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Compulsory Question 2

As written in my statement on Week 10. If I were to continue with a career in design in the next 5 years. I would prefer to pursue a career of web design. Since enrolling in ITE. I had developed this passion for web designing and had hopes that I could continue my pursuit of my ambitions by interning in a company that needs a web designer in the near future. 

What I aim to achieve as a web designer is simple. I hope that in the near future, aside from developing my skills. I hope to run my own personal website that highlights the struggles of people going through a hard time someday. Essentially a website where common social issues can be further highlighted and discussed.

My reasons are quite personal, growing up I found myself feeling a sense of isolation, anxiety and constant stress during my school life. As I felt too nervous and reluctant to tell my peers how I really felt. I wanted to create a website that would ‘speak for me’ in a way, to tell the world how I really felt.

One such website in particular I found myself inspired by is a website called ‘VERYWELL mind’. A website I find myself using in order to better cope with the added stress of the new semester’s difficulty spike.

What ‘VERYWELL mind’ aims to do is to provide those who find themselves currently suffering from some form of mental strain due to either school, work or other external factors relief in the form of mental health advice that people could follow.

I found myself very inspired with this concept for a website. The simple act of providing others with advice helped me attain a sense of calm even in this stressful period of my life.

For context to how I felt during my time in the new semester, this poster I found online provides a sufficiently accurate illustration of my mental state during my struggles.

Ignoring the portion labelled ‘school’. The poster itself perfectly showcases how I felt during my moments of stress. The arrows everywhere are a stark reminder of how I struggled to manage my work/life balance.

As for how my aspirations relate to CTS B itself? My website’s relation technically falls under the category of Social Engagement. The definition of Social Engagement is as followed: Participation in a community or society by an individual or group. Though the website I dream to create only provides support in the form of advice and guides to destress and improve one’s mental wellbeing. It still falls under the category of Social Engagement as they, the people who suffer from mental issues are undeniably a community of its own, and by using my website. They are essentially participating in the community through using my website to receive guidance on improving their mental stability.

Word count: 477 words

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Compulsory Question 1

Manifesto. A written statement of the beliefs, aims, and policies of an organisation. While Manifestos are normally the product of political parties or large corporations, our Manifesto is no different from those. Emphasising on our very own set of Ideals.

The greatest emphasis of our Manifesto would have to be ‘Loving yourself’ Why? Well loving oneself has many benefits such as reduced anxiety and stress, built up resilience against emotional setbacks and strengthens your sense of self.  These particular traits are what makes loving oneself so important in a course like this.

I recall during the near mid weeks of this semester. I felt this sense of dread and panic, Semester 2 was a sudden spike in difficulty compared to semester 1. In particular. My chosen elective experiences was a brand new hurdle for me. 

Experiences was and still is a great challenge and a bitter pill for me to swallow. With it being one of the last electives I’ve chosen. It was only natural for me to find myself struggling in a lesson I did not understand nor was very enthusiastic about being in. This struggle I found myself in only served to develop a severe case of stress, panic and anxiety.

No amount of counselling from my lecturer was able to help. I’d find myself standing there nodding my head as I immediately went back to pleading for help by classmates only for them to redirect me back to the lecturer yet again. Kickstarting a rather vicious cycle.

Not just experiences, Critical Thinking Skills itself was its own hurdle to overcome as always. With this semester emphasising on independence and the ways I could answer the weekly reflections being even more vague than last semester. I constantly found myself stuck as I read through the question slides. Scratching my head as the question ‘How could I even answer this’ kept popping to mind.

As my inner anxiety and dread grew. I felt a sense of self loathing as I sat for those two classes, which in turn drove me into a new level of stress. 

That was until the phrase ‘Love Yourself’ was written on that paper. Doing some research on the phrase. I realised that I needed to take my mind off. Stressing on the work I found myself not understanding was not helping. In fact it possibly made my lack of understanding far worse than it already was since it kept causing me to overthink things. But by learning to ‘Love Myself’. I was able to calm myself and clear my mind. Readying myself to try and understand the modules I struggle with better.

In conclusion, I think that was why love yourself was so heavily emphasised in our Manifesto. To urge us to stay calm when faced with difficult situations as factors such as panicking and anxiety only served to worsen the matter entirely.

Word count: 479 words

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Week 6 - Critical Self - Reflectivity

In a course like design, motivation is a very important factor due to the sheer amount of work that is to be done. Unfortunately I find myself the exact opposite, remaining constantly demoralised due to what I felt to be a difficulty spike in the new term, which leads to me procrastinating and slacking to make myself feel better. 

I like to think of myself as an organised and orderly person, so when I skip out on a week of work or two. It tends to cause me to develop stress thinking about it yet I also refuse to do any work due to my aforementioned struggles.

To resolve this issue, I did some research online. Finding suggestions such as changes in environment (Number 9) and eliminating distractions (Number 19) to be the most effective course of action. Without the comforