Reflections | Fall 2018

REFLECTIONS | FALL 2018 joyce chen

CO NT ENTS

Mosaics 4 redefine book

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writing content

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image–making

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visual systems

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laying it out

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artist–made books

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creating the cover

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critique

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Design Life 52 design week

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new york

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Personal Project 62 personal book project

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final thoughts

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MOSA ICS

REDEFINE BOOK “What is a book?” This question started to linger in my mind as I tried to pry out an answer to jot down on the first day of Bookforms. Easy enough question to start off the semester…

But as I was trying to form an answer to this question, it suddenly became more complicated than what I initially thought. How could I possibly write a definition of a book without using the word, book? Here is the poor response that I came up with:

A book is a compilation of written documents that come together. While there are many different variations of books, the books ultimately serve as a way to communicate with people as a written form. Books have been historically used to document information for people to reference from. A compilation of papers that communicate information.

I knew I had to write something down! I panicked and attempted at writing some coherent sentences about a book. As class started, people started giving their attempt at a definition of a book. I started jotting down key words that I wished I also came up with. Words like “multipage, bound, compilation” were given throughout the discussion.

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We were then asked to start describing the “books” that were handed out to each student. While some of the “books” were traditional books that we would find in a library, others made it hard to define as a book. Some people had pop-up children books, others had blank journals and swatch books, I ended up with a small children’s book. As part of the exercise, we were then asked to describe the book. At this point, I was already convinced that I absolutely hated defining or describing anything! My first thought about the book was that it was a colorful kids book… but I knew that answer wouldn’t be appropriate for the exercise. I tried to dig deeper, but I ended up with a mundane answer:

This book is shaped in an organic shape, which is perfectly created for the targeted market, children. The pages are made to be thicker, easy for the audience to turn the pages and enforce the tactile aspect of a book. The book is complimented with fun illustrations, which also interact with the audience and communicate a level of information.

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During this exercise, we went around trying to explore our

Books: two hand spreads for reading distance

initial definitions of what a book is. By this point, I absolutely

Purpose: communicate to young children

had no clue what a book was anymore. Then, someone

Audience: children

asked the question of whether or not an interactive pdf was

Context: during playtime, and reading time

considered a book. This immediately changed my entire

tonality: very fun and carefree

perspective of a book. When I first started the class, I honestly had only thought of physical books as books‌ and while I

With a new mindset towards books, I am excited to explore

knew there were ebooks, I somehow forgotten that while I was

and experiment with the boundaries of a book in this semester.

trying to define what a book was in the beginning of class.

I am excited to approach the upcoming projects with new ways to push the boundary of what a bookform can and should be.

This conversation led to a more abstract question of whether or not, a blank journal was considered a book. This exercise changed my whole perspective of books and my schema that I had built around bookforms.

Here are some notes that I jotted down regarding my book that I used during the exercise and some thoughts that I had:

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How can I possibly tell a good story with only 5 items?

WRITING CONTENT

As a side note, I was so sad that I didn’t get the notification a week before. I had thrown away most of the items in my apartment

Ding* One of my notifications for basecamp popped up on

in attempt to be more minimal. Of course, I started panicking

my phone while I was at work. I saw that it was the inevitable

about the project. To me, the project had evolved from finding

“back to school message” and maybe a hint of the project that we

five objects around the house to how can I find anything that

were going to get for the semester. I immediately clicked on the

resembles value to me in order to do this project.

notification and quickly scanned the message. The words “five things” stuck in my mind throughout the rest of work week. How

In retrospect, my excessive cleaning the week before actually

can I possibly tell a good story with only 5 items? And how can I

helped me figure out my items a bit quicker… especially since

possibly find five items when I literally don’t have anything

there weren’t that many items to choose from. I started reflecting

in my apartment?”

on the items that I didn’t throw away and why I decided to keep them. My mind immediately went to the section of items that I didn’t/procrastinated on cleaning: my clothes.

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14 | mosaic: writing content

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My clothes has always been the hardest part of my room to clean out. Ever since I was little, I would always try to keep old clothing and had the most difficult time parting with clothes.

I realized at that moment, I had to make my book about my clothes. My clothes have always been a good indicator of who I am at any point of time.

