Project Boards & Summative Project Report

Reflection 4 - 25/02/19

What key objectives need to be done to fully realize remaining project/s currently in production? 

- Animation collaborative project

- Character/branding

- Personal projects: kiosk, youths in Indonesia

- Need to figure out where these images would exist? Apply these images to books, zines etc? 

- The kiosks could be triptych prints. Animate these images (slight movements, gifs) 

How has your work developed starting this module?

- Focusing more on personal work. 

- More confident in style/tone of work 

Does your portfolio of work currently represent your ethos and ambitions as a creative? 

- It represents your ethos: but your ambitions is to go into education so technically doesn't relate to that. 

Other comments. 

- Digital work is really successful

- Postcards of kiosks for Hanbury 

- I have been doing client-based work and live briefs, which I do not particularly mind but eventually it took a toll on myself, causing my work process to be stagnant at some point. I thought of doing a self-directed work to be able to just create and play without restrictions. 

- I think that I need to properly write up a brief for my self-directed project. With a set idea of what I want to do, it will be easier to plan out the remaining time before easter to work on my project. I need to consider what the project is about, what is it for and how images I can create within 7 weeks. I intend to create something that would be informative of my culture and the youth. I don't necessarily think that I want to create 'educative' illustrations. But if people come across my illustration, I would like to give the impact of making people look up about Indonesia.The second step is to decide the applications and where I can see my work in. Possible outcomes: Card sets? Postcards? Moving digital prints? Pins? Print on textiles? 

Reflection 3 - 28/01/19

Discuss ideas for projects to be undertaken for the remainder of this module.

• Time Management
• Prioritise choreo 
• Don't focus too much on a single project
• Animation is really strong - big work? 
• Norwegian Wood (the lino cut design) suits the theme

Is this the direction you want your work to go in? 

• Clients: commercial companies
• Correct pathway to possible prospect jobs

What next?

• Find a personal driven work. Find where your passion lies. 
• Monkey designs for client?
• Logo Design
• Establish project parameters

Other comments.

• Time management. It is crucial since there are various things running at the same time. With doing various brief simultaneously, I may be losing focus on creating work. I need to figure out where my passion lies, what I really enjoy creating and have a smaller project where it solely focus on self-initiated work. I need to find a project that I know I will be invested in and start deciding on what I would like to showcase in my portfolio.

Reflection 2 - 10/12/18

What has gone well?

• Paper cut is really good! Love the collage! The minimal design!
• Monkey character is really successful! Your character development is really strong. If you enjoy this continue it!
• Line stickers are really fun! 

What can be improved on?

• Consider combining mono print texture with paper cut out?
• Add colour to the monkey characters! Play with texture and different mediums
• Keep playing with the Haruki Murakami work: is there a way you can combine digital and paper cut? 

Discuss ideas...

• Look into other live briefs such as YCN? What about the collaborative project? 

Other Comments

• At this point I think that I should finish off the penguin book design and move onto the next project. I think I tend to overwork the piece and think too much about the final image. In terms of the collaborative project, I might consider submitting the work to one of the live briefs as it meets with the theme and guidelines. 

• I think that I have quite a few briefs to work towards, which I quite enjoy doing. Though after a few discussions, I think that I need to have a self-initiated brief or a self-indulgent project. Something I will be interested and invested in. I have been considering to create LINE stickers. Though the context have yet to be decided. I might want to scratch this idea and stick to an Indonesian-based project? I might want to incorporate more of my culture into my projects, which is something I am passionate  about. 

Reflection 1 - 12/11/18

Is your Proposal Viable?

• Don't work on too many briefs, several quick and short ones. Perhaps a longer one?
• Perhaps bring in a personal project? Something not client-based. 

What next?

• Just start think of ideas and creating, sketches, designs etc.
• Research 

Recommendations for research tasks. 

• Start with what you are most comfortable with: the Student Design Award (Norwegian Wood by Murakami)
• Look into Heinz, what is it about etc. 

Other comments

• Campaign, design related work: think about the client or audience. Where and who is this being showed to? 

• The next steps are just to do more research into the projects, the themes as well as the target audience. I need to have a good understanding of the intended audience to find the most suitable tone of voice and visual appeal. I should also start by making roughs and sketches done for the smaller briefs and projects. Just to kick-start everything. 

• So far, I could say that I work better with a set brief, that can be restrictive at times. Though I would also try making self-initiated projects, which would rather be small and quick to do. This would allow me to simply create things for the sake of creating and lets me showcase my own town of voice and practice. I am also open to more collaborative projects as I have done a couple in the past and I enjoyed working with people from other disciplines. Working as a team may be difficult at times, in terms of communication and sometimes clashing in ideas, but through collaborative projects, great work could be made. 

