Digital Photography and Imaging | Week 8 - Project 2B progression
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING GCD 61204
Name: ISAAC YAW WAI ZAC
ID: 0343197
Course: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Module: Digital Photography and Imaging // Mr. Fauzi Yusoff
Course: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Module: Digital Photography and Imaging // Mr. Fauzi Yusoff
Group: A
WEEK 8: PROGRESS ON PROJECT 2B
Week 8 was a mid-semester break/ self-learning week and therefore, no classes were conducted and we were all told to continue to work on our project 2B whilst constantly getting feedback from Mr. Fauzi Yusoff through private messages in the Google Classroom chatbox.
For better consistency, I documented all my progress for project 2A in weeks 5, 6 and 7, but all my progress for project 2B in this week (week 8).
To obtain the links:
Digital Imaging exercise 1 (photo manipulation) - Week 5
In project 2B (poster design), we are assigned to create an A4 sized poster with the theme of 'MENTAL HEALTH - Stay positive during this pandemic'. To kickstart the project, we were given a shared 'Google Slides' tab to constantly update our progress with our lecturer with the given outline. With that, I will do my very best to document my progress in completing project 2B in this blog as organised as possible.
1. Research about the topic
In the research process, I used the help of online sources such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Google to loos for sample posters, whether they have a similar theme or not. The guidelines are given by Mr. Fauzi Yusoff and are shown below:
1. study and gather all related information about your topic
2. write a summary about your topic
3. highlight the key points of your summary
4. define the title
5. define the slogan
6. define the details
7. define the call for action
With the help of this guideline, I have a general idea of making a poster that is related to awareness and indirectly sending an important message to all viewers to stay positive during the pandemic. I had the initial thought of going with a photograph or photography-related poster because I like to take pictures and I think that this would help me out with this project. However, I would also like to try out using digitalised poster designs as they could work better when they are in minimalistic form or in a colour scheme that is easier to be made compared to photography. After some research, I came up with a summary of what my poster would be about and also documented some examples I found from online sources.
Figure 1.1: Poster inspiration #1 (Photography)
Figure 1.2: Poster inspiration #2 (Photography)
Figure 1.3: Poster inspiration #3 (Digital)
Figure 1.4: Poster inspiration #4 (Digital)
Figure 1.5: Poster inspiration #5 (Digital)
2. Summary about the topic
Intro - My idea for this poster is to let everyone know about the stress in which all the students are facing when having classes and exams online at home because they are unable to learn and study in a proper environment and to meet friends.
Paragraph 1 - As a goal to this poster, we are here to spread positivity to tell all readers/students that online classes are fun too, with the help of proper learning tools, time management, spending some time to socialise through different online platforms, and most importantly, taking proper rests in between studies.
Paragraph 2 - Another message to be delivered is that we must take care of our health because it is more important and a positive mindset is a healthy mindset to build continuous motivation to move forward, we will also provide the convenience to join our big social group where every student can hop around different platforms and servers so that they can meet new friends who share the same hobby/interest.
Summary - The overall message and goal are to hope that we can build a positive and healthy mindset for all students to overcome stress because health is a priority and providing the platform to meet new friends.
3. Highlighting key points from the summary
Title - Take care of your mental health
Slogan - Let your brain rest
- Don't let one negative thought ruin your day
Details - Having a hotline/link to students' group to consult/enquire if any counselling is needed
Call for action - An awareness message to let students feel better and less stressful by taking rests and stay positive with their daily activities. To enhance this effect of spreading positivity, we will have a QR code/link which brings students into a big social group to meet new friends.
- Build a positive and healthy mindset now/today!
- Spread positivity not stress!
4. Progress (Sketch)
As suggested by Mr. Fauzi, we have to always start by having rough sketches so that our ideas can be visualised when it is made in its final form. For the sketches, I had about 3 general ideas at first but then I decided to generate 6 different sketches when going into the consultation session in week 6 to get some feedback from Mr. Fauzi before proceeding with the digitised poster or photography session for the poster. Based on the guides provided by Mr. Fauzi, we were assignned to also make rough sketches for our title(s), slogan, and call for action. All of my sketch progress were documented down below:
Figure 4.1: Progress #1 for project 2B - Sketches (as of 1st October 2021)
Figure 4.2: Title sketch (as of 1st October 2021)
Figure 4.3: Slogan sketch (as of 1st October 2021)
Figure 4.4: Call for action sketch (as of 1st October 2021)
With the feedback given by Mr. Fauzi on week 6's session, he agreed and chose the 1st or 3rd sketch designs to be generated. All of his specific feedback is documented in the feedback section down below.
