Joys of a Lunatic

4.29am. Working on unappealing advertising. I have this thought in mind where once I am done with all the executions for advertising, the real fun can begin. Portfolio book. Self promo items. Exhibition's on 24 November. I figure if I really focus and give in ten day's worth of good solid work, things don't necessarily have to end in disaster. Minimal sleep. Productive days... and mostly nights.

I am so afraid. I think it's even affecting my appetite. Lunches and dinners are the time of the day which I look forward to. A couple of hours away from the computer, comforted by good food.

As much as I am buoyed by this uncertain feeling if I could even finish it all, I find this so exciting. I will work and be weighed down by all these crazy amount of work! I will also revel because these are actually things I derive joy from. Bringing beautiful concepts to life, drawing, creating, designing. I love it all. These final days will be hard, they will be tough. As they are gonna be the last days of my life as a student, I know I will make them worth my while. It's going to be superb.

I already have... four items nailed down from the five promo items that we have to come out with. From the picture above, you can see the stack of empty coasters that I bought. Empty. Fifty pieces. Hahahahaha... as if I didn't have enough work. Any idea on how I can use them? To draw? Mosaic pieces that can form a big picture? As business cards? As ninja shuriken?

I love my life as it is. This is gonna be the most exciting time for a while. Hee.

Woes of September

It's not right to always put nice nice things in here. After all, this is my personal design blog that's supposed to keep track of everything I've done design-wise, feelings and struggles throughout the creative process and of course, self-criticism on my own work. I revel in showing my own designs here that I'm proud of. On the other end of the scale, I'm ashamed to show these sub-standard work. I know I am better than these. But by the end of me struggling to save the design, I simply thought numbly "I don't know how anymore."

Maybelline brief. Design a graphic to put on a bag. The brief is pretty loose, so long as it's able to portray the spirit of Maybelline and New York.

I did some shit first. Composed several images and sent it over to the lecturer for approval. But after I set about executing it, I gave up. I don't see the point in tracing over images with no real purpose in mind. Fine. Scrap that. Start over.

Then I did this ornate design thing. I love it. Really. But the feedback I got back from the lecturer was "I have nothing to say, hope the client like it." Well, that did not tell me much, did it? So I turned to some people I hope will be able to give my some honest feed back. The general consensus was it looked like stock vector (never mind the fact that I drew and traced it painstakingly in AI). And then there's the ever reliable Yueh Yih. Comments memang tak bagi muka one. I showed it to her, and she out right told me, "Re do." I was just trying to make pretty things, not thinking. I hated her. Must she be so honest, even if I asked for it? Every designer is fortunate to have such a jerk for a friend. Good for the soul. Strictly no sarcasm intended.

Then I proceeded to redo this thing. And finally came up with something I could have cried over by the end. It's like shit.

It's bad when I couldn't even look at it directly. I look at it from far far away and couldn't see a single thing. Handing in this work filled me with helplessness. I couldn't really blame this on procrastination. I had ample time. This time, I just couldn't pull it off. Maybe I was thinking too much when the simplest of graphic would be enough.

But for the heck of it, I am owning up to this work (but no way is this piece of crap going into my portfolio). Owning up to it as I would my other designs that put a beaming smile on my face.

Ahh... solemn solemn post. Better things will come. It has to.

Header - A Moony Night

Yo! It's high time for a new header. The prev one was done beginning of the year. Since it's already eight months later, I'd like to freshen up the look of this blog a little. I didn't really have the time to go scout for a new blog template. I kinda like the present one as it is, wide content area and white background, all the easier on the eyes. I managed to find the background colour code though, so I tweaked the white into black. Cheap trick, but at least it's different!

I like how the header looks overwhelmingly large. It's takes up about 2/3 of the space above the fold. This image-centric approach points out that this is a designer's blog, so expect to see pretty images smack in your face.

I started off this illustration with a scan of my sketch.

First I trace the banner. For creating quality of lines like these, I actually prefer the knock-out technique rather than tinkering with art brushes. By tracing out the overall shape then slowly cutting out the white areas give me a better control of my execution.

Typing in the title using the font "Juice ITC". This is also when I add in details to the banner.


I like working the initial stage in Illustrator. It's easier here compared to Photoshop to trace over all the parts and filling them with flat colours, a fundamental base where the layers will be built on.

I then import the file into PSD. With the file opened in Photoshop, all layers intact, I start to fill in the gradients.

Initially I planned to do this moon effect in Illustrator, but masking and opacity there are too much of a hassle. It's a breeze in Photoshop though. Just a lot of hard round brushes, erasing, and changing opacities.

This is not exactly the northern lights effect I have in mind but it worked well with the overall image. This is filter > render > fiber. Then motion and gaussian blur it. Set it to screen. Put a layer of gradient over it, overlay, then merge both layers. Overlay again. I think. I suck in writing tutorials.

Ta-da~!

I get lazy so easily throughout the execution. As I proceed, I sort of lose grasp over the details I have in mind, never mind being confused over the colour template. I realised I like using yellow and pink a lot. Will try doing another piece with a different colour mood.

Header's not great, composition can be very much improved on, but I likey~