📅 WEEK 8 - 10 : 21.05.2021 - 04.06.2021
Lee Shu Wei 0345494
Design Principles Project 2 : Sense of Place
📑 LECTURE
This week, we are required to be more aware of out surroundings, as the topic is "Sense of Place". Throughout the lecture, Dr. Jinchi explained the word "observation" in general to start the topic. It means
"An active act of acquiring information, through the senses, of a subject matter in its natural setting."
All the occupations need observation. When it relates to designers, designer need to observe problems in order to design solutions for it. This reminds me of my first blog post in week 1, which I mentioned that I agree design is different from art because design has a purpose.
For this project, we are going to observe our surroundings and translate those ideas from surroundings into design. Based on our module information, the place becomes the subject of the composition in which the design principles are applied to capture the social and environmental aspects, and even the time/s effects that will best express our intention/interpretation for a particular location. This requires us to move beyond the classroom to the outer world and to employ their skills in capturing and communicating a complex relationship.
However, with the current MCO 3.0 (lockdown), we are best to be staying at home. This is not the problem at all as I can observe my room, my recent photographs of places.
💡 INSTRUCTIONS
💭 PROJECT 2
When it comes to "place", the first thing appears in my mind is nature and running. Luckily, I am still able to run alone, having my meditation kind of healing time in this lockdown.
A therapist asked me to be more aware of my surroundings when I run as it helps me to be more grounded. 
Figure 2.1: My Running log
Figure 2.2: Some of my favorite sceneries I captured from my running routes
I really want to create something with these but I still do not have much ideas about it yet.
Idea 1: Sceneries from running
*Pending, don't have any inspiration to design from it yet.
Then the next thing came into my mind is definitely my rented room right now. Honestly speaking, for the past few days I am so done with the pandemic, especially watching how the number of cases spike in Malaysia. Feeling like "why is this never ending?", and everyday wake up just to sit in front of my laptop and do my assignments, facing the same wall, literally talking to nobody :)
So I went to some visual research. These fantasy but yet expressing some kind of mood designs attracted my eyeballs:
Figure 2.3: An anonymous artwork on Pinterest
( https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/026/313/236/large/le-long-a-finala.jpg?1589691234 )
Figure 2.4: An anonymous artwork on Pinterest( https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/026/313/228/large/le-long-cd-finala.jpg?1588444203 )
So I randomly draft some ideas on my draft book. The ideas come from my frustration in working (studying, having my uni life) in my rented room everyday, and desperation of enjoying my life outside under the sun and nature.
Figure 2.5: Random draft to express my feelings
I kind of like my ideas. But the fact is, I personally feel this do not really fit the theme of "sense of place". So yes, this is my 2nd idea in designing something, but do not have a whole picture of what to create yet.
Idea 2: My working space in my room *Pending, don't have an exact visual to design from it yet.
So I took some photos of my working space and find some photos from my phone gallery to see is there any ideas I can get from it.
Figure 2.6: My current 24/7 working view
Figure 2.7: My current window view with my drying roses from previous project
Feedback 1:
Dr. Jinchi provided me some feedbacks on the tutorial session. She said it is totally fine if I would like to come out with something "negative", but at the same time she encouraged me to discover more from my running ideas. Suggestions such as taking photos from different angles, or try to think more from my arrows in Figure 2.1.
Meanwhile, she sent me some heart-warming feedbacks for my previous projects as below:Hi Shu Wei, here's my feedback for Exercise 5 and Project 1: For the symbol, your research is well done as you demonstrated the ability to do primary research (observation), not only relying on online materials. The final outcome is well executed with a suitable colour chosen - 2-tint sky blue - which match the idea of star in the sky. There is consistency in the design, coinciding with the rationale behind it. As for type and image, there is apparently lots of thoughts put into choosing the right images and carefully arranging them to make a well balanced layout that makes visual sense. Not to be missed is the attention paid to selecting a suitable quote that bring the whole design together. For the Self-Portrait, I appreciate that you had shared so much in terms of your experience (it's a relief you're not infected by Covid!) and how you see yourself from there. It IS part of research for this project so, well done. That has brought you to explore a few key ideas and I agree that the rose is representative of you. Besides the points you mentioned, I also see it as spontaneous, natural and life - something we cannot stop from growing and dying. We can only nurture it while it is alive. Isn't that life itself? Good choice to pick the rose . The final outcome would not have been so well executed had it not been for your ample explorations. Once again, I enjoyed going through your blog :)
More exploration:
Without further ado, I try to be more aware of my surroundings, and live my life as usual due to the pandemic. Running as usual, doing assignments and having online classes in my room as usual.
From my daily runs, these trees during night caught my eyes:
Figure 3.1 & 3.2: Golden trees on my running route
The street lights made the trees look so golden, like trees in Autumn. In Figure 3.2, the street light looks like a sun, giving me a feeling of "You can find your sunshine even without the 'real' one..." Not really sure what I'm talking, but the entire envinronment just give me a sense of peace, calm...and a bit of FANTASY...because of the "Golden Trees".
