Wood picks exercise - Essential photoshop skills

To add on to our photoshop skills, we were taught on an advanced type of editing - Masking. The the large text is an example of a Clip mask, accessible by overlaying it on a the image, at the drop down menu at the side on the layers panel, clicking on "create clip mask".

The fade out effect of the image is with the use of the brush tool, setting the brush hardness to "0" and to a large size. This causes the image to seem like it has faded out, but in fact it only blended with the white background of the image.

The "see-through" effect is the product of the clip masks used. In my case, I decided to edit the layout a little to my own liking, and here is my final product:

Web Development - Dreamweaver

Web developing requires more than just designing of the page, but there's more than just design itself.

But before we start on the real stuff, it's always better to have a rough idea of the webpage, otherwise known as a site map. It basically gives the whole idea of the content within the webpage so that it'll be easier to work into the designing parts later.

Site map of The Halia:

Dreamweaver is an application to allow us to put up a webpage together. It allows a preview of the page as well, which is really really helpful because it can help us to gauge how the webpage design and functions are progressing.

The Dreamweaver interface includes a series of options to select from. From site architecture to CSS options, to creating tables and changing of background colours. There are also several added interactivity, like creating rollovers for the cursor and linking to different pages.

We learned how to do slicing in photoshop which turns into buttons for the webpage when you transfer the file over to Dreamweaver.

Slicing with photoshop: 

After linking with Dreamweaver, on preview on Safari:

Gif animation with photoshop

Today during class, we were taught how to do gif animations with the use of photoshop. It never occurred to me that photoshop is capable to help you create gif animations. I've always thought that photoshop is only limited to editing photos.

With the use of Timeline under the Windows panel, we are able to create animations through a series of overlapping layers and adjusting the time frames for each layer.

The first assignment, we attempted a countdown gif animation.

The second assignment was to create an animated banner. Both the assignments were similar as they only make use of the layers and  the timeline. However the second one required extra steps, such as editing the opacity of the layers at different time frames to make the objects appear and disappear, not only overlap each other.

Open House - Nanyang Polytechnic

During the Open House period, we were given a mission to visit the several Polytechnics in Singapore and give a review on their open house tactics, with some questions in mind to answer.

So my group and I decided to visit Nanyang Polytechnic.

Some questions posed to us:

What is the THEME and the MESSAGE?

Judging from the way the main banner at the atrium was designed, it seemed to me like they designed it in a form of a map. Although not illustrated and put across clearly. Message was to "choose your own adventure".

Is it EFFECTIVE? What makes it effective? What worked? Why?

I felt that it wasn't very effective because it wasn't very highlighted and emphasised on.

Do you like it? Why/Why not?

The concept of the idea is good, however lacked of efforts to publicise the main idea behind it. Thus it wasn't really clear and didn't seem to me like they had any message or theme to the Open House except to really just sell their courses through the very conventional style: direct marketing.

What could be done to improve it? Can you suggest IMPROVEMENTS to it?

Put more emphasis on the messages and theme. More banners to be placed around the school and maps to guide the students around. Thing about their Open House is that it is really easy to get lost in that area because directions weren't really clear. Perhaps hire more student volunteers to station themselves around the campus to point out the area to roam and the designated areas of the open house.

Was there anything in particular that was INNOVATIVE and really caught your attention and impressed you?

Honestly, I wasn't very impressed by anything. However I found it really nice that they held a series of performances in their shared Atrium where they have new performances in every hour ranging from singing to dancing etc etc.

Would you recommend SP to use this and why?

Yes, this allows the freshmen to see the fun side of SP, as well as expose them to the various CCAs or performing arts we have in SP. Hence could urge them to want to be a part of us as well.

How did it engage you?

It was entertaining, not just going there to read on their brochures etc which could be quite boring after some time. To add on, they have really talented students who can dance and sing really well.

Mint - Museum of Toys

The Mint - Museum of Toys, located at 26 Seah Street, Singapore. Its showcases a mass variety of vintage toys ranging from the 19th to 20th century, from not only Singapore, but also places like United Kingdom, Japan, United States, etc etc. Mint stands for "Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys"

There are many various types of collectibles under different categories. On level 2, there are a whole range of china-made toys from around the world. As well as rare collectibles. 

E.g. The beetles

As we move up, on level 3, there are our childhood favourites. We have the largest teddy bear collection and also my favourite, Mickey Mouse! It's really an eye-opener because the modern Mickey Mouse no longer looks like its retro toy figurines.

On level 4, we move on to characters. Here's the home to the largest Batman toys and collectables collections, Astro Boy and also Popeye the sailor man!!!!! I remember sitting by the couch and always tuning in to Popeye on the television where he would eat his spinach and become strong to wipe out the bullies. Oh, the memories.

Last but not the least, level 4 - Outerspace

On the shelves there were all sorts of robots, spaceships and pistols, which seemed very futuristic to me, (with context back to their time when they were made).

All in all, it's a very enriching tour in the museum and it opens up my eyes to the different kinds of designs and ways a toy can be made. The use of colours and shapes that are still intriguing even up till now when new toys are replaced.

It's a relief that there are still such museums around to keep these toys alive and to give them a home!

CA2

For our CA2, we were given many photos to work with. Of which we would still have to edit on our own to make them look the way we want them to fit into our own brochure. This involved working with photoshop and even illustrator sometimes. Creating a brochure sounds like a pretty fun task but working on it really requires a lot of patience. For you can't work on the arrangements if you don't have the layout yet. 

We have to firstly draw out guidelines to ensure that the texts and photos would fall in place neatly. Then, slowly, like piecing a puzzle together, placing the photos and texts in. Also, creating a brochure doesn't only mean a nice design. The content (although already provided) has to run smoothly too. In order for that to happen, I had to think twice of where to place certain paragraphs so that took some time. The font type and colour also mattered because I had to make sure the background isn't too overwhelming and causing any discomfort or difficulty for the reader to browse through.

The inspiration of the design came from several brochure samples I’ve collected. I chose to paint the background blue because according to my research, it is proven that blue creates a sensation of trust and dependability. I also infused hues of the same range like indigo and purple, which shows integrity, sincerity, quality and creativity. The planes on the front cover show how they are able to connect the readers to the world. The spirals on the background suggest the trails left by the planes, which connects all the information on the brochure.

The spirals initially looked different from how it does in my final submission. That was because I created it in Adobe Illustrator. It all worked and fitted well until I exported my Indesign file into PDF form and the spirals just disappeared. It left me panicking for quite a long while because I didn't know what I could do. Thus final decision was to recreate them on Indesign itself. However it didn't look as fantastic as it did when I created it using illustrator. But I'm glad it looked fine.

Here's my final submission!!!

  

Brochure samples: Inspiration

This brochure may seem simple from the first look, but upon flipping it open, you realize that it’s shape actually takes after the brand logo. I find this brochure simple yet innovative. The use of minimal colors ensures it is not too overwhelming for the readers to read. However I feel that the way the brochure is compiled could be a little too complicated and readers wouldn’t know where to start reading.

This brochure is arranged in neatly. Everything is very clear-cut and it is easy to browse. The use of the different shades of green keeps it even simpler.

This brochure has a wide spectrum of colors, which draws attention from readers. The way the information is arranged is also very creative, but still kept to the minimal. Although filled with colors and shapes, the texts are still arranged neatly. However, since it is colorful throughout, the important points were not highlighted enough.

Taking these brochures into consideration, I could make use of these ideas and infuse them into my own work in my own way.