Design Principle Exercise 5 (Symbols and Typography)

WEEK 5
Chan Meiling 0337771
Design Principles/ Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media/ Taylor's University/ Exercises 5

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For this exercise, we are required to come out with one arbitrary symbol by using any media we like and one typography collage by cutting out from magazines or any found objects.

Symbol:

- A sign, shape, or object that is used to represent something else

-  provide or convey information, equivalent to one or more sentences of text, or even a whole story

Types of symbols

PICTORIAL SYMBOLS - Image-related and simplified pictures.

ABSTRACT SYMBOLS - Can look like the objects that they represent but have fewer details. (different from abstract art)

ARBITRARY SYMBOLS - Have no resemblance at all to the objects or the ideas they represent. Invented and constructed. Many are based on geometric shapes and colours. We have to learn arbitrary symbols.

Visual Research Images:

Visual Research for Typography and Imaginary:

 

Idea sketches and Explorations:

 

For arbitrary symbols, I have decided to create symbols of some of the pet peeves I have. The reason why I have decided to choose to create symbols for my pet peeves is that sometimes I really hope that will be an existing sign to restrict or tell people not to do things that really irritate me.

For the first sketch I have is actually to symbolise the nail-biting habit. I wanted to make the finger to look like a cigarette bud that is painted. I got this idea because my sister used to have a bad habit of biting her nails when she is feeling stressed out. To avoid biting her nails, she found a way to stop it by doing manicure regularly.

The third sketch I did was about people overusing hashtags on social media. I wanted to make the hashtags to form a pattern.

For the fourth sketch is one of the things that annoys me a lot which is people chewing with their mouth open or even speaking with a mouthful of food.

The fifth sketch is about excessive public display affection that makes me feel uncomfortable. My idea for this sketch is to draw two faces using lines only. However, it is quite mainstream so I decided not to try this out.

The last sketch symbolises no wolf-whistling. The sign on the left actually is an existing symbol of alpha wold pack. I added a music note to convey the whistling part. However, I did not really like this idea too because there is already an existing symbol in it.

Collage Exploration:

For this collage, I have cut out the horoscope information about Capricorn and I thought the information is quite interesting and decided to used it instead. I also added pictures cut out from magazines like cactus because people normalise Capricorn as people who looks hard to get close with them if you don't know them well. However, I find there's nothing much to explain and decided to try another collage work. 

Final artwork for Arbitrary symbol:

For this arbitrary symbol, it symbolises the bad habit of people peeking at other's phone on the subway or bus that really annoys me. The shapes and form of the symbol are actually like two light lamps with eyes on it. One of the lamps has its eye looking down looking at a phone while the other facing towards the lamp next to it while peeking. For the colour of this symbol, I chose to include three colours only which is violet, yellow and white. The reason why I chose violet and yellow these colours are complementary colours so I would they'd be a good colour combination and create contrast in it.

Final Artwork for Typography and Imaginary:

For this collage work, the feeling that I am trying to express is written on the top which is feeling Fabulous. I have chosen a picture of a model with orange hair because she looks so bold and confident. I wanted to emphasise on the model and the hands holding the lipstick. Besides, I have also added a pair of heels at the two sides of the model faces so that it'd look like a pair of earrings. The reason why I chose the picture of heels, earrings and lipstick is that I feel like these items make most women feel confident and good about themselves while wearing it. Also, I added the wordings such 'body' and 'talk' because I feel like we can actually if someone is feeling fabulous and confident by the way they speak and through their body languages as well.

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FEEDBACK

After showing Dr Jinchi my idea sketches, she said that she could actually relate to some of the pet peeves I have. She said that my second sketch idea is better compared to the rest of the sketches I've had and it would be better if I try it out. For my collage work, she reminded me to be careful with the empty spaces in an artwork.

OVERALL FEEDBACK

Exercise 5: The symbol you designed have a sense of colour and composition, well explained in the rationale. As for image and words, they match the context of your message.

Overall blog: Organised with clear headings. Documented weekly notes, reflection and feedback well.

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REFLECTIONS

After this week's class, I get to understand more about symbols which I have actually never paid much attention to the differences between the types of symbols before this. For typography and imaginary, I actually took quite a long time to arrange and figure out how to put the pictures together and expressing or giving information about the typography that I have chosen which I find pretty fun but quite challenging at the same time.