On a random day of my "facing laptop" life, I didn't know why, my terrarium with the two dried roses (dropped on the floor from the window, I just picked it up and place there) in the corner just caught my eyes:
Figure 3.3: Overview of my room
Figure 3.4: View that caught my eyes
From there, I feel like I want to design a "Fantasy World" for myself, combining elements that I want to be in my "Fantasy World".So eventually, besides having the previous visual research, I went online and found the others again:
Figure 4.1: Terrarium Illustration by BettyKwong
( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AZKnMkqrYrxjFgThW13eaQiZfihA1m3yS8-scoDprDbMXimlu26JVQg/ )
Figure 4.2: Bunny Tree House by Kbbf
( https://www.etsy.com/listing/684676373/bunny-treehouse-fine-art-print?epik=dj0yJnU9ZU95X0xIVll1SzJuenExRGJuTnRCTnk2UVZQekYtWmMmcD0wJm49eU9ISW85OU5WUHNhSTMxc0lqSU9CUSZ0PUFBQUFBRl9OOFhR )
Figure 4.3: Children Book Illustration by Melissa Cox
( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/497577458838752487/ )
They are so cute right, feel like want to live in a fantasy world. Hence, I combine my Idea 1: Sceneries from running and Idea 2: My working space in my room to create a FANTASY WORLD for myself. 
Figure 5.1: 1st draft of my "Fantasy World"
Figure 5.2: 2nd draft of my "Fantasy World", with loneliness
Feedback for Figure 5.1: Dr. Jinchi suggests me to explore more on how leaves spread. For the materials part, she suggests me to try out gouache if I am able to get it.
Feedback for Figure 5.2: It is better than Figure 5.1, expressing the idea of "stay at home" during this lockdown. However, the arrangement can be improved, the main terrarium can be forward a little bit for a better emphasis.
With that being said, I then proceeded to the next stage.
Figure 6.1: Painting process
🏁 FINAL OUTCOME
Figure 7.1: Sense of Place
Design Principles Project 2 : Sense of Place
📑 LECTURE
This week, we are required to be more aware of out surroundings, as the topic is "Sense of Place". Throughout the lecture, Dr. Jinchi explained the word "observation" in general to start the topic. It means
"An active act of acquiring information, through the senses, of a subject matter in its natural setting."
All the occupations need observation. When it relates to designers, designer need to observe problems in order to design solutions for it. This reminds me of my first blog post in week 1, which I mentioned that I agree design is different from art because design has a purpose.
For this project, we are going to observe our surroundings and translate those ideas from surroundings into design. Based on our module information, the place becomes the subject of the composition in which the design principles are applied to capture the social and environmental aspects, and even the time/s effects that will best express our intention/interpretation for a particular location. This requires us to move beyond the classroom to the outer world and to employ their skills in capturing and communicating a complex relationship.
However, with the current MCO 3.0 (lockdown), we are best to be staying at home. This is not the problem at all as I can observe my room, my recent photographs of places.
A therapist asked me to be more aware of my surroundings when I run as it helps me to be more grounded.
Figure 2.1: My Running log
Figure 2.2: Some of my favorite sceneries I captured from my running routes
Idea 1: Sceneries from running
*Pending, don't have any inspiration to design from it yet.
Then the next thing came into my mind is definitely my rented room right now. Honestly speaking, for the past few days I am so done with the pandemic, especially watching how the number of cases spike in Malaysia. Feeling like "why is this never ending?", and everyday wake up just to sit in front of my laptop and do my assignments, facing the same wall, literally talking to nobody :)
So I went to some visual research. These fantasy but yet expressing some kind of mood designs attracted my eyeballs:
Figure 2.3: An anonymous artwork on Pinterest
( https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/026/313/236/large/le-long-a-finala.jpg?1589691234 )
( https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/026/313/236/large/le-long-a-finala.jpg?1589691234 )
Figure 2.4: An anonymous artwork on Pinterest
( https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/026/313/228/large/le-long-cd-finala.jpg?1588444203 )
So I randomly draft some ideas on my draft book. The ideas come from my frustration in working (studying, having my uni life) in my rented room everyday, and desperation of enjoying my life outside under the sun and nature.
Figure 2.5: Random draft to express my feelings
I kind of like my ideas. But the fact is, I personally feel this do not really fit the theme of "sense of place". So yes, this is my 2nd idea in designing something, but do not have a whole picture of what to create yet.
Idea 2: My working space in my room
*Pending, don't have an exact visual to design from it yet.
So I took some photos of my working space and find some photos from my phone gallery to see is there any ideas I can get from it.
Figure 2.6: My current 24/7 working view
Feedback 1:
Dr. Jinchi provided me some feedbacks on the tutorial session. She said it is totally fine if I would like to come out with something "negative", but at the same time she encouraged me to discover more from my running ideas. Suggestions such as taking photos from different angles, or try to think more from my arrows in Figure 2.1.
