Miss Pang

Salem

2011-11-30T22:24:00.000Z

This is a screen print to remember Salem.

Salem was my Aunty's cat, who I knew for most of my life.

She was an amazing cat and she will be sadly missed.

R.I.P Salem

Unconscious influences

2011-11-01T21:52:00.000Z

The other day i bought a new dress (above), it was only afterwards that I realised it kind of reminded me of Cole & Son's Geometric Autumn 2011 Circus wallpaper (below).

Home Sweet Home

2011-07-14T08:55:00.000+01:00

Home Sweet Home? ...... Not really, I've been home for the last few weeks now and I'm kind of bored of being here. I actually miss London! At least I'm working a lot to consume my time and I have finally made a list of stuff that i need to do, which includes my dissertation..... fun

Train

2011-07-09T21:32:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to share a print of a train I made using Quickoff and a photocopy.

CSM Pop up shop

2011-06-08T14:28:00.001+01:00

If you are in London today, Thursday or Friday.
Come to Second Year BA Hons Graphic Design's Pop up shop
http://csmpopup.tumblr.com/
We are open:
Wednesday 8th shop open 12-9pm
Private view 6:30pm - midnight (DJ & Bar)
Thursday 9th shop open 12-7pm
Friday 10th shop open 12-7pm

at Camp London thecamplondon.com/
70-74 City Road, London
Nearest Tube: Old Street

Here is a picture of my "Challenge Yourself" Journals, which are sold at the pop up shop.
There are so many awesome products, go take a look!!

When I accidentally take good photos

2011-06-08T14:18:00.001+01:00

Last week, I took some film to be developed and here are some of the photos:

"I never realise how much I like being home, unless I've been somewhere really different for a while."

2011-06-02T11:48:00.000+01:00

Sorry for neglecting this blog for a while, but I'm back with lots to post.
At the moment, I'm back in Brighton for a few days because I wanted to get away from London for a bit, as well as even though I'm back during weekends, I'm usually at work, so I never really feel like I'm here. (Which is why I chose the quote from Juno as the title.)
So pretty much since September/October I've spent my life between Brighton, London and on trains. It's been pretty tiring at the times because I have to spend so much time on trains.
However there has always been one thing that I look out for on my journey, which is a bit of graffiti between Clapham Junction and East Croydon. I've never been able to take a photo of it until last Tuesday. Shame it's blurry :(

Otherwise since I've been back, I have managed to take some rolls of films to be processed, started abusing the printer at work for the product I'm making for the Pop up shop (more on this later) and treating my self to a pavlova from Bill's.

Sometimes when I'm alone, I wonder

2011-03-03T20:47:00.000Z

....

2011-02-15T19:41:00.000Z

Last week I spent a lot of time thinking.

Thinking about everything, past, present and future.

Being haunted, yet hypnotized by my ghosts.

Dreaming of the future and its possibilities.

Living the present or at least trying to.

I ended up drawing (partially tracing) a self-portrait, something that I rarely do.

The grid as a 2nd language - revisited

2011-01-31T23:47:00.000Z

I also revisited "The grid as a 2nd language." The changes, which i made to this booklet was the front cover and type used for the title, as well as the layout of the answer for the last question.

The image, which i used for the cover was one that i took while sitting on a train, but I felt that it related to the interview and the booklet because of the motion of the shot. Also the type, which i used for the title was the same font I used for the running heads.

Alphabets and abstractions - revisited

2011-01-31T23:41:00.004Z

Since there weren't too many changes to be made, I decided to revisit this piece and make the changes mentioned in the last post. Unfortunately I stuck the pages together badly, when i was trying to align the background of the spreads. Also I printed it out on a laser print, so the quality of it is better.

Alphabet and abstraction - Part 2

2011-01-31T23:32:00.001Z

Part 2 of "Alphabet and abstraction" was to create a 32 page self cover book, which included an "abstracted" version of each letter of the alphabet.

Our requirements were:

work in Puffin Picture Book format - 222 x 181mm
can be either potrait or landscape
cover is full colour and the spreads alternate between colour and black only.

