#ENVYPSYCHO Penang Brochure

I am back with another blogspot on my EP Assignment! This one is a brochure assignment based on our trip on Penang, we were supposed to choose a theme, style, place, activity related to Penang. I chose to do Batu Ferringhi because it is my favourite place in Penang. Sun, sea, surf, good food, it is the place to be for a getaway not far from home.

It first I wanted to do a hexagonal fan design but it kept on falling apart at the hinge so, with not much time left to spare, I recycled my design into a watercolour postcard scrapbook concept, with the original watercolour artworks bound into the brochure. Of course, if it were mass produced, it would just be the scanned version.

😎 😎 😎

The PDF documentation of the brochure. You can see the digital files for the hexagon fans, and also a simple key map of Batu Ferringhi. When you're there, it's really hard to get lost because everything is located alongside a roadside stretch. I covered a stretch of about 6 km, which already has so much to keep the entire family entertained. This particular stretch is located in Teluk Bahang right after Kampung Batu Ferringhi. The watercolour postcards represents an iconic food, activity, or experience one might experience at each pit stop.

I changed the hexagonal layout into a simple graphic with a quick summary of each destination.

The cover page.

The key map with a simple transportation guide. This brochure could be handed out via public transportation around this area, or tourists could present this brochure to the driver, and they would know where to take the tourists. The theme is called Seaside Adventure as everything is right by the beach. As tourists tend to send postcards to family and friends when overseas, they could simply cut out the postcards (designs shown below) and mail it. Another concept that could be integrated into this brochure would be to present the postcard at the venue the postcard is based on to receive a free stamp to mail it to the loved ones.

I wanted to add more fun stuff like colouring pages, coupons, etc, but of course I didn't have much time to add all of those but I think it would be a great idea for locals and tourists of all ages :)

Here are my watercolour renderings for the brochure! For Batu Ferringhi Beach I did a simple beachside painting.

The ship has always intrigued me due to its novelty experience, hence I had to paint the interesting ship exterior for The Ship's postcard. Juicy steaks and delicacies like escargot are a must try here!

It's not a Malaysian night market without satay, so I drew a satay vendor and a floating meal of satay for the Night Market postcard.

The spice garden is one of the most fun place to be (aside from the mosquito bites...) Here are some of the spices you can find and even cook with from the garden, like chillies, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and much more.

Lastly, a postcard for the Butterfly Park. One may be able to observe metamorphosis at this park occuring at the various stages, interact with the cute and friendly butterflies and even feed them! This was my favourite postcard to paint.

#ENVYPSYCHO: Wayfinding Assignment 03 (IDP)

Hello! This blog post is about my progress for Assignment 3 which is a way finding based on my IDP assignment. In this post I will show my progress from the first step to the final product.

This was the board that I prepared for presentation day. At the time I quite liked the way it looked like despite it having a simple look. However, it wasn't up to par so I had to upgrade it. I was struggling to juggle many final submissions during the point of time I was creating this board so I admit it wasn't as good as I could have done given less pressure.

This was the second try. It looks more organised and neat than the first board and the circulation can be seen a bit better than the first one. However, I made it too tall (it was only supposed to be up to 7cm which for some odd reason this instruction flew right through my brain which was at this point of the semester, in a constant state of stupor) and it still wasn't really up to par. The signage was too simple so I had to improve on that as well. When I found out I had to fix this up one more time I did feel sad at first (though it was my fault) and I was stuck artistically on how to make it better.

😅 😅 😅

Some details on Wayfinding Tjonteng 2.0 before I move on...

Aerial shot of before...

... after, Wayfinding Tjonteng 3.0. I'm not sure what Miss Annie feels about this but after looking at my progress I do feel that it has greatly improved along the way and I am happy with this result. Of course, as any other work, there could always be more improvements to be made. I think this layout is also the most visually pleasing after trying twice before to tackle this assignment. I also upgraded the signages and used a dark background rather than white as the neon did not look as appealing in the second phase.

I tore apart the second assignment and constructed a bubble-shaped spatial diagram and arranged my characters where they would be glued. I also made a smaller spiral staircase to indicate the boundary between the first and second floor.

I redrew each character with a height limit of 5 cm and inked the characters this time to see if it looked better, and they did stand out much nicer and looked more presentable. I didn't put the letters but added a key map which I will show a bit later on.

Dining and public restroom...

The first floor area which is the private space meant for the owner. You can see her enjoying a bubble bath, sleeping, working, and changing. 3 out of 4 of those activities are kind of very intimate, so you know it's a private space.

Retail area, where customers admire the work, pick out merchandise to buy, and there is also a changing room to see if the clothing fits.

Final product with an simple infographic next to the model...

My finalised neon signages. I like how it turned out, I spent a lot of time improving it and it looks more aesthetically pleasing and reflects more on graphic design.

The infographic I prepared, added a key map for clarity, added the materiality to show the mood, and added a quick guide to batik (which I took from my precedent study slides)

The previous signage concept.

I changed a lot of things, from the font, colours, design... I also changed Wine and Dine to Jom Makan! to reflect Malaysian hospitality as the concept would suit my retail better.