The next hard step was trying to figure out which items to show. I knew I wanted to showcase key clothing pieces that I cherished and loved at certain parts of my life. I also knew that this book would be rather difficult for me to put down into words. While I have never been good with words, the content that I was going to write for the book was going to be more than just difficult. I wanted to find the perfect words to describe my story. This was a portion of my life that I have never shared with anyone. While this may be very surprising to people, I rarely ever share anything very personal about myself.

I like being very guarded and keep my private life separate from everything else in my life.

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16 | mosaic: writing content

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“Wow... I really wish I could just write a research paper...”

The nature of this project and the requirement to be quite

While the writing isn’t perfect or even the level of eloquence

personal was a huge challenge. I had to rewrite several drafts of

that I wished I could achieve, it is probably my most favorite

the writing portion of the book because I couldn’t get myself

piece of writing of mine. This was the first time that I had

to be personal. The idea of being vulnerable scared me. I didn’t

become completely true to myself and written something so

want to share anything about myself. I remember sitting in my

vulnerable and personal. I remember staying up till 1 in the

chair, trying to brainstorm and thinking, “wow… I really wish

morning finishing up the writing and just feeling a sense of

I could just write a research paper…” My first draft of my book

both relief and excitement as I finished my last sentence for

was boring. The writing wasn’t expressive and I knew it. It was

the book. While to many people, this is just a story about five

the kind of writing where you wanted to fall asleep before you

items, to me, this was a key moment.

even started. I knew I couldn’t turn it in and I forced myself to rewrite it. I started with writing in my real voice. This was something that I felt completely out of my comfort zone. My MST background kept yelling at myself while I was using first person to write the paper.

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As cliche as this sounds, I truly believe that pictures can tell a million words.

IMAGE–MAKING My favorite part of the whole book process was the photoshoot.

As cliche as this sounds, I truly believe that pictures can tell a million words. I had envisioned the images for the book to be perfect, and even surreal for the book. I wanted it to feel very editorial, photo-real, yet still feel like a perfection that couldn’t be possibly achieved in the “real” world.

To start off with, yes, the images were taken in my apartment.

This was a common question that I got during my critique in class. How did I achieve the images that I did? It took a lot of dedication, to say the very least. I moved every piece of furniture in my apartment to create a studio space that would be perfect for the type of photoshoot that I wanted. I transformed my clothing rack into a green screen by hastily taping bedsheets to a clothing rack I had.

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I created a moodboard to help me get ideas for the images that I wanted to create for my photoshoot. I wanted to create a progressive, dynamic energy through the collection of photos. I wanted the poses to gradually become more unconventional as the book progressed.

This photoshoot definitely allowed me to appreciate the art behind modeling. In order to create the most “perfect” photo compositions, I had to sit in really uncomfortable positions. The awkward poses I felt like I was in during the whole photoshoot resulted in beautiful compositions. While the photos looked quite graceful, the behind-the-scenes was everything but that. I had to take frequent breaks from each of the positions because I wasn’t as flexible that I needed to be for the poses. However, the photos made the hassle worth it! The images were exactly that I had in mind.

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The next question that I had regarding my photos was how

The picture on the left shows one of the environment renders.

I achieved the surreal environment that was captured in the

If you look closely, you can see a hint of the shadows. That’s

background that I was in.

where the mannequin that I created comes in play. I modeled the mannequin to do the same pose that I did in the

The answer is that the background is fake!

photoshoot in order to capture these realistic shadows!

I got some very helpful tips in Maya and I created a virtual

This 3D solution gave me a lot more control with my images.

background. I created a mannequin that was posed in the

I originally was going to find some images of backgrounds

same position that I was in during the photoshoot and placed

online, but with this solution, I could have more control over

into the environment to create the natural shadows that I

the composition and color on my images. Not to mention, it

would have gotten if I were actually in the scene. I came up

made the images look more believable.

with a color palette that I wanted to incorporate into the book and created textures to place onto the blocks. For each of the images, I created a system of using the blocks in the background to create a consistency throughout all the images.

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Visual systems. Those words were first introduced to me in 205, which seemed like a lifetime ago.

