On Being Human - Creative Process Journal by jovina rahardjo

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

The Creative Process Journal

ON BEING HUMAN Jovina P. Rahardjo Graphic Communications Year 2

How To Be Human

Vol. 01 TIMEFRAME 10.08.21 - 20.09.21 DELIVERABLE Photobook

What Does It Mean To Be Human

Vol. 02

TIMEFRAME 3.10.21 - 13.11.21 DELIVERABLE Motion Graphic Video

What It Means To Be Human

An exploration

On Being Human In the pursuit of solace in a space so foreign, the discovery of who I am in a visceral sense has helped me make sense of my place in the world.

Jovina P. Rahardjo (2021)

Table of Contents

Vol 01

Chapter 01 Discovery

Visual Literacy / Research / Mindmap / Industry Talk / Return Brief / Photography Basics / Test Shots

Chapter 02 Define

CPJ Planning / Studio Lighting / Case Studies / Return Brief 2.0. / Archetype

Chapter 03 Design Pt. 1 Capturing Mood / Publication Studies / Return Brief Finalized / More Test Shots

On Being Human

CPJ Test Prints / Flat Plan / Finalized Cover / First Draft Layouts / Design System

Chapter 05 Develop

Finalized Photo / Mural Activity Reflection / Typography Studies / Cover Explorations

Chapter 06 Deliver

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Chapter 04 Design Pt. 2

Pboard / Layout Changes / Printing Pt 1 Pages / Printing Pt 2 Cover / Final Layouts / Epilogue

How To Be Human

On Being Human

Photobook How To Be Human a collection of humanlike objects

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Vol 01

This CPJ (Creative Process Journal) serves as a collection of personal reflections, research, case studies and exploration to aid my photo publication project as part of Design In Society’s term 1 assignment. The objective of this CPJ is to document my learning process and enhance my understanding of the how design can evolve and impact society. That being said, this module focuses on a photography publication as the final deliverable. Tasked with formulating and following a self-written return brief, I will be exploring photography as an art medium, and correlating the final publication with the enhancing qualities of graphic design. The project spans 7 weeks and each issue of this CPJ will be a thorough documentation of each week’s lessons and my explorations.

How To Be Human

Chapter one DISCOVER TIMEFRAME WEEK 1 [10.08 - 15.08.21] OBJECTIVES Visual Literacy Research Mindmap Industry Talk Return Brief Photography Basics Test Shots

On Being Human

1.1 Visual Literacy Worksheet

Over the course of the summer holidays, we were tasked to pick one photographer mentor and dive deep into the visual language of photography. The purpose of this homework was to exercise our ‘visual literacy’ which entails our ability to draw coherent meaning out of visuals. I dissected 10 images from my chosen photographer mentor, Eikoh Hosoe, whose pictures were mostly taken in Japan during the 1960s.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Visual Literacy

1.1.1 Chosen Phtographer

Eikoh Hosoe I chose Eikoh Hosoe because of the way he captures his subject matter, incredibly subjective and always imbued with a semiotic or a narrative.

Fig 1.1 Eikoh Hosoe Portrait

How To Be Human

1.1.2 Chosen Work

Kamaitachi #8 Year : 1965

細江英公

Fig 1.2 Kamaitachi by Eikoh Hosoe

On Being Human

Alignment The sparse wooden fence acts as parallel lines that guide our line of sight towards the man, who is placed in the center of the composition. The dark clouds also look as if it is being pulled towards a centre point, again marked by the man’s ball-like crouching position. Hosoe heavily employs negative space in this composition.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Hierarchy The focus of the photograph is the man crouching over a tall wooden fence (Butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata)

Sensoriality The photographed sky is really white, giving off the impression of a clear day, however the cloud looming over it is pitch black and it looks like it is slowly taking over the sky. This gives off an uncomfortable and eerie feeling. The wispy feathery strokes of the clouds feel both mysterious and eluding. Metaphor The darkened sky is usually a bad omen in eastern folklore. The subject seeking high altitude and scanning the field vigilantly could be aware of this and is in heightened alert of danger. He is either trying to escape something or trying to search for something. However, the crouched pose leans towards a more primal nature than human. The way Hosoe captures him, from a distance, further adds to the mystery of the man’s purpose in this field. Nature photographers will often take pictures of their animal subjects from a distance to capture the most candid shot of their natural state.

“Every element in the image engages each other both visually and conceptually.”

Mystification What kind of expression is the man wearing on his face as he looks away? Why is the photograph taken from such a distance and a lower angle? What is the purpose of such a tall fence on a seemingly empty rice paddy? Narrative The man in the image is being likened to a predator searching for prey. The way he is perched ont the fence looks instinctive and banal. The dark skies further enhance the feeling that he could be a dangerous and bad omen to the people in the village. Coherence Every element in the image engages each other both visually and conceptually. It is obvious to see that every element has a purpose in this mysterious composition. Resonance The image is striking to look at from first glance because of the very clear way everything leads to a centre point. This centre focus unfolds into a peculiar and intriguing element, despite it being so small compared to rest of the elements.

How To Be Human

1.2. What Is Art For?

Mindmap

Fig 1.3 Mindmap: What Is Art For?

The question “What is Art for?” was prompted in lecture 01 of day 01 Below is a map of my answers:

What did I learn? In any case, to me it points towards art being a “universal language” that can convey and explain ideas, feelings, and experiences which transcends the norm mode of communication.

I love to see the connection between the tangible (paintings, objects, poetry) and the intangible which exists in the underlying subsconscious each of us have. This is why personal interpretation is the backbone of what makes an experience with art meaningful.

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Realizing I leaned towards the type of art that specifically talked about things I’m familiar with, I made a mindmap of problems I care about to aid my return brief ideating process. I found that the issues that seem very harrowing to me are not so visible but instead they persist in the banality of everyday life. What do I do when the problem persists inside of me? Like my feelings of alienation from my chinese roots or the polarity of wealth in such a rich country as Singapore. In this state of confusion where I do not feel like I particularly belong anywhere or know anything I find my solace in art. I am able to express myself and hone a deeper self understanding.

Fig 1.4 Mindmap: Problems I Care About

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1.3. Industry Talk

Lenne Chai

Industry Talk Reflection I got to ask her a question about her tone of voice. I was intrigued because I saw that she has a very distinct style. I asked if she ever felt limited by her personal style, or felt obligated to adhere to it because of the success she has gained from it. I also asked if she ever felt the need to reinvent or improve on her style. She answered promptly that she doesn’t try to put out a certain style. She finds herself gravitating towards things she likes and the things she wants to say.

“She finds herself gravitating towards things she likes and the things she wants to say.”

Fig 1.5 A 377A Wedding

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 1.5 A 377A Wedding

What I learned We need to have something to say in order for our photographs to have value. Photography is an “easy to understand” art, easy to employ for masses to understand. However, it doesn’t mean it’s shallow. Inherently, it is still an art that happens organically. The byproduct, or the photographs, is born out of what is viscerally inside first. Her unique perspective peers through Lenne’s works. In ‘A 377A Wedding’, she is voicing out her qualms about the acceptance LGBTQ community in Singapore. In this glam vintage world she has created, an LGBT wedding is portrayed in a traditional chinese wedding, knowing that Singapore is still quite apprehensive towards LGBTQ weddings.

Fig 1.6 Editorial Remote Shoot for Pomelo Trying an arsenal of perspectives and being open to new mediums. Art direction is also important.

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1.4. Production

Introduction to Photography

Production class’s objective is to hone the technical photography skills and deepen understanding of the thinking behind a photograph. This class’s technical learnings included Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO. I also did personal research and discussed in a group the composition rules of photography. At the end of the class, the exercise given was to explore portrait photography, employing composition rules, and different lighting conditions. Camera Used Canon EOS M50 15-45mm

The Rules of Composition applied are : 1. Diagonal composition 2. Rule of thirds 3. Centre-focus

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 1.7 Production Exercises

What I learned Being given pressure to complete the exercise, while trying to apply rules of composition, actually forced me out of my comfort zone. I had to ask permission of people to take their portraits, which is a new and quite daunting experience for me.

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1.5. Test Shots

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 1.8 First Test Shots

Test Shots Over the weekend, I thought deeper about what I wanted to capture, composotion and message-wise. Some of these shots were developed from sketches. Some were random coincidences I found with my camera.

Out of all, this is my favorite shot. These toothbrushes signify lovers.

Reflection It isn’t really clear what I wanted to say through my pictures. The theme looks too all-over-the-place and it might be challenging to make it visually united.

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1.5.2 Photographer Mentors

Rebecca Norris Webb Rebcca is one-half of a photographer couple doing photography and bookmaking. Alex mostly portrays street photography. Rebecca’s photography focuses on the “inner landscape” of her own emotions through the landscapes and objects she sees. To learn more about their work, I borrowed their photobook from the library, filled with a curation of their best and favorite shots, including writeups and their own reflections. I am an avid reader, and I thoroughly enjoyed this part of my reseach. I found out that Rebecca’s photography are significant to her personal emotions, thoughts, and experiences at various points in her life. My favorite collection by her; My Dakota, is about her dealing with the grief of losing her brother, and how she is able to translate this grievous “inner landscape” into photographs taken during a solo roadtrip.

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

What I liked about her work The undeniable emotional quality of it. I feel like it has visual metaphors that does not fit the usual status quo. Metaphors in the photos are oftenly unexpected, and not easily desirable, but worth pondering upon nonetheless.

What I learned I think I learned a lot from reading the book and actually going into her thoughts. To quote her: “The art of arriving at a poetic image is a mental one not a mechanical one”. Rebecca’s work emphasises on visual poetry, being able to convey her truth in a beautiful and deep way. I also learned a lot about framing, and including things that might pique the audience’s curiosity more. This, coupled with the color treatment of sometimes bold and yet still sensitive colors, Rebecca creates interesting photographs.

What I’m gonna apply I’m seeking to include the intriguing as well as emotional quality of her pictures in my work.

