the girl that's never full

hello there! i’m phaik hoon. 🎓graduated from the one academy, malaysia. majored in advertising and graphic design. 🎨now studying in birmingham city university, united kingdom. majoring in graphic communication. 🌻here i will be documenting and share some thoughts on works in graphic design and more.a range between advertising, graphic design, paintings and poetry. just a whole bunch of things i like.

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Workshop: Woodcuts

Date: 27th Feb 2019

Today I went for a Woodcuts workshop! (Together with Miru, hello)

A lot of others finished within an hour or two, while me and Miru stayed until... three hours just to finish the designs we had.

I did a design with three characters, along with text.

Lesson learnt: Don’t carve out text on your first try.

Don’t have three characters for three hours because they’re not enough.

My takeaway from this is to be more patient.... and have more time for the design I designed. It’s super hard to carve out tiny details, but it’s always worth the shot to make it appear if you have the time to. For letters, they have to be flipped, so... if I didn’t have Naomi to help me flip the letters, I’m pretty sure I would’ve misspelled the words in between or not have them flipped properly.

Overall, I always love the print workshops I take part in. It’s always refreshing and I learn more and more each time. But this one, oh my god, it was so simple but so complex in a sense where it takes skill and a long time to make sure you’re carving out the right piece on the wood.

And once you carve it out, there’s no going back from there... oh no.

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Visit: Leonardo Da Vinci’s Exhibition

Date: 4th Feb 2019

The whole time going through his collection of works, it was just pure admiration the whole way through. I mean, in terms of how the illustration and fine arts field have evolved, it needs to be reminded that he did this way back before any of the technology came along.

How did he pay so much attention to detail? How did he focus or have such precision in his drawings? DRAWING WITH A PIECE OF CHALK? So refined and so delicate and precise? 

I think all I remembered after was knowing if I sneezed halfway drawing that, I’d give up entirely. But he has a passion for it, drawing without knowing that one day his works would be celebrated across the world, I think he’d be proud if he was able to see all the success his art has achieved. 

That’s also the beauty of it.

He did all of this without wanting the acknowledgement. He did it simply because he loved it. That reconnects me to like, in terms of wanting to win awards as a designer? It’s good to have recognitions, of course, but at the end of the day, as long as I enjoy what I do and have a passion for it, I think it’s a win either-way. 

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Type Talk: Rob Draper

Date: 21 Feb

This was the first Type Talk I’ve attended and I must say... oh my goodness. I think in between when Rob got more personal in order to be able to tell us his full story was when I appreciated how honest and vulnerable he got. Though, that wasn’t the main point of his talk, I really did appreciate it.

Like Ruth said after the talk, the ones that truly take effect on you is when you have no idea what to even ask when he’s done talking.

I imagined myself in his position, to go through all of the things he did and to still be able to rise up in the end and keep going? To fuel himself creatively and to move forward, thinking about his son, constantly pumping out work despite not having an office, a mess all over, is simply... wow.

That just goes to show dedication, determination and creativity drives you forward if you let it and if you want it.

There’s no fixed space for creativity and you’re able to do work wherever you want as long as you have the passion to. I think this really spoke to me because I was always a home-body person? In terms of like, being able to be the most productive, I constantly think I’m only able to do so in the comfort of my own home. This makes me want to try doing work in public areas or just different spaces to see how I work and if I put my mind to it, I’m sure I’ll be able to carry out doing work as long as I want to.

Welp, I guess I’m going to give it a try and see what happens.

(And holy shit, I saw the golden globes thing a couple of times and when he showed that he did it, I just went THERE HE IS. THOSE WERE HIS HANDS!!!)

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Ornamental Letterpress

Date: 13 Feb

So the main goal I had when doing this Ornamental Letterpress was to see how well I could replicate a donut themed print? I think that’s the main goal I’ve had for any possible print workshop because.... I mean, donuts make the world go round.

I went around the table looking for suitable ornaments and I had to switch up my layout over and over again just for the right composition or as I went around looking at more and more options.

I think what would’ve been more efficient in the future would to have planned out my layout from the beginning than to waste time rearranging it again and again in the mould. Especially when they’re so tiny and time consuming... not to mention the extra dose of patience you’d need when you completely knock everything over and have to start again.

But besides that, I think this was a great workshop, practicing in terms of precision, patience and being able to visualize the image you want by separating it between two layers.