For the alphabet, I decided to use the letters that I found in Part 1 or least letters, which were inspired by them. The cover (below) consisted of the negative space around the letters used for the background and the title in red. I decided on a black, white and red theme for this booklet.

Here are examples of the colour and black and white spreads in the booklet:

At the final crit, the booklet was described to be like a bowl of alphabet soup and you try to scoop out the letters.
However the things, which could be changed were:

the background doesn't work as a spread
the lines of the background are quite thick, so it fights with the main letter
some of the more pristine letters could be bigger.
remove the black outline of the letters on the colour pages

Alphabets and abstraction - Part 1

2011-01-31T22:35:00.000Z

Before Christmas, I was briefed on Phil's brief - "Alphabet and abstraction."
The brief is split into two parts, Part 1 of the brief was to find, record and learn about lettering. It may sound simple, but with so many different styles of typography, it's hard to record everything. So my "scrapbook" of type consisted of walk and draws around Brighton, visits to the V&A and the British library, type from flyers, paperbags and any interesting type i could find.

Here are some examples:

What does Design & Interaction mean to you?

2011-01-31T22:16:00.000Z

During the time we were doing our elective work, we were also given a brief on the side with the title of:

In this brief, we simply had to answer the question in groups of four.
The groups were decided at random through picking names out of a box.
I ended up working with were Agostino, Woori and Kelli.

The only specifications for the brief were:

We weren't allowed to use computers.
We had all exhibit in Studio 1, 2 & 3.

So after many moments of not knowing what to do, we ended up coming up with "the ambition tree."

The tree was inspired by The Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees in Hong Kong. However instead of throwing your wish onto the branches, we made leaves for everyone to write their ambitions on. By filling out these leaves and placing them on the trees, it helped it grow. Just like how we as students learn and grow.

Gilbert & George

2011-01-31T21:41:00.000Z

At some point in the last couple of weeks, I went to see "The Urethra Postcard Art of Gilbert & George" at The White Cube. Personally I found the dirtier postcards more interesting. However I loved the use of the postcard format because i feel that it's underrated in some ways, especially when find really tacky ones. Then again this exhibition exploits the tackiness of some the postcards you get around London.
Below are a couple of pictures I found online that I found interesting:

Elective - Essay

2011-01-13T22:39:00.000Z

Finally Electives are finally over with, since today was the essay hand in day. Yay!!
I decided to share with you all, how i presented my essay:
(Keep in mind it's A6 in size and the pages were taken from my moleskine)

(If you are wondering why i hand wrote it all, it was a moment of madness. Don't worry I have a typed up version as well.)

Saatchi Gallery - December 2010

2011-01-09T20:16:00.000Z

A few pieces from the Saatchi Gallery that i liked:

Tessa Farmer - Swarm 2004
Mixed media

Toby Ziegler - The Liberals (3rd Version) 2008
Cardboard, gesso and pins

Toby Ziegler - Designated for Leisure 2004
Oil on Scotch brite

Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work

2011-01-05T20:28:00.000Z

At some point within the last month, i went with a friend to see Bridget Riley's exhibition at the National Gallery. Bridget Riley has been my friend Jess' favourite artist since she was little and since we were going ice skating in London. It made sense to take her.
The one piece which caught my attention was the installation. (Then again it takes up the whole wall.) The thing I liked about it was how all the circles interact with one another.

Composition with circles 7 - 2010

Wall drawing

Lastest obsession....

2011-01-04T21:47:00.000Z

Every now and then, i will be obsessed by a film. Sometimes i will feel the need to share it.

My latest film obsession is Scott Pilgrim vs the World

I think the intro is awesome:

So this obsession started when I watched the trailer and thought to myself,

"I need to watch this" O.O

When it was finally released to cinema in the UK, I was in Chicago and it had already been showing for a few weeks, so i was worried that i would miss it. After having to track down the nearest cinema that was showing it, I finally got to watch it. Yay!! (Yes, I am strange.)

You may be wondering why am i obsessed with this film?