Meanwhile, she sent me some heart-warming feedbacks for my previous projects as below:
Hi Shu Wei, here's my feedback for Exercise 5 and Project 1: For the symbol, your research is well done as you demonstrated the ability to do primary research (observation), not only relying on online materials. The final outcome is well executed with a suitable colour chosen - 2-tint sky blue - which match the idea of star in the sky. There is consistency in the design, coinciding with the rationale behind it. As for type and image, there is apparently lots of thoughts put into choosing the right images and carefully arranging them to make a well balanced layout that makes visual sense. Not to be missed is the attention paid to selecting a suitable quote that bring the whole design together. For the Self-Portrait, I appreciate that you had shared so much in terms of your experience (it's a relief you're not infected by Covid!) and how you see yourself from there. It IS part of research for this project so, well done. That has brought you to explore a few key ideas and I agree that the rose is representative of you. Besides the points you mentioned, I also see it as spontaneous, natural and life - something we cannot stop from growing and dying. We can only nurture it while it is alive. Isn't that life itself? Good choice to pick the rose . The final outcome would not have been so well executed had it not been for your ample explorations. Once again, I enjoyed going through your blog :)
More exploration:
Without further ado, I try to be more aware of my surroundings, and live my life as usual due to the pandemic. Running as usual, doing assignments and having online classes in my room as usual.
From my daily runs, these trees during night caught my eyes:
Figure 3.1 & 3.2: Golden trees on my running route
The street lights made the trees look so golden, like trees in Autumn. In Figure 3.2, the street light looks like a sun, giving me a feeling of "You can find your sunshine even without the 'real' one..." Not really sure what I'm talking, but the entire envinronment just give me a sense of peace, calm...and a bit of FANTASY...because of the "Golden Trees".
On a random day of my "facing laptop" life, I didn't know why, my terrarium with the two dried roses (dropped on the floor from the window, I just picked it up and place there) in the corner just caught my eyes:
Figure 3.3: Overview of my room
Figure 3.4: View that caught my eyes
From there, I feel like I want to design a "Fantasy World" for myself, combining elements that I want to be in my "Fantasy World".
So eventually, besides having the previous visual research, I went online and found the others again:
Figure 4.1: Terrarium Illustration by BettyKwong
( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AZKnMkqrYrxjFgThW13eaQiZfihA1m3yS8-scoDprDbMXimlu26JVQg/ )
( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AZKnMkqrYrxjFgThW13eaQiZfihA1m3yS8-scoDprDbMXimlu26JVQg/ )
( https://www.etsy.com/listing/684676373/bunny-treehouse-fine-art-print?epik=dj0yJnU9ZU95X0xIVll1SzJuenExRGJuTnRCTnk2UVZQekYtWmMmcD0wJm49eU9ISW85OU5WUHNhSTMxc0lqSU9CUSZ0PUFBQUFBRl9OOFhR )
( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/497577458838752487/ )
They are so cute right, feel like want to live in a fantasy world. Hence, I combine my
Idea 1: Sceneries from running and Idea 2: My working space in my room
to create a FANTASY WORLD for myself.
Figure 5.2: 2nd draft of my "Fantasy World", with loneliness
Feedback for Figure 5.1:
Dr. Jinchi suggests me to explore more on how leaves spread. For the materials part, she suggests me to try out gouache if I am able to get it.
Feedback for Figure 5.2:
It is better than Figure 5.1, expressing the idea of "stay at home" during this lockdown. However, the arrangement can be improved, the main terrarium can be forward a little bit for a better emphasis.
With that being said, I then proceeded to the next stage.
Figure 6.1: Painting process
🏁 FINAL OUTCOME
Figure 7.1: Sense of Place
Rationale: "Stay Home, Save the World" becomes a slogan during this COVID-19 pandemic. Despite feeling depressed staying at home for the past a year, let's try our best to immerse ourselves in our home, find something enjoyable to do. We are allowed to feel lonely, but we are not alone.
💗 REFLECTION
Initially, I planned to challenge myself for something I never explore before, which is the "story-book" kind of illustrations....(do not really know how to explain, but it is something I never done for the past 10 weeks). It turns out to be like Figure 7.1. Honestly, this is not really the imagery appeared in my mind, but the idea is there. I was struggling in drawing...
Anyways, right after I completed this project, I saw something attracted me on my Nike Run App. Remember when I first started this project, I actually wanted to come out something about my running routes? These graphic materials for Nike articles are really nice:
Figure 8.1: Graphic material on Nike articles
( https://www.nike.com/my/a/how-can-i-get-faster )
Figure 8.2: Graphic material on Nike articles
( https://www.nike.com/my/a/how-to-approach-a-virtual-race )
Reasons of sharing these in my reflection part not only because I am amazed, but also with a question asking myself "How I can improve on my drawings?", "How I can find my style?"...and more 5W1H questions... This probably shown my disappointment towards self. It's alright, let's take it as a positive upward social comparison to improve on.
To summarize it all, a great learning experience.
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