How To Be Human

1.5.3 Topic Research:

Objectification “It’s hard to know when an article or photograph, intended to humanize its subject, instead consumes and objectifies a life.” I’ve often thought about this. As I wrote in my mindmap, art can have the purpose of provoking emotions. However, the line between making and utilizing art gets blurred when an agenda is involved. With such a massconsumed art form as photography, where almost everyone has access to it nowadays, I question how to properly appreciate and applicate it. Looking at photos of people where instead of subject matters, they become “objects”, I was intrigued to look more on what it means to “dehumanize” people. On the right is a picture of a woman with a suggestive pose, only covered by a bath towel. This is deemed as portraying her through “the male gaze”. Through this perspective, she becomes an object of sexual desire. I found that not just humans can be dehumanized. Another example is cities. Cities are spaces humans live eat and breathe. With postcards showing photos of celebrated skylines, we wonder where the “humans” of the city is in this narrative. Photos make cities a purely visual experience, rather than the spiritual, emotional and sensory experience that they should be.

Fig 1.9 Sexual Objectification

Fig 1.10 Dehumanized City 21

On Being Human

1.5.4 Topic Research:

According to the American Heritage Dictionary,“Personification” is the “attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.”

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Personification

It’s commonly seen in art, literature, and film – Orwell’s Animal Farm; the common personification of Death, Mother Nature, Father Time; The Brave Little Toaster; the “Dogs Playing Poker” series of paintings; The Velveteen Rabbit; Thomas the Train; Joos de Momper’s “Anthropomorphic Landscape”; and so on.

How is this relevant to photography?

Fig 1.11 Anthropomorphic Tree

Personification in the case of photography is not as obvious or literal as the examples above. By shooting inanimate objects or events as if they have a story to tell, an emotion to convey, or otherwise project some human qualities, photographers create interest and empathy for the viewer – with the audience is likely to connect with the image. Personification in photography can suggest that the non-human subject has feelings (melancholy, joyful, angry, lonely, carefree, tired, stubborn, belligerent, etc), action/intent (bringing hope, attempting to comfort, threatening to injure, offering shelter, embracing, guiding, guarding, blocking, etc), or even physical human characteristics (a face, legs, arms, etc).

Fig 1.12 Anthropomorphic Animal How To Be Human

1.6 Return Brief

Return Brief: The First Draft Purpose: To critique the dehumanized way of living and provoke self-reflection Photography exists as a medium to capture subjects in a certain manner and stir up people’s emotions. However, photojournalism has become exploitative in recent years. Journalists and photographers will report their encounters with other humans with an agenda to evoke certain emotions. For example, African children who become instead “objects of sympathy” through the lens of a desensitized photographer. In the same way, the camera can also dehumanize women to be “objects of sexual desire”. It becomes exploitative. It is not personal. It is not humane. In critique of this, how do we instead evoke emotions without objectifying and depersonalising humans into serving an agenda? We humanize objects instead. Archetype: The Creator Subject: Anthropomorphic objects given life by its environment and context. I plan to use anthropomorphic objects as my subjects, as in objects attributed with human characteristics. I want to capture them in a naturalistic and realistic way, as if they were actual people caught in their everyday lives. The conceptuality and context of each image should be thought beforehand and stylized to capture the distinct human smell.

Emotion: Inquiring, humane, evoking possibilities They should be intrigued to know more about the personality given to each object and the story they hold, just like they are curious about an individual’s narrative. The experience that people should have is sensitizing. I want them to experience the opposite of depersonalization and relate to the objects and perceive them in likeness to a human’s personality and sensitivity. At the end of the day, through this experience, I want people to be inspired by the humanness of the objects to hone in on their touch with the world around them. Audience: Humans who do not take things at face value Those who like imagining somethings out of nothings and musing on the possibility of things. On a deeper, more transformative manner, it is for people who seek a deeper level of understanding of the value of their human experiences and appreciate the ability to have personality, ideas, values, emotions and personal stories.

On Being Human

1.7 Weekly Check-in

Problems Faced This Week Concept is Key In regards to my photos, everything will rely heavily on conceptualization. Meaning, I will have to generate some pretty concept-heavy ideas for the photos beforehand. Overarching Theme It needs to look like a cohesive set of photos from the same photo publication. I will need to set an overarching theme of mood, lighting, tone of voice, etc Beware of aimlessness Capturing random objects, while at the same time willing it to not seem random, will be pretty challenging. I will need to randomize the objects without making it lose its value.

What I’m feeling about my work I feel that I already know what I want to talk about and why I want to talk about it on an adequate level. I just need to hone in on how I’m going to portray my subject matters. Overall, I’m not as stuck as I expected to be feeling.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Reflections

What I Can Improve On I’m looking to capture more pictures in the coming weekend. As well as shooting with a deliberate goal in mind, perhaps it will help if I do more research on my chosen topic, as well as learn more about photography in general.

Simplifying the words used It’s important to be articulate but it’s also important to speak with clarity. I searched for very specific vocabulary to convey what I wanted to visualize, but the readers ended up lost in the jargon.

How To Be Human

Chapter two DEFINE TIMEFRAME WEEK 2 [16.08 - 2308.21] OBJECTIVES CPJ Planning Studio Lighting Case Studies Return Brief 2.0. Archetype

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2.1 Creative Process Journal Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

CPJ Planning I started planning my CPJ through a few rough sketches. I want to create mine in weekly issues - in which I am updating it weekly like a journal and ending with weekly reflections.

Why I Want To Do It This Way A system I used in my past CPJ was to have spreads which I updated as I went. This really limited my exploration and analysis because I felt I had to consider and regiment each week’s progress to fit into one single page. For example, all the case studies were combined into one spread. This hindered me as I found that I was doing case studies constantly throughout my process, not just during the start. Doing it in weekly issues, I hope to have more freedom to articulate myself without limitations.

Things To Consider A booklet’s minimal size is 8pp. This is because each page will contain 4 pages, meaning each issue will be in multiples of four. I will also have to consider the content placed cover page and inner covers.

CPJ System 7 Booklets 12 pages in each booklet 1 Table of Contents Cards 1 Folder

Fig 2.1 CPJ sketches

Reflection In the end, I didn’t do it this way because of time constraints and a few printing issues as I had to combine my CPJ1 and CPJ2.

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2.2 Production

Product Photography Lightbox exercise and natural lighting Camera Used Canon EOS M50 15-45mm

Reflection I think I could do better with consistency in getting the lighting even. I was shooting really near to a natural light source. Therefore, the natural light got into the lightbox.

Fig 2.2 Lightbox

Application The knowledge learned from product photography is helpful for me because I know that my subjects will be mainly focused on objects.

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Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 2.3 Natural Lighting

The Makeshift DIY Lightbox

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2.3 Reflections

Developing Ideas What I learned from lectures Importance of Lighting Lighting has powers that I’m not sure I’ve fully utlized while I was doing my test shots. Rachel explicitly points out the connection between archetypes and lighting. Mise-en-Scène Controlling everything in front of the camera. Essentially it is production design. How might we make the set environment and costume believable and authenthic?

Possible Titles ANTHROPOMORPHISM Rationale : Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects. Reflection : I think this is too complicated. Not a lot of people knows what it means from the start. TO PERSONIFY Rationale : Same like anthropomorphism Reflection : It seems too straightforward. The title gives the purpose all away. HOW TO BE HUMAN Rationale : An open-ended title, It could be a question or it could be a tutorial. Reflection : This is the one I’m sticking with.

What I changed from my Return Brief I changed the archetype from the creator to the magician, because I feel like the magician is able to evoke possibilities, while not being as lighthearted as the creator. I feel like with magician I can have a more mature take. I changed the subject from Anthropomorphism to Personification because people generally associate anthropomorphism with animals speaking and i wanted to do something broader than that.

On Being Human

2.4. Return Brief Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Return Brief 2.0.

Purpose:

To provoke a humanizing perspective and deeper self reflection.

Subject:

Personification, or objects with human qualities

Art is for communicating intangible things such as emotions, senses, and experiences through the tangible. In recent years, as photography has become a mass-consumed art form, exploitation has been a serious manner. A human subject is often “objectified” through the camera of a photographer with a specific agenda. For example, a woman is photographed in a specific manner to become an “object of sexual desire”. How I hope to critique this is to “humanize” objects instead through a comparative perspective. This is intended to humanize the eye which has become accustomed to seeing humans as objects instead. Archetype:

The Magician This archetype relates to my brief because it values transformative experiences and awakens the imagination of the people seeing it.

I want to capture these seemingly mundane objects in a naturalistic way, as if they were actual people caught in their everyday lives. The context and environment of these objects has to give it life, in order to capture the distinct human smell. Emotion:

Curiosity, sensitive, thoughtprovoking They should be curious to look beyond the objects and see the story behind them. I want them to feel amused when they relate to the objects and perceive them with likeness to human emotions, senses, and experiences. At the end of the day, I want people to be inspired by the humanness of the objects to hone their touch with the world around them. Audience:

Humans who do not take things at face value. Those who like imagining somethings out of nothings and musing on the possibility of things. On a deeper, more transformative manner, it is for people who seek a deeper level of understanding of the value of their humanity and appreciate the humanly intrinsic ability to have personality, ideas, values, emotions and stories.

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2.5 Case Study

Isaac Enciso SYMBOLS Fig 2.4 Symbols by Isaac Enciso

What I think about it “SYMBOLS” blends contemporary street photography with found objects and intervention. I found his works as I was looking up on Conceptual Photography. I think his works look obviously symbolic, but they aren’t really clear-cut metaphors. In a sense, these symbols are conceptualized in a way which makes sense to him only, and he leaves his audience free to interpret what these images symbollize.

What I liked I also like the treatment and style of his photos, under what seems like blazing harsh light of afternoon sun. They really encapsulate the city’s personality, which are LA and mexico.

What I learned The name of the publication kind of gives the audience a vision in mind when they are looking through his photos. In order words, we know what to expect and what to scourge for. Other than that, I want to apply his concepts for his photos, in which he creates mindmaps of what he wants to see before going out to the street to shoot.

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 2.5 Analogies by Stuart Franklin

Stuart Franklin

What I think about it

“Analogy – and thus the book’s title Analogies – has at its heart a comparative spirit. It invites reflection and participation from the reader. It has nothing to preach; it carries no rhetoric or coercion. “

Stuart Franklin uses landscape photography as visual metaphors. Bolded on the left is an excerpt from an interview he did with Magnum which I feel resonated a lot with the project I am doing.