Statement of Intent: Revised

Original Statement: Link

(New) List of Projects: 

*links to specific projects posts

Live Brief

- Student Design Award: Haruki Murakami book cover Link

Client Brief/Commission 

- Start Me Up: Branding Link

- Collaborative animated short Link

Self-Initiated

- Made in Indonesia Project Link

   - Publication/art book about youths in Indonesia (through a local lense)

   - Sticker set

   - Gifs

Changes made: 

Live Briefs: I dropped the D&AD brief and decided to stick to the Student Design Award brief. I decided to focus on that and I felt that I lost focus on the other competition briefs that I initially planned on doing. 

Self-initiated: I decided to use the time for the other live briefs for a longer project. I suppose this is a project that would showcase more of my personal work. Instead of the initial plan of creating smaller self-initiated projects, I decided to create a bigger and longer one where I could just invest my time in and create. 

Who am I?

Slide 3

• I felt the need to do everything, not establishing strong skills/practice.

• I did not have enough confidence, constantly doubting myself and my practice. I tend to constantly think if the work I am producing is enough.

• It took two years to explore my interests and practice. Two years to figure out what I enjoy making. I did not have a complete grasp on my own practice.

Slide 4

• Work efficiency: Digital media. Mainly due to working remotely during the internship. Though I found out that I quite enjoy working digitally. 

• Cogiving - Bye Bye Plastic Bag: I learnt quite a lot interning with this organization. I discovered ways of building a community and business that had purpose behind it. I learnt about art and sustainability, entrepreneur-skills etc.

Slide 5

• Simple shapes: communicating effectively through simple shapes. (But I also want the audience to have their own interpretation of things, based on their own background knowledge.)

• Though at this point, I don't think that I am fixed with a certain aesthetic of tone of voice. This tends to be how I usually (naturally) work. 

Slide 6

• I am really interested in the creative industry, particularly the visual content marketing side. As well as the creative economy, which includes technology and social aspects. Concentrating around products and services that bears creative content, cultural value and market objectives. 

Slide 9

• Aspirations and goals: would be nice to work for a company or agency. I actually enjoy working for the creative aspect of corporate work (eg. marketing, advertising). I think that my practice could lead to a more commercial path. 

• I'd like to think that I am a simple person. I want to illustrate things I am comfortable with. Receiving praise is good, but I have come to understand that being able to accept oneself is important. 

Self-Initiated: Digital Portfolio

Made gifs of selected illustrations (I will never get tired of gifs.)

Art book - 

Setting the illustrations in a publication format seems to work well and is 

visually more coherent. (a proposed layout)

I altered the initial brief (Link) slightly as I wanted to talk about the youth in a broader sense and the final outcome slightly changed from small trinkets to a full book. My only concern about this project is whether the illustrations alone will effectively communicate the content. I have thought about adding text in some of the pages, however I quite like how it turns out untouched and left alone, letting the pictures speak for itself. I wanted people to experience more of the feeling and tone as they go through the pages. 

 I personally don't want to simply create pretty pictures, but I want to tell a story, to educate people about things that are often overlooked and glossed over for tourists. I wanted to show my country through a local lense/perspective. I also wanted to express the mundanity of life, despite being from a completely different country and culture, we are all people, who live our lives like everybody else. 

Final Animation

Human [unravel me] from Diandra on Vimeo.

I have never felt so proud after completing this animation. Working on this project had been quite exciting in terms of doing something completely new, such as animating from scratch. I collaborated with two friends, utilizing each of our strengths (one of them did the choreo and the other worked on the background).

Despite our difference in tone of voice and areas of expertise, everything fits in, after several discussions, trial and errors. We tried to fit the song choice and the concept: telling a story about what it means to be a human -an unwinding, ever-changing individual.

What Next?

Sample sketches. Might turn the small 
illustrations into stickers.

Initial (colored) designs for stickers

Tried to apply my rooster character to a ceramic figurine

I've created several designs, though I think that my next step is trying to communicate the context of my work. I think I might need some text to accompany my illustrations. For instance, I designed these particular pages: 

Real headlines on our local newspapers

"Pabrik/Factory" - I wanted to address
issues about our education system.
It is like a prison for being told what to do
and not allowed to question the authority.

"Dilarang Orang LGBT Masuk Komplek" - "Anyone from the LGBT community are not allowed in this housing complex/neighborhood" 

This is a banner that I saw hung over the entrance into a neighborhood close to my house and I thought it was ridiculous. Seeing that some parts of my society are still conservative about these things.