VISUAL SYSTEMS

While many designers like working in one specific medium, I love working in all kinds of medium. In fact, I love exploring how

Visual systems. Those words were first introduced to me in 205,

one concept can be integrated in all different kinds of mediums.

which seemed like a lifetime ago. We were asked to describe

Because of this, I think branding and experimenting with different

elements that make up a visual systems.

visual systems is my favorite part of design. I love manipulating with different elements in design and experimenting with how

“Color, composition, layout, typography…” these words were written down on the board as we brainstormed elements that made up a visual systems.

I knew these concepts would play an important role to me this semester. I absolutely love creating branding systems and I was super excited when I realized that I got to take two more additional studio classes focusing on branding. To me, visual systems and branding really give me a chance to dip my toes into all the aspects of design.

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that can be represented in different platforms and mediums.

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26 | mosaic: visual systems

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While most of the visual system elements were relatively easy for me to come up with for the book I wanted to design, the most difficult element would be choosing the typography. I knew I wanted to challenge myself by choosing typefaces that I had never used before.

The challenge that I gave myself was two-fold: I knew I didn’t want to default back to using my favorite font, Gotham and I wanted to explore more serif fonts.

Of course, when I started digging deeper into the project, I was secretly mad at myself for making harder restrictions. “It’s good for you...” I would tell myself throughout the process. Even as I am reflecting on my book right now, I am still amazed that I ended up using a serif font... and that I liked it. This project has actually changed my perspective towards serif fonts. To be honest, I love using serif fonts now, which is a complete 180 from anything I would’ve said even a year ago.

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I was in absolute awe the whole time I was looking at all the different examples.

TYPOGRAPHY

to choose from to having too many that I couldn’t narrow it down. I started jotting down keywords that I wanted my type

One of the strategies I had in opening my mind to different

to evoke. I realized that typography was another way for me to

typefaces was that I went down my entire list of fonts, instead

add more complexity to my minimal designs.

of just searching for specific fonts. – my typical solution when choosing a typeface.

This process has taught me that typography can add another level of texture to my composition. The complexity can be

I also researched different design agencies and looked at the

from the macro level of how the words are creating the layout

work that they produced. I studied the elegant ways they

compositions to the micro level of how each letter provides

manipulated typography. I was in absolute awe the whole time

a level of mood and tone to my overall piece. All of the

I was looking at all the different examples.

fundamentals that I had been taught in my previous classes finally clicked. While I couldn’t understand or even appreciate

After my research phase, I started experimenting with pairing

the exercises that were given in the previous classes, I could

a serif with a sans serif. I kept in mind the importance of

finally understand it in the context of creating my book.

legibility as well as the tone that I wanted to curate in my book while choosing my typeface. I must’ve went through at least 50 typefaces before I settled on Monserrat and Merriweather.

I went from having the problem of not enough type pairings 29

But I never could figure out what that something was until this past summer.

L AY I N G I T O U T My design style has always been quite minimal. While I knew that I didn’t want to stray from “my” style, I wanted to push it even further. This past summer, I started reflecting on my work and started to write a “game plan” for my last two semester.

One of my goals was to explore more in the “minimal” style.

While my designs in the previous years have always been okay for the level I was at, I always knew that it was always missing something. But I never could figure out what that something was until this past summer.

I started experimenting with textures earlier in the summer and I wanted to incorporate it into my work this semester. I started doing tiny exercises throughout the summer to push myself more in terms of layering textures.

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I remember walking into my first classroom on the first day at UK. It was like someone had turned a spotlight on me. Never before had I been so conscious of my differences. I looked around the room and was struck by how uniform everyone else

athleisure | 03

was. Every seat filled with a bubbling blonde smile.

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Before, I had this idea that to be minimal meant to literally have less on the screen. After trying to perfect my style over the past couple of years, I’ve learned that it’s really not the case. I’ve learned that composition is everything and that you can layer on a lot of textures and still produce something that is “minimal”.

I’ve learned that it’s truly all about the composition.

I started really understanding that concept when I was one day taking a break from my work to look at some of the artworks in my apartment. My friend, Brian Ott, a local illustrator, gave me one of his prints. At first glance, his work is very elegant and minimal, yet he has used several layers of textures and detail to create this illusion. While I was studying it up close, I realized that he used dotting textures, and several other layers to produce this elegant print. With that being said, I started trying to integrate this idea into my work.