What I liked The wonderment and curiosity aspect of the photos. I can’t help but wonder what it means to him and what he sees when he is capturing these “visual metaphors”.

What I learned Going deeper into photography, I realize that the skills of visual literacy is really important not just for other people’s works, but my own works as well. In fact, it’s harder to be visually literate about my own works. Stuart Franklin’s photography does not serve to convey what he is feeling, unlike other photographers, in fact, it serves the audience whereby they are the ones giving meaning to the photos.

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2.5 Case Study

Victoria Ivanova STILL LIFE What I learned

Fig 2.5 Still Life by Victoria Ivanova

What I think about it Her works are creative yet self-explanatory.

In response to this, I reflected on which treatment I should give to my images - a more loose and candid approach like Isaac’s whereby the message behind is not easily interpretable, or Victoria’s heavily controlled approach whereby her visual metaphors are straightforward and true.

What I liked I really like how the audience can easily interpret her visual metaphors. Furthermore, the still-life aspect really gives her control to conceptualize her set. It almost seems like an advertisement in nature.

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2.5 Case Study

What I think about it While these set of images are more of a graphic approach, and the archetype is blatantly jester, I figured they would still make an excellent case study because of how well it utilizes the concept of personification.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Terry Border BENT OBJECTS

What I liked Fig 2.6 Bent Objects by Terry Border

Despite being humorous in nature, they are even able to capture emotion. I will definitely take a more serious approach in my work, however, looking at these pictures makes me excited to develop the concepts and scenes I would like.

What I learned This personification study is perfect because it captures all three aspects of personification which I identified last week physicality, action/intent, and emotion.

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2.5 Case Study

Archetype Study

The Magician Summary of Archetype

“I make things happen” Desire: Understand the laws of the universe Goal: Make dreams come true Fear: Negative consequences Strategy: Develop a vision and live by it Weakness: Manipulative In my observation, the magician is an archetype that repeats a lot through “transformative” experiences. It is conscious-expanding, evoking people to think in wonderment.

Examples of Magician Brands

Dyson and Tesla

Reason is that it’s offering a transformative technology, never before seen, and never thought to be possible. Dyson -> Bladeless and silent hairdryer Tesla -> Autopilot car

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Steven Spielberg “I dream for a living” He made so many movies that are considered revolutionary plot-wise. Some of his famous titles are ET, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Ready Player One. All of these films are pioneers, and he’s called the “magician of film” for an apparent reason.

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People

Characters

Severus Snape Despite being a literal wizard, Snape is a magician archetype becaus of his “Know-it-all” nature. He had to burden himself with Harry’s hate and deceited Harry into thinking he hated him in order to protect Harry. Snape shows how magicians can put ideas into the minds of their ideas, either in a good or bad way.

Why am I going with magician? Quoting from the website charactertherapist.com “Their cleverness helps them envision possibilities and invent means to desired outcomes in situations where others would dare not. Magicians find great fulfillment when visions are realized, whether their own or the dreams of others.” I think this really fits with my overarching theme of evoking inquiry and reflection in people. In a sense I want to be manipulative because the photos will have to make people really believe that these objects are human-like. Utilizing the magician as an archetype will also help me to prioritize this “transformative” experience.

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2.6 Mindmap

Refocusing Upon doing case studies, I reflected on the few test shots I did, in which I was trying very hard to convey a specific message. It ends up constricting me to capture quirky “found objects” or just whatever that makes sense to me or is symbolic to me. I decided that instead of still life photography, I wanted to follow Izaac’s approach and decided to draw up a mindmap of things I wanted to see. Next, I brainstormed on HOW I wish to see it. Is it just through objects? Can it be through symbols? What are the scopes of my subject matter? All inanimate objects?

Fig 2.9 Mindmap of What I Want To See

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Reflections

Problems faced this week Lack of focus I was a bit confused on what to capture. I found myself standing with a camera not really knowing when to press the shutter. This is because didn’t have a clear direction. After refocusing and drawing a mindmap of things I wanted to see, I became much more optimist to see how I could develop these ideas into sketches and then into photographs. Telling Not Showing Consulting my works, I saw that most of the time my lecturers/classmates didn’t really understand my works and the underlying meanings. I was often frustrated by this and resorted to telling them what I wanted them to see. Of course, if I have to explain the metaphor then the visual metaphor isn’t really working

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Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

2.7 Weekly Check-in

What I’m feeling about my work As opposed to the last week, I feel more conflicted this week because it was harder to get down into visualizing than articulating. I like text and I like explaining myself through words, so this project is really challenging for me.

What I can improve on Over the course of next week, I will force myself to experiment with capturing many different objects and metaphors. I will allow for spontaneity, while trying to selfdirect myself into sticking with the return brief I’ve made for myself.

Chapter three DEVELOP TIMEFRAME WEEK 3 [23.08 - 30.08.21] OBJECTIVES Capturing Mood Publication Studies Return Brief Finalized More Test Shots

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3.1 Production Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Capturing Mood

Objective Photographers tend to have a distinct emotional quality to their images - these are called moods. The purpose of the exercise is to visualize a mood through my images. Case studies I did of photographers who are amazing at capturing moods are Fan Ho and Robert Frank

Reflection I was trying to capture an urban loneliness mood in my pictures today. How a street as bustling as bugis can seem lonely. I think I can improve by being more patient. Due to the time constraint of these shots, I couldn’t capture moments of absolute stillness in the streets. More than I was thinking of the composition and the inherent message, I should’ve focused on things that immediately communicate moods, such as colors and subject matters. Application in relation to photobook After learning how to capture moods, I considered my own photo publication, which focuses more on objects. I knew that my photobook was going to capture many different focuses - actions/intents, an object’s physicality, etc. I wondered how to communicate the same mood all throughout.

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Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 3.1 Mood Exercises

3.2 Case Studies

Publication Studies Fig 3.2 Eiki Mori ‘Crows and Pearls’

Eiki Mori ‘CROWS AND PEARLS’ Composition of a “Portrait of a Boy in Tokyo” by Eiki Mori and a short story by Komichi Kobayashi. Portrait of a Boy in Tokyo was a project where number of boys were photographed in their own rooms. The story is printed on the back side of 16 photo-cards. The whole package is wrapped in a thin paper and sealed with a sticker.

What I like about it

What I learned

It captures the uniqueness of each photograph and how each is connected to a short story. The packaging being sealed with a sticker seems like something small but delightful, adding to the experience of the overall photobook.

In my photobook, I’m going to apply Eiki Mori’s storytelling, whereby he uses text to play a part in contextualizing. I also want to include some sort of packaging that ignites wonderment, which relates to my archetype, the magician.

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

This is the concept I ended up choosing

Fig 3.3 Photobook Sketches

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3.4 Test shots

Exploration

What I did well This time around, I played with different compositions everytime I shot a scene. I considered each object’s metaphor before I pressed the shutter. I deliberately placed some of the objects in the scenes and considered the environment’s relation to the objects.

What I can improve on I think that I have a long way to go in terms of crafting visual metaphors. Sometimes, I just see an object which looks human to me and press the shutter, not really considering if other people would relate with it the same way. I need to start thinking broader than my own perspective.

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Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 3.4 Contact Sheets

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Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 3.5 Chosen Pictures

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3.5 Final Return Brief

Return Brief 3.0. Purpose:

Emotion:

To provoke a humanizing perspective and deeper self reflection.

Curiosity, sensitive, thoughtprovoking

Art is for communicating intangible things such as emotions, senses, and experiences through the tangible. In recent years, as photography has become a mass-consumed art form, exploitation has been a serious manner. A human subject is often “objectified” through the camera of a photographer with a specific agenda. For example, a woman is photographed in a specific manner to become an “object of sexual desire”. How I hope to critique this is to “humanize” objects instead through a comparative perspective. I want to humanize the eye which has become accustomed to seeing humans as objects instead. Archetype:

The Magician This archetype relates to my brief because it values transformative experiences and awakens the imagination of the people seeing it.

They should be curious to look beyond the objects and see the story behind them. I want them to feel amused when they relate to the objects and perceive them with likeness to human emotions, senses, and experiences. At the end of the day, I want people to be inspired by the humanness of the objects to hone their touch with the world around them. Audience:

Subject:

Personification, or objects with human qualities

On Being Human

3.6 Weekly Check-in

Problems faced this week Throughout the week, I focused heavily on taking pictures and exploring more concepts. The pictures that came out after shooting on wednesday were okay. I liked a few of the shots I did, but I think I became confused between whether I wanted to show - Human features - Human Emotions My first batch of photos were more scenes and emotion-focused, not a lot of people understood what it meant. After my walk around bugis taking pictures of anthropomorphic objects, I found more objects that uncannily and explicitly seemed human in nature, such as a twig with a middle finger.

What I’m feeling about my work Conflicted. I’m happy that people are starting to understand the concept of “personification” but this is not the direction I am going for.

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Reflections

What I can improve on Mixing the explicit with the implicit. The problem statement of next week is : How can I show objects in a human matter while still provoking wonder in my audience?

This is fine. Consultations and feedback from my classmates showed that they quickly understood what the 2nd batch of photos meant more so than the first one. The problem lies in which direction I am more keen on taking. Although I appreciate people understanding my visual metaphors, I don’t feel quite happy if I am just producing pictures that sort of “provides the answer” immediately. I feel like that does not answer to the return brief I created for myself

Fig 3.6 Mural Activity

How To Be Human

Chapter four DESIGN TIMEFRAME WEEK 4 [30.08 - 06.09.21] OBJECTIVES Editing Finalized Photos Mural Activity Reflections Typography Studies Cover Explorations

On Being Human

4.1 Photo Publication Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Concept Planning Editorial Concept A photobook which focuses on the human look and feel of inanimate objects. The chosen title is “How to Be Human”

Form & Content 1. Preface The book will open with a quote by Sakyong Mipham “As The Conceptual, Material World Increases Its Hold On Us, And Inanimate Objects Become More Lifelike, We Humans Must Become More Human.” 2. Chapter I want to include chapters, each titled with a word that signifies what it means to be human. Of course, the photos in each chapter will relate to the chapter title itself. For example: Chapter 1: State Of Mind Chapter 2: Physicality Chapter 3: In Relation

Typography Contemporary type, mixing between scripts and sans serifs. Might include some handwritten notes to make it feel more personal and human-like.