Sometimes, growing up, I feel like a robot. Everyday, going to school, being talked at, learning for hours at school and after just to meet our parent's expectations and dreams. In some families, children were not able to speak their mind. 

Art References

Based my illustrations on photographs I took when I was back home in Indonesia. I wouldn't exactly consider this a reportage work, however, the content of the illustrations are all based on my experience as well as the people around me.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia - Netflix Documentary: Street Food

Jajan Pasar Moderen - Modern sweet street food

I realized my tone of voice is strongly drawn from my culture in terms of everything inspired by nature such as clothes, food etc. (lots of colors, greens, blue and earthy tones). Even our food tends to be very colorful. The modern sweet street food are often colorful because they are usually for celebrations. 

I am constantly surrounded by color and it's vibrance somehow draws me in.  

Change of plans! (ㆆᴗㆆ) *internally screaming*

Makoto Shinkai - Artbook

• I might create a publication -an art book. I would compile my individual designs I made for this self-initiated project into a book to give more context to my work? 

• Confusion - I hit a stump at where this project was going. I needed direction. I had a lot of source and material to work from but I just couldn't see how I can communicate it all effectively. 

• Throughout this project, I had unnecessary thoughts of not doing enough or being ambitious enough. I suppose this project is one of my biggest challenge for the year because I am not used to being 'set free', to do things my way. I was accustomed to responding to briefs and having set on what to do.

Research & Contextualizing: Indonesian Youths Pt. 2

I decided to ask a friend from high school her decision to wear a hijab (at a young age) and how it has impacted her daily life. 

For the second question, she discussed that nothing really changed because it is quite common in Indonesia and she was being congratulated for it. She is currently doing her undergraduate degree in Singapore and faced a lot of benefits from wearing the hijab. She was initially scared of wearing it because her friends and the community would view her differently for being conservative etc. 

Her concern was that the hijab is a common thing in Indonesia, but it might not be for her circle of friends. Though she states that "it's just all in her head".

I had to block out my
friend's display picture and name
for privacy.

She is a friend from high school and throughout
my life knowing her, she never used a hijab.
The sudden realization fascinates me as there are
mixed opinions towards the hijab,
even back in Indonesia.

Indonesia is a diverse country, with over 300 ethnic groups and 6 recognized religions. Islam, being the majority. There are a lot of communities, though not everyone is conservative. There are Indonesians that consider themselves to be quite liberal. 

Within the Muslim community, women are praised to wear a hijab that at times it could be a problem of pressuring the younger generation into wearing one because it will make them a "better Muslim". I, myself, is a Muslim, though often I get comments saying that I am not a 'good' Muslim for not wearing the hijab or not following some of their 'rules', even though I equally believe the same things they do. 

It is a difficult society to be in and to fit in. Things such as the LGBT community, converting religions (or not having a religion at all. it is a MUST to have a religion in our citizen ID) and mental health are often not seen in a positive light. I think I could feel it even more as someone from the younger generation, things change but the majority hasn't. 

Research & Contextualizing: Indonesian Youths

As much as Indonesia is rich culture, flora and fauna, the society is terribly behind times and it is something that is not often discussed in public. The country isn't open to its citizen on discussing 'controversial' issues due to rules and regulations -we are not given enough freedom of speech.

Older generation & younger generation: there is a huge gap between these two generations in terms of culture and traditions. We still have a strong sense of seniority and it is important for us to keep our traditions. Some Indonesians from the older generations are known to be conservative. Whereas the younger generation have adapted a more progressive and liberal mindset due to Westernization and access to information (internet, world news etc).

The youths however nowadays are more willing to 
stand up for what they think is right

Topics such as the LGBTQ+ is a 'taboo' back in Indonesia and it is something that isn't exactly celebrated (Aceh: a city in the Sumatran island, would resort to public flogging if a couple of the same sex would be seen being intimate https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/01/asia/indonesia-teens-publicly-flogged-for-cuddling-intl/index.html). Slandering or portraying the government in a negative light is also a big no. 

