Date : 31st March 2008
Time : 1.32PM
Listening to : Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (Yes, I love Hindi movies)
Where : Room

Aih...Been so long since I've blogged here. Basically, almost done with web. But won't post it up yet. Haven't take proper screenshot yet. But here's visual fund. storyboard for Nescafe.


-chen-
[1.36PM]

Labels: Visual Fund2

Date : 18th March 2008
Time : 8.18AM
Listening to : Perfect Moment - Martine McCutcheon
Where : Room

Aih... Finally the layout for project 2. Not too sure if the colours will come out right on your computer screen. For mine it looks fine. Tell me if it works/looks fine from your screen ok?

Labels: WD1 Project2, Web Design 1

Date : 17th Marh 2008
Time : 1.35AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

Did some research for typo regrading design agencies. Instead of doing Leo Burnett, Saatchi&Saatchi, I decided to check up on design agencies that did some good stuff but noobie me never heard of them. Well, I am secretly hoping others will be doing Leo Burnett, Saathi&Saatchi and Ogilvy&Mather tomorrow so that I will know more about them. I did research on the 5 Giants of the Ad Industry but I couldn't really register mch for now. Anyway... I decided to share on these 5 agencies. Check them out.

TBWA
3nitydesign
McCann Erikson
draftfbc
y&r

Dunnoe why my brain is not taking in info well these few days. Kinda feel the stress streaming in. Not because of work to be honest. More to personal struggle in spiritual sense. Gah... Nevermind.

Anyway... I have an awareness video to share.



It's really cool how they send the message across. =)

Anyway... This is my latest webdesign layout. I...don't like it that much. I still think my first try looks fresher. What do you guys think? Wahyu gave his feedback saying it's better cos' it's not bounded by box. Selvia thought it looks less cluttered. Hmmm... They have a point there. But my housemate prefer the previous ones. Hope to hear more feedback. Please do comment yea. Thanks. Below is the main page.


-chen-
[1.48AM]

Labels: On assignment progress, sharing, TDM, WD1 Project2

Date : 16th March 2008
Time : 9.54PM
Listening to : The Only One - Readymade FC
Where : Room

Gonna share on Typograpy and a lil on Interior Design (Cannot help it. My passion =.o). Well anyway, for TYPemotion assignment, I've chosen to do on Child Adoption. So it's a community reach out message. Still considering whether it will be a TV based kind or Internet. But that is not too much of an area to be concerned about. Ok, moving on from the discussion, I had a rough idea on the concept that I will be using. Will talk about it later. So, I did a research on the organization that I will be supporting. Went through several before I decided to settle down with OneWorldAdoptionServices based in America.

Basically, my concept is this:

"Adopting" letter(s) into a negative word to totally change the meaning to something positive.

For example the word "harm". Adding the word C will change it to something positive, "Charm". I hope this example is clear enough to send out the idea. Anyway, the message I want to convey is that adding a child in the family is not necessarily a burden. It can be a blessing. (B+LESS=Bless) Got it? Something like that. So my final tag will be including this:

option when add the letters "ad" = adoption:: Adoption, adding the options to your life::

Something like that. I am still not satisfied with the tagline. Not at all. SO any suggestions? And I've been going through dictionary, one whole bunch of unrelated text and even the Bible to get the inspiration for the words that I am going to use. I actually came out with a couple.

Hate + r= Heart
ward+re=reward
lie+f=life
lie+v=live+s=lives
maze+A=Amaze
kill+s=skill
ordinary+extra=extraordinary
rival+ev=revival
deceive+r=received
bounding+a=abounding
bile+a=alive
heave+n=heaven

I know it's not the best yet. So will really appreciate it for you guys who read the blog to contribute some help here. Thanks.

Continuing on from here, I researched on typo treatment. Check out the videos below. Very interesting use of typo to convey a message. Love the music video. Anyway, initially, my idea of execution is very type-based. meaning there will be no images none whatsoever. But I am considering other methods of execution to fully utilize both. Will update on that later.


Ok..now to my passion. I super in love with these bookshelves lor!!!





There are more here.

And here is the house that I want to bring the attention to. I like. This is the house that has that staircase bookshelf.

Sebastian&Veronika's Rooftop Apartment






Last but not least... A must check-out blog. nicefuckinggraphics.

