Well then, this is the first assignment that was handed out to the people in NM2208. This assignment truly stumped me. I have never been an artist nor liked drawing. Coming out with a concept was truly a horrendous activity for me. Many hours were spent thinking extensively for the perfect concept.
The first assignment, titled "Me, Myself and I", is an introductory exercise to help students learn basic tools and process of designing and presenting. As such, for the first week's tutorial, we are required to present our initial rough sketches and thumbnails. From these initial products, we are to filter out the two better concepts and expand on them.
This is my initial experiment.
As you can see, we are supposed to incorporate our names into the concepts which we have chosen. For example, if Luke likes "the wilds", as seen in the last example from the picture above, I am supposed to incorporate Luke along the lines of anything related to "the wilds".
The assignment goes like this -
1. My name is Luke and I hate ____.
2. My name is Luke and I like ____.
I was trying to experiment with my different likes and dislikes. The first drawing in the picture is "light". The second one is snow, which I chose in the end. The third one is music, and finally the last one is "the wilds". Experimentation here is good because it allows me get a stepping stone towards which I can start on. This also makes my work easier than if I had gone straight into selecting a concept straight from the first sketch I do.
After much experimentation, I decided to use "Snow" as my like and "Ants" as my dislike. After presenting my initial sketches to my tutorial group, I decided to bank on the two concepts since they agreed that these two concepts are more interesting. I also thought they can be much more easily conveyed than the other concepts. Hence, voila!
More roughs and sketches of the concepts I presented in the tutorial on the first stage:
and this:
and this:
Finally, the end concept is this:
As you can already decipher from the concept, the assignment goes like this -
1. My name is Luke and I hate ____.
2. My name is Luke and I like ____.
Like in the picture, Luke hates ants. Luke doesn't want anything to do with ants and he fears them enough to shudder and hide away from them. I was told by my fellow group mates that the first one was better in that it conceptualizes the fear brought about by a single ant. Well I don't know, I like the second one as much.
The second concept was further developed from the first, and I thought giving it a 3-dimensional effect where the ants were surrounding Luke (me) would present a clearer picture of the fear of ants. I felt that this would create a better emphasis on the "fear of ants" which I have, with the ants surrounding Luke. This time, I presented the name "Luke" in light blue because I felt that blue was a colour that symbolized fear, or cold. With that symbolic meaning in mind, I did a colour gradient from the bottom to top, giving the name a "fearful" look.
This concept was kept simple, which I believe should be, so as to convey an effective and powerful message to the viewer. This is because, I believe, that complexity in design will only serve to complicate the message.
