DESIGN PRINCIPLES: Project Self-Potrait

 INTRODUCTION: 

After the submission of the exercise, we were given a little bit of breather as it is Independent Learning Week and a chance to read the brief and understand the next assignment, Project 1: Self-Portrait.

RECAP PROJECT 1: SELF-POTRAIT (40%)

Create a portrait of yourself by applying various principles that you had learnt through these weeks.

The self-portrait allows the student to study about both historical and contemporary forms of self-expression and also review the design principles covered. In this assignment encourages students to work digitally or work with 3D. The project also becomes a platform to examine critically and historically at the work of other designers and artists.

Requirements:

Contemplate on your life experiences, (culture, family, friends, schooldays, favorite hangout, favorite music, food, musicians, etc.) Observing your surroundings- people, vehicles, buildings, plants, signages, nature and activities. Record these in sketches, photography and/or video recording.

Study all the visuals you have collected.

Select the visuals that you find relevant and interesting to you, which you can translate into a design work to create a portrait of yourself in A4 size. Remember to apply design principles in your work. For materials, you may use any of your choice, but do consider their suitability to best express your idea.

Content:

1. Mind map of data collected

2. Visual References

3. Design Process 

4. Final Design 

5. Reflection

1. MIND MAP OF DATA COLLECTED: 

I took the time to brainstorm everything and put it into a mind map full of the stuff that I could reflect about myself. I had put in pictures of events during my life that I enjoy being with and even asked a few questions to my friend and siblings about how she sees me, however, my siblings seems to avoid it because no siblings are meant to compliment each other without knowing that such critique will never die down.

2. VISUAL REFERENCES: 

fig 1. Photo Collage by @ZEKA_DESIGN

fig 2. Artwork 'Serendipity' from Pinterest

fig 3 Artwork from Pinterest

fig 4 Artwork by Dean Stuart

3. DESIGN PROCESS: 

Looking through the photos and bringing up memories from the past gave me an idea on how to approach this assignment. I decided to go with the idea of creating a library of my emotions that holds memories from the past that I never want to forget, a warm place in my mind that I sit in all the time. The library is due to my obsession with books and dark academia libraries, combining all these elements together, the principles that could be shown in here would be Balance and/or Harmony and Unity.

fig 5. The draft sketch

As I pondered about what could portray in a Self-Portrait, I decided to draw myself  reading a book and display my journey of life through high-school up until foundation which became a period of change and Self-development for me. 

Feedback: 

• Sir Charles mentioned the misaligned panel underneath and how it effects the perspective of the whole picture. I wanted to capture the contrast between the environment behind the window, so taking note of the position of the panel, I decided to remove in and turn it into a large window.

fig 6. The second improvised draft sketch

• At first I wanted to portray nature which I've always been surrounded in inside the room but I decided to portray it outside of the window expressing my environment I grew up in.

fig 7 Coloured version

FINAL DESIGN: 

Final Design: Library of Memories

This is the final design, "Library of Memories", where memories becomes a reminder of how I am today. Taking a trip down memory lane for the Self-Portrait research have brought me to create a representation of myself through a shelf of cherished friendships and small things that I've accomplished and the wave of overwhelming emotions that I have slowly learned to accept as I grow. During the good and bad times, my two cats became my biggest comfort as they were always there to company me through the night even as I'm writing this and to how I'm comfortable in being alone most of the time being surrounded by nature and smell of books. In a technical aspect, my artwork have the mixture of asymmetrical balance, harmony and unity. 

REFLECTION

Creating a design for Project 1: Self-Portrait is like a walk down memory lane. Browsing through the pictures really made me miss the times spent with my closest friends and how much I have been through to get to where I am now. It took me quite sometime to figure out how to compose a design that could explain who I am visually, one fateful meet up with my best friend gave me a spark of inspiration on how I wanted to portray myself. Throughout the project, I've learned how to integrate more than one principles into an artwork. Furthermore, I learned how to use objects or symbolism as a way to express who I am while taking the technical aspect of principles into consideration as to not stray afar. Creating this artwork was a lot of challenge as playing with colors and theme were really important to create the atmosphere that I want. In conclusion, creating 'Library of Life' took a lot of time and energy, however, drawing a portrait of myself gave me a time to reminisce the past, so I think the Project was quite a tiresome yet an entertaining one.