früjch me baby one last time
June 29, 2008
The last poster I did for früjch. Feeling the definition of bittersweet. Always thought it was a sappy word, but am feeling it now…Sappy me.
This poster began as wanting to do something colourful to cap off the final day of früjch and being visually-loud enough to grab attention the heap of emailers that all SMU students receive each day. My Adobe PS was also going wonky on me, so decided to try something new that day. Something that required as little PS-ing as possible!
Besides, weird as it might sound, I genuinely do like tearing and pasting scraps together. I find it highly therapeutic. It’s also what I always do to wrap presents. I think my friends have come to expect / resigned themselves to that as my de rigueur wrapping paper. But that’s another story.
Started off with a blank sheet of A4 paper and my favourite stack of CATALOG & JUICE to rip into (how convenient we got them delivered to früjch eh! Happy days!).
The thing about sticking + scrapping (or whatever it’s called. Calling it “scrapbooking” seems inappropriate since I’m not making a book. “Collage”? Perhaps. Alright, let’s call it “collaging”) is that it’s a trial-and-error process.
Sometimes you think a scrap is going to look good, but when you juxtapose it against the next scrap, it doesn’t work. You’ve already stuck it on? Doesn’t matter, just stick the next piece over. The more pieces the more textured the feel and the greater it looks. Of course, that’s provided you don’t make a gazillion mistakes. Then you might as well throw the piece into the recycling bin or use it as a pillow.
Lots of fun to work with different materials as well. Brought in some thread, graph paper and a ballpoint and started doodling the words out. Ah yes, the title “Früjch Me Baby One Last Time” is courtesy of JonnyBaBonny once again, from the ever-surviving (what did Shal say Trent called her again?….Ah yes,) Brit-Brit.
I usually use sequins, buttons, markers, crayons, twine, ribbons and rubber stamps too, but some were too chromosome XX, while others I just didn’t have the time to dig out : I remember I had 8.30am class the next day and it was already 11.30pm.
Once all was done, I stuck it onto the scanner, adjusted it to the max dpi for sharpness and pressed the button. It’s amazing how fun the scanner can be. Only downside is that it squashes everything flat, but that can be easily remedied by shoving a book or so at the corner as a makeshift wedge so the lid doesn’t come down fully.
Next it was off to adjusting the contrast (higher, so that the shadows could be seen), increasing saturation for the Reds, making the colours richer and then adding the text in PS (which decided to behaved itself for awhile). Had to crop quite a fair bit off as well.
Things I would change now if I could:
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The date, “April 4”, spelt out with the threads is not clear. Perhaps should have used more contrasting colours.
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Although visually-pleasing, as a message, it might not have enough symbolic meaning. In other words, there is not enough depth.The question would be: “Where in the images put together behind does it suggest it’s früjch’s last day? Is it relevant?
(Which makes me wonder, should every advert you do have depth or is it sometimes enough for them to be pretty and attention-grabbing? I know you can say: Great Adverts Have Depth-with-a-Captial-D, but how often does one come up with truly groundbreaking ads? Should ALL adverts be like that? Would that be too heavy? Do you need normal ads to recognise great ads? I must think. Must retreat into mountain and ponder.)
Things I like about it:
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Took me only about an hour or two to get everything done. And it was FUN!
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It’s colourful and I do so like riots of hap-happy colours.
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I think it brings across the quirkiness and fun of the früjch culture.
…And that was the birth of the last früjch poster!
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Social Media Breakfast Logo Feedback
May 21, 2008
What feedback did I get on the first version of the Social Media Breakfast (SMB) logo?
I must say I’m quite relieved.
The comments on uniquefrequency and twitter were encouraging, which I’m appreciative of. Doubly so because I haven’t even spoken to some of these people before. So thanks Daryl, Claudia, nadnut, Krisandro, juzzywuzzy and parkerha for saying you liked it or that it’s fab! All of you made my day.
Of course, one can’t improve without constructive feedback. So like a kid that doesn’t want to face the monsters under the bed, but must be brave, I showed it to my boss. (laughs)
He suggested making the SMB clearer and using a handwritten type to match the sketch. Initially I thought that would be too messy or illegible when scaled down, but time to try again! He also recommended to incorporate a social media element into it.
The last point was something I should have thought about or tried harder to put in. VEEERRYY important for a logo to represent EVERYTHING the brand stands for. As a marketing student, I logically knew that, but let it slide in the face of time. Bad. Shouldn’t have done so.
I really should have given myself more time and did more drafts.
Hindsight is ever perfect. Big sigh to that. Have also learnt if I’m stuck, I should leave whatever I’m designing at the moment, and come back after a while, so I can look at it with fresh eyes.
(Why do fresh eyes make me think of Cows, Farmhouse milk and butterflies?)
And I’m still a bit nervy about offering to design things for people when I don’t have any background.
Well, no background beyond Frujch and fiddy-diddling around photoshop…… photoshop…ah, that reminds me, Quentin says I should be using Illustrator instead. Time to find a copy. Bye bye Yusof Ishak; hello Hole-in-My-Wallet.
But really, I need to get a grip and just try every damn thing I can design so that even if I don’t succeed wildly, I learn something in the process of doing it. That’s what those motivation speakers always say right? “TRY TRY TRY! ”
Alright, up & on, me!
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Social Media Breakfast Logo v1
May 21, 2008
3 weeks back, Daryl (uniquefrequency) wrote that a logo was needed for Social Media Breakfast (SMB). Figuring there was nothing to lose, I told him I’d try. And may I add, with a very big bright smile at that.
Obviously, for the next 2 weeks, I kicked myself due to… the usual reasons:
1. OMG-I’VE-NEVER-DONE-A-LOGO-BEFORE.
2. I was literally running between filing & extracting patient files at TTSH (another grand story all together), work @ Qube and social media summer term
3. Daryl would end our 11 years of friendship over (possible) birth of ugly logo.
Okay.
I was kidding about the last one.
Anyway, I never managed to sit down and work properly on the logo, but thought about it while I ate lunch, was on the train, in the toilet, in the lunch queue… and doodled here and there.
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Even though I doodled quite a while on this idea, I wasn’t totally comfortable with it.
It was both too wordy (with the whole phrase “social media breakfast” spelt out) and kiddy. In the end, I didn’t tried it out with proper fonts in Photoshop.
I guess I never got around to doing it because the idea didn’t settle fully with me. Felt like I was missing something or needed to take something out.
That went on for a few days, before yesterday night which I had set as my absolute final deadline.
So while I was in the shower, with the mantra “INEEDTOGETTHATLOGOTODARYL INEEDTOGETTHATLOGOTODARYL” running through my head, it struck me: the letter ‘S’ sort of looks like a cup handle.
Perhaps all that shampooing massaged my brain the right way.
(Note to self: To try shampooing again to test above hypothesis)
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MAIN IDEA #2: SMB integrated with a coffee cup + saucer
It was already 11pm so I had to hurry. Drew variations of wide cups, tall cups, narrow cups, cups without steam, cups with shading, sketchy cups, proportionate cups….
It was my dad that mentioned it looks like a person). On hindsight, I realise perhaps it’s only one of the sketches (left, circled in red that did and it’s hard to see so in the final result.
After scanning the design in, I cleaned up the sketchy-cup, making the lines a bit bolder, darkening, sharpening and played around with font colours for the SMB text.
And the first version of the SMB logo was done!
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