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34 | mosaics: laying it out

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As I started thinking about the layout of this book, I knew I

When I first made the dot texture, my first initial thought

wanted to push the compositions and create dynamic layouts.

was, “wow… this is super boring…”.

I started sketching out dozens of layout sketches to figure out which composition would be best for the book. To me, I always

So I decided to keep experimenting with different textures.

come up with the best idea with super pen and paper sketches.

However, everytime I tried to stray from the idea of dots, I

These super rough sketches let my creative juices flow a lot

ended up hating the idea.

better and help me develop some ideas in a more efficient way.

My “aha” moment came while I was experimenting in After After I started working on my master pages in Indesign, I

Effects. I realized that I could layer on a turbulent noise on top

realized that I needed to add a bit more to the page. This was

of the textures and it would create a nice texture over the dots.

something that I would’ve left blank, but since I started to push

The minute I moved it over to my Indesign file, I just knew

my style more during the summer, I knew I couldn’t settle for

that it was the perfect solution!

anything less. I decided to add a dot texture into the background.

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36 | mosaics: artist–made books

This shift of attitude was exactly what I needed to get over the crafting hurdle that I had mentally given myself.

ARTIST–MADE BOOKS

Because I was super excited about the different books, I decided to pay another visit to the library to study each of the books in more

My day was absolutely made when a cart of beautifully hand-

detail. I was amazed by how each artist redefined the idea of what

crafted books rolled into the room on a cart. The books on the cart

a book could be. Another favorite book that I found was a whole

came in all different shapes and sizes. While I was looking at all

book made out of paper towels. I still cannot understand how the

the books that were presented to us, my mind started coming up

artist was able to manipulate the delicate nature of paper towels

with a whole bunch of wild ideas.

and create a convincing book.

All of my “I couldn’t possibly make that…” turned into “how can I make this idea work?”.

This shift of attitude was exactly I needed to get over the crafting hurdle that I had mentally given myself.

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After being inspired by all the different bookforms, I decided on creating a slipcase for my hardbound book. I wanted the slipcase to symbolize as an “exoskeleton”, again referring back to the whole idea that this book is serving as a platform to be more vulnerable. The slipcase would be just another layer that the reader would have to interact with in order to learn more about the content. On top of this, I wanted to create some kind of cutout in the slipcase to reveal parts of the actual cover of the book.

With the easy part of concepting done, I started to brainstorm on how I would go about trying to produce it, which proved to be quite a challenge.

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Visits to FirstBuild are always an adventure.

CREATING THE COVER Visits to FirstBuild are always an adventure. Everytime I step into that building, I know that I am ready to learn something new. I knew when I thought of my cover idea that I would want to use the tools at Firstbuild to create it.

To be honest, I am absolutely terrible when it comes to hand crafting. I really admire the people who created the beautiful bookforms that were in the library. But because I know myself, and my limitations, I knew that I would want to find a more procedural way to produce my interactive pieces. To me, FirstBuild provided the best solution for me. I wanted to create a piece that would be just as polished as the book I received from Blurb. The perfect machine-cuts that would be produced would be a perfect solution!

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I immediately started Youtubing videos on how to create beautiful slip cases.

I started approaching this idea of building this at Firstbuild by

The most difficult thing about a slipcase is that it needs to have

starting to create a foam cover prototype. In a perfect world,

enough room to slip the book in and out easily, yet not have too

this would’ve taken no time at all. But I quickly realized that it

much of a gap between the case and the book.This would prove

was going to be a lot harder than it looked.

to be super helpful when I started working on the real cover.

The minute I knew I had to make this slipcase, I immediately started Youtubing video on how to create beautiful slip cases.

After watching the video, I knew I had to be as precise as possible when I was cutting the foam in order to make sure that the book could fit inside. I ended up writing a math formula to make sure the measurements would be perfect before I started cutting into real materials at FirstBuild.

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While I initially wanted to go have a wooden slipcase, I found that a clear acrylic would provide a more clean approach, perfect for my book. In terms of my case design, I wanted to play around with the idea of a mosaic, which was the title of my book. I loved experimenting with the proportions of the rectangles to create the effect. I studied how wide or narrow each of the rectangles should be or if I should layer the rectangles or not.

I ended up using the grid that I used throughout my book to create the rectangular pieces. The clean cuts from the laser created beautiful textures in the cuts. I also love the “glass” look, which adds complexity to my book without making it look too heavy.