Well personally i think it's a funny film with awesome fight scenes, good music and it references various video games. (Here's my slightly geeky confession, I grew up playing various Nintendo consoles, a bit of Playstation and Sega, so these references make me happy. Like I said before I'm strange) Also i love how once Scott Pilgrim defeats an Evil Ex, he gets coins/ they turn into coins :D

It's been too long....

2011-01-04T20:54:00.000Z

First of all, I'm terrible at blogging and I haven't posted anything on here recently. So I will probably end up posting multiple posts over the next week. They have just been sitting around being drafts.

Secondly, it's been a while since I've had the chance to go to the beach. Considering I don't live that far, I think it's inexcusable. Here are a couple of photos from today:

Last but not least, i started a tumblr to share some of the many photos:
http://miss-pang.tumblr.com/

Electives - Week 4

2010-12-15T20:20:00.000Z

We had our last presentation for Electives last Friday.
The presentation was just a synoptic view on what we had looked at and we begun to look at examples that answered our question. (How does design change our society's perception of needs?)

Our examples were:

Apple's 'Think Different' campaign

Volkswagen - The Fun Theory - in particular the Piano Staircase.

We also looked into the trends for the future in our fields, but we decided to keep our presentation short and sweet since we had to present last.
I felt it was well received and people enjoyed the videos.

Next step the essay ...............

Before & After

2010-12-15T19:38:00.000Z

A month ago, I took this photo of the forever changing wall on Church Street, Brighton.
( It's kind of bad that I don't actually know what the shop is called.)

One month later and it looks more colourful and dynamic.

Naughty but nice.

2010-12-15T19:30:00.002Z

Last week I was approached by my friend, Amy to help her take some Christmas photos.
So on Monday, we rearranged her flat to make it look festive and raided her wardrobe for some naughty, but nice outfits.
Here are some of my favourite pics from the shoot.

Dior Illustrated - Rene Gruau & The Line of Beauty

2010-12-03T23:46:00.000Z

This week i went to Dior Illustrated at Somerset House.
The imagery was so beautiful and vibrant with colour.
Here are some bits that i liked:

This was on the ground floor before you go up the stairs. (I probably wasn't meant to take a photo of this.)

Miss Dior, Circa 1960
"A striking, modern composition that perfectly captures the spirit if the age"

Dioressence - 1979
Watercolour, gouache and ink
"The image of an elegant woman reclining in a hammock conveys perfectly the exotic Haute Couture spirit of the scent."

Diorling - 1963
Watercolour, gouache and ink
"A young woman with loose dark hair nibbling a jasmine blossom."

Electives - Week 3

2010-12-03T23:29:00.000Z

The feedback from last week's presentation was that our question was too broad.
We needed to refine it by defining who the individual is and what about society we decided needed to change/ who society is.

Therefore we began this week refining our question.
(Society can change individuals. Can individuals change society?)

We decided the individuals are designers since we are all designers. As well as we had to consider the design implications of the question this week. We also decided the thing about society we wanted to change is people needs because we looked at what influenced people

and how have they influenced people. One example we dicussed were mobile phones because at first it was a luxury/want. Now we consider them needs because we can't live without them.

Therefore we decided to change our question to:

How does design change our society's perception of needs?

We each looked at examples of how wants now have turned into needs, this included aeroplanes, cars, hygiene, mobile phone and packaging.

I looked into packaging:

People didn't really need packaging - because they hunted and cooked their kill. If they wanted to preserve their food, they used leaves, woven baskets and animal skins.
During the industrial revolution, packaging really took off and a range of different food became available to people.
As well as the invention of cardboard boxes meant transporting food became easier.
Tin cans meant people could preserve food for longer.
Now people hardly hunt because of the convenience of buying food at supermarkets.

The positive points about packaging is it helps protect your food from being damaged or contaminated. However it does make you question where does your food come from and how was it treated.

Electives - Week 2

2010-12-03T22:37:00.000Z

We began the week being put into groups of 6. These groups depended on the keywords, we tagged our blogs with. My group's keyword is "Change".

We spoke about which topics we found interesting from the Lectures and then came up with a series of questions. This was then later categorized into Education, Economics/ Globalization,Influences, Engagement/ Self-Awareness/ Human Nature, People and Society/ Politics and Risks/ Social Interaction. Each of these issues, where then divided up between the group, so we each had an area to research.