3. Epilogue A short ending note.

Size 150mm by 150mm (Square) I want it to be small because the objects are mostly palm-sized.

Binding + Cover Hardcover casing. I want it to lay flat, therefore I will use a kettle stitch, which I might have to handsew.

How To Be Human

4.2 Production

Editing Tasked with editing some RAW pictures as a classroom practice, I got to familiarize myself with tools and settings such as exposure, levels, contrast, brightness and more. The software we used for this is Photoshop, which is very helpful for my photobook project.

Before

After

Fig 4.1 Bernice’s Pictures

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Reflection After doing the classroom practice, I went on to explore by myself and re-edited the tone of my chosen pictures (which by this point, wasn’t a lot). I bumped up the warmth and lowered the contrast of my pictures to give a more sensitive mood to it, pertaining to the lectures from last week. I can’t use a preset as all of my photographs are taken under different lighting conditions.

Fig 4.2 My pictures

How To Be Human

4.3 Mural Activity

Getting Feedback Through Mural, we were all to share with classmates and lecturers our ideas in an effective manner. From my 2 minute presentation, classmates were to give constructive feedback.

Fig 4.4 My progress by tuesday, week 4

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Problems brought to my attention Pictures The pictures working the most in terms of visual literacy are the ones which explicitly show human features, such as face and body part, not the ones which (I tried) to communicate emotions, such as loneliness. Mentioned was also the fact that most of my pictures are industrial objects, not nature objects (They’re considered living things). It’d be good to seperate them, or just not include them at all if it disrupts the cohesive theme and flow of the publication Cover The cover’s main purpose is to evoke that sense of curiosity and wonderment, which I tried to emulate by making it having a transparent film. It’s a good idea, but for lack of exploration, the typeface, word placement, as well as human head vector is very off.

Fig 4.5 Feedback Mural

Reflections post-feedback Regarding the cover, I agree that I haven’t done much exploration. I also took to my set of chosen photos, and realized that I actually do have quite a bit of nature-themed photos. So, the theme-disruption shouldn’t be a problem.

What I can improve on I’ll work on the covers and the layout predominantly over the course of the week. Photos-wise, I’m pretty happy that people are understanding my visual metaphors. I aim to “visualize” my archetype more through my publication.

How To Be Human

4.4 Case Study

Typography Studies 01.

Fuga by Summotype Foundry Fuga is a hybrid sans serif typeface. It looks very attractive to me because of its jutting edges, reminiscing of a calligraphic pen, while being modern and geometric at the same time. I think the general juxtaposition is very interesting. On top of that, I like the thin lines.

Fig 4.6 Fuga

02.

Granblue by Blast Foundry The visual elements, ornamental thin lines, complements the serif font amazingly well.

Fig 4.7 Granblue

03.

Here Magazine Issue 13 The font is unidentified, but I love the use of the handwritten element. It has a distinct human feel to it because of the organicness of the lines.

Fig 4.8 Unidentified Font 57

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 4.9 NaN Jaune

04.

NaN Jaune by Studio Triple This typeface has a multitude of different weights and they all have different yet beautiful characteristics. The one with the weight 200 with the thin lines, especially in capslock, can pass as a grotesk sans serif. However when in lowercase, it looks closer to a display font. I ended up choosing this font for my photobook because of how versatile it is. It also matches my archetype, because of how unique it is. I knew I wasn’t going to use the bold or black version of it though.

Fig 4.10 Jaune Poster

Reflection Considering the overarching role of typography in my book, as well as storytelling, I had to delve into studying a lot of different typefaces by type foundries. At first, I was specifically looking for sans serif. After looking through a lot, I realized I leaned a lot towards displaylooking fonts as well as thinner lines.

How To Be Human

4.5 Covers

Cover Explorations This spread will be documentation of all my drafts for covers, as well as my thoughts and reflections. Referencing heavily my return brief, I generated covers with an objective in mind - to evoke a sense of curiosity and wonderment.

What I liked This type of cover relates with my magician archetype. It uses design principles - contrast and hierarchy, employed through typography and paper opacity.

What I feel about my cover Type-wise. Because I am using such a grotesk sans-serif font, I feel there is a lack of emotion the way that type can usually evoke. It lacks the “magical” feeling I am looking for. Other than that, I did the human shaped vector too rushedly, it looks wonky and weird.

Fig 4.11 Cover Reference 1

Fig 4.12 Draft 1

On Being Human

Fig 4.13 Cover Reference 2

With a clear goal in mind which is wonderment, I knew that a diecut cover would work really well!

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

What I liked

Fig 4.14 Draft 2 Closed view

What I feel about my cover I like the direction where this is going however I feel that I can do a lot more in terms of explorations with the diecuts. I don’t have a specific reason for choosing cylinders. The collage is quite out of place, disrupting the visual consistency of an otherwise very clean looking layout.

How To Be Human

Fig Draft 2 Opened view

4.6 Photographs

Taking More Photographs

Fig 4.14 My photos

Reflection Nowadays, everytime I come across objects, I make it a habit to remember to shoot. I’m often reminded of how national geographic photographers try to be as discreet as possible when taking photos of their animal subjects in order to take the most candid shot possible. When I try to capture objects, I don’t have to try to be discreet. In fact, I manipulate scenes to capture them in a way that I want. But somehow when I capture them I do feel like I am imposing on their secret lives.

On Being Human

4.7 Insights

Problems faced this week Lack of Exploration I need to explore more ideas and work towards generating more iterations. The goal I have in mind is just one - to create wonderment.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Reflections

What I’m feeling about my work I am overall feeling quite focused. I know what I need to do in order to improve. It all just comes down to the design, which is refinements and delivery stage, which I am very anxious for.

What I can improve on The goal for next week is to finalize the cover and my concept for the overall photo publication. One of my ideas was to have a short essay in the front of the publication as a sort of prologue because I am verymuch passionate about the topic of objectification and personification. Over the past few weeks, as I was doing research in the library, I found myself being really interested in photobooks that had photo descriptions, or the photographer’s personal reflections. I was debating very hard about whether I should pursue that or not.

How To Be Human

Chapter five DESIGN Pt. 2 TIMEFRAME WEEK 5 [06.09 - 13.09.21] OBJECTIVES CPJ Test Prints Flat Plan Finalized Cover First Draft Layouts Design System

On Being Human

5.1 Creative Process Journal

Fig 5.1 Test prints of BW pictures

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

CPJ Test Prints

Fig 5.4 Test prints of CPJ reflections

Observations I used two different types of paper, a warmer tone (Munken) and a whiter tone (Silk White), both 130gsm. I noticed that the pictures will always come out way darker on warmer tone paper However, the gradients come out more pale in the whiter paper.

Fig 5.2 Test prints of color pictures

Decisions I decided to go with the brighter tone paper. I also wanted to see which would turn out the better, the reflection page with the white on black, or with the white on gradients. I decided on the gradient BG with black-colored text instead because it is more legible.

Fig 5.3 Test prints of CPJ cover How To Be Human

5.2 Flatplan

Flatplan

Layout Variation 2

Outer Cover with diecut

Inner Cover

Voluptio.

Layout Variation 3

Oviditaqui veliqui adipidu ntectiis quam liquoditi demque erehent iatioss

Introduction Page Layout Variation 4 Voluptio.

Voluptio.

Divider Page : State of Mind

Divider Page : Physicality

Layout Variation 1

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Oviditaqui veliqui adipidu ntectiis quam liquoditi demque

Divider Page : In Relation

Outro

In total it became a 28pp Photobook with seperate cover (diecut).

How To Be Human

5.3 Cover

Final Cover Idea and Inspiration I chose to stick with diecuts! I improved and iterated on my previous cover. The idea of this version of diecuts stemmed from gundams, which is a japanese toy that comes unmade as seperate plastic parts and together with instructions to construct into a robot. It fits as a play on my title: How to be human. I like it because it looks very industrial, giving it a very cold and inanimate feeling. This, coupled with the warm and fleshy BG of the inner cover, presents a juxtaposition that I am happy with.

Fig 5.5 Gundam Packaging

Fig 5.6 Gundam Instructions

On Being Human

Fig 5.8 Outer Cover Draft 2

Fig 5.9 Inner Cover Draft 1

Fig 5.10 Inner Cover Draft 2

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 5.7 Outer Cover Draft 1

Reflection I did some minor fixes from draft 1 to draft 2, such as: minimized the size of the floating numbers, moved all the title to the bottom so that it’s not very disconnected, unified the typeface. I used the the circle and the torso of the human diecut at the bottom as a play on typography as well. I’m pretty happy with this idea!

How To Be Human

I added some symbols which represented my three chapters at the top: state of mind, physicality, and in relation. Other than that, for the inside cover, I changed the type color to white, in order to be more cohesive with my inner pages which employs a lot of white space.

5.4 Photobook Layouts

First Draft Layouts

Reflections By this point I had only completed a few draft layouts as mid-fi wireframes to test out and plan out my pictures. The text were all still placeholder texts.

During this process, the difficulties I encountered were: (Photo-wise) 1. Placements of each page in relation the page next to it 2. Which picture fell into which “chapter” or subcategories I had created. (Textwise) 3. If I wanted more text on the layouts or not. 4. Visual hierarchy of my text, which fell into headings, subheadings, body copy, etc.

What I can improve on I can definitely improve more on the layouts. I feel some of these are too boring and safe, not really answering to the wonderment from the cover. I also hadn’t worked on my outro page. I feel I can also do more in terms of the “chapter” pages, perhaps a short copy explaining what it means.

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Fig 5.11 Photobook Layout: The First Draft How To Be Human

5.5 Typography

Copywriting and Typography System As mentioned, I used a lot of text and typography in my photobook.This is due to the fact that other than being aesthetic, it is really functional in helping me to contextualize my photos. Parts of my book that needed copywriting includes: the introduction essay, the chapter titles, as well as outro.