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46 | mosaics: creating the cover

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Just like regular paper printing, the laser cutting process was

I ended up making the words in yellow, which turned out

definitely a process. To start off with, I had to read about 20

perfect in the print! I ended up having to reprint the laser

steps before I could actually hit the “print” button while I was

print because I was slightly off in measurements, but overall,

at FirstBuild.

I would say that was a successful experience. I was expecting to have to redo my prints several times before I could be okay

“Great…” I thought the minute I realized that I shouldn’t have

with the results.

expanded my strokes. I decided to not risk it and redrew my strokes to make sure it would work out.

Next, I also had to make sure I had my strokes in the correct colors before printing. I had imagined the title of the book to be nicely carved in, but not completely cut out. Because of this, I had to basically guess on what color to make the strokes – turns out I’m a great guesser!

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This shift of attitude was exactly I needed to get over the crafting hurdle that I had mentally given myself.

CRITIQUE

One of the most rather disappointing part of the whole book process was actually receiving my book in the mail. I was

There were several critique checkpoints during this book process.

super excited when I got the notification that my book was

Out of all the different kinds of critiques, I absolutely love the

here! However, it was an absolute letdown.

round robin review method. In my opinion, it’s the best way for me to improve my work. It’s great because I can get feedback

I know this may sound very dramatic, but I was upset because it

from everyone in the class. I also personally love going around and

wasn’t what I thought it would be. I had imagined each page to

having a closer look at all the fun ideas that my peers have.

be as perfect as the mockups. The pages would be pristine and glossy, with the velvety colors. Instead, I got this dull, unglossy,

This project was particularly fun to go around and look at everyone’s

thick paper for my pages. I was upset at myself for not going with

work in progress because of the content. I loved getting to know a

the safe route and picking the normal hardbound book with my

bit more about my peers. One of the main comments that I received

choice of the proline pearl paper. Instead, I decided to go risky and

was my type size in my book. After reading several comments on the

it proved to be an absolute mistake. It took me several days to be

size, I decided to go up one size to make the content more legible.

okay with the quality of the book.

While I received lots of great critical feedback, I still think that I am the hardest critic.

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50 | mosaic: critique

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This whole process has taught me to be okay with mistakes.

While I can strive to get as close to perfection, at the end of the day, I am still human.

The book is a great learning experience for me. While, yes I can still point out every mistake I made in the book, I also learned that I can still be okay with it, and even call this a successful project. This project is successful in my eyes, not because of the quality of the end result, but because of all the skills and experimentation I took along the way. I had a lot of fun experimenting with photography and learning how to model for a day. I also learned a little behind the 3D world and a lot more about design. With that in the back of my mind, I am absolutely happy with the book that I produced and I cannot wait to see how much I can push it further in the next couple of projects!

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02 52 • mosaic design life

DESIGN LIFE

Design week. I absolutely love design week!

DESIGN WEEK

I’m not going to lie, design week in the previous years has always been intimidating. I loved going to the keynotes and listening to

Design week. I absolutely love design week! I had gotten the

the different talks, but the social aspect of the events always made

opportunity to get some behind-the-scenes details about this year’s

me hesitant about attending the events. Yes, I am an extrovert, but

design week during the summer.

something meeting all these “strangers” is quite intimidating.

In other words, I knew two months in advance that Michael Bierut

Over the past year, I have made it an effort to connect with more

was coming to town! I had waited months for this to happen

designers around town. From Creative Mornings to Cult events,

and I couldn’t have been more excited. Michael Beirut is one of

I started connecting and meeting more designers in town. Design

my design heroes and works for the amazing, Pentagram. I had

week was an opportunity for me to reconnect with all the people

prepped all summer for this talk. I listened to almost every podcast

I’ve met along the way.

that featured him as a guest. I loved how genuine he was in all of his interviews; something that I truly admired about him.