Design #1
With the green light given by Mr. Fauzi Yusoff for me to continue with my progress, I took his advise and did more than the only design he selected so that I could see how they would turn out and to be compared to chosse the final product. This is also a good practivce of having trial and error method to be done so that we could learn and experience more along the process in the poster development.
For the design #1, I want to deliver a message saying, 'do not ruin your day with just one negative thought' because it will constantly mmake us feel down and stressful altough our day has been going great, but it is ruined by just one sad/negative thought. To illustrate this poaster design, I went and search for items that I could utilise and represent our brain. maybe, objects with vibrant or brighter colour can represent the positive things while one dull colour can be used to represent the negative thought(s). After some brainstorming, I thought about either using crumpled papers or Lego pieces to create a shape that can deliver the message I want to deliver. When conducting hte photoshoot for this composition, I took an A1 sized white paper to be used as a backdrop and used a white lamp to be used as light source. Then, I poured some yellow Lego bricks to create a human silhouette while using a different coloured brick to symbolise the negative thought. I also tried out different composition by creating a brain silhouette, but I prefer the human design.
Figure 5.1: Progress #2 for project 2B - development of design 1 (as of 5th October 2021)
Figure 5.2: Progress #3 for project 2B - development of design 1 (as of 5th October 2021)
Design #2
For design #2, I would also want to conduct a photography session by taking pictures of items to represent the message I want to deliver. This design composition is the one Mr. Fauzi chose in week 6's class session in which I want to demonstrate the message of 'LET YOUR BRAIN REST'. The general idea is to take picture of a cup with a cool drink and then using the Adobe Photoshop software to paste a brain in the drink to show that we should chill and take a break.
Figure 5.3: Examples of cool drinks as reference for photography (as of 7th October2021)
Figure 5.4: Progress #4 for project 2B - development of design 2 (as of 7th October 2021)
Design #3
For design #3, it would be similar to design #2 because I did not really like how design #2 turned out. Instead, I changed location to my backyard where there are plants and good lighting from the sunlight. I then took some photos of other items to see how they would turn out and see whether they would fit into this poster. The general idea fur the subject that would be finalised for this design #3 is by using a mug and then using the Adobe Photoshop software to cut and paste a cool drink and a brain into the mug to symbolise 'Taking a break' or 'Letting our brain take a rest'.
Figure 5.5: Progress #5 for project 2B - photography session for design #3 (as of 9th October 2021)
Figure 5.6: Progress #6 for project 2B - Editing design #3 (as of 9th October 2021)
Figure 5.7: Progress #7 for project 2B - Adding smoke effect (as of 9th October 2021)
Design #4
Finally, we have design #4, where I would be trying out digitised poster in a minimalistic form to see how it would turn out. This design is based off of design no.5 in Figure 4.1 above. To make it better, I tried out diffrent colour cna background varioations so that I can have multiple compositions to be comapred before finalising it and to be submitted. In this overall design #4 idea, I want to demonstrate a chill night effect to tell us to get proper sleep and rest so that we do not overwork and do not push ourselves through our limit that can harm our health. Therefore, I used a moon, stars, and Photoshop myself sitting on the moon to show that I am enjoying/resting/meditating.
Figure 5.8: Progress #8 for project 2B - Digital poster (as of 10th October 2021)
6. Progress (Composition overview and selection)
This process is the compilation of all my design layouts (pre-compositions) before I proceed with finalising with one design after selecting the best and most meaning ful poster out of all the compositions. At this stage, I was ready and prepared to receive feedback from Mr. Fauzi Yusoff regarding which composition to choose when going into week 7's class session.
Figure 6.1: Compositions overview (as of 10th October 2021)
Figure 6.2: Compositions overview (as of 10th October 2021)
7. Progress (Finalising selected composition)
From the feedback obtained from Mr. Fauzi Yusoff in week 7's class session, he liked my composition #6 as shown in Figure 6.2 above. This is because of its minimalism and can be utilise to deliver an important message even with such minimal and aestetically pleasing photography element. I totally agree with him on this comment and therefore, I then proceeded to make a few minor changes to make the composition even better such as the positioning of texts, good font, and also a better title.
