JINNI

Studying Communication Design @ RMIT

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Sem 1 has ended!

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe how quickly time flies. 

I still remember when I first started out this course, I was a bit worried because there was so much to take in and I didn’t know whether I would be able to succeed in achieving my goals for the course.

Fast forward to today, I feel relieved and happy that I made it. I remember having objectives of meeting like-minded people and making friends, find new ways to design and also just basically build a solid foundation (in terms of design skills/ knowledge). 

I’m glad to say that I’ve achieved all of them. 

Communication Design studies made it easier to achieve all these objectives because during lectures and workshops, Andy and Karen always encourage us to talk among ourselves and to just make connections with other people. In our workshops, we were always very hands on and that had taught me new ways to approach design. The most memorable one for me is somehow the activity which required us to write with water as well as the interactive gallery with our first finished project. The activity which required us to write with water under direct sunlight taught me to think of a design solution and to quickly act upon it while the interactive gallery taught me new ways to communicate interaction or to think of different, interesting methods to showcase designs. As for the objective of building a solid foundation, I’ve actually learnt a lot of history and got a lot of inspirations from the lectures, especially the one that talked about Bauhaus. Besides getting inspirations from the lectures, I’ve got some from seeing my peers’ works as well because I enjoy seeing and learning from the different perspectives or thinking that other people have. I have also learnt a lot of skills and concepts such as prototyping, collage, zine-making, research, materiality and typography (and oh my god, if I could go on and on, I would but let’s not make such a lengthy post yea).  Overall, communication design studies have been really good and I am grateful to have learnt SO much in just about 3 months. 

[joannetriesdatavis]

“I Started As A Pastry Chef” - An interactive zine

I incorporated these simple, fun methods into my zine in the hopes of immersing the viewer even more into the “world” of my creative. With this, they’re not only gaining the information visually but can, in a way, “live” through it when they follow along.

(These GIFs are very sloppy but I can’t be bothered.)

Thus ends the long chain of zine-related posts I have for my Tumblr. This online reflective journal was fun to keep, mostly because I’ve always enjoyed blogging, but also because it’s cool to connect with other friends in the program through this platform as well.

Cheers to the end of our first semester!

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Love the ideas and especially the last one! Wouldn’t have been able to think of that one.

[nxnathania-blog]

Ask Me Anything!

Done and dusted!

My final piece for the Ask Me Anything project is a zine that has been dominated by my creatives artworks. Her artworks in real life are so big and this is why having the images large is important. 

As someone who has been to one of her exhibitions, I found it helpful when I was creating this zine because her personality was what I tried to deliver throughout my zine. 

There were some challenges that I had to go through, but this one, I couldn’t do anything.

        It was getting a reply with just a few words… sad

Anyway, I seem to be able to work on it, and still designed my pages as much as I could.

Overall this project has been really fun, interesting and mindblowing (literally, because of all the other assignments due) throughout the weeks, and I’m sure the skills on creating a zine will sure be stuck in my head now, thanks to Andy and Karen :)

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Love how neat and clean this looks! Makes it look so professional, love it!

[nxnathania-blog]

Update Ask Me Anything!

Yes, this is currently how my desk looks like.

So, I  tried printing in black and white first, making sure all the pages are placed correctly when I fold my A3 sheet of paper. It turned out some images don’t seem to be aligned when I fold it. So I decided to change some of the composition. 

Time is running and I need to do this quick!

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

So relatable 😭

[alice---18]

Ask Me Anything Final Completion

28.05.18

Finally it’s done!!!! 

Overall I’m pretty happy with the end results. It’s definitely how I envisioned it would be at the start, which was to create this textile visual diary piece that reflected the world of my friend and interviewee Stephanie Lettieri. 

Why I chose the medium of textiles?

I chose to use textiles as it was something more hand ons and crafty, which wasn’t initially my first idea, but after making those collages in class, I was inspired to do something less digitally. Also I thought it was appropriate to do something with textiles since it reflects what Steph is studying at the moment and her passion and future career endeavours. I decided to hand stitch everything as I believe it enhanced the effect of a more crafty and personal aesthetic. 

Why I chose those particular materials?

Firstly, I mainly used a black scooba knit, black and purple chiffon as well as the black leather to bound all the pages together. I decided to use similar fabrics that Steph was using for her final garment piece. I also discovered that chiffon materials gave really good results when applying any fabric manipulation techniques on them, such as gathering techniques. It created really nice textures, which was something I wanted to achieve in my textile book. Steph also used some beads that were incorporated into her garment. I decided to use similar beads as well as including more gold and black sequins. Again not only did this create more dimension and texture in my work, but also once again I believe reflect the personality of who Stephanie Lettieri is. Having know her for almost 7 years, I know that she always has some “bling” or something sparkly in her outfit choses. 

