1 Up

It's one thing to be good at drawing.
It's another to have good concepts.

It's a whole new level if you have both.
Not many do, but many think they do.



I don't, do you?

Rants

Just had a whale of a time the past couple of days.

Caught Chicago: The Musical yesterday evening and I've got to say, I'm definitely appreciating Broadway and musical more now. I thought the performers were great, and the orchestra was immaculate. Yeah, I was taking notice of the orchestra more than the performers. Weird eh? Haha.

Oh South Africa defeated Australia in on helluva rugby match. RSA led 15-0 in only the first 10 minutes with 2 soft tries let in by a very lethargic Wallabies side. Subsequent tries by Bryan Habana was reaaaaally awesome. Australia fought back hard in the second half and Matt Giteau got himself on the score sheet twice. A last minute try by Lachie Turner summed up the Wallabies' night against a very on-form Springboks team.

South Africa 32 vs Australia 25

I think I might join Melbourne Uni's touch team.

hide's Psychedelic Pink Spider Guitar Pick

Create a label for a celebrity with the emphasis on typography. Do not use recognizable imagery. Background can take the shape of something but must be of a single solid colour. No tints, no shades. Using an existing font, match it to qualities inherent in your chosen celebrity and create a label that will market an item that might be a product from the chosen celebrity's own product range.

Didn't have much trouble choosing a celebrity. Those who know me will know its pretty much self-explanatory.

Hideto Matsumoto - aka hide.


Introducing:
hide's Psychedelic Pink Spider Guitar Pick.
(white areas to be trimmed out)
It folds down the middle so its coloured on both sides. Guitar pick goes on the space just under his name on the right hand side. I had to tweak the font sizes of the words "Psychedelic", "Pink" and "Spider" and track them inwards so that it doesn't look so... wrong. Anyway, no physical manipulations have been inflicted on the type, merely reflections, rotations, and changes in font size.

A prize for anyone who can guess the typeface.
(It's definitely one of your default fonts in both Mac and PC.)

*even though I exported it in RGB, the colours still don't exactly match what I have on screen. Hmmm... anyway the pink is definitely more concentrated - like hide's hair, and the yellow is essentially the same as his Burny Yellow Heart.

Photocopier

Just completed the financial layout page for Blair's project. Dang.. took me almost half a day. I hate inDesign. Ok maybe hate is too strong a word. I dislike how inDesign doesn't allow you to edit images like photoshop and they don't allow layer transparency. It was really irritating finding a way around the transparency thing. Well maybe there is a way, but until I find out I guess I'll just be doing extra work the hard way.

Anyway, I've realised that the current bunch of projects in Uni have brought out a certain "advertiser" in me. I enjoy advertising and marketing an object. Packaging it in a unique and special way. Maybe it's too soon to tell, but that is definitely an option for the future.

Kevin, if you're reading, leave Singapore! Haha. Ok I'm not a deserter, neither am I a traitor, and quite frankly, I've sworn before the flag that I would "dedicate my life to Singapore". But yeah, think about it. Singapore is so oversaturated with designer-wannabes. And I'm not saying that I'm even qualified to comment, but not half of them are even worth looking at. Consider, if it is within your means, an education outside of Singapore. Somewhere where you are not judged only on the outcome, but also your potential. The market is full of repeated designs, especially in Singapore, where people will take a liking to something, and mass produce. I'm sure you've encountered these clients - with a predetermined outcome in their mind, changing and changing to make the outcome suit their mental product. A brief should be interpreted by the designer. It shouldn't be something that explicitly tells you step 1 through to the end. A secondary school kid can do that. What you want to seperate yourself with from the masses is your ability to interpret the brief to produce something fresh and creative.

Verbal diarrheoa rant... haha. But yeah I guess I'm just very passionate about the state of design in Singapore. It's no longer a creative place, it's a photocopy machine.

Singlish

Limpeh ai kong singlish ah buay tahan want to indulge in super rojak engrish cham hokkien with malay and cheena. Wa ai kong a language indechiperable by outsiders because they tak boleh tahan this kind of thing.

Wah lan eh...

20th Nov '09

Mark this date, Shawn's going back to Singapore.

I'm going back to eat all the food that I am so deprived of.
I'm going back to eat bak chor mee.
I'm going back to eat char kuay teow.
I'm going back to eat fried hokkien mee.
I'm going back to eat lor tau kua.
I'm going back to eat $3 chap chye png.
I'm going back to eat roti prata
I'm going back to eat the chilli I so love.
I'm going back to eat REAL FOOD.

I'm going back to the sweltering heat.
I'm going back to buses that come every 5 minutes.
I'm going back to trains with 2 minute intervals.
I'm going back to cheap taxi fares.
I'm going back to cheap food.
I'm going back to cheap transportation.
I'm going back to buy my iPhone 3G(S).
I'm going back to get my Nikon DSLR.

I'm going back for Standard Chartered Marathon.
I'm going back for internship.
I'm going back for my neglected guitar.

I'm going back to family.
I'm going back to friends.
I'm going back to my own house.
I'm going back to my own room.
I'm going back to my own kitchen.
I'm going back to what's mine.

20th Nov 2009.
I'm going back.
Home.

Peer Review

Ok peer review done on the fringe festival item.
More reviews appreciated.