Rationale Firstly, I did further research regarding my topic. Secondly, I consulted my return brief to write the short introduction essay. Then, I decided on the three things that I figured described best what it means to be human, as well as related with my pictures well. These three things are: 1. State of Mind / Humans have consciousness. 2. Physicality / Humans have a physical and tangible presence in the world, identifiable through anatomy. 3. In relation / Humans are social creatures and always live closely in relation with other humans.

Fig 5.12 Subheadings Font Used

Migra italic

Migra Regular

Lastly, I made my outro a question. I knew I wanted my outro to relate to one of my purposes in the beginning - which is to provoke deeper self reflection in people, which is why I ended with a question rather than a quote.

Fig 5.13 Chapter Headings Font Used

On Being Human

NaN Jaune

5.6 Weekly Check in

Problems faced this week Housekeeping Surprisingly, the main problem I faced this week was housekeeping. I had some unorganized systems and files. I spent most of my heads-down time this week creating systems, for both CPJ as well as my photobook. By systems I mean deciding on paragraph styles and visual elements for my photobook to give it a cohesive look across all the pages. This included fonts, colors, gradients, and also changing the color profiles of pictures from RGB to CMYK.

What I’m feeling about my work I am confident about the direction where my photobook is going.

What I can improve on

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Reflections

Objectives for the next week are definitely test prints. I can improve on the colors of my photos, I feel they are still quite not cohesive. I also still need to document and reflect on my processes in my CPJ.

Revisions From my first draft of layouts, I had a lot to work on. Consultations from my lecturers pointed out a few things for me, that I need not emphasize too much on my title and trying to facilitate context for my audience (which was starting to be repetitive on each page). However, I also realized that my strength lies in the typographic aspect of my photobook. Therefore, I focused more towards that.

How To Be Human

Chapter Six DELIVER TIMEFRAME WEEK 6 [13.09 - 20.09.21] OBJECTIVES Pboard Layout Changes Printing Pt 1 Pages Printing Pt 2 Cover Final Layouts Epilogue

On Being Human

6.1 Pboard

Art is a medium for communicating the intangible through what is tangible. In recent years, photography as one of the most mass consumed art form has become exploitative in nature. It’s hard to know when a photograph intended to humanize its subject instead consumes and objectifies a life.

Content

Through the use of personification as a metaphor, this photobook is a curation of photographs of objects attributed with human qualities, seperated into three different chapters: “State Of Mind”, “Physicality” and “In Relation”. By posing the question of “What if we humanized objects instead?”, How To Be Human promotes the prevailment of human nature and offers a sensitive perspective to life.

The writeup for my Pboard is a combination of my return brief’s purpose as well as answering the question what is art for.

Before and after adding shadows

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Pboard

Reflections I had to customize my own Pboard mockup because of my diecut finishing. I did this through photoshop with the brush tool, adding shadows were the cover was supposed to be laser-cutted. I decided to make it quite minimal in visual elements because of the emphasis on the book, as well as the already eyecatching fonts. Some stuff I corrected from my draft was the background was too plain and that it looked too much like product, not a photobook. I added some inner pages to contextualize and also deleted the title , which I felt was pretty repetitive.

Pboard Design Before

How To Be Human

Pboard Design Final 74

6.2 Photobook Layouts

Layout Refinements Things I changed from my previous layouts (Photo-wise) 1. I re-edited the tone so that they would look more cohesive (Textwise) 2. I added more text and played with typography to further contextualize. 3. Fixed up the typography system of my layouts. Changed the overarching color from black to white, to add repetition as a principle because I have a lot of white in my photobook (margins, etc). Changed the chapter numbers in my chapter divider pages to follow the numbers in my cover. (Layout-wise) 4. I made the margins wider. This is because I made my book smaller from 20x20cm to 14x14cm (CD-size). This is to highlight emphasis on the photos.

Color correction (bumped up the creaminess and brightness), Narrower margins

5. Changed the gradient color I used very slightly and minimized the grain after seeing how the CPJ test prints came out. 6. I added two pages as “dividers” to sort of break up the monotny, as well as incorporate some sort of context for my audience.

I added a divider here (half-page) to break up a bit of the monotony.

On Being Human

Reflections Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Overall, I am feeling quite good of my final layout. I think the narrower space in the margin looks better. By this point, the final output is a 42pp book. The breakdown of the pages entails: 4pp Cover 34pp Inside pages 2pp Dividers (Translucent paper)

Type color change

Narrower margins

tangible.pdf

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Narrower margins CM

CMY

I took out the type and let the pictures have more emphasis (I think it was too distracting) and moved the type to be a divider instead (this one using transparent paper)

How To Be Human

6.3 Binding

Binding

Loose between signature starts and ends

Kettle Stitch The binding I decided to do is a kettle stitch, a derivation from the coptic stitch. The difference is in the pattern on the spine. I figured I had too little pages to make a coptic stitch, so I decided to try my hand at kettle stitching.

Problems faced 1. I couldn’t manage stitch it very tightly the first time around. It came out very loose towards the end. I tightened it by going over with a french link. 2. I found that some of the paper wasn’t suited for sewing and saw patches in the print after sometime. Other than that, I was afraid that it would tear. 3. As the stitching that I had the capacity to do wasn’t very neat and was quite loose, I decided to double it over with a french link to make it tighter. Now I realise that this is not the appropriate way to do it, yet it made my binding very much secure. 4. I tried to manipulate the pages so that the full spread pages would be in the same page when printing. This is incase any misallignment happens. In this case, it did happen in one of the pages.

Reflections I am glad that despite the obstacles, I was still able to do the kettle stitch because I desperately wanted it to be able to lay flat. I was able to to improve on the binding with the cover. I decided to make the cover sort of a jacket that covers it (alike to a bible’s binding). However, as I had decided on a soft cover instead of a hardcover, gluing it would prove to become a challenge.

On Being Human

Creasing in some papers

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Paper prototype of test binding

Seamless in between signatures (yay)

Slight misallignment in one of my full spread layouts.

Zoomed in of my adaptation of Kettle Stitch + French Link Binding

How To Be Human

6.4.1 Printing

Printing Pt. 1 Pages Paper Selection The papers I printed on were: 1. Munken 130gsm 2. Exel Bulky Satin 170gsm 3. Maple Bright 170gsm 4. Veg Parchment (for the dividers)

Problems faced The printing of the inside pages went quite smoothly, save for some misallignment. I salvaged these because I printed with bleed, and I could easily cut out the white/misalligned part. I didn’t face any problems with the veg parchment paper too.

Reflections I decided to go with Exel Bulky Satin, as I liked the thickness and the coated ness. The rest of the paper I printed on were matte, or uncoated, and thus my gradient BG and black BG came out super patchy.

Misallignment, causing white areas to seep through

Veg Parchment Paper

On Being Human

Munken

- This paper is uncoated, making the gradient come out a bit patchy - The warmest tone out of all three, hence the green came out washed in color - Wasn’t suitable for binding as it had creased in the cover.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

The gradient spread when printed on three different types of paper

Exel Bulky Satin

- Semi coated paper with a greyish undertone. - I didn’t see much problems with this paper. I decided to go with it because the glossy finish complemented the pictures nicely, and I didn’t have to worry about my blacks coming out patchy looking.

Maple Bright

- Uncoated, I found that I really love the look and feel of matte paper, it was also sturdier and could hold the burden of the binding better than the glossy paper. - I still decided to go with Exel, despite this, because the pictures came out better in my honest opinion.

The black page on glossy finish

How To Be Human

6.4.2 Printing

Printing Pt. 2 Covers Paper Selection The papers I printed on were: 1. Linen 250gsm 2. Silk White 250gsm 3. Glossy Art 250gsm

Problems faced Because my cover was a dark grey, everytime I printed on an uncoated paper, the color came out very patchy. I was able to resolve this through using coated paper instead - silk white 250gsm. However, I wasn’t quite happy with the way the grey came out still. Finally, I changed the CMYK ink levels of my cover in .ai to be 100% K, and it came out so much better - not patchy at all.

CMYK Black 0 0 0 76%

CMYK Black 0 0 0 0%

I actually bought another paper, Ebony Colorplan 350gsm from RJ Paper. However, this paper ended up being unused because it was dark in color and no printer offered white-ink printing, despite me having already prpeared for it.

Alligned with the inner booklet

On Being Human

Creasing from the binding

Overline on the diecut Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Reflections I decided to go with Silk White as using coated paper is more suitable for printing black. I also realize the diecut was a bit bigger than what was in my files. I will make sure this doesn’t happen with my actual prints later.

Cover Paper Ranked (in terms of glossinest and unpatchiness )

Silk White #2 (Black Swatch)

Linen #4

Silk White #3 (Grey Swatch)

Glossy Art card #1

How To Be Human

6.5 Photobook Layout

Final Layout

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

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CAPABLE OF CLEALY BEING GRAPSED BY THE MIND

How To Be Human

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

How To Be Human

Vol 02

Motion Design This CPJ (Creative Process Journal) serves as a collection of personal reflections, research, case studies and exploration to aid my motion graphic video project as part of Design In Society’s term 2 assignment. Going forward from my previous project, titled “How To Be Human”, this will be the Volume 02 of my Creative Process Journal. This assignment focuses on the next step of adapting ideas and issues through design in a societal context. The final deliverables for this term 2 assignment will be a 60 second motion graphic animation video.

What It Means To Be Human A curious exploration on human essence

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

How To Be Human

Table of Contents

Vol 02

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 01

Chapter 01 Discovery Mindmap / Industry Talk / Motion Design Basics / Motion Design Mentors / Topic ResearcH / Return Brief

Chapter 02 Define

103

Production Exercise / Return Brief / Storyboard / Case Study

Chapter 03 Design Production / Case Study / Return Brief / Lecture Notes / Storyboard

113

Chapter 04 Develop Pboard / Title Design / Treatment / Assets Workflow Audio Workflo

129

Chapter 05 Delivery

137

Motion Design Breakdown / Epilogue

How To Be Human

Chapter one DISCOVER TIMEFRAME WEEK 9 [3.10 - 10.10.21] OBJECTIVES Mindmap Industry Talk Motion Design Basics Motion Design Mentors Topic Research Return Brief

On Being Human

1.1 What Is Art For?

I heavily referenced my previous return brief in order to facilitate the brainstorming for this term’s project. In all honesty, a project of that much ambition took a lot from me. I jumped into this term feeling quite unsure If I could keep up with the checklist of things that term 1 required of me such as the weekly CPJ updates. Not to mention the final cost of the book really hurt. However, I was excited to go forth. From defining a how to guide to being human, next I aspire to branch out but still under the same theme.