It’s quite similar to Risographing and Screen printing, when you think about it - just more intricate. I think the benefit of going to a few of these workshops is telling the difference between one and the other, and being able to have an understanding which one could be more useful based on each project at hand.

Going to attend the Darkroom Print workshop along with Woodcuts so, we’ll see how that goes!

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Reflection Exercise: 5 Tangible Goals

So, for my 5 tangible goals that I would like to achieve would be...

1. Get an internship  A deeper explanation to this would be that to me, to be able to get an internship here in Birmingham would mean a lot to me. Considering I came from Malaysia, I would be surprised to receive any opportunity and quite frankly, I have been putting it off because I’m afraid. It’s scary to think to dive into an agency I haven’t even tried in Malaysia (but I guess that’s the main reason why I came to the UK so...)

The current plan for this is that I’m looking into agencies nearby where I live now and I’m preparing a digital portfolio (will run by my tutor) and then see where to take off from there. I’m planning to apply during this time until March, to see if I can bag an internship during Easter Break.

2. Work in an advertising agency / design agency in Birmingham (Or, the dream would be to work in Leo Burnett in London) But mainly, just for an advertising agency or a design agency, full time or part time, it would be an honor to be able to work in an agency here in Birmingham before moving back to Malaysia after my Master’s... which brings me to...

3. MA in...? Master’s in what, exactly, I’m not sure. I’m still thinking about this and considering I have about a year more to go in Degree, I’m putting it off for now. But the goal would be to somehow have a rough image of this by the end of L5 / beginning of L6. 

Update: Thinking about this further, I have a keen interest in Advertising along with Branding. Together, I think it forms an interesting mix of the two. I have a clearer idea of what I want at the moment.

4. Win a design award (YCN, etc...) Of course, whether it’s winning an award or a competition, it doesn’t place a value on me as a designer but it’s nice to get some recognition.

5. Enhance overall skills. As I’m taking up a YCN brief in illustration / animation, I almost didn’t want to choose this brief because of the requirements but then again, I gunned for it mainly for this reason. Sure, we could always switch up the deliverables but for illustrations and animations, I’m not so confident in it (especially animations) but I thought this would be a good time to try to step out and try something new.

So I would be looking into using After Effects more than I used to (I mainly used it to make GIFs and simple animations) but now I’m going to try to be more ambitious? 

Along with attending more Print workshops (I’ve always had a longing for it, but played it off because “there’s always next time” but now I’m pretty much signing up for all of it - attended 3 workshops so far in 2019 so that’s a good start!)

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Too Cute! Sweet is about to get Sinister

Visit: Too Cute! Exhibition Date: 4th Feb 2019

Today me and Ji went down to Birmingham Art Museum to check out the Too Cute! Exhibition by Rachel Maclean. And my oh my, it was too cute it was actually horrifying. The works that were displayed had the intention of showing how cute things or adorable looking visuals could have an appealing, cute look but also appear to be sinister... which I absolutely agree.

While at first glance, dolls and some of the figurines look warm and fuzzy, staring at it long enough just morphs another image in my mind to make them appear... not so cute-like.

Below is part of a statement taken from the Birmingham Art Museum website.

In Too Cute! Rachel Maclean has made an exhibition where cuteness is taken seriously. She is fascinated by its ability to captivate and placate us and through her investigations into the collections she has explored both what it has meant to us historically and why contemporary society is so fixated on the sharing and reproduction of cute objects and images.

Too Cute! presents a range of artworks showing different takes on ‘cuteness’. The works in the exhibition range from contemporary works to 19th-century oil paintings. Maclean’s fascination is with the elusive moment where cute objects slip into the sinister and instead of endearing, instil fear and disgust.

Birmingham art museum, B.A.M. [no date]. What's On | Museum & Art Gallery | Birmingham Museums. [Online]. [5 February 2019]. Available from: http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/too-cute

I found myself listening to the introduction by Rachel Maclean herself and understood what she meant by seeing cute objects that you would want to squish to pieces and how they could have a sinister look to them the longer you stared at it. It’s a weird phenomenon and I remembered the feeling throughout the whole exhibition while I walked through it was having both an unsettling feeling yet a lighthearted one? I don’t quite know how to explain it.