-chen-
[11.02PM]

Labels: Interior Design, sharing, TDM, Typemotion

Date : 15th march 2008
Time : 6.46PM
Listening t0 : Embrace - Gravity
Where : Room

Gosh...I really cannot draw. That guy is out of proportion. But what the heck. I guess improvement is something to look forward to. K..k...Have to go finish up 4 simplified figures. Neway... will share on typography tomorrow.


And here's something that I've seen long time ago but Tanyus shared a new one that I've never seen. There are many houses that were handmade. I saw a couple in a book in Kinokuniya. And saw one documentary on Astro before. Fantastic architecture. But honestly, by far. This is the best yet. Thanks Tan!

The Nautilus home...





-chen-
[6.57PM]

Labels: On assignment progress, sharing, Visual Fund2

Date : 15th March 2008
Time : 1.06PM
Listening to : ColdPlay - The Scientist
Where : Room

Assignment to be completed this week:-

VisualFund
4 simplified figs
Storyboard rendering

WebDesign
Screenshots to be completed for presentation

Typography
Typography (Storyboard)
Tee Shirt presentation
Company research

DesignMethod
Research for project partB
Submission of I-Map and 2 hardcopy of summary

DigitalMedia
Flash to be completely finished for prototype (Should start scripting)
Script Library (5)

Announcements:
DesignMethod2 class (20/3) will be replaced to Saturday(22/3). 9AM-1PM
Webdesign classes will be switched .
Presentation to be on Wednesday and Tutorial to be on Tuesday.
Trip to National Islamic Museum.

That's about it. And please, do update your blogs guys. And comment on each other's work. Remember that marks will be taken in from our blogs also.


-chen-
[1.15PM]

Labels: Announcement, Assignment Updates

Date : 14t March 2008
Time : 1.14 PM
Where : Room
Listening to : Nothing

This is the screenshots for DigitalMedia2 for my smelly shoes project. There are 2 slides that weren't refined yet. So basically the storyline is that Righty, the smelly shoe was accused of murdering a man in a hotel with its' stinkiness. So user have to go through the evidence room, crime scene, Righty's owner and employer to gather information on this case. Will elaborate more later. Gotta go class liao!












More to add and refined on soon! Gotta start scripting already! x.x!

-chen-
[1.24PM]

Labels: Digital Media 2, On assignment progress

Date : 13th March 2008
Time : 8.15PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

Let me bore you guys with my summary. ^^

Mistakes in Visual Communication (And how it led to Lomography)

Mistakes are generally defined as something bad, negative and unwanted. That is in general. This is human tendency; reject mistakes, reject imperfection. But in the world of design, “mistakes” are not mistakes. Mistakes could be regarded as an element that could push a particular piece of work forward. It really depends on how the designer looks at that particular mistakes made. Mistakes can be defined as an element of unpredictability. It leaves the designer not having a certain amount of control on his/her work. This creates surprises. Most people strive for perfection. But how perfect is perfect? A closer look at perfection will reveal imperfection. For example the period at the end of each sentence. Usually perceived as a perfect circle, if enlarged many times over will reveal jagged sides or smeared. Mistakes create but perfection put a stop to a particular work. There is beauty in imperfection. When things went out of control, the outcome could be surprising. And think about it, no two mistakes are the same. Nobody can achieve the same kind of strokes smeared. Nobody can achieve the same tear line on a fabric. Mistakes are therefore unique. It gives a sense of originality to a designer’s work. Embrace mistakes. Embrace unpredictability. In term of visual communication, mistakes done on purpose are able to convey message that perfection can never deliver. Mistakes give birth to new techniques. A few fine examples are misprinting, dirty (smeared) fonts, and collages. And also, human inability to be perfect always leaves room for creativity to bloom in order to make up for the flaw. Isn’t that what design is all about? Creativity. Finding solution to a problem. Look at “mistakes” in the classic, common formula 1+1=3.
When an original plan is deviated from its path, it may unfold better and more brilliant ideas. Design world in Visual Communication cannot be limited to only what is known to be good and perfect. The main aim of visual communication is to be able to communicate the message to its intended audience. There are still many things to be explored and one of the ways to discovery is through mistakes.
In context of mistakes that brought benefit to the design world, there are far too many to be mentioned. But one of them is Lomography. Lomography term is derived from the word Lomo, a manufacturer name: Leningradskoye Optiko-Mechanichesckoye Obyedinenie in Russia. It was a manufacturer that produced advance optical and medical equipment and also consumer cameras. The Lomo camera is a crappy and bad camera that produces images that has low quality by definition of the photography world. Photographers usually buy a camera that gives good quality pictures that are clear, good color and sharp. But why lomography? It is the low quality pictures that are produced by this camera that gave birth to the new breed of photographers; aptly called the lomographers. Lomographers are so charmed by the unique, colorful and sometimes blurry pictures that the camera produces. The actual attraction of the camera is actually its’ weaknesses. As ridiculous as it may sound, it is true. Vignetting is seen to add uniqueness to photographs, while inaccurate settings open up your creativity. Lomo cameras do produce amazingly beautiful colors although the colors maybe over saturated and the images may be distorted.
Lomography is a snapshot photography. The motto for lomography is “Don’t think, just shoot”. What is interesting about lomography is that the accidents or mistakes are not done on purpose. The weakness of the camera are the factors that tend to over saturate the colors, over/under expose and add noise to the images. But other that the weaknesses that make the lomo camera interesting, there is an advantage too. The camera allows the images to be taken under low light thus it is great to be carried around. Just point and shoot. No composition or lighting to be worried about. Another wonderful fact about lomography is that you can never predict what is the outcome of the snapshot. It is always full of surprises. Although critics may argue that the effects can be achieved through Photoshop, the original lomo is still better because unpredictability yields a more original and diverse result. Not able to be controlled by the user, the work has the freedom to be how it is meant to turn out to be. Lomography not only influenced the photography world but also extended into the cinema/movie industry, Now, how cool is that? Mistakes rock. Lomography rocks harder.