To formulate the mindmap, I first looked at the question I answered in term 1; What is Art for? Art is for communicating. Art is to start conversations. The conversation I wished to start was that of being human. What does it truly mean to be human? Does having physicality and relationship with others truly qualify us as humans or are those just humanlike qualities?

Going Forth From Photobook Quoting from my past reflection in the previous term “Personal interpretation is the backbone of what makes an experience with art meaningful.” The two polarizing ideas I had heavily conferred this idea of personal interpretation. To talk about being human in the metaphysical sense, of course I have to talk about the humanities and what the study of humanities offers. That is, literature (science fiction specifically) and philosophy.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

Mindmap

Fig 1.1 Mindmap What It Means To Be Human

1.2. Industry Talk

Ronald Fong

Fig 1.2 3D rendering by Ronald Fong made on Maya

Industry Talk Reflection Being unfamiliar with the discipline of motion design, I really had no idea what to expect when it came to this season’s industry talk. However, it was a really insightful talk about the ins and outs of the motion design industry. One key takeaway, which I think is something that all design discipline practitioners inherently benefits from, is the ability to recognize our strengths and talents. Going by the feedback I received last term, my lecturers had pointed out to me that my strength lies in grid layouts and typographic sense.

Even while I am nervous to start with motion design, I find solace in the fact that design principles are universal - in product design, interior design, and of course motion design. My strong appreciation towards design principles helps me to transfer what I already know and like Ronald said to “play my strengths”

On Being Human

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36 Days of Type Project I found it really cool how he still finds time to do personal projects outside of work that he finds meaningful. He did this 36 days of type project centered around food. Although he uses 3D for most of his projects, and the motion design I’m trying to familiarize myself with at the moment is 2D, I will store the things I learned from this industry talk for later reference. Particularly, I learned the mise-en-scene in his 3D works are always spot-on. They’re digestible and make sense, hence, they enhance the main subject of the composition, which is the letters x food. Color, lighting, little details such as steam, texture of the plate are all nurtured with tender care and high attention. In that sense, I think it shows how professional his craft is and is what differentiates industry professionals and students.

What It Means To Be Human

“They’re digestible and make sense, hence, they enhance the main subject of the composition, which is the letters x food.”

1.3 Production

Motion Design Basics

his term, the software that production class will be focusing on is Adobe After Effects. The objective is to hone the technical skills and deepen understanding of basic motion design workflows. The theoretical aspect of the class included self-initiated study about animation principles. The class was fun for me because there’s a leap of difference in animating with effects and without - it really gives it soul.

Position

The exercise given at the end of class was to covet the learnings and apply it to a short 5 second shape animation. The transform tools I used were mainly rotation, position, and scale. The other techniques I applied was speed blur, as well as utilizing the graph editor to modify speed.

Scale

What I learned I find it really interesting how an effect can really give life to a character. All things come into play, the colors, the pacing, the framing, the expressions and the tone of voice. Other than that, I had fun doing my animation exercise, allbeit it was a short one.

Rotation + Scale

Fig 1.3 Production Exercises

On Being Human

Return Brief Draft Return Brief: Humanufacture Purpose: To provoke a humanizing perspective and explore the role that technology plays in human lives. Art is for communicating intangible things such as emotions, senses, and experiences through the tangible. Thus, art can play a part in starting conversations. In this era of innovation, science fiction as an art form (literature) shapes the public’s understanding of crucial technological advances, such as AI and biotechnology – posing difficult questions of the consequences of such advancements for the human race. Through my motion illustration work, I aim to communicate a vision of the future of humanity. As our world and interactions continue to be laced with technology and technology becomes more human and intuitive, what would it mean if we lose our humanness to it? Is this where you want to end up? Archetype: The Magician This archetype relates to my brief because it is visionary and awakens the imagination of the people seeing it.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

1.4 Return Brief

Emotion: Curiosity, insightful, tense, unease I want my work to make people think, wonder, and ask why. Using science fiction, I wish to convey a look into the dystopian future and provoke the sense of unease in my audience. Audience: Humans who do not take things at face value. Young adults aged 25-30. Those who like imagining somethings out of nothings and musing on the possibility of things. On a deeper, more transformative manner, it is for people who seek a deeper level of understanding of the value of their humanity and appreciate the humanly intrinsic ability to have personality, ideas, values, emotions and stories.

Subject: Artificial Intelligence

Reflection In a nutshsell, this brief is going the science fiction direction in my mindmap that I explored. It aims to explore the future of humanity.

What It Means To Be Human

1.5 Motion Designer Mentors

The Ordinary Folk Studio The ordinary folk is a Canada-based motion design studio which focuses on minimal as well as abstract design. They have a legion of clients such as School of Motion, The Bible Project and Hyundai. Their vision is to “creating meaningful pieces that feel, move, look and sound amazing”.

What I liked about their work I was attracted to their work because of the clean look and feel, despite insane amount of detail they put. Each project has a very cohesive and coherent sense of art direction. Most of their work relies heavily on shapes and grids, which some people deem as simple, but it’s the visual metaphors that they employ and the movement & sequence which all adds to a delightful experience, despite the use of such simple shapes.

Fig 1.7 Hyundai 360c Campaign

On Being Human

A common element I found in their works is the use of zoom sequences, or kaledoiscopes, such as the first two pictures on the right. Next is the use of “one take” scenes, where a line is constantly flowing and the camera follows it diligently. As far as storytelling goes, I learned a lot in applying visual metaphors into abstract shapes that don’t inherently have a connection with the message, but they do so with sound and sequence. For example, the first two pictures are screenshots they did for Techless, which advocates for positive uses of technology and against distracting ones. The campaign is called “Less is more”, which is smart in itself.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

What I learned

First scene

Narration: “Technology holds us together” Action: Here the circles are huddled inside a bigger circle, applying unity. Second Scene

Narration: “But are we really in control?” Action: Circles from before (applying continuity) are trapped inside rectangles and can’t break free. Background is dark applying contrast as a principle.

What I’m Gonna Apply

Fig 1.8 Techless Less is More Campaign

Hence, what I’m planning on incorporating in my own works is their way with storytelling methods through visual metaphors through simple abstract shapes and sequences, attention to detail, and applying basic design principles.

What It Means To Be Human

1.6Topic Research

Science Fiction My first possible idea dwelled along literature and media, specifically Science Fiction. Reading up and watching a lot of Scifi as a kid, I personally love the genre. I drew my inspiration from Ex Machina, as well as classic japanese mecha animes such as Gundam and Ghost in the shell.

Why Sci-fi? To me, the genre exists like both a vision and wake up call for humanity. For one, scifi begets the potential of the wonderful possibilities of human innovation and technologies, or it can go the dark route and show the consequences of such advancements. Therefore at its core, scifi talks about human nature. Other than that, going the science fiction route complements the magician archetype I’ve decided to use over the whole project - providing visionary ideas of what the world could be.

“It shapes the understanding of the public on things like artificial intelligence and biotechnology, which are likely to change our lives and society more than anything else in the coming decades.” - Yuval Noah Harari Fig 1.9 Ex Machina

On Being Human

In my last project I was talking heavily about dehumanization as my inspiration, making me satirically observe humanization within inanimate objects as a form of satire. The advancements that the world has made thanks to technology has shown incrimental changes towards how we engage with the world. In other words, our human touch. As tech becomes more and more human through Artifical Intelligence and bioengineering, there’s definitely an effect of dumanization. Will it replace humans altogether one day? Is that really what we want to become? Furthermore, my photobook cover was essentially a graphic manual of a manufactured human.

What’s the story?

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

How does Sci-fi relate to my previous brief?

Fig 1.10 Rough Idea of Storyboard

As the title goes “Humanufacture”, the story is about manufactured humans. In the future dystopia, a human is seen in his day to day life as a worker in a factory that manufactures humans. When his body glitches, he submits himself into the factory equipment for “repairs” revealing that he is a machine all along. It’s an open ended question but I think it conveys a humanizing perspective.

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1.6 Topic Research:

Philosophy

My second idea which I wished to refine was more metaphysical - dealing with Philosophy. Philosophy is essentially the science of human beings, and it’s a study that has been going for thousands of years with many many hoods, empiricism, existentialism, rationalism. Due to the constraint of time, I only did research on empiricism, which is that all our knowledge and humanity exists from the senses.

Hannah Arendt

“Every birth comes with it the possibility of a changed world” Human lives are cyclical, beginning with birth, ending in death, as is everything in nature. However, what truly differentiates us from animals and trees is free will, deeds, words. Unlike plants and animals, we are born not to die but to begin. With that, love reveals the glory of a person, who that person is. For this fact alone humans are unique, not just animals with tastes and preferences. In order to revel in the glory, we first must begin.

Emmanuel Kant

“Human reason acknowledges limitation yet still enquires” Because of how limited we are, we have no way of proving whether the meta exists or not, but it is inherently what it means to be human - to enquire. What strips us away of this human quality is blindly accepting dogma. This is relevant because his central philosophy stated that “freedom is the central of what it means to be human” that we are free to govern our own lives and that we have reasoning ability allows us to create whatever need be in order to create a meaningful existence for ourselves.

Synthesis Through synthesizing these two philosophers’ life work - I boiled down my meaning of human existence as seeking regardless of limitations. In short, I believe it’s in our code to live, despite knowing we must die. In other words, humans love asking questions, despite the possibility of never finding out the answers, and they try anyway. Thus, this is what I define as the best of the human experience.