I managed to spot a mother bringing her child to this because everything is ‘Too Cute’ so possibly, a four year old (Ji argues she’s at least two years old), would like it... right?

The child was in tears and wanted to leave. Initially she was all smiles looking at the displays but more than five minutes in, she was crying and wanted to leave. (I blurred out the faces for privacy reasons but the little girl’s face showed she didn’t think any of it was ‘Too Cute’ for her).

I think that somehow captures the intention of this exhibition? To create something that looks cute and lighthearted at first glance but the deeper you go into it... it evokes something else?

All in all, it was an interesting exhibition to look at and definitely gave me the creeps after. Some of the artworks were inspiring, and some... I don’t think I was smart enough to understand. But! Everything was lovely... and too cute that I had to get out of there.

Fun day!

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Visit: Spring Fair 2019 Date: 7th February 2019

In all honesty, I went for this not entirely knowing what it is until I was there walking around, realizing that this was probably for business people who have intentions of starting a business. All of the booths that were there were meant to be selling and supplying their goods in bulk... which made me a little sad that I couldn’t buy an ice cream key chain unless I wanted 50 pieces of it.

Or 12 pieces, but I don’t have 12 friends to give it to.

It was expected that the moment I told them I was a student, they immediately walked away, which is understandable, considering I’m not their target audience. But it does make me wonder, why exactly? Just a thought, I’m a student now but... when I graduate, and possibly work under a firm or an agency or a business retail that is looking to expand their business requirements, if I had received a great experience regardless of my status now, it could affect how I view that brand even before I’m under a firm or an agency.

If there was one thing I took from this (apart from the fact that I wouldn’t be able to purchase a pink nutcracker for 400 pounds or buy animatronics that sing Christmas songs), is to be professional to no matter who you meet.

A student, a parent, everyone could possibly be within your network one day and it’s all about the first impressions. I can’t count the number of times people brushed me and Ji off simply because we’re students. I do understand where they’re coming from and their priorities if they had been busy and flooded with people.... but the booths were empty.

This relates to a similar issue in Malaysia as well, except there was worse. I went for a Print Expo in 2018 at PWTC, and the number of times people scoffed me off when they saw my badge ‘student’ was simply uncountable. I gave up counting at one point, and were surprised at firms that actually talked to me and explained to be the process.

Because of that, I was able to engage with that brand and remembered what they offered. Those that scoffed me off, I couldn’t even recall what their brand was.

This just goes to show that you really do have to pay into consideration how you treat people. One day we’re students, the next day we could be working for a firm that’s interested in starting and engaging in a business, but because of poor treatment and my experience as a student from a certain brand, might steer me away from recommending it.

Super super important to be nice and kind to everyone regardless.

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Reflection Exercise: 5 Years Into The Future

For the beginning of the new module of Identifying Direction, we did a little exercise where we closed our eyes to visualise where we would want to be in 5 years... and holy crap was that a lil’ bit scary (or a whole lot).

It’s different for everyone and everyone could possibly vision the same thing but here’s what I envisioned.

Waking up, in an apartment in the city. Bustling city sounds, cars honking below, birds chirping (I kind of hope not - I think birds are too clever and evil) and sounds of another person living with me. Could be anyone; a close friend, a relative, a family member, partner, just someone. Depending on the mood, may skip breakfast, or just bring something light to the workplace.

The workplace... is hopefully a 15-minute walk away, or a 30-minute commute with the public transport. Or a drive away. Just a fusion of these three choices, really (but I would prefer to drive). Parking... is going to be a nightmare so future me, take notes to find a place nearby so I can walk.

The actual workplace. Busy, loud occasional chatters, keyboard warriors and furious clicks from the mouse but a uplifting and passionate environment. Sleep-deprived, coffee-driven, problem solvers at different tables tackling different client problems. Aiming for an advertising agency for the experience, in terms of what I really want, I’m not too sure but at the moment an advertising agency is the one in my mind.

The time I head home, it’s late into the night. Sometimes it’s 7pm, sometimes it’s 7am.

The city, a mix between Malaysia and United Kingdom... (I remember Jane asking me what I saw when my eyes opened and the first thing I said was: “I was alive so that’s something,” - then she asked which country I was residing in and that’s when it messed up my vision because I saw both.)

