed how i was being close minded since i felt comfort in simplicity but post modernism allows us to be more open minded. this allows me to be more creative and feel less restricted.

our class activities were also really fun and engaging and we got to understand our classmates perspective a little better. The class outing was also fun and it allowed me to bond with my classmates over discussion and communication about design works.

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PostModErnism

While we are still considerably in a modern world, I notice that with postmodernism, it allows people to be more open minded when deciding on an opinion since it challenges audiences and forces them to have opinions. In terms of design, I feel postmodernism allows for our creativity to be more open. As usual, we design for people to understand instantly  but with postmodernism I believe that it's for people to try to figure out and understand. In my personal research, I found a contextual study where someone discussed how they felt about this poster. They mentioned how they wanted to fully read the advert but found it difficult working their way through because of how the text was laid out and the color that was used. They were more drawn to the text "it's so cool to wear”. In Our class activity, we were paired and told to design a postmodernist advertisement for an item.

My classmate and I picked out a uni px 30 marker. The marker has various uses but its mainly used for illustration labelling and marking purposes.

However this marker is also popular amongst graffiti artists as it writes smoothly and has a beautiful silver. We decided to make a poster advertising the marker for its intended purpose of writing.

We included graffiti laid out in a disarranged manner to showcase how graffiti is usually sprawled and decided upon the quote “looking for possibilities in chaos” giving it a hand style look.

This was Our final outcome.

252 words

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ANALYZE DESIGN(week 4&5)

This week's lesson dived into the critical analysis of design, emphasizing key components like the process and purpose, subject matter and meaning, choice of medium, aspects of form and the context behind the design.

In our class activity, we were tasked to bring various items of different size, color and material to analyze with the components in mind.

I chose to analyze the passport. The cover is crafted with a polycarbonate material that offers waterproofing and is wear and tear resistant allowing for a durable passport for all kinds of environmental conditions.

The Paper used is designed to prevent tampering and damage, decorated with illustrations of Singapore's landmarks. Passports also serve as a global symbol of identity and national verification.

While Historically we relied on stamps for entry approval, modern passports integrate biometric chips that reflect on the advancement in technology for quicker verification processes.

During our trip to the national museum, we were tasked to document 5 points that were interesting. One of the items that caught attention was the Setron radio.

Based in Singapore and known for manufacturing consumer electronics Setron radios were more popular in the mid 20th century for their quality and design. These days they hold nostalgic value for many collectors and enthusiasts of vintage electronics. The materials considered were Plastics for the covers, metals for the internal structural components, electronic components.

it adorns a round shape as it stood out from other radios with a square shape and looked more distinctive and futuristic, this also allowed for space efficiency. The designer most likely considered the design for its uniqueness as a selling point in the market as most of the other radios looked too similar to each other as they had a rectangular design. So having a round design helped it to stand out.

300 words

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Phenomenology

Today’s lesson touched on the themes of phenomenology, which was basically the study of different lived experiences. Like how different colors can denote certain hidden meanings with influence to cultures or design.

An example that came to my mind for one was how red can be used in an instance to show anger to some

but can also be known as an auspicious/lucky color to a Chinese person. Our class activity required us to pick out a photo that relates to the notion of time and shadow, and it opened my mind to how many of my other classmates perceived the word. Some of them used pictures of when they were younger, some of them also used pictures of clocks. This showed how everyone’s perception of a certain topic is different.

For me, I used a photo of me using the toilet when I was interning. an image of the mrt overlayed onto the base image. The message behind it relating to time would be how i was thinking ahead of time, as i associated the mrt with the destination after work ended. The toilet was somewhere where these thoughts of leaving work were the most prominent.

In the illustration club, I'm taking part in a competition to design graphics for a plane by Scoot and i notice that everyone has different perceptions in regards to the brief that Scoot shared with us.

A lot of us came up with different interpretations of the brief and each design was unique to the artist’s experiences.

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most images of the scoot artworks are screncaps of the students submission

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Cultural Materialism

What I learned was that Cultural materialism is important as it provides a framework for understanding how the things we use everyday influences our cultures and societies. In relation to design, cultural materialism allows us to be more cautious and culturally aware and sensitive of diverse backgrounds of their audience in order to avoid stereotypes and misunderstanding.

One example of cultural sensitivity is the swastika. It is a symbol that holds many different meanings across different cultures over the world. In the western culture, particularly in Europe and North America the swastika is associated with the nazi regime during world war II and the holocaust. Causing the symbol to be seen as hate, racism and genocide.

However in eastern cultures such as buddhism ,jainism, hinduism the swastika has been used for thousands of years as a sacred and auspicious symbol representing fortune, prosperity and wellbeing, holding religious importance and is often displayed in temples, homes and religious ceremonies. With this information, it is important for designers to be aware of  symbols like the swastika and its significance. Typically a designer in the west would prevent using this logo due to its negative association. However if targeted to eastern audiences, they can incorporate the swastika as a symbol of positivity and spirituality. However people may still mix these two and it is evident in article where Canadian liberal politician plead for Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre and everyone not to call the Nazi Hakenkreuz as Swastika

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AESTHETICS

What I learned from the video helped me further understand that aesthetics is complete and pleasing if the form works with the function. What stood out to me in the video was how the names “maluma” and “takete”, due to how it sounds, it matched to the organic and geometric shapes respectively. It made me surprised that i chose “maluma” as the organic shape due to how it sounds aesthetically similar, as if its just meant to be.For example,our everyday objects such as smartphones,furniture or appliances are often designed with form and function such as sleek curves, ergonomic handling and such enhance its usability and appeal Removing these design elements may change the perception of the aesthetic and desirability. In today's class activity, we went outside to analyse store signs and logos to further understand and document how aesthetics work outside. I came across this store called the good market which had cartoon illustrations and visuals to market their products. The designs were most present in form which supported the function as the store was selling cute merchandise.

Another example would be local convenient stores under hdb blocks. They may not always look as clean and comfortable as compared to convenient stores such as 7-11 or cheers but they still serve the same function of selling everyday needs from food to home supplies.

In the world of design one perfect example of form and function would be signage.signage gives information such as directions or warning serving function. Not only that, its font colours and illustration affects how well the message is communicated.