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On Being Human

Last term, my project was titled “How To Be Human”, which branches into physicality, relationship, as well as consciousness. But those are just the things which classify us as humans. My photobook ended with a quote “Are those just humanlike qualities or are you truly human?”. This question begets another question for me; “What does it truly mean to be human?. Which has lead me to doing research into the answers of men older and wiser than I am - philosophers.

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How does it relate to my previous brief?

What’s the story? The script will be a narration. It will focus on the central message that humans will always try despite of their limitations.

In short, I believe it’s in our code to live, despite knowing we must die.

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Chapter two DEFINE TIMEFRAME WEEK 10 [10.10.21 - 17.10.21] OBJECTIVES Production Exercise Return Brief Storyboard Case Study

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Cuts and Transitions

The topic we focused on this week is cuts and transition, as well as color grading. There are a lot of different types of cuts; more famous ones including match cuts, jump cuts, a J & L cut and more. I definitely found the lesson valuable in aiding my understanding of motion design, as well as got me thinking of what type of cuts I will employ for my own project.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

2.1 Production

Slight point of improvement from my exercise is that I should’ve color graded a bit more.

Fig 2.1 Production Exercises

The type of cuts and effects applied: Match cut, Speed Ramping

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02 2.2 Return Brief

Return Brief Draft Return Brief: What it means to be human

Purpose: To convey the beauty of the human experience regardless of our limitations. Art is for communicating intangible things such as emotions, senses, and experiences through the tangible. Thus, art can play a part in starting conversations. In my last project “How To Be Human” it talks about the things that make us human, to have physicality etc. But what does it actually mean to be human? In regards to this question, I aim to provoke people to reflect deeper about this question and offer a vision of what it means to be truly human. To be human is to be limited and finite, yet to strive despite and imagine immensities. Mentor: The Ordinary Folk Archetype: The Magician This archetype relates to my brief because it is visionary and awakens the imagination of the audience Subject: Visual 2D illustration of shapes. The simple shapes symbolize humans. Connected lines symbolizes life and progression. Sound Voiceover. A script about the things that make us human, such as always asked the question about their purpose. “To be human is to be limited by error, biology, by time and space, but to be human is to strive despite and imagine immensities”

Emotion: Curiosity, insightful, wonderment I want my work to make people think, wonder, and ask why. At the end of it I want them to feel wonderment, and willing to internalize the vision I am showing them. I want them to relish in the feeling of being unapologetically human and finite. Audience: Humans who do not take things at face value. Young adults aged 25-30. Those who like imagining somethings out of nothings and musing on the possibility of things. On a deeper, more transformative manner, it is for people who seek a deeper level of understanding of the value of their humanity and appreciate the humanly intrinsic ability to have personality, ideas, values, emotions and stories.

Reflection I changed my return brief from the scifi approach to the philosophy approach because I felt it was utlimately the more appropriate link to my previous brief. It really feels like the part two of “How to be human”. Furthermore, through using the philosophical approach, I envision the design to be cleaner and more minimal.

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On Being Human

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Fig 2.2 Miro Exercise

Fig 2.3 Rough Storyboard

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01 2.3 Storyboard

Storyboard Draft

Fig 2.4 Storyboard 1

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Storyboard Draft

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2.3 Storyboard

Fig 2.5 Storyboard 2

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2.3 Storyboard

Storyboard Changes Reflection

Why I changed

A narrative grounds the simple shapes, but it cannot be too open-ended. There needs to be easily recognizable start and end points which help the viewers digest the message it presents. Thus, I decided to add in simple shapes that represent humans as the front and end screens. Humans as the end and starting points.

Miscommunication presents itself as a threat because of the vocabulary I use. I think I was a bit too idealistic and tried to present so much in such a short time, within such few sentences. I’d lost the main point as well as the audience’s interest.

Fig 2.6 Before

Fig 2.7 After

What I changed The animation starts with a title sequence instead. Then to reduce some friction I added better transitions, less forced. Also simplified the script.

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Fig 2.8 Before Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

Fig 2.9 After

What I changed Other than simplifying the script, I decided to delete this sequence because of the visual disconnect it brings towards the rest of the storyboard. My rationale was that it was a kaledoiscope that sort of reveals this truth. It didn’t fit well. Next I also made the colors more contrasting and a better transition from the black to the grey instead of it popping uo suddenly. My rationale behind the grey BG is that the question mark and this proposed vision of being content not knowing frames our perspective into a very ambiguous one hence “grey area”.

Visual Metaphor Breakdown These two frames symbolize “limitations” which is a recurring topic/theme of the human experience. The vignette acts as a frame which encloses the circles multiplying, which symbolizes “discoveries”. The bottom frame shows a ball trying to go through the horizon barrier, acting as the limitation again. Striving is symbolized by the ball bouncing and trying again. I used the same ball for continuity and black and white colors for contrast.

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2.4 Case Studies on Type

SOGA House Apple What I liked about their work

What I’m gonna apply

As the company that they are designing this motion graphic for is apple, it’s a very minimalist approach. The visuals only use 2 elements - dots and lines. Personally, I love how simple yet smart it is.

Because I’m planning on introducing type quite sparsingly, as well as subtitles, this case study is quite relevant to my work. I also want to apply the simple shapes and simple metaphors.

What I learned It perfectly conveys the message without clutter. If the subtitle is showing “abundance”, then the visual is of a lot of dots falling off a ledge. I think these kind of subtle visual metaphors work really nicely - people don’t need to think too hard about it. I also learned a lot about pacing and transitions. Some of the transitions are so satisfyingly done, a ball falling down and morphing into a line, match cuts timed with music, and more. Design principles such as contrast, unity, balance, continuity, rhythm were appropriately applied.

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Reflections

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

2.5 BI-Weekly Check-in

Due to the time constraint this term, I will be doing bi-weekly checkins instead of weekly check-ins like in the former half of this CPJ

What I’m feeling about my work At first, there was a lot of confusion regarding which direction I should go forth for my return brief - science fiction or philosophy. I am glad I decided to go with the philosophical route because it allowed for me to say more with my message, and be more creative with my visual metaphors. This is a new challenge for me definitely. I now know how to go forth and the type of case studies I’m looking at should be more clear now.

What I Can Improve On Over the course of next week, my goals are to create better more relevant case studies and procure a new return brief which relates more to my previous term work. From my return brief, I also aim to synthesize a storyboard as well as the animatics.

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Chapter three DESIGN Pt. 1 TIMEFRAME WEEK 11 [17.10 - 24.10.21] OBJECTIVES Production Case Study Return Brief Lecture Notes Storyboard

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All About Audio

On the technical side, today we learned about different audio effects as well as how to trim and sync audio in After Effects through adjusting audio level tool and seeing waveform. This is especially relevant to me because I am planning on doing a voice over as well as typography (though sparingly) in my video project. Some learnings were:

What I Applied

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

3.1 Production

I added some electronic music to my skate sequence because I felt it was appropriate. I matched his jump with the beat drops, as well as softened the audio at the end.

1. Good quality production audio is necessary to create and design good sound design in post (meaning even if its a godlevel camera but the sound quality is bad, post production will still be lacklustre) 2. A lot of detail goes into producing sounds, such as the use of a manually maneuvered boom mic to control audio levels, noise, distractions, etc. 3. Don’t trust your ear but trust the waveform

Importance of sound effect it goes to show just how audio and sound design can affect the experience of watching a movie. I find this exceedingly true, as I appreciate movies a lot more when the sound design is on point. There’s a very emotional quality to sound, which just magnifies the impact of a scene. I feel this is true for movies sound designed by Hans Zimmer, who composed the scores for iconic movies like Dunkirk, The Dark Knight and most recently DUNE.

Fig 3.1 Waveform view in AE

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3.2 Case Study On Message

Merging Scifi and Philosophy I wanted to study how modern media portrays the meaning of being human. Blade runner may seem like your typical blockbuster, but its actually a picturesque portrayal of the perpetual questioning what it means to be human. We look first at replicants, or androids. The newer models have within them implanted artificial memories, fuelling authentic emotional responses and morality. In this world there is wall reinforcing the social hierarchal system, and one of the characters quoted that “once people realize there is no wall, a war will be bought.” This wall is referred to as the line that distinguishes humans and androids. in a world where androids have become so distinctively human with them having memories and emotions, this wall is upheld by one sole thing that androids cant do that humans can - procreation. The story centers around K, a replicant who’s service is to kill other older replicant models who’ve gone rogue. K is fine with killing replicants because he has a core belief that anything man-made doesn’t possess a soul. in fact, this core belief subjugates how he perceives himself and his place and interaction with the world. He’s complacent with being badly treated because of his job as a blade runner, of the fact that his girlfriend is a consumer product, stopping her when she shows affection that feels too authentic. However, this suppression of humanity loosens as the movie progresses, forging the idea that yes - to have needs and wants and desires is a visceral human tendency, and despite of his android state, he longs for these things just the same way that any human would.

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Fig 1.7 Miro Exercise

Fig 3.1 Blade Runner 2049

“...forging the idea that yes to have needs and wants and desires is a visceral human tendency”

On Being Human

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

I think one of the most important part of the whole movie is that the most human aspect is this relationship between a replicant and a hologram programmed to meet his needs. I find myself convinced that the love Joi had for K was for real. she symbolizes the blurring of the lines between what is real and what is not because really at the end of the day it does not matter. she calls him joe because it is part of her programming and what she calls her buyers, yet does this cancel the fact that she seflessly died to save him? the fact is that the connection broughtforth by this relationship feels real, therefore is real. This relates to the philosophical theory of empiricism as well, which is the fact that all reason and knowledge is born of senses. as an android is implanted with senses and memories, it no longer matters whether they are designed or not, the fact is that the beauty of being human lies in the seeking and the experience, not the answer of whether these things are real or the mere ability to procreate. The walls have collapsed long before this revelation.

This movie relates to my return brief and my project because it unpacks what makes us so distinctively human. in my 60 second video, i only had the time to explore one part of it - which is that humans are fuelled by a search. this pregnant curiosity - this itch they have to scratch, this lump in their throat, this lovesickness and homesickness - is the essence which births new discoveries. limitations looms over the movie - people make do despite. 1. Physicality as a constraint. Agent K loves Joi despite of her being a hologram and she strives to prove her authentic love for him as well. 2. Consciousness as a constraint - Agent K has to be baselined - to have enough consciousness to be of use but just barely enoough.