The take-away from this, I guess, would be that I definitely see myself busy. Keeping myself busy in an environment that constantly pushes me to do more and do better. In this case, I always imagine myself working in an advertising agency. It’s scary, but that’s what’s exciting too. I tend to get insecure and doubt myself, but overtime (and since I came to the UK), I learnt to be confident and believe in myself and I’d want that for me to keep growing even if it means it’s downright terrifying.

The first step for me now, I feel, is to possibly apply for internships at advertising agencies that are looking for potential talents? I felt the drive to apply for internships right after my eyes opened, so I’ll definitely consult my tutor about this. Like one of the L6 students said, the people in agencies don’t bite! It’s better to take the chance and if you hit and miss, it’s fine, at least you tried. But if you hit and you do hit, now... wow.

And I guess, to see what happens from there would be to actually take the first step first. Will update here for future updates! 😬

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Workshop: Screen Printing

I went for a workshop with Naomi, in which she showed us how to do screen printing! Considering there were very few of us, we managed to do a two layer screen printing with two colors! The process and concept is similar to risographing (in terms of how you lay your layers or choose to put them separately) and it was cool to have a go in doing it ourselves!

Naomi talked through us the process from start to end. From drawing your own prints and making negatives, to actually screen printing on paper as well as cleaning the screen, attaching the screens to the machines.

Great experience!

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Visit: Pen Museum

As a couple of friends came down from London, I decided to take them to the Pen Museum and went there for the first time as well! This is just a short clip at the entrance I managed to take, alongside with a couple of pictures I’ll add in if I manage to find them but! We were talked through with the brief history of pens and calligraphy, as well as the process of how they were made.

Insane how some of the workers were required to make over 10,000 nibs daily? I would go crazy, repeating the same process over and over again with the daily routine and not getting paid... they were getting paid around 10p per day... which is crazy.

We even got to take back some of the nibs that were made and it’s a fun experience altogether!

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Daily Logo Challenge / Complete!

After 50 days of designing logos in a row, it’s finally done! I started this challenge around last year of December (2018) and it’s 2019, and completed!

There’s definitely some of the logos that I designed that I will take forward in individual branding projects! Of course, I’ll be doing those on the side, alongside some of the new modules. Kind of excited to see how some of these will develop!

For the full progress (with full images): check out my instagram!

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I’ve always had a thing for editing videos, I just think it’s calming, fun, and it’s great to be able to document things that you can watch on later! 

So I decided to jump back onto Premiere Pro (I’m alright for a bit of basics) and took my phone to record when I went out for a nightwalk to Tesco with a housemate! Just so happens, it rains and snow for the first time ever, haha. With that, I put together a little ‘vlog-style’ video, with background music and some subtitles.

Definitely had fun and enjoyed this! When a couple of friends come down from London, I’m determined to do another!

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Inspiration: Burnt Breakfast by Su Richardson

taken from https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=5474

Su Richardson is a textile artist that creates crochet art with a meaning of feminism behind her work that stems from being a home-artist. As a mother, she expresses what it means to be a mother and an artist, through her work of crochet art.

Mainly this work: Burnt Breakfast, served (pun intended) as a point of inspiration for me during the Women Power Protest exhibition. One, I was drawn that it was food, a temptation. Then I noticed the food was all burnt, which sparked an interest.

When I got into the deeper meaning of what it meant, I took a meaning of my own in which it’s like poking at the fact that women prepare breakfast for their husbands before they leave to work, and that they’re expected to all the time. Which is taken for granted. Personally knowing that some of my aunts go through this, that they’re merely seen as ‘breakfast makers’ and just people who cook in the house is saddening.

Which is why I took interest in this piece of work and would be trying to develop it into a postcard design for the xCHANGE brief!

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Inspiration: Ambient Media - WWF Paper Dispenser

taken from https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/paper_dispenser

Description

To make people realize that saving the planet starts with them saving paper, we took a standard paper dispenser and made a simple modification with green foil and the silhouette of South America. This allowed us to prove that the survival of the forest is directly connected to what people consume.

Credits

Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen, Denmark Creative Director: Simon Wooller Art Directors / Copywriters: Cliff Kagawa Holm, Silas Jansson Release: April 2007

One of the inspirations me and Jiwon looked at while doing our Survival International brief. We wanted to incorporate something innovative and clever but as we took a different route in our campaign, we never got a chance to do something like this but acknowledge it would be interesting if we did.