Challenges I faced…

The biggest worry I had with this project was the fear that my idea was too similar to Steph’s work that she’s currently doing. But after consulting with Andy, I realised it wasn’t an issue. Firstly I was’t directly imitating her work, but just using the materials and colour palette that she chose and then using these materials and interpreting them and changing them into my own unique abstract forms. I also wasn’t too sure how to bind all my work together, but after doing a mock up of my design in class, it definitely helped with clearly any confusion I had. Also the stitching of the beads and sequins was kinda annoying to do, but the results was so worth it at the end.   

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Love the use of different textiles here! Love how the direction of the craft is very obvious that I can immediately have an idea of what the creative does. Interesting work and admire the amount of effort you put for this assignment. Awesome work here!

[s3629041]

23. Why A Song?

This is a long post, you don’t have to read it. Oh please, I know.

Well for one, I’m a completely lunatic.

You can see and tell from the first few lyrics that this was going to be terrible.

When I heard Andy said, “you could even make a rock opera or a rap song if you wanted to”.

My mind just clicked and thought, “hmmm, it’s not like he was being serious or anything… LET’S MAKE A SONG!”

It’s funny how my mind works so much against me.

But really, the other reason behind it was the overall personality of the creative I interviewed, which was Tabbes, a Youtuber/Animator, although she would prefer to identify herself more of a storyteller.

Watching her videos in Youtube, the kind of personality I pick up from her way of storytelling and also her character is a sense of being very laid back, cool and being a bit rebellious, or in other words… “edgy” as millennials would describe.

Making a zine, or a publication of some sort would not really fit this kind of content and character. In fact, I think a song fits perfectly instead. It’s absurd and definitely way out of the ordinary - which is basically a means of being rebellious.

My initial plans were to make an animation, but of course, not only is it time consuming, but also it copies the work of my creative in which I should avoid doing. Instead, I used my creative’s work as a support for the song I’ve made.

The name Reckless came from one of the answers my creative gave me. She said something along the lines of that every creator, artist should have their own unique characteristic so that they would stand out. She mentioned that her Reckless personality became her stand out point for her audiences. Also, the word Reckless really describes my project right now. HAH.

In terms of difficulties?

It was a challenge, the only song I’ve made was… yup, never made a song before. It was tricky to try and paraphrase the interview questions and answer so that it would rhyme and become lyrics but still has it’s original meaning. The beat itself was also difficult to make because GarageBand is not my forte at all.

But overall, it was a great experience. It was funny to think that everyone was making a serious and professional looking zine or publication and here I am… making a song. I’m not 100% satisfied with the final product, but I’ve couldn’t have done it any better with the current skills I have in making songs… which is basically zero.

With that, LA is out.

[alice---18]

I love how you went out of your comfort zone and tried something different! I think this is super creative and worked well! 

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Totally love this creative idea! Love how you did something different and stepped out of your comfort zone. Kind of want to listen to it haha!

[sxngpxiyaa]

• Ask me Anything •

Here is my final zine !

This time my cut out on page one and the image on page two came out aligned and I was able to achieve the desired effect. The idea behind this cut out is that the normal world we live in is filled with colour but if you look through the eyes of my creative and immerse yourself into his world it is black and white as it represents the moody emotional tone of his music.

In relation to this idea I titled my zine “LAYERS” and designed my entire zine with shades of black and white.

To emphasise on the theme of “LAYERS” I used the effect of different sized papers in my design and printed it on tracing paper to give it a different texture and look. The reader can feel the difference in texture and interact with the book by peeling through the transparent layers.

As mentioned in my previous post I implemented the technique of negative space while designing my layout. It gives a simple yet dramatic impact. This embodies my creative best as he is very reserved and simple as a person but his strong vocals and music leave a strong and dramatic impact.

Overall I had so much fun designing my zine and interviewing my creative but I can’t say I’m not relieved to be finally done with this ! :)

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Aw yasss, love the final concept and the inclusion of the transparent sheets. I love how its all black and white too so there’s a clear direction of the musician’s style :) And totally agreed, so relieved to be finally done with this assignment haha!

[goemilybourke-blog]

Original version vs photocopy for easy distribution ✅✅ love the difference in effect between the two . Project done!

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Damn, I love the stitching going on around the zine. Well done :)

[lydiarosejones-blog]

Ask Me Anything!

I thought it would be a good idea to share the finished product of my Ask me Anything! assignment, I created a jam-packed and vibrant interactive A5 book to represent the colourful and paper filled world of Tommy Perez.