When Mr. Fauzi chose composition #6, I immediately thought about using another title that would fit this design perfectly, that is 'Don't let one negative thought ruin your day'. It totally fits the entire theme of using yellow Lego bricks to 'make up' the entire human silhouette as to show that there are so many positive things that are going through our life, and then using a blue Lego brick to show how one small negative thing/thought can ruin our entire day/week/month. I also added a QR code at the bottom of the poster to allow viewers to scan and enter our big social group to meet new friends. A further explanation about this will be documented in the poster description down below.
Then, I proceeded to select and download a few fonts (a total of 12) to be used in my poster to then be finalised. Out of all the 12 font designs, Mr. Fauzi suggested me to go with font design #9. I totally agreee with his comment because my 3 most favourite fonts when doing the comparison were designs #5, #9, and #11.
Figure 7.1: Font exploration/comparison (as of 18th October 2021)
Figure 7.2: Font exploration/comparison (as of 18th October 2021)
Then, I converted the selected font design #9 into Adobe Photoshop again to then make the final touch ups such as repositioning hte titles so that they would not overlap the Lego/subject. Other than that, I also used the overlay tool and selected soft light after colouring black colour over the blue Lego piece to further enhance the effect of that piece representing negative thoughts. With that, I am done with this project and it is ready to be submitted.
Figure 7.3: Progress #9 for project 2B - final touch ups (as of 21st October 2021)
8. Final poster design
Figure 8.1: Final poster design & submission in JPG (as of 21st October 2021)
Figure 8.2: Final poster design & submission in PDF (as of 21st October 2021)
Poster Description
As a description to explain why this poster is made, it is a poster to send a deep message and also to spread awareness to the public, especially students because they are constantly stuck at home during this pandemic. Due to this scenario, classes, group discussions, and the overall learning experience will become very stressful because of so many limitations such as the learning environment, learning tools, and not being able to meet friends. Therefore the message we would like to spread to the viewers/students is that you are not the only one, and do not be stressed by overworking. Instead, we should keep a constant positive mindset to keep ourselves going and productive. That is why our main title is 'Don't let one negative thought ruin your day', and the slogan is 'Spread positivity, not stress'. As a call to action for this poster, we also provided a QR code so that students can scan and join our large social platform that has multiple servers for us to join as desired. These platforms will then consist of students/people who share the same interest/hobby and allowing them to meet new friends. The overall design is photography-based, and I went with utilising Lego pieces to show that our entire life is filled with so many happy elements/stories/people, so why let that one negative thought ruin your day. Stay positive!
Feedback from lecturer
Week 6 - In this week, we all attended the class consultation session with our progress of design or layout sketches. based on the 6 sketches that I have done at this point, Mr. Fauzi Yusoff, said that all of my design sketches were very well done and said that I can develop any of them. However, he also said that I could try out designs #1 and #3 first to see how they would turn out before progressing onto the next stage. Other than that, he also agreed on all my title/slogan/call to action as they are very fitting with the design sketches.
Week 7 - In this week, I have already made progression for most of my sketches and I attended the consultation session, prepared with 6 different compositions to obtain Mr. Fauzi Yusoff's feedback on which composition I should pick and then to be finalised. Based on his feedback, I should choose composition #6 because it is simple but well-composed. Therefore, it would stand out more when compared to the other designs and it delivers a very good message when viewed by viewers.
Week 8 - This is a self-learning week and therefore, I consulted Mr. Fauzi Yusoff personally through private messages. Some of his feedback on my progress in this week were such as I could improve on my font selection for the wordings/titles, and I should maintain a balanced spacing when creating the composition.
Week 9 - This is the final week for this task and it needs to be submitted by the end of this week. In my final progress, I created a layout of 12 different font designs and from his feedback, I should go with design #9. I myself also agreed with his comment on this because of its minimalistic look whilst being visible and easy to be read. Other than that, I should be careful on my title spacing because overlapping is not desirable in designs like these. After making these minor changes, I then submitted the final work.
Project reflection
As a short reflection on this project, I can say that I have improved in my creativity and ability to make changes based on comparison and brainstorming. I felt very productive and happy with the overall progress because I managed to create many different designs and compositions (both photography and digital) to then be compared and selected for the final composition. It was a very fun and challenging progress because all the digital and photographed poster compositions allowed me to learn and improve in both physical and digital aspect when it comes to design process, which includes design exploration, research, brainstorming, progression, feedback reflection, design documentation, and obtaining experience.
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