Portfolio of Mennie Shen/2011

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Portfolio of Mennie Shen

Portfolio of Mennie Shen Pinmo Visual Design Studio Graphic Designer

National Chengchi University Department of Communication, Journalism

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Began to devote in graphic design and doing different kinds of creation since 2009, from then on, I dedicated to create various types of works, such as graphic design, illustration, photography, performance, and composing music.

Graphic Design Photography Music Performance Writing Poster Design Package Design Illustration Animation

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Music I Learn

Daily Life

Commercial Photography

Theatre Photography

Graphic Design

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By Computer

The Road to the

(Empty)

"CD package & Poster design for Gayyung the band"

genre

Graphic Design

year

2009

Description This project was made for Gayyung the band, which is an indie band from Taiwan. To find out the best visual solution for their album, I listened to their music carefully. The female vocalist’s voice is smooth and hazy, which makes me think of a remote planet. The other instruments, guitars, bass, and drums as well as the notes they made are like fragments combined into a continuous road. The melody then generates a huge image in my brain.

Besides, I used the image of human beings since their music indicates some spirits of humanism.

Poster Design |

O1

Poster Design |

O2

Package Design

Package Design | cover

Package Design | inside

The Private Place

of My Vagina

â•ą My 65 lovers and I

"Photography & Visual Design for Alice Hung Theatre"

Poster Design

genre

Photography Graphic Design

year

2010

Description ” The Private Place of my Vagina／My 65 lovers and I” was a play of which I was invited as photographer at first. However, after watching the rehearsal, I came up with an idea that I might transform the performance into another visual creation.

The play features only one actress, and is about her memorial monologue. The show has strong image of feminism, since the actress kept using radical words and hysterical way to express her resentment of various female pressure under modern society.

Since the play features strong language pattern, it inspired me to use a bold color in the scene to enhance the visual effect. I used the same colored but different types of clothes to wrap the actress— as if she was trapped by bias in the play. I took a series of pictures, and made it into a poster.

Photography

Photography |

O1

Photography |

O2

Photography |

O3

"Why Look at me with Sympathetic Eyes?"

Photography |

O4

Little News

Poster Design

Poster

Poster Design

genre

Graphic Design

year

2010

Description In one of my class, students were asked to make a self-introduction in a visual way. As a result, I made this poster related to my major, Journalism.

The pronunciation of “news” in Chinese sounds like “twisted perception”, which was consistent to my concept. Both of news and creation are ways of expressing personal twisted thought. Thus I made the poster into the size of newspaper. People have to spread it when reading the words on the poster, just as they the way read newspapers.

Poster Design | detail

"The eye sees the world and what it would need to be a painting, sees what keeps a painting from being itself."

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

In Between

Faded

genre

Graphic Design Photography Installation

year

2010

Description It was an little experiment I made in my bathroom.

Originally, it was a poem I wrote, and then I turned the scene into an installation, and made a poster for it.

Poster

"Drained.

I am a variant cactus, not able to endure dry and heat.

Rain is outside, makes the window screaming.

I lied on a dry riverbed, with some dead corpse."

Poster Design

Photography

Photography |

O1

"Don’t need a Prince Charming to save, I just hope someone would put me into the refrigerator.

Before the end of the rain."

Photography |

O2

My Brain has

some Problems

Illustration

genre

Illustration

year

2011

"There are many noisy voices inside my brain.

They weave a huge net."

"My Brain has some Problems"

I am your Dear Not

a Monster

Illustration

genre

Illustration

year

2011

"My horn is the desire of touching.

I am not going to hurt you."

Deer Blood

Illustration

genre

Illustration

year

2011

"Did you see my tears become a waterfall?

They grew a forest, and a deer lived in there."

"Deer Blood"

Einstein's

Dreams

genre

Book Design

year

2011

Description ”Einstein’s Dreams” is a novel written by Alan Lightman. I found the concepts of time described by the author very poetic and were full of images. It inspired me to re-design the book.

On designing the cover, I want to indicate that this book is talking about time, while there are many fantastic, even surreal plots. ”Einstein’s Dreams”is consisted of different dreams, and each dream is a chapter. To separate these different “dreams”, I intended to design various dividing pages for each chapter. I thought every dividing page in visual should relate to the chapter mentioned behind, even on the aspect of arranging the layout of the articles.

Book Design

Layout | O1

Layout | O2

Layout | O3

Braille Notebook

with Poker Cards

"Cooperation with Taiwan Foundation for the Blind"

genre

Publication Design

year

2011

Description When working at Pinmo Visual Design studio, I once had an opportunity to design a musical poster for the blind. I intended to use the real Braille characters to make the poster, since it was a musical for blinded performers. However, the sponsor didn’t adopt my idea.

Although my idea did not work to make the poster, in the process I found that Braille characters were interesting. It varies from different countries, besides; it was not easy to learn. Thus I came up with an idea that maybe I could design a Braille notebook for the public to acquire the knowledge of Braille characters. Then I proposed the idea to my boss, and he accepted right away.