What I want to apply Aside from gaining deeper clarity about a media approach to something as meta as the meaning of being human, I think the color theory in blade runner is brilliant. Yellow is a sign of information, appearing everytime he gains it. White is of enlightenment, which is why agent k dies in a field of snow, surrounded by his truth.

Fig 3.2 K and Joi

Fig 1.7 Leon drinking milk

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3.3 Lecture Notes

Symbolism & The Twist of Contrast

My thoughts on Squidgame In today’s lecture, we studied examples of symbolism used in film. As a class, we did an analysis on the currently popular netflix show Squidgame. The sticky on the right was my initial analysis. I find myself acknowledging the “twist of contrast” is actually a really smart idea, but still find myself quite disappointed by how cheesy the production looks. Until, pointed out by my lecturer, is that it’s deliberately packed in a cheesily produced and

simplified plot in order to reach a wider audience. In that sense, Squidgame has definitely succeeded, as it’s the number one netflix show in so many countries. Other than that, the underlying message of capitalim and subliminal human greed is being talked about in a legion of articles, videos, analyses all around the internet, a point for advocacy around social issues, which is definitely a win to celebrate for Squidgame

Fig 3.4 Netflix’s Squidgame

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Fig 3.3 Miro Exercise

And then we went on to talk about the symbolism of milk in movies, still under the overarching theme of juxtaposition. Milk symbolizes childlike innocence and youth, so when a grown man who’s an assassin is shown to be drinking it in Leon The Professional, it’s unhinging and out of place. This dissociativeness between meaning and subject creates a feeling of eerieness and discomfort for the audience. This theme resonated with me a lot to the point I was thinking of it while watching other movies. For one, in Neon Genesis Evangelion, a japanese anime about children piloting mecha-robots to save humanity from aliens. The show is beguilling in a way that adults are supposed to protect children, but in this case it’s the opposite, and it drives you to empathize with them. It’s a magnified issue about children being victims of war and violence broughtforth by adults.

What I applied So as I was thinking about my own project and the visual metaphors and symbols I utilized I find that it’s safe and recurring. The tone of sage is apparent, and it’s a good thing because I’ve struggled with matching archetypes in the past. However, it became too apparent that it doesn’t leave room for twists or something that may be able to hook my audience’s interest deeper - such as that twist of contrast. I was already employing a few, through the use of colors (predominantly black vs white), and the use of such simple shapes, which contrasts the all too complex message of what it means to be human.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

This dissociativeness between meaning and subject creates a feeling of eerieness and discomfort for the audience.

Then, I got an idea to take that twist of contrast further and use a child’s voice for narration instead. The rationale behind this is that the question is such a deep question that if a child asks their parents they wouldn’t really know how to answer. This provides a frame for the audience - the voice asking is someone who really doesn’t know and is genuinely curious and oblivious. However, why does she sound so wise? That’s where the point of interest lies. Using a child’s voice to offset the deep complex message, because I will have to use simple and childish vocabulary and concepts. Meaning, I also aim to change my visuals to facilitate it better. Good thing I was already using simple shapes and lines, but the plan is to decorate it with a few splashes of color, perhaps a scribbled aesthetic, as well as patterns.

Fig 3.5 Leon the Professional

Fig 1.7 Leon drinking milk

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03 3.4 Return Brief

Return Brief: Final

Return Brief: What it means to be human

Subject:

Purpose: To provoke enquiry about what it means to be human, which is to perpetually seek meaning regardless of inherent limitations. Art is for communicating intangible things such as emotions, senses, and experiences through the tangible. Thus, art has been a medium for humans to convey meaning and purpose for thousands of years. In my last project “How To Be Human” it talks about the things that make us human, to have physicality etc. But what does it actually mean to be human? In regards to this question, I aim to provoke reflection and offer wisdom, derived from the philosophy of empiricism. To be human is to acknowledge limitations but still enquire. The beauty of the human experience lies in the seeking, not the answer.

Sound -> Child voiceover to act as a grounding support. The simple and innocent narration juxtaposes the deep and serious message.

Emotion: Curiosity, insightful, wonderment I want my work to make people think, wonder, and ask why. At the end of it, I want my audience to relish in the feeling of being unapologetically human and oblivious to the workings of the world, just as a child is. Audience: Humans who do not take things at face value. Young adults aged 25-30.

Mentor: Brian Rea The Ordinary Folk Archetype: Sage This archetype relates to my brief because it reveals a vision of its truth to the audience. The overarching message will be philosophical and wise.

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Visual -> 2D illustration of abstract geometric shapes and lines. The simple shapes and lines are comprised of dots. Connected lines symbolize life and progression.

Those who like imagining somethings out of nothings and musing on the possibility of things. On a deeper, more transformative manner, it is for people who seek a deeper level of understanding of the value of their humanity and appreciate the humanly intrinsic ability to have personality, ideas, values, emotions and stories.

On Being Human

Purpose I feel like provoking enquiry is appropriate because the title itself is already an enquiry. I simplified and tried to be more concise with my words Arhcetype I changed my archetype from magician to sage because my approach was too wise to be considered visionary. It has an underlying explorer theme too because of the space elements I added as well as the audio track I used (Synthwave sounds, think cyberpunk or dark techno from the 80s)

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

What I changed

Sound Voiceover into a child narration to contrast the deep message.

I think my updated return brief is a lot clearer. I like my new idea of using a child’s POV, which will prove to be a chellenge for me, yet I am excited for.

What It Means To Be Human

Emotion By changing the sound I was changing the emotional quality of my work as well, meaning as it’s framed from a genuinely curious POV, my audience will feel a sense of lightheartedness to their obliviousness, instead of confusion. Mentor Brian Rea “California inspires me” He uses simple lines and shapes as well, yet the scribble aesthetic provides another contrast as the message behind his video is quite reflective. He uses a dot and a line to symbolize himself and his journey, which I think it’s really smart. He starts of at a point and as he talks about growing up in california the line elongates and goes on a continuous journey.

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3.5 Case Studies on Style

Fig 3.6 California Inspires me

Brian Rea

What I’m gonna apply

What I liked about his work It’s simple but it’s engaging all the way. He employs many many basic design principles such as contrast (size, color, etc) and foreground. Despite it not being flashy like 3d illustrations with lots of bounce or run cycles, this simple aesthetic is very visually enticing.

Using of lines and wiggle paths for that scribbly feel, and simple shapes

I also chose his work to be one of my case studies because the direction shift in my motion graphic, which is to have it be a bit more childlike.

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Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

3.5 Case Studies on Style

The Ordinary Folk What I liked about their work Again using the ordinary folk as a case study, but this time I am closely following this particular work because it’s one that catches my eyes the most. I think this is because of the myriad of effects they use. I am still not very sensitive towards motion design effects such as element morph but I know that the transitions in this video is extremely smooth. Furthermore, the visual metaphors in this short video also drove me to want to learn more and more about it and making it my reference for my work.

Fig 3.7 The Reformation Project

What I’m gonna apply Smooth and creative transitions, and real life textures in my illustrations.

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03 3.6 Storyboard

Storyboard Draft Fig 3.8 Storyboard Draft 3

What I changed overall I made really significant changes to the script as well as animations. After making that decision to switch to a child voiceover, I simplified the words used in the script again, and then created simpler visual metaphors. On top of that the animation style I’m going for is now a hand-drawn effect.

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Why? for smoother transition from white BG to black BG. My plan is to make the screen tinge black when the water hits the surface, with the ripples consuming the screen.

Divided this sequence into two parts.

We looked up at the stars.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

Changes 1

and within the sea.

Changes 2

Changed the lines to wavy, omitted connecting lines Why? too mechanic, doesn’t feel appropriate for a hand-drawn animation style. Furthermore, the script changed to just “religion and philosophy” for the sake of simplicity and rhyming as well.

and then we studied regiion and phiosophy. What It Means To Be Human

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Changes 3

Added this scene of a ball bouncing Why? One of my lecturers gave feedback about there being a disconnect between the question and the answer, so readding the question n the middle here is my attempt to make the audience remember what was the question being asked again.

Changes 4

Changed the ending scene and ending quotes.

The ending quote will still be “the beauty lies in the seeking, not the answer”, but as I added a few lines “tomorrow’s uncertain and the answer is nowhere to be found, but the beauty lies in the seeking, not the answer” I thought I should add back this scene, sort of to ground us back to the very start. (This is one of the very first scenes).

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3.7 Bi-Weekly Check-in

Week 11 This week was one of the most formative in the whole timeline of this project so far. I was inspired, thanks to some great case studies in the art direction as well as message aspect. However, as far as storyboards go i knew that mine would definitely change as i actually went on to do the animation, with the script as well.

Creative Process Journal: VOL 02

Reflections

I’d like to improve on my technical skills. now that i know some rigs i want to implement, i have to learn them through watching tutorials and doing my own fair share of research outside of production class. i also aim to tweak little bits of my script and try to visualize the ideas better. next week will be the development phase, hence i will start to fine-tune my designs. Week 12 I improved technically as I learned a few things pertaining to cuts and transitions. Other than that, i completed my storyboard (which still needs refinements) as well as finalized my return brief. the final verdict was going the philosophical route under the sage archetype. I think I have quite a way to go in refining my storyboard and script. I know now that my great plan is to convey this philosophy, yet I need to simplify it. In a sense I also want to incorporate some inteResting points - be smarter with what I want to say. Adding visual metaphors, or better implementing design principles such as contrast. I think it will start to come together a bit when I start to do my animatics

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04 3.8 Storyboard

Storyboard Final

STORYBOARD

Page: 1 / 1

Boards: 12 | Shots: 12 | Duration: 0:24 | Aspect Ratio: 16 : 9 DRAFT: OCTOBER 28, 2021

0:00

What does it mean to be human?

Letters morph into shape elements

0:02

does it mean having square teeth & 2 knees? Head rolls into body and the squares form arms and legs.

0:06

and they've searched the world desperately

Edge of question mark tapers into a line, from the line comes out a rocket ship

rocketship comes across a spiral of stars