Friday, February 5, 2010
Assignment 1: Me Myself and I
Task:
Create ONE design based on the letters of my name, initial or nick name. Use these letters to interpret myself through manipulation of letters, use of symbols, shapes and colors (i.e. visual form).
Myself can be described as one or more of my personality, character, outlook, strength, weakness, inner self, like or dislike, hobbies, ambitions and so on.Basically, there were several steps to this assignment. The first of which was brainstorming key words that described us: our personalities, our dislikes, likes, weaknesses, strengths, ambitions, etc.
Then, we had to come up with 4 preliminary concepts to present our names/nicknames in a way that represented ourselves best. People know me more as "Nic" than Nicole, hence I chose to use the name Nic in my designs.
I think this was the most fun part of the assignment, cuz I could simply let my creative juices flow. :) Here are my 4 preliminary concepts:
#1:
I think this design is pretty self-explanatory. I love dance, especially Hip Hop dance, so these figures represent that aspect of me. I'm very into dance, street culture and I hoped that the dynamic and energetic poses of the people could help carry across the idea that I'm a person that's like that. :) I love action, tend to be animated and energetic when I interact with people, and I think I come across as a rather loud person. Hence I'm going to use bright, vibrant colours to bring out that aspect of me. (Aside from that, I really love bright colours as well.)
#2:
After coming up with this concept, I decided that it looks a little childish. :P I love rainbows, hence I chose to fit my name into one. Rainbows are really colourful, so I thought having my name in bright vibrant colours would be fitting as well. At both ends of the rainbows, there're pots of gold, a common belief/myth that I used to believe in when I was younger. I love fantasy fairy-tale stories such as this. The sun looks a little off-its-rocker, which is kind of what I tend to be sometimes. ;) I can be a little zany, when occasions call for it. (and sometimes even when occasions DON'T call for it.)
#3:
Well, this design's rather self-explanatory as well. The first impression one would get when they see this is that I'm a rather loud person. And that's what I intended to convey.
(the clothes also are the kind of clothes i always wear. but that's secondary)
#4:
This design requires a teeny bit of explanation. People who look at this may wonder things like, "In what way are clothes representative of me?" For me, the "me-ness" in this design wasn't so much in the clothes themselves, but more so in the way they are arranged--haphazardly and spontaneously. I sometimes tend to be a person like that. I love spontaneity, and tend to be a little less systematic than how I'd like to be in my thinking.
Decision Process.
I went with #1 eventually.
#3 was out, because the letters are supposed to be integrated into the design itself, and in this design, the "NIC!" is not integrated enough.
#2 was out because it didn't reflect as much of my personality as I wanted it to. And the letters weren't as cleverly incorporated into the design as I hoped it would. Not to mention it looks slightly kiddish. xD
My peers commented that they thought #4 was the design that worked best for them, because it was new and unique. The weakness of my first design was the fact that the concept is not a new one. The idea of using dancers' bodies to spell out words has been around since...forever. My peers felt that #4 was refreshing in the sense that when they looked closely at the individual pieces of the clothes, the clothes made sense. A pair of jeans was a pair of jeans, and not deliberately reshaped/warped in order to form a certain letter.
However, I feel more inclined towards #1, because I can see how it relates to me as a person better (which my peers agreed with as well). #4 is interesting, but not as reflective of my personalities, likes, and ambitions as #1.
I also wouldn't know how to use bright colours on #4. Haha.
Criticisms on & suggestions for #1:
More interaction between the dancers would be more aesthetically pleasing, reflective of my personality and my passion for dance. The figure in the middle could be shown to be more "squeezed" between the 2 figures beside him so as to portray the close, intimate, interactive and dynamic relationship dancers dancing together share.
Next, after choosing my concept, I decided to go straight into CG-ing and colouring it. Here's the semi-finished product:
I agree with my peer's comments on this. After adding colour, the original image seems to have lost that energy and vibrancy that the black and white inked sketch had. I hope that cel-shading it and adding shadows and highlights will help bring out the life that it lost.
I'm also considering completely revamping it using Illustrator. Perhaps even doing it without outlines. Not sure how well that's gonna turn out, though. I'm going to have to try it out first.
Yup that's the end of my long, naggy post on Assignment 1! Will attempt to upload more "in-progress" pictures of it as I continue working on it.
♥ head in clouds.
11:05 AM