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56 | design life: design week

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One of the super exciting opportunities that I had during

mentors and people he had mentored along the way. Not only did

design week was meeting one of the designers I follow on

I love seeing all the work that was presented, but I loved listening

Instagram. I had been following this local designer for the past

to the passion he had towards design. While I was listening and

year and admiring all the unique solutions that she has made

reflecting, it reminded me that everyone starts somewhere. To me,

in various branding projects. She mainly discusses about design

it can be rather discouraging when I see all the amazing work on

process on her Instagram and I loved that aspect about her. I

social media platforms. However, what I don’t often times see on

met her during design week right before the keynote started.

social media is the behind-the-scenes process, and the work it took

To me, this was a major milestone for me. If this had happened

to produce everything. Design week reminded me that everyone

even last year, I would have just walked right past her. I would

starts somewhere and with the help of mentors, it can also help me

have been too intimidated to talk to her. Instead, I got to

get to where I hope to be someday.

engage in a super exciting conversation about her work and about design in general!

The keynote was absolutely amazing! Not only did I like listening to the design process behind the iconic projects that he has worked on. One of the most important things that I learned during his talks was his focus on mentors. His lunch and learn talk was very interesting. I loved seeing all the 57

New York City.

This was such a pivotal trip for me...

NEW YORK

to the billboards that I normally see on a day-to-day basis. The advertisements that I saw became a main inspiration to the

New York City. This was such a pivotal trip for me – both in

direction that I took my identity systems class. One particular

terms of taking a break and also getting re-inspired for the work

advertisement that caught my eye while I was on the subway was

that I knew I had ahead. Prior to leaving for the trip, I had hit

a company called Quip. Their ads were absolutely beautiful and

a creativity block. I couldn’t think of creative ways to solve the

effective that it almost made me want to buy a new toothbrush.

projects that I had in hand. Between juggling several studio classes

Specifically, I loved how this company played with the idea of

and jobs, I was truly exhausted and was yearning for a break. This

combining both illustration and photography together. I took

trip couldn’t have came at a better time. From the minute that I

this as my main inspiration to my advertising that I used for my

stepped out of the airport, I felt just a little bit more inspired.

identity systems class. This interesting take on image-making allowed me to bring in the “fun-ness” back into the brand that I

One of the things that I was inspired by were the different

was developing. Before the trip, I was getting burnt out of ideas

advertisements that I saw throughout the trip. I loved just how

and could only think of using classic stock photos with words

nicely designed all of these advertisements were – a stark contrast

on top. This trip allowed me to start thinking outside the box in terms of what I can do with different mediums.

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60 | design life: new york

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With that being said, this trip have also given me time to reflect

This trip was both inspirational and motivating for me. I

on who I am as a designer and who I strive to be. When I initially

loved the fast-paced, crazy lifestyle that the city provided.

entered into the program, I thought I had a clear idea of what I

The abundance of great design and advertising that flooded

wanted to be. But as it turns out, I’ve only learned one thing for

my whole experience was so rejuvenating. This trip provided

sure: I absolutely don’t know what I want to be. With every class

specific inspiration to my current projects and have provided

that I’ve taken, I’ve learned more about myself in terms of who I

me a source of motivation for the upcoming and final semester

am as a designer. I completely surprised myself when I took my

that I have.

web design class. As a side note, that was my most dreaded class of the whole program. I had somehow convinced myself before taking the course that I would never be a good web designer. But to my surprise, I absolutely enjoyed taking the course and loved the design thinking behind it.

My New York trip allowed me to reflect on the designer that I have become. As I am approaching the final semester of my college career, I started trying to reflect on what my strengths were. While no, I am not an illustrator, a photographer, or a lettering artist. While I sat in a little pizza parlor in New York, I remembered that I decided to become a designer because of my love for the design process and my passion to ideate and create something to solve problems. Because of this drive that I had, I’ve learned to design in all kinds of mediums to suit the needs of whatever project that I was given over the past four years.

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03 62 • mosaic

PERSONA L P ROJ ECT

64 • personal project

The idea of designing an e-book initially sounded amazing.

PERSONAL BOOK PROJECT

Since I was signing up to do a different kind of medium for the book, I had to do a lot of outside learning. I watched dozens

As I was reflecting back on the semester, I knew I wanted to try

of youtube tutorials about the pros and cons of the softwares

something different for my personal book project. My mind kept

for creating an ebook. I watched so many helpful tips about

going back to the first class discussion we had in the beginning

designing for digital publishing in Indesign. But after I had

of the year about the definition of a book. One of the biggest

watched all the videos, I learned that most of the capabilities had

lessons I learned was that a book wasn’t limited to the traditional

changed since the new creative cloud updates.

books that I would see in libraries. My underlying goal for this project was to design a book that pushed the limits of this

This was only the beginning of the challenges that I faced

definition. With that in mind, I decided to design an e-book for

throughout the process. In addition to make the project more

this project.

challenging, I wanted to animate each of the images in my book to make it more interactive and add some life into the book.