We also created an overall question, which we have to present to the entire seminar group:

"Society can change individuals,
Can individuals change society?"

For the presentation, we have created a slide show. Each person will have a few slides on their research area. I looked into Engagement/ Self-Awareness/ Human Nature.
My research showed:

Humans are influenced by many things including themselves.
When evaluating themselves, they compare their current behavior to their own standards & values.
People are more aware when their is an audience, mirrors or if they are being recorded.
People are social beings with a maximum of 150 friends, whom they participate in face to face communication. (Dunbar's number)

Kissmass Tree

2010-11-23T23:11:00.001Z

This week is ridiculously busy for me, so I'm not going to have the chance to visit an exhibition.
But i did go see the Kissmass Tree in Covent Garden, created by Paul Cocksedge Studio.
The idea behind this tree is human touch helps power up the lights. Therefore two people must hold the mistletoe and kiss under the tree, to light up the 50,000 red and white LED lights.

Electives - Lectures 2

2010-11-20T09:16:00.001Z

Lectures 5&6

The first lecture from Mark Fisher was on capitalism. I found the concept of “The last man” interesting. He describes how the last man sees himself at the end of things. Everything has happened to him. If he flicked through the channels, he would only see dead history. However I feel the last man is a figure in conformity, in a world where everything is the same because the last man has no ability to change.

The second speaker was David Orrell on the art of prediction. He spoke about how through the ages; people have tried to create prediction models. However these models had problems, which caused a percentage of inaccuracy:

• Local effects in complex systems lead to emergent properties that cannot be reduced to simple physical laws. E.g. Clouds
• Complex systems are dominated by opposing positive and negative non-linear feedback loops. E.g. Stock market – momentum buyers versus value investors.

He also spoke about how it is possible to create a prediction for some living system, but it is difficult due to the rate of change varying from different speeds. E.g. prevent the heart attack rather than say when it will be.
I feel what he said at the end of the lecture, (it could have been during Q&A) helped sum up part of this lecture:
“ We can’t predict the future, but we can shape it”

Keyword - Predictability

Electives - Lectures

2010-11-18T22:30:00.001Z

Lecture 1&2

I found both speakers interesting, however personally I felt that Matthew Taylor was more engaging. His use of examples helped visualize his ideas and his use of jokes, helped keep the atmosphere pleasant. He spoke about “The social aspiration gap”, which questions how does a person prosper unless they change the way they think and behave.

Three ways people need to change:

• People need to be more engaged in their lives. For example; they need to more involved in what shapes their future.

• Secondly people need to more self sufficient and resourceful. They need to be comfortable managing their lives.

• Humans are social beings that are affected by the people around them; so to be a better person, they need better friends. As well as they need to make the right choices.

Additionally people need to be more aware of other aspects that can affect the way they act. E.g. Within days of Zimabardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, the officers became sadistic and the prisoners became passive.

Keyword - Change

Lecture 3&4

The first lecture we had today was Nina Power, she spoke about the perception of women and how women have influenced design, as well as how they are influenced in everyday life. There was one quote from the lecture, which I thought was great:

“I am writing as an ugly one for the ugly ones, the old hags, the dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckables, the neurotics, the psychos, for all those girls that don’t get a look-in in the universal market of the consumable chick.” Virginit Despentes – King Kong Theory.

The second speaker was Paul Greenhalgh on the World’s Expos. The Fairs were places, where people could exhibit and sell their work. Traders were also able to move in and set up shop. Exhibitors would invent things they imagined in the future, including transportation or moving streets with different speeds. Also people from different cultures were placed on display, some volunteered to be there, others were “confused”. This meant people could be exposed to different cultures and artists were inspired. However it was demeaning to place these people on display like in a zoo.

These Expos were good for trade, as well as it was good for the cities because it allowed them to be developed for the better. Even though the buildings for the Fairs were demolished once the fair was over, there were sewers, transportation links and landmarks left over. Additionally museums were invented in 1851 based on the World’s Fairs, even though cultures were destroyed, at least these cultures are now preserved instead of forgotten.