All images were taken from the Instagram page and Website of Tommy Perez, I am quite pleased with how the book turned out, the binding was by stitching in the centre of the pages and hard folding of 200 gsm paper. 

[sxngpxiyaa]

The colours are so vibrant they immediately grab your attention! Love how you used coloured paper to produce an interactive and fun zine :)

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

This is crazy good! Love how professional it looks and love the craft that you did on his name. 

[jamietung]

The Marías

ASK ME ANYTHING // CONCLUDE

Oh how this assignment has been so much fun yet stressful at the same time. BEFORE i get into the GUTS of how i used my hands to make things, i’d just like to congratulate everyone for making it through these 12 weeks and how amazing everyone’s ask me anythings look. Im really blown away by how our cohort can produce so much creative work. M I N D B L O W N

ALRIGHT! 

So the The Marías are a band who formed in LA late 2016. The members include Maria, Josh, Carter, Jesse and Edward. Their unique style of music fits under the genre psychedelic-soul. I was introduced to them last year by a friend and fell inlove with their dreamy like composition. The reason why i decided to do a band instead of a Graphic Designer or Illustrator was because i realized that music plays a major part in my everyday life. The amount of music i consume some would say is unhealthy but i just find so much inspiration through what i listen. So when we were given the assignment of Ask me anything, The Marías was immediately on my list.

The creation of this small publication was probably the most fun ive had designing something. Since this task was driven on more interest in your artist rather then criteria, i knew this would be a great way to explore and really experiment with various medias. I started of searching my local thrift stores for items that could be of use. I happen to come across a few old books which had wonderful hard covers. I was lucky enough to find one that was red! This started the ideas flowing on how i could construct everything.

I had also found myself very interested in cassettes and cassette players. Growing up i never got to really experience the period where cassettes were booming. I found the concept of having physical music to be fascinating and oddly satisfying. Also i had no idea how tape worked so im pretty sure it was magic. Since The Marías had only one album out, (Superclean vol.1), I was determined to record it onto a cassette and find out how to do it. (with their permission ofcourse). After some research on how to record onto cassettes, i borrowed a old stereo player from a friend which enabled me to experiment with recording ontop of old cassettes from spotify. I experimented with different recording settings and Type 1 & 2 cassettes. After some frustration, i recorded the album onto a cassette and sliced the tape so it would only be the duration of their album. With 6 songs in their album, i split 3 and 3 and recorded them onto both side A & B. mmm quick math

The second medium i tried for the first time was Embroidery!!! After having difficulty finding a method to create a foil on my hardcover, i decided to give embroidery a try. With the help of a few youtube tutorials and Matilda’s wisdom, i recreated The Marías logo (which was already an embroidery but on a larger scale). and stuck it onto the front of my cover. Embroidery was alot of fun but it was definitely a risky pathway as it was my first and anything could have gone wrong. It also took a long time so a few ghibli films passed the time :’)

Designing the content within the booklet ran pretty smoothly. I knew i wanted to implement this psychedelic theme into the design aswell as their signature red. What was slightly stressful was the replies coming in 2 days before the deadline. It was another very risky gamble however it was all worth it. Since i had designed everything else, all i had to do was plonk the answers into the slots and rush to dinkums. Note to self, if ever creating another booklet, set up your documents as individual half pages instead of two pages on one piece of paper. Deciphering the correct order on what goes where is a nightmare. 

The whole concept of my project was that while you listened to the music, you would read through the booklet and create a connection between the two. I found that the experience of sitting infront of a stereo and having to listen through each song and then flip the cassette, a very warming and meaningful experience. I guess you cant really skip a song forcing you to listen to what the artist has to express. I shrink rapped everything together at the end to give the user (Andy and Karen lol) a real experience of something you would purchase from an artist. 

Overall it was SO MUCH FUN creating this and learnt so many new things from it. Id like to thank everyone who helped me with feedback and advice on making this and ofcourse, The Marías for giving me this opportunity and answering my questions. 

If you were curious on what they sound like:  https://soundcloud.com/themarias/sets/superclean-vol-i

Much much love

-Jam

[stav-ros-deactivated20190312]

Well done

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Love the concept!

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Final!

Like, finally. 

So, the main concept is for my zine to look handmade because I always view my creative’s works as very crafty and organic. I tried to communicate my creative’s world by using lots of colours and mixed media too such as the textured papers and the different colour concepts for every question. I wanted to make my zine interesting and interactive by giving each question a concept.

For the front cover I used square cutouts to highlight each colour, so there’s yellow for question one, orange for question two, blue, red, green and purple to represent the following questions. 

