Design Underdog

Lab Ex 3

2009-11-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

Reflections

What is surrealism and its relationship to photography?

We often hear this. “This is so surreal”, “What a surreal feeling.”. But what exactly is surreal? The dictionary says “Surrealism is an avant-garde art form that sought to release the creativity of the subconscious mind.” It is those weird dreams where you discover you can fly, where you fought off a giant spider and then end up underwater wearing your school uniform.

In a nutshell, bizarre and weird.

Before photography, artists were limited to the canvas and brush. What photography introduced was its ability to accurately capture reality relatively easily. Instead of taking weeks and months to paint or carve a sculpture, photographers can capture images in a matter of hours.

This convenience allowed artists to create work that couldn't be done in the past. Very often, surrealism works only when it is close to reality. If it is too abstract, the meaning often gets lost in translation.

Photography allows accurate images to be captured and manipulated. Photographers such as Martina Lopez utilise images and combine them in interesting manners way before Photoshop came about.

Final Project

2009-11-18T23:53:00.000-08:00

Human:Nature

Okay, is it Human nature or Human and Nature? I chose the latter. I wanted to portray the unlikely (I hope) scenario of Nature attacking Humans in the most common everyday activity.

Here are my raw materials. Literally

Assignment 5

2009-11-18T18:43:00.000-08:00

Emotions capture.

I wanted to go along with using staircases after getting this shot.

But it was hard finding other staircases soo.. I chose doors after walking around Chinatown.

I like this... A little sense of mystery

Grand, imposing

Abandoned, broken down

Assignment 4

2009-11-18T18:36:00.000-08:00

This was inspired by the recent economic crisis.

The source image.

The final image

Lab Ex 2

2009-11-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

Surrealism

This week, we had to do a quick mash up of these 2 images in class to create a 'surrealistic' piece.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Mash up

Well, not exactly surrealistic. But you have probably seen this before. An image popping out of the mirror

Assignment 3

2009-11-18T09:10:00.001-08:00

Assignment 3: Focal Length and Sensor Latitude

What a theme for an assignment. It simply means exploring different perspectives and stretching the dynamic range.

Perspective

Zoom

Macro

Low-key

You will see a lot of me in other assignments. That means i'm desperate

High Key

Assignment 2

2009-11-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

Assignment 2: On camera techniques

Slow Shutter Speed

Buona Vista road on the night before tutorial.

Shallow Depth of Field

This is also known as false perspective, as Jing pointed out

Fast Shutter Speed

A big thank you to my church friends!

Deep Depth of Field

Assignment 1

2009-11-02T00:28:00.000-08:00

First Assignment: Objects as Subjects

Texture

Pattern

Lines

Form

Shape

Class Exercise A (continued)

2009-10-09T00:32:00.000-07:00

Now, to chose an alternative winner.

This picture won the 2nd prize for Spot News in the World Press Photo Contest.

I like how stark and poignant it is and how the story behind it is equally sad.

The use of black and white adds to the drama of it.

I'm back!

2009-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Better late than never!

About 2 months ago I started on another design module; but this time round, photography was the focus. So without any more delays, I'll go straight into the first class assignment.

Let me first talk about this photo, the grand prize winner of the Smithsonian magazine annual photo contest.

1. Lighting

Beautiful use of light and excellent control. This photo has a wide dynamic range

2. Composition

You would think that this photo consists of 2 scenes but what happened is that the photographer cleverly used the tree to separate it.

3. Subject

You immediately know that this is about fishing. But it gives you a deeper insight into the practice of it in China, from the traditional costume the woman is wearing to the boats.

Bronty!

2009-04-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

Say hello to the cutest dinosaur in NUS!

Well, it is finally over; no more 48 hours photoshop marathons!

A big thank you to my wonderful team mates, Andy, Hilda, Jeremy, Leandro.

We did the impossible. Haha.

Technicolor Asia II

2009-04-17T00:59:00.001-07:00

Color Scheme Baby!

Technicolor Asia

2009-04-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

This is by far the hardest assignment and has taken me quite a while. My initial concept was a mish-mash of Asian elements attacking the West. My ambitions got the better of me and even after a night of sleepless toil, my set was deemed too messy. It was back to the drawing board

In attempt number 2, I cropped the frame to only include the Asian elements. So goodbye twin towers, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. It looked much better but something was missing.

So off I went to photoshop again and twiddled around once more. I changed the text color, stroked it black, shifted its position and wala, it looked better! Still, this is not the end; I gotta mix and match the colors, so give me a break, I'll be back with that.

Pop the Drop II

2009-04-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

UPDATE!

After consultation with Siti and some hours of tweaking later, I present to you the latest incarnation of my anti-suicide campaign poster!

Abstract

2009-03-19T02:32:00.001-07:00

Class Assignment number 2. Use simple shapes to depict certain words

Okay, this is for change.

Pop the drop

2009-03-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit, I had outside help this time. I was searching for inspiration this time round and chanced upon this brilliant poster.

That week, unfortunately, an NTU student committed suicide. So that in turn inspired me (in a rather macabre manner) to produce a anti suicide campaign poster. Here's my first attempt

Okay, you gotta visualize. The falling man is actually cut out and flipped over like in the first poster you see. My kind classmates then pointed out that it looked as if someone pushed the man over. So I tweaked it a little and the final result is below.

But I'm still not satisfied. So if.. and I mean if... if i have time, I will cook up something else

Easiest by far

2009-03-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

Argh, darn you NUS wireless. I have no idea why but it was impossible to upload pictures onto blogger.

After a long time struggling with that, I realised it was the Safari browser. Darn you Mac.

Anyway,I needed to create a photo narrative with 8 pictures.

This was the easiest by far. I'll upload the sketches another time, after I tidy them up. Trust me, you won't want to see them now

So here are the pictures. I'm grateful for the help my friends rendered. :)

Pic, Pict, Picto, Pictogram

2009-03-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Next up we were supposed to create a pictogram. A pictogram is an abstraction. If you are thinking of the toilet signs, yes you are right. Check out some ugly sketches below

Yikes

I wanted to create a pictogram of a Lecture Theatre but it was way too difficult. In a moment of inspiration, I looked at my beautifully crafted MacBook Pro and thought, why not.

Nice.

And so i started abstracting my laptop. Check it out below.

I added the screwdriver only after Monday's critique session. Yup, it was an after thought. Classmates suggested putting it as a sign in the computer co-op, at the repair centre.

And it gets better...

2009-03-09T20:27:00.003-07:00

So after a few disastrous sketches, I came up with something better.

Well, classmates commented that it was pretty difficult to make out my name because it was all jumbled up. So in one final attempt, I came up with one more design...

TADA!

Finally!

2009-03-03T02:29:00.000-08:00

Yes! I guess I'm what, 5 weeks overdue? Okay, so the first assignment involves us designing and conceptualizing our name. I got a few really crappy ideas at the start...

Left: Unwavering, through the elements. Right: wordy, good in English

I sure hope you can understand