Not only do young Indonesians face pressure from society, but also from their own families. It is important for us to maintain our family's honor and success is everything. I have been in education for so long (17 years). On top of school, we are also expected to have extra-curricular classes (such as math tutoring, sports, piano lessons etc) after school. Being educated is highly celebrated. The quality of eduction on the other hand, is not so great. Most private schools get international curriculums, though the government run ones doesn't give students the education they deserve. We are taught by strictly by the textbook and do multiple exams, not giving the youth space to grow and achieve. (schools are like a factory)

Leading back to those conservative views, where Indonesians are known to purely listen to their community, word of mouth and not do enough research -not wanting to know more. Though this attitude can be explained by the collective nature of the society but also societal pressure. This is problem of having a closed mindset is addressed by a talk below:

Up coming presidential election. A lot of young people
are thinking of abstaining from voting

The granddaughter of Indonesia's former 
vice-president 

This is a side that I want to disclose to the public about the difficulties of being a youth in Indonesia. However, this DOES NOT apply to ALL Indonesians.

Clients: I Stress ಥ_ಥ

A not so 'quick project' - I didn't hear back from them for over 2 weeks, though I eventually managed to get through to them. I didn't touch this project for a while until I got a green light from them.

what they like instead

what I made and like

• Communication is key -this had been the highlight of the project. There were several emails going back and forth simply deciding how the character will look like and how many designs they wanted. There is a 7 hour difference between us, so the communication got a little bit stagnant at some point

• Design - they left most of the creative decisions to me, though I had to adapt to their wants and change the way I illustrate things. Though, I honestly I wasn't too bothered by this. There were a lot of directions about the movement and angles of the character, but I preferred being given directions than being left to my own devices.
• Pricing - copyright laws and rates differ in Indonesia, so I had to adjust to local rates there

Challenges (￣^￣)ゞ

Choreography by Anastasia Widya. We had to film before 

hand, cutting and editing the different angles before 

rotoscoping to get the optimum animations

• One of the challenges was meeting the wanted tone of voice, aesthetic and purpose/use. Though overall, the visual aspect of this project met with everyone's criteria and expectations

• Collaborative work: there were no major issues with working together. We had similar workflows, but there is a constant going back and forth of changing some bits here and there. 
• Thoughts on pros and cons of collaborative work is double the brain but sometimes double the pain (communication wise due to being based in different countries)

backgrounds edited by Brenda Muliawan

Almost there

Rotoscoping the credits to have that similar effect with
the main animation

Moving the compiled animation from after effects to
premiere pro to do the final touch up on the audio

• It was a challenging project but a very rewarding one. Since this was a collaborative work, the only issue I had was the difference in 'style' and aesthetic. Though we worked around it and was able to incorporate each of our tone of voice into the animation. 

• I had opted for a more simple, line and shape based animation for the dancer, keeping it relatively abstract at a point in the narrative. My colleague pitched in a texture based background, which thankfully complemented the whole composition since we didn't know how it would turn out as worked on the animation (rotoscope and background) separately.  

screencaps of the animation

Monoprint for the background

Wrote myself a little brief

Brief: Indonesian Youths 

What is it about? 

This project will revolve around the idea of youth and the current generation. I want to focus on the themes of 'home' and ‘ngopi’ as it is an integral aspect to our culture, to just sit around, hold conversations, take it slow and enjoy life. 

Food is a large part to Indonesia culture, but it is mostly about socialising and sharing stories over the table with your family and friends. The young ones listen to their elders and learn about the culture and the past. 

What story do I want to tell? 

It’s about story telling and preserving heritage. I want to educate people through my illustrations. 

How will it look like? 

A package? A letter to introduce people to Indonesia. 

Includes: 

• stamps (for post/mail)
• postcards (landmarks, flora/fauna) 
• maps (places to go/see, food) 
• cards (with known characters “tokoh” “pahlawan”)
• poster 

2018 Tourism Ad. I would also like to look 

emphasize on the diversity of our country.

I never felt so proud

Song: Unravel Me - Claudio Sabrina

• It felt like a large feat because I have never animated anything like this. I am used to creating simple gifs with subtle movements, but that is pretty much what I can do. My only concern is that this animation is taking longer than I originally anticipated. I would also still need to consider the color and overall aesthetic. I roughly sketched up an idea, however we have yet to test it whether it would suit our commissioner's tone of voice and the 'story' they want to communicate. They simply wanted us to animate their freestyle choreography. 

rough ideas for the color scheme
and textures

Haruki Murakami Book covers

Design 1

Design 2

• I am quite set with these two designs. They both have quite different tone of voices. Both are minimal and sleek. The second design however might lack the vibrant colors of the first design, communicating the more quiet and sentimental tone of the book. What draws me into the second design is the texture of the lino print.

• Typography wise, I am leaning towards a more handwritten and organic aesthetic, drawing from the idea of Toru when writes letters to Naoko. 

• I am currently torn between the two designs. Each designs have their own strong elements. Though in terms of a book cover, I am leaning towards the first design, being more surreal and vibrant in color. Something I would like to convey.