Labels: Design Method 2, On assignment progress, sharing

Date : 13th March 2008
Time : 8.32AM
Where : Room
Listening to : Antara Anyer dan Jakarta- Sheila Majid

First of all...

Labels: Ramblings

Date : 11th March 2008
Time : 7.41AM
Listening to : Water dripping
Where : Room





Hmm... The interface is not exactly finished yet. I totally forgotten about 2 other things to be put in it. The breadcrumbs and also user log in area.Will touch up later on. Well... Anyway... The colours, hmmmm.... I am considering to touch up on that also. Was really in rush of time. Electricity was out yesterday. I have around 2 more sub pages to do. Ok..Anyway, I will now describe my website's navigation.

The main navigation will be on the side. It's very simple and straight-forward. There are 4 other pages besides homepage. The tutorials will be filed under "Ideas+Projects". User can have the option of clicking the link and to browse through what tutorials are there OR choose from the menu tree. Under the "Materials+Tools", there will be a brief introduction to the different materials and tool recommended for projects. Inside this page, there will be an i-frame to hold all the content. For the "Scrapbook" page, there will be image thumbs for user to click on. This page holds the contribution of other users and their work. The image thumb will serve as the link. When clicked, a window pop up will appear and display the work. All the templates and images that will aid the user in projects will be filed under "Download". Here user can click on the image thumb to download the desired templates. Indication of the user location will be shown on the lower right corner. So basically, my site will utilize the side, menu tree, image thumbs, pop up window and breadcrumbs navigation system.

That's all for now. If no images could be seen loaded in this post, it's probably the google server probs. And yea...please comment yea.

Labels: On assignment progress, WD1 Project2, Web Design 1

Date : 5th March 2008
Time : 11.26PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Bro's room

Was doing a research for Design Method. As suggested by Bryan, I decided to finish watching "Helvetica" today. I didn't finish it the last time I started watching it. Something came up. But anyway, as I mentioned in the previous post, I sent an email to David Carson. Honestly, I doubt if I will get the reply. But anyway, I have to find an alternative to my research. ( I did email some friends who are in the design industry to do the survey too and also the students in TOA) So I watched Helvetica even though the title may be unrelated to my scope of topic but they featured David Carson in it, as informed by Bryan. And on the plus side, Stephan Sagmeister too! I am so in love with his design approach. Bold, Daring, and different. Oh...and not to mention the accent he has... Hahaha... Just kidding. But anyway... Besides these 2 designer, the movie featured many others also. And even though they were commenting about the typeface (It's celebrating the 50th birthday), I actually get a handful of insights on the topic of experimentation. It's one of the definition that I am covering in my topic Mistakes in Visual Communication. And David Carson is one of the many people that I am really interested to know more about. Anyway, I am hunting for the book " The end of print"... Oh yea... btw Chris... You will love Sagmeister as well. He loves designing CD covers. Check him out. And his accent... LOL! And yea... for you guys who want a copy of helvetica... Feel free to get it from me. And meanwhile..guys... For you who's doing the same topic as mine, you can check out the short interview with David Carson here.