Keyword - Progress

Drawing Fashion

2010-11-18T19:32:00.000Z

On Monday, i went to Drawing Fashion at the Design Musuem.
It was beautifully laid out and showed some amazing illustrations.
Here are some that stood out to me.

Antonio
Joanne Landis Carnegie Hall Studio
The New York Times Magazine
USA 1967
Pen and ink and collage

René Bouché

Portrait of Mona Bismarch

Vogue, USA c.1940's

Pencil and tempera

François Berthoud

Love me or love me not

Advertising for Myla UK 2001

Monotype, oil on paper.

Barbican - November 2010

2010-11-09T18:22:00.002Z

Here are some of my favourite pieces from the current exhibitions at the Barbican.

Damian Ortega - The Independent

Waves In (20th September 2010)

Waves Out (20th September 2010)

Photo: Eliot Wyman

Rubbish Cube (21st September 2010)

Photo: Eliot Wyman

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

Jun Takahashi

Undercover Spring/ Summer 2007

Red polyester organdie halter-neck dress covered in red skull shaped decorations.

Photo: Marcio Madeira

Tao Kurihara

Tao Comme de Garçon - Autumn/ Winter 2009-10

Black mohair and wool, nylon mixed knit vest, white cotton and linen t-shirt, black polyester weave overskirt with ribbon, red polyester knit tiered skirt.

Picture: Ben Hassett

Converse Ads

2010-11-08T19:19:00.000Z

While walking around Brighton, I came across these Converse adverts.

Currency - Part 2

2010-11-07T23:11:00.000Z

I began researching the resources, which i was given, as well as i looked into different global products. I ended up deciding on M&M’s to be the product for the facebook page. This is because they are sold in over 100 countries and was easily accessible. The next step was to create a facebook fan page, which was open to everybody. All they need to do is join the page and post the cost of a packet of M&M’s. Before creating the page, I looked at other

successful facebook pages to help with the content. Once it was made

(http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/How-much-do-MMs-cost-around-the-world/130010510387591) I began contacting various friends that were in different countries to help with my search. I also decided to advertise the page on other M&M fan pages, in hope they would be some help.

In the final crit, I explained how I felt there was a lack of incentive to join the group, which resulted in not many people joining. People were probably wondering "Why should I join this group?" After having discussed what i was trying to find out, we also came to the conclusion that it was missing the complexity that i began with. Also we felt that facebook was still the right format for this search because i needed to exploit the social network to help explore different lifestyles.

The next steps:

Narrow down what i want to find out - E.g. A student orientated basket of goods.
Research the official measures of a basket of goods
Create a personal survey - allowing people to exchange their experiences and lifestyles.
Create a student orientated basket of goods
Exploit the social network.

Haunch of Venison - November 2010

2010-11-03T11:14:00.000Z

Every week i try to visit a gallery, so this week i went to the Haunch of Venison.
The exhibition in the West Galleries is Transmission, which features the work of three young artist from London. Adam Dix / Alex Hoda /Katie Paterson
The pieces by Adam Dix stood out to me because of the pastel colours and the 50's styled images.

Transmission - 2009

For what we are about to receive - 2010

In the East Galleries were Tom Wesselmann - Works 1958 - 2004

"Wesselmann is widely regarded as one of the leading figures of American Pop Art."

Driver - 2001

Smoker no.8 - 1973

Project 2 - Currency

2010-11-02T21:06:00.001Z

"Show us the money"

For this brief, as a designer, we need to find a way to become involved in the flow of the money. The outcome of this piece is to create a piece that in some way engages with or provokes the existing landscape or currency.

To begin this project we were given resources to look at and things to consider.

One of my favourite resources was "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" by Peter Menzel & Faith D'Alusio". This book explores the different eating habits of people around the world and include portraits of the families, which they visited with their week's worth of shopping.

When researching, I also came across "The Value of a Dollar" by Jonathan Blaustein., which shows the purchase power of a dollar. The idea of this project began, when one day he purchased 10 organic blueberries for a dollar. He was a little upset by this because 6 weeks earlier he bought 17 organic blueberries in Chile for the same price.