The idea of designing an e-book initially sounded amazing.

First off, I wouldn’t need to do billions of test-prints – which was a flawed assumption to say the very least. Instead, I ended up doing tons of user-testing for my e-book to get to the perfect typesize.

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My initial plan was to send it off to Issuu to get it published as

Next, I had to decide what topic my project was going to be.

an e-book. But, the results were not as perfect that I would’ve

After listing several different options, I ended up with the idea

liked. The embedded videos that Issuu had advertised to work

to create a book about my study abroad experience. This was a

smoothly didn’t look very polished. Instead of having a nice

significant event during my college years that I really wanted to

image that fitted perfectly into the specific places that I had

document in a special way. I had ideated on doing a couple of

created, it included all the extra advertising that you would find

passion projects about this topic during the summer, but it never

on Youtube. Because of the extra elements, I decided to look into

came to life. This project felt like the perfect opportunity to

other alternatives into creating the e-book.

design something about my study abroad experience.

My final solution in publishing the e-book was exporting my e-book as an e-pub. While this solution isn’t perfect by any means, it did present my animations in a more smoother and elegant way. Instead of having several buttons and icons around my animations, which was something that Issuu did, it just smoothly played my animations.

Throughout this process, I had to prioritize what was most important to me in terms of the presentation of the book. I knew I wanted the book to be viewed on an Ipad. Because of this, it immediately knocked out several export options. In addition, I wanted my animations to play very smoothly for the reader to experience while they were reading the text.

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Another challenge that I faced during the design process was creating interesting spreads. Initially, I was very focused on placing the animations as the star of the show. Because of this, it hindered my creative process in terms of laying out the book.

During this process, I had to step back and remember that even though the images were animations, they essentially acted like images, and I should treat them like so while designing them.

Another challenge that I had during the process was creating the written content. Like the illustrations, I wanted to create unique content about Hong Kong. While I wanted to record the events and activities that I experienced in Hong Kong, I wanted it to be more interactive with my audience. I decided to write in second person – something that I wouldn’t normally do. This was inspired by the old-school “Choose your own Adventure” books.

I think this technique allowed me to connect with my audience better and ultimately present my experiences in the best way.

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While many would assume that the animating would be the

This project has taught me a lot in both the technical challenges

bigger challenge in this project, I thought the illustrating was the

that comes with a hefty project and more importantly, a lot

most difficult part of the entire project. I knew that I wanted

about myself as a designer. This e-book has pushed myself to

to make the illustrations very fun and carefree, while still

presevere through projects even when they are daunting. There

resembling the locations that I visited during my study abroad.

were many times that I wanted to quit and change my book topic to be something easier to handle – especially when the

Over the past year, I have been trying to develop a unique

deadlines get tighter at the end of the semester. Overall, I am

illustration style. The informal lines with the organic shapes

very excited about all the work that I have done this

paired with textures has been the illustration style that I’ve been

past semester.

gravitating towards. My decision to go with a fully illustrated book was a big challenge. I had never been someone who loved

This semester was a huge milestone in my design career. The

illustrating. Frankly, illustrating was always the last thing on

first project of the class taught me the ability to explore, even if

my mind. But since I had dedicated most of my projects to

it meant the possibility of failure. Through the first project, I’ve

photography heavy content, I thought I would challenge myself

learned to build the courage to approach the crazy and wild ideas

with this final project. Of course, the minute that I made this

without ever holding back. The second project taught me to dive

decision, I hated myself for it. But this whole illustration journey

deep into details. I learned to step back from the crazy ideas and

has really pushed myself to grow as a designer.

refine the basics. Lastly, this final project taught me to presevere.

These three projects have been significant in my design career

This project has taught me how to get faster. With the large

and have taught me so many valuable lessons.

quantity of images that I had to animate, I learned to master quick animations. Efficiency was another very important lesson that I used throughout the production process of this book.

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