OH! Btw... Website of the week for me is this... idecorabili... Super duper love this site... Flash of course but check the interface design man. Anyway... I will do another review on the site navigation and content planning in a couple of post to come. Till then, enjoy work!


If I am not wrong... he really have these words cut on his flesh. The first time I saw this work was in a copy of Dazed and Confused. I cringed like mad but now... I got used to it. And now I know it's sagmeister's work.

-chen-
[11.40PM]

Labels: Design Method 2, On assignment progress, sharing

Date : 5th March 2008
Time : 2.30AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

I don't believe it. I just sent an email to interview David Carson for Design method 2. I don;t know why I feel something amiss. It's not a long one. Just 4 simple questions. Hoping for a reply. Anyway, will have to redo my web. Post later.

-chen-
[2.32PM]

Labels: Design Method 2, Ramblings

Date : 4th March 2008
Time : 4.00AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

Finally... Managed to get the layout that I want. But I am still not that satisfied yet. Looks a bit cluttered. There are still some adjustments that I need to do. But for now, I hope to hear some suggestions.


I think some of the elements are too big. Afraid the buttons will be below fold. Will change that. But other than that, my main page will look more or less like this.

-chen-
[4.06AM]

Labels: WD1 Project2, Web Design 1

Date : 3rd March 2008
Time: 12.39PM
Listening to : fan spinning
Where : Room

Ok...first thing first. MM students, please do update your blog on web project 2 progress. And also please post your review and research on navigation. Please do so before tomorrow morning.

Ok... I went through a few websites. Going to do an analysis for some of them. For now, I will post up 2 of the websites first.

AgencyNet Interactive

This is a design company official website. The sort of navigation here is a combination of Image Map, Bottom menu, Image Link, Side Menu and drag+drop style (besides clicking). Homepage will always have 2 types of button navigation. One is the Image Map (the top view of the office) and also the Bottom Menu. User can either click the bottom menu for easy access or they can explore the Image Map. The Image Map is really simple actually. If the room is clickable, the room will glow once and the bottom menu will move a little to show what page link it is.


In the portfolio page, there are also 2 types of button navigation. One is the side menu (on the left) and the other one the bottom menu. The bottom menu is consistent. No matter what page the user is at, the bottom navigation will always be there. So it is unlikely that the user will be lost. For the side menu, the links are to load in the screen area.

This is the culture page. As usual, the bottom navigation is there. And notice the remote control. It's another type of navigation. Although it functions to play and pause the movie, I find it interesting that the designer integrated the real remote control with the buttons. Most of the site that I explored usually just use the YouTube style, where the buttons are below the screen.

This is the news page. Actually when you clicked the link, it does not load this page because the page that will be loaded is in the digital form style. When you clicked the newspaper archive, they will show the news in a more traditional way; the newspaper. And to flip to the next page, user can click and drag the edge of the newspaper. There is another page that I did not screenshot, which is the client list. That page also utilizes the drag and drop navigation. Check out this page. Even though it's using flash, I think the navigation style for the buttons are interesting.

UDirect NYC

This is also another design company. Also flash based but then again, it can be used in HTML also. This site also combines several type of navigation. For the main page, there are one type. The side navigation on the right. Notice the orange button. In this whole website, if the buttons are in orange, it means there are other sub buttons that are collapsed within the main one.

For example this one. When you rollover on the orange button, another list of links will appear. I don't know if this qualify as menu tree or not.

But anyway, just like the one at the top, in this page (studio), the orange button has sub-menu in it. But the "image" button is in grey. But when you click on it, you can choose which picture you want to view. For the grey buttons, you need to click on it to see extra option.

For this page, it resembles the traditional drop down menu but for this site, when you clicked on the spots link, the drop down menu style will be in flash form but it will not collapse back up until you click another main link.

The last type of navigation style that I could find is the thumbnail link. When you click on the image, the picture will enlarge and user can read the info on it.

That will be the end of the my first review. I think the web designer arranged the content and planned the navigation well. Even though there are many types of navigation style used in one page, it does not look cluttered neither did it confused the user.

Now for assignment updates.

Visual Fund2
4 figs
Haunted House

Typo
Presentation for project2

WebDesign1
Show progress in digital form
Research and analysis on navigation
Update your blog on project2 progress

DesignMethod2
Research on your chosen topic

DigitalMedia2
Prototype

That's all for now.

-chen-
[1.21PM]

Labels: Assignment Updates, web analysis, Web Design 1