As the first question’s concept is yellow, I used blue to create a contrast and also used an image which has yellow as it’s most vibrant colour so there will be that yellow focus. As this question talks about THE key moment, I used a circle to focus on that key moment and the words on the blue page creates a contrast with the emptiness (in terms of space) with the yellow (like narrowing down to that key moment).

For the second question, I used orange as the main colour. The image I chose includes orange, red and yellow which provides the harmonious tone with the colour theme. As this question talks about her past and she did not want to talk in detail about it, I used the two plastic sheets in front where she doesn’t talk about it but the answer at the back reveals her brief answer to the question.

For the third question, I used an image which has a lot of red highlights so it suits the red colour theme. I chose the folding technique for this question because she gave a layered answer as well so the main answer is only revealed when you open up the whole fold. 

As for the fourth question, I chose blue as the colour theme because the main answer is about the ocean and I thought that the colours would match the dolphin image. The next page visually shows her other inspirations which are movies, books and people. I used her paintings and handmade book to represent these elements. I also used a cutout concept here so that it can be seen as one whole answer but at the same time the ocean image cutout is at the front because its her main inspiration.

Although the fifth question’s colour theme is green, I used red as the background to create a contrast. The foldout part also includes colours from the background, to create that harmony. As her answer talks about how she wishes to give hope and joy to other people, the foldout contains comments from her followers where she did bring joy and hope to them. 

The last question is behind and it’s special because its a bonus question that I’ve been wanting to ask her. The colour theme for that question is obviously purple. I placed it sideways because the question needed to be viewed from both sides. Placing the question sideways gives the readers space to view it from both angles. 

All image credits go to Annette Labedzki. 

PS: Sorry about the watermark (I find it so distracting UGH) , just needed an app which can quickly speed up my video.

[laurerdgs]

Ask Me Anything

[FR] “Ask me anything” - Vidéo faite hier pendant que je montai mon magazine.

[EN] “Ask me anything” - Video made yesterday while I was editing my magazine.

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

This looks so good!! Love how you showed the beginning and the end properly then flipped the other pages really quickly. Looks so edgy~

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Pre- mock-up 

 So when I was trying to do my mock-up, I wasted so much printing because of the short-edge binding feature which I kept on missing out on so my double sided kept on printing wrongly. I was so frustrated but yes, I persevered 😂👌🏼

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Mock-up

After countless times of printing errors, I finally managed to print out my pages to assemble my mock-up.

And wow, things do really look different printed out. I can definitely tell now what I have to change. Some of the background images that I thought were clear came out pretty blur and the middle placement of the folded paper in the middle section of the zine isn’t really a good idea because the folding marks on the paper didn’t look good so I’ll have to figure my way through that. I also have to adjust some of the alignments of the texts.

But overall, feeling relieved that I finally made it to this stage and I’ll just have to change these few elements before I can finally print out my final.

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Workshop Week 11

In this workshop, we were taught on the basics of InDesign and how to use it. It was a very helpful class for everyone as those that haven’t used InDesign before have learnt a lot from it and even for those who have used it before, they might have learnt more tricks and shortcuts as well. I thought that it helped even more when we were told to create a quick zine and to apply whatever Andy and Karen taught us in the class itself. 

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Prototype 2

This prototype is more detailed and I explored more colours and materials. It definitely look more well-collected compared to prototype 1. The brown paper represents textured material.

I included a cover page this time with the holes with different colours to represent each question segment. I pasted the elements more tightly this time round so that I will know whether it works and really know how to paste each of them in the final. I also explored using foam boards and transparent plastic sheets to see how the thickness and texture feels and if I were to use something like those materials for my final, its better to try them out now using cheaper materials.

I guess my next step is to actually source out materials and of course do a proper mockup before I assemble my final.

[purpl3rainb0w-blog]

Prototype 1

Before I created this prototype, I have already researched on what style or ideas that I want, so I tested the ideas out on paper and to be honest, that helped a lot.

I feel like thinking of an idea visually isn’t enough as when I tested some of the ideas physically, I realised what needed to be improved and what was good or not. 

I included some elements that represented my creative such as the string, because she loves using strings for her handmade books. As she is a shy person, I added layers for some parts. The concept behind it is like when you get to know someone that’s shy, it can take a while for them to open up like there are layers in them which you need to peel off one by one til you get to know the real them. 

I also added a lot of elements to represent each question as she is someone who loves filling her books with different things. 

The yellow paper represents a textured fabric/ cloth/ paper which I will insert in my final because she loves using mixed media and including different textures in her artworks.