To understand the Braille characters further, I contacted with Taiwan Foundation for the Blind, and found the people there were really nice and willing to help. In addition, through the cooperation, I discovered that there were also poker cards made for the blind. “Why not put a pair of poker cards in the notebook? And the idea would make learning Braille characters even more fun. Furthermore, I considered Braille poker cards as a good demonstration of breaking the boundary between the blind and those who can see, since both of them can play poker cards together.

Publication Design

Braille Notebook|

cover

â•ą with two colors inside

Braille Notebook|

inside

Poker Cards |

green

"Let's play together.

It's the most significant thing of the world."

Poker Cards |

red

The more He becomes the Sun The more Moon She'll become

"Taipei Poetry Festival"

genre

Graffiti

year

2011

Description I was invited to participate in a public-art plan of Taipei Poetry Festival in 2011. The sponsor placed five containers in front of Taipei Zhongshan Hall, formed an area called “The Little Cosmos”. Inside the containers were five different exhibitions. And I was responsible of painting on one of the containers.

Every artist was required to choose a sentence of poet about the universe to be the topic, and mine was “The more he becomes the Sun, the more Moon she’ll become” in Chinese. This line described people in relationship precisely, and was really touching to me. It made me think of the emotional connection between different people.

Because the area was open and many people passed by every day, I did not want my painting was just “a painting on the container”. Instead, I hoped that people could interact with my work. As a result, I designed my scene not only based on the poem but also took the interaction into consideration. In my observation, people usually like to take pictures with artistic works, thus I intended to use this character to make my work interactive in a more interesting way. I designed the scene that when taking pictures both sides of the container, then turned one of the pictures upsidedown, the scene would composed into an image of planet. People can make different pose in front of the container, maybe with their friends or lovers.

What’s more, I reserved an empty space in the middle of the scene for people to write down what they want to express. I even put some chalks next to the container so that people could easily write or draw and interact with the poem on the container. My intention was to let people display their own creativities and thus make various combinations of the scene.

Graffiti

"The more He becomes the Sun,

Graffiti on Container |

side O1

The more Moon She'll become."

Graffiti on Container |

side O2

How to Play 1. Take pictures of both sides of the container.

2. Turn one of the pictures upside-down.

3. Combine these two pictures properly.

The Birdcage

"A Good Time Festical"

genre

Animation Mapping Performance

year

2010

Description This work was from the workshop of A Good Time Art Festival, in which many artists involved doing public art. The project required every member in the workshop to make a 1-minute animation then projected our videos on the front side of National Museum of Taiwan History, using the technique of Mapping.

In the process, the most difficult part for me was that I had never made any animation before by that time. As a result, I had myself learn After Effect in two weeks then made this animation. Moreover, I also made the sound and music in the animation. Teachers in the workshop taught us software to integrate sounds, thus I could try MIDI-composition mixed with sounds I sang or recorded.

The most interesting part during the workshop was that the place we projected our video. National Museum of Taiwan History was a public area near Taipei Main Station, which was one of the most prosperous areas in Taipei. Since it was an open area and surrounded by a park, the audience and environment were taken into my consideration. When developing my storyline, I spent all day sitting in the park to observe the environment.

I discovered that there were many animals, especially birds, in this area.

However, the park was surrounded by highly-commercialized streets and buildings. These environmental conditions made me generate a feeling that animals in this area were trapped and lost. And this kind of feeling connected to my living experience in Taipei. For me, this area, or I should say Taipei, was a birdcage, sometimes people got lost and had nowhere to escape.

Animation Click to Watch

â•ą Mapping Performance at National Museum of Taiwan History

The Birdcage | animation clips

Re-

"White and Blue, Digital Exhibition"

genre

Video Installation

year

2010

Description I attended a digital exhibition and made an installation. I shot some repeated actions, and put three screens in the exhibition. The videos I made kept playing on the screens with different gap of time, making the scene become an endless loop.

The idea of this work originated from my life experience. Since I was a child, the adult always told me that keep practicing one thing repeatedly then you might make it one day. On the other hand, People repeat some same things every day, such as waking up, brushing teeth, and so on. However, I have a feeling that sometimes we get lost in the process of repeating. It is unsure for me that repeat practicing or doing something will make a success in the end. I wondered if we lost in repeating, it could also be a failure on the other hand.

Video Click to Watch

Installation

Poster Design

Daily

Photography

genre

photography

year

2009 — 2011

Description Photography is an important part of my daily life. I used to document the precious moments and significant people in my life through taking photos, cause I believe that true emotions can be captured on films. In addition, sometimes I also add sentences, poets, or diary I write to accompany with the photos. For me, photography is a also a way to dicover myself.

"Lucid Dream."

"Wish I Could Become a Dead Corpse in your arms."

"Tell me Where I am in your Eyes."

"Self."

"No Title."

"Because I Love you too much."

"Before Party Night."

"No One Sees You on a Vampire Planet."

"No One Sees You Like I do."

"Single Double."