Other areas, which i researched were airports, exchange rates, cost prices and coupons.

I also look at how prices vary from one country to another. For example the image below shoes the cost of a medium loaf of bread in the England and the cost of the same size loaf in America.

Some ideas, which i thought of were:

How in Airports, people experience different emotions and you are able to put a cost to these emotions from the cost of a flight or traveling to the airport. E.g. Being put on the stand by list - The cost of uncertainty - £35.
Fun things to do with left over coins from traveling. E.g. Give it to charity or make a gift.
How you would you get a certain amount of goods in one country, but in a different country, you would get a different amount due to exchange rates and cost of living being different.

At the interim crit, it was suggested that i create a facebook group to find the prices from around the world of a global product. The purpose of this was to be able to see how the standard of living differed through pricing.
Other resources i was told to look at were:

The Big Mac Index
2600 The Hackers Quarterly
Clay Shirky - Here comes everybody

White Night

2010-11-01T23:54:00.000Z

Last Saturday in Brighton was White Night, which is a festival that takes place every year when the clocks go back. And once it hits 6pm, the city gets taken over with various things to do and see.

Some of the things i went to see included:

Antigravity by Steve Geliot, which involved a UFO being lifted into the night sky as projections were shown onto it and music played in the background.

As well as Ravens in Temple created by Fishtail Neon studios, which was a sequence of Ravens flying across Brighton Town Hall.

Just another rainy day in London

2010-10-27T20:22:00.000+01:00

Having received my new Design Museum membership card last week, I decided it was time to go check out John Pawson's Plain Space exhibition. The simplicity of his work is beautiful and there is even a chance able to experience his work in the 1:1 sized installation.

I also went to see Sunflower seeds (Part of The Unilever Series) by Ai WeiWei at the Tate Modern. It was amazing, yet surreal to see all these hand painted, porcelain seeds in one place.

Project 1 - The grid as a 2nd Language

2010-10-25T18:39:00.000+01:00

"Design a grid system that facilitates the reading of an interview in two languages"

For this brief we had to interview someone, who has an organizational or navigational system that plays an important role in their job. We produced a booklet of the interview in two languages and a grid, which reflects the interview. Other specifications included a folded size of A6 or smaller, a maximum of 5 sheets of paper and black ink only.

The person who i decided to interview was my manager Stephanie, who lives in Tring, Hertfordshire, but works in Brighton. Both her and her husband have to be extremely organized to get to their jobs. Therefore i created an accordion fold booklet, which reflected her long, organized journey.

Below is a couple of pages of the draft version, which i tool to the interim crit:

From the feedback from the interim crit, the changes, which i needed to make were:

cross over element.
play around with layout.
redefine the running heads.
change the binding as staples would make it too bulky.

So i reworked the cover to include a train, as Stephanie's journey is mainly by train, I decided to justify everything to the right to make the interview easier to read, as well as to show more precision. (Which seems to be important to the journey, otherwise she would be late.) I also decided to create a tube line symbol running through the booklet to show that the booklet is a journey. Also the running heads became a cross over element and each one said something different, so if you read them all in one go, it was a sentence or they make sense on their own. Additionally i chose a simple bind that slotted the sheets of paper together.

In the final crit, we passed around our booklets with a sheet of paper, which we wrote down notes. This was great for this project because it meant that we had time to study the piece and everyone contributed. Overall the feedback was good, people liked the folding used and described the piece like a train with each section as a carriage. As well as when it was closed, some people thought it looked like a ticket book, which was something i never noticed. The running heads were also mentioned a fair bit, about how it helps directs the person onto the next page to carry on with the journey.

Also there are a few things, which i can work on:

Front Cover - image is pixelated and not as well done as the inside. (Maybe something more abstract)
The answer of the last question is awkward, need to redo the layout.
back of the booklet could include something.
paper is slightly heavier than the specified.

A New Beginning

2010-10-20T13:10:00.000+01:00

The second year of uni has begun and I'm back in London.
This blog has been forgotten for a long time, so i decided to delete all old posts and start again.