It’s a simple message, yet it’s practical as well, which fits with where they’re going with their whole idea.

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Inspiration: Illustrator / Jun Cen

Stumbling upon his work from the lecture of Psychoanalysis, I spiralled down into Jun Cen’s portfolio and completely adore all of his works. Simple and clean illustrations with a deeper meaning behind it - that leaves your mind wondering what on bloody earth is going on to thinking about life at 3am, his illustrations are amazing.

I’ll share some of his works below, but first I read an article about him on It’s Nice That, which showcases more of his work.

Jun Cen’s expressive illustrations capture fear, loneliness and frustration Words by Rebecca Fulleylove, Monday 18 September 2017

“My goal is to create an expressive aesthetic with restraints,” says illustrator Jun Cen of his style. “I think I make my illustrations in a minimalistic way, trying not to make my work overdone.” By using a limited colour palette and playing with perspective, Jun often uses fine linework to create architectural spaces and fills them with characters dressed in costumes to bring his story telling to life.

“When I’m working on an illustration, I always ask myself what kind of connection I have with the article and what kind of a unique voice I want to put in this piece, whenever I’m allowed to,” US-based Jun says. “As a creator, I’m never just satisfied with visually translating the idea of an article, I also love to explore what perspective and vision I can input in an editorial piece.” - Taken from It’s Nice That article on Jun Cen (linked above)

As a designer, it’s important to not lose your voice and your visions when you’re taking commissions of work from clients. It’s good to see how he sticks to what he wishes to say, before he goes onto visualising it - as tempting as it is to dive in straight with a paintbrush.

When asked what he hopes to convey, Jun says: “I think most of my illustrations are about human emotions. Fear, loneliness, frustration are constant themes in my work.” Books, music, and films are often sources of inspiration for the illustrator and he looks for the “softest and most vulnerable moments” in whatever he reads or watches. - Taken from It’s Nice That article on Jun Cen (linked above)

Yep, okay, that’s why I feel a ton of things when I see his art.

Here are some of his work that I find inspiring (and already, each illustration is relevant to the topics Ally has discussed with us so far - fun fact!). All illustrations come from Jun Cen’s website.

For The New York Times Grey Matter. On Trump’s turmoil is slowing economic growth. (Politics in the Image?)

‘Patience’ for Wall Street Journal. (Anthropocene?)

‘Editorial illustrations about self-forgiveness’ (Psychoanalysis?)

I like his style of illustrations and that he decides to take up commissions for illustrations that hold meaning rather than just for aesthetics. As someone weak in illustrations, I think it would be interesting to try to develop a style of minimalism yet also have an element of complexity in terms of colors and shapes.

Will try once I’m done with the 50 daily logo challenge! (hopefully)

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Inspiration: Photographer / Adam Wilkoszarski - Wish You Were Here

Images taken from Adam Wilkoszarski’s website and certain quotations from The Calvert Journal’s article by Liza Premiyak.

(I have collaged them together, as there’s just an effect when you view all the photos together.)

The structured free time industry stops at the end of vacations, emptying. The people had their holidays and for a while all those resorts become unnecessary, frozen and ready to receive the thousands of organized tourists that will come again. This cycle repeats endlessly, and in each of these places you can feel the gentle but still palpable trace of memories of leisure – the idea lacking accurate coordinate and time frames. - Adam Wilkoszarski

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“In each of these places you can feel the gentle but still palpable trace of memories,” the photographer says of his starkly empty views. He deliberately wanted to obscure the locations and create a series that is more poetic than documentary. “The idea behind the project has changed since its inception. The pictures are not focused on one resort or another. Actually it’s about a universal place that we all have in our minds. For me its a longing for the holidays of my childhood.” - The Calvert Journal, interview by Liza Premiyak

I like the tone of colors and mood the overall pictures bring. The feeling I get from this is so mellow, yet, there’s a hint of sadness to it. Like happiness was once here and now it’s gone away, left with the memory of it. Which resembles well with Adam’s intention of photographing all of these pictures for his series.

I think it’s clever, and it links well to human emotions.

I link it to having images of my hometown in Malaysia as I’m in the UK and envisioning those places now that I’m not in Malaysia really hits home. I just love these series of photos a lot.

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Su Richardson, interview | L’étrangère, London | 8 March 2018