In the end, it was a long and painstaking journey to get this far and do all these assignments but I appreciate the support, guidance, and understanding given by my lecturers. I really pushed myself a lot this semester and this was one of my favourite subjects to do. However, it was also one of the hardest and really tested my capabilities as a designer. I had a lot of fun, was lost and confused so many times, literally shed blood, sweat, and tears but this is one of the results. :)

#ENVYPSYCHO Discover KL

This was our second assignment for Environmental Psychology. We had about the same amount of time to do this assignment as the first one. The task was to explore Kuala Lumpur and do a forensic and wayfinding research based on our observations and compile it into something a tourist could relate or refer to. We chose to do Central KL at a 2km stretch within a 600m radius from Pasar Seni to Jalan Perdana. We did not know much about Jalan Perdana at first, except from what we could understand from Google Maps, but we found so many interesting venues there! But since we already compiled information at Pasar Seni, we simply continued.

At the ciplak Stonehenge, lol!

This was the most fun assignment to do for our group. We had a lot of fun together and worked as a team to get the job done. We also enjoyed ourselves with good food, fun activities, and of course, a bit of shopping.

3D Illusion Museum: Hafsa interacts with penguins!

Have tourists gone too far?

Zombie Apocalypse!

Photobooths: as if we needed any more excuses to take pictures of ourselves! This was for Sat Night Out, we had a lot of fun watching the cultural dances.

Another thing to note was the accidental bump into Islamic Arts Museum. After we did our final site visit, we relaxed over there and enjoyed the art.

Discover KL by Hidayah AS on Scribd

#ENVYPSYCHO Reading Spaces

For this assignment, we were told to choose 3 places and do a research on it in terms of wayfinding, behaviours, activities, and perceptions. This assignment was very challenging to do as everyone was fighting to do research on all the good places before it was gone! Or... maybe we just didn't know much about fun places in Malaysia yet.

Another challenge was that we had to do research on 3 places and physically be there, and compiling the research for one was challenging enough. It took hours to arrange and compile the information and create the images, but it turned out well. Despite the challenges, I had a lot of fun doing this assignment. I chose to do Funtopia, KLPAC, and Panda Conservation Complex at the zoo. Here are my findings!

Reading Spaces By Hidayah A.S. by Hidayah AS on Scribd

AutoCAD Drawing Test Week 11

This week we had our second drawing test. Surprisingly, it was much easier than the first one which had more fine details. Using blocks made it easier to add the furniture. I also made a quick furniture schedule and arranged all the drawings in a simple layout plan.

AutoCAD Exercises: Week 8

Last week's plan drawing with furniture and tiles

This week we learned how to create and use blocks. I liked this lesson a lot because it makes adding details much faster and easier. I sort of wish I knew this earlier too. We were taught and instructed to furnish the plan drawing we did, and the next assignment will involve drawing a section based on this plan.

AutoCAD Exercises: Week 7

This week we learned how to create a floor plan quickly using the MLINE tool, center grid lines and to label them using a bubble grid. We also categorized our objects and segregated them using layers. Layers help organize a drawing so it is easy for reference. These techniques are very easy and fast to use and I have learnt a lot from this class.

AutoCAD Exercises Week 6

This week, we learned about how to use and customize dimension lines to make the design communication better. Our tasks for the exercise was to implement that into a drawing we did, and a drawing we were give. Here they are:

Mechanical Plate

Miss Connie's plan drawing

AutoCAD Drawing Test Week 5

This week was the drawing test. We were given 3 hours to complete a plan drawing provided by Miss Connie. It was challenging to draw all the details within the time frame but I think I managed to complete the drawing. So far, all the tips and tricks I have learned in class has come useful for this assignment.

AutoCAD Project 1 Week 4

This week, our first project was due. I had the choice to choose between drawing the Intro to IDP project or the IDP I project. Unfortunately my Intro to IDP project was too easy to draw into plan and elevation in my opinion so I chose this shape... it was tricky to make the shapes look like the seashell floating space which I designed but here it is. I also added scaled human figures so it is easier to gauge how it would look like in real life.

Also I didn't save the finished file on my USB hence the incomplete title block...

AutoCAD Exercises Week 3

We began this week's class with an exercise based on last week's lesson. The challenging part was to figure out how to map out the objects using the tools efficiently and accurately. I had a lot of fun figuring it out though.

For this week we learned how to move/displace objects and various transformations such as extrude, explode, scale, offset, array, rotate and mirror.

AutoCAD Exercises Week 2

Today's class started with 3 drawing exercises. As it was early in the morning and I had not used AutoCAD for a week, I felt a little rusty while doing this exercise. The most challenging part would be to determine whether the values were positive or negative whenever the lines changed direction. Another would be using slight mental math to calculate stuff like geometric laws and measurements.

We learned how to use Object Snap modes, which was interesting and made drawing easier and faster! I have yet to master all the Object Snap features though.

First Exercise, we drew a fish like shape, so I made it look like a cartoon fish.

Second exercise. I made the dimension lines in cyan and angle lines in yellow.

Third exercise, with a line thickness of 0.3 for the drawing.

PROJECT 3: SUPER LAIR (Beeconstructed Hideout)

Here is my post-assignment/semester blog about Project 3 for IDP!

We had to pin up our works by hook or by crook on Thursday July 14. On Friday, July 15, was presentation day. I was freaking out as I only finished up my board at 3pm (the pin up started at 2, but was shocked to see myself be one of the earlier ones to finish up.) Needless to say, the end result was worth it. I expressed to my tutor (Mr. Qhawar, who kept me sane and gave clarity throughout this project) that I was really worried about the board as I knew 3 days to work on it might be tough.

Me with my pin up on presentation day! I love the way it looked in the end.

My work:

My layout board, A0 size.

The infographic I designed for my model.

My critique:
I got mixed reviews for my critique. I am okay with this however, as I figured out that the moderators were the kind to give the good news and bad news sort of people.

• The bad: my form could use more exploration/extrapolation (in terms of making it more minimal), basically, the final shape of the whole thing. I will elaborate further below.
• The good: layout did its job and ideas/information were clear, Project 1 and Project 2 really impressed them, I sounded confident and had good basic knowledge, and did my research, my activities were interesting.

Reflection:

• What I have learnt: Miss Diana and Vickram (my moderators) gave really good advice. Firstly, they told me to never stop sketching and reading, which I intend to do over the break. They taught me to always explore a step further in terms of design because the process never really has a finish point. Even if you think the form is perfect, there is always something else to explore/extrapolate. As much as that is confusing, it's good to start questioning yourself at some points, just to test your aptitude as a designer.

• What I could have done better: For the form, they actually wanted me to remove all the components (but the plan/section would literally be a square, but it's clever design! Think: Apple design process) as the components seemed to be built to be accommodated by the form, but integration would have been much better.
  
  Firstly, as my form was simple (which to them was not a problem), I could have made it a spinning cube. Eradicate the running wheel and make the entire building the running wheel.
  
  For the trampoline, it could have been on the ceiling and floor, changing its orientation and features as the cube rotated. The climbing walls could be on the adjacent sides of the trampoline and integrated with the facade design.
  
  As for the openings/facade, it could be more dynamic in terms of deconstructionism. Maybe make more cubic forms inside and outside the building. Make it more similar to my Project 2.
• What I would do next time: Time management is something many designers struggle with, and my mom even chided me for wanting to sleep with final submission coming up (my body gave in eventually, though.) I somehow need to figure this whole thing out, but my next strategy would be to start conceptualizing immediately after the brief.
  
  I will keep a sketchbook and do more research, recording it into this. Mood boards, sketches, ideas, I need to materialize and document my thought process more, rather than eventually forgetting about it.
  
  I will also push myself to be more detailed and organized. Or perhaps, create clever minimalist designs because it's easy to add more, what if I tried to explore less is more?

IDP BIA Sem 1 post-presentation. Love these guys!

PROJECT 3: SUPER LAIR (Crit 1/2/3)

In this post I will document my journey to the final project. Here are the posts for my crits.

For all my crits, my scores were all pass. As much as it was just a pass, at least I didn't fail in the end, and somehow ended up with the green light to continue on...

This post is image heavy so I'll just add short captions under the pictures.

CRIT 1: Inspiration + context draft + storyboard + activities

Inspiration: Takashi Kobayashi treehouse. A simple house but exudes the inspiration behind the beehive. My design language was cubic with a clustered form.

Ideation sketch for my context. Scrapped as it was too direct, but I refined some ideas from here.

My storyboard. It was just the rough penciling during the crit, but here is the inked version.

Contextual study: flora & fauna. Context is a quartz ridge with dipterocarp trees and tropical flora/fauna.

Activities I: Calisthenics (pull ups) and bouldering (rock climbing at a shorter height.) I chose these activities as it helps build muscle mass and stamina.

Activities II: Trampolining and running wheel. These activities increase agility, flexibility, stamina and are really fun!

Aerial view of my context

Verdict: PASS

This was my first pin up crit and I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't really produce enough documentation either but the following tutorial, we had another mock pin up and managed to improve. From this point on, I made sure to provide the documentation needed, and never came empty handed in any of the criteria. The challenge was the increasing workload however.

CRIT 2: First mock up + context + drawings

Section (diagonal)

Perspective views of my first draft

Elevation view

Design language analysis

Initial floor plan

Section view of context

Draft I

Draft I perspective view

Verdict: PASS

For this, the problem was exploration of form. I had to figure out a way to make it look more dynamic and reflect the theme. Other suggestions was to add more openings and make the activities more visible in the interior.

CRIT 3: Final mock up + context

Final mock up of my model

View from above into the interior.

Finished context

Another angle of the context model.

Plan view of context and model

How it looks like in real life

Verdict: PASS

For this crit, I made the exterior more cubic with the openings. For the section views, I made the running wheel bigger and the wall a triangle shape to give it a look like abstract art. After this step, there was no more time to explore on form and work on the final layout, orthographic drawings and model. (Though I wished we had more time to do so with more guidance as some times I felt like I was shooting in the dark, but being independent is good)