Assignment 1 - Me, Myself and I

This week, I learnt about concept development (conceptualization and concept evaluation) and prototyping in the creative phase. Basically, this phase consists of:

1. Conceptualization: brainstorming and thumbnail sketches
2. Concept evaluation: rough sketches of chosen thumbnails
3. Prototyping: developing the rough sketches into digital presentations

Brief

For Assignment 1, I have to select two words which best describe my character. The words could be about likes, dislikes, hobbies, or anything else that represents me. That is, word A and word B.

The procedure will go as such:

1. Create 4 concepts for each word (manipulate the objects in the concepts into letters of my name)
2. Choose one concept from each word and develop into two full-scale roughs (total four roughs)
3. Choose one rough from each word and create a prototype

Objectives:

Understanding and internalizing… design process, idea generation techniques, basic production techniques

Thought process

I could not decide on any particular interest that I could possibly manipulate into taking the form of my name. Almost everything is possible, but which should I pick? In the decision-making process, there were a few criteria that I used to shortlist my choices.

Interest:
1) Frequency: What would qualify as an interest? Does that mean that I do it often because I enjoy it, or have done it a few times, enjoyed it and would like to do it again?
2) Colourful: Whatever I pick has to be colourful. Bright, bold colours.
3) Workable: There should be enough items for me to work around with

The final list:
- Crafts
- Snacks

Design process

I decided to develop thumbnails #2 and #3 for both Crafts and Snacks into full-scale roughs.These are the scanned copies of the roughs:

After presenting the full-scale roughs in class, my tutorial mates suggested that I use certain elements (alphabets) in each rough for Crafts and merge them together. For Snacks, majority preferred Draft 1. They especially like the Snickers bar :)

I present the concepts for Snacks and Crafts separately so that you may see the development clearly.

What I did: I developed the prototype using Draft 1 and decided to put the items on the table to create a suitable environment for the presentation.

Problems/Solutions:

• I could not find a font for the Snickers bar. So, I put a photo of a Snickers bar onto the file and traced the logo on Illustrator.
• Initially I wanted to put the items on a tray but I was worried that it might not look like a tray. So, I chose to use a table instead. I could not find a suitable table that I liked, so I stuck to tracing a clipart of a table.

Feedback:

1. The table could look a little better. Some thought it was a tray.
2. The items could look like they were lying on the table instead of standing upright on it. It would look more realistic.
3. The ice cream does not look very much like the letter H.

Changes I made:

• I traced the pattern of wood for the table and changed the colour against the ice cream cone so that the colours will not clash.
• I changed the flavour of the ice cream from chocolate to vanilla so that it would stand out from the table. I added a thick stroke for the outline of the ice cream to bring out the 'h'.
• Finally, I added shadows to all alphabets to show that they are resting on the table.

What I did:

I made some changes to the final piece and used letters from different roughs to create my prototype.

N - ruler and safety pin

I - keep the thread in Draft 1

S - keep the tube in Draft 1

H - change the H (later I decided to use a penknife and heart origami since a penknife is not anywhere else in the design)

A - keep the button and paper clips in Draft 2

I placed the letters against pieces of coloured paper to emphasize the concept.

Problems/Solutions:

• I was not too sure about drawing the vectors for the safety pin to give the most accurate presentation. Hence, I traced the outlines of a clipart of a safety pin.
• I had some problems making the origami look the way I wanted it to because the outlines and the colour made it look like a custom shape from a software. So, I added a gradient to make it more vibrant, thicken the outlines and expanded the sides to show the folds of an origami.

Feedback:

• The 'h' does not look like one.

Otherwise, my tutorial groupmates liked the outcome and had no further suggestions for this piece. Since I changed the background for the final presentation of Snacks, I decided to add a table for the final presentation of Crafts too.

Changes I made:

• I copied the table pattern from the Snacks piece and changed the colour to show a desk.
• I took out the white fill from the safety pin.
• I changed colour of the origami and rotated the piece a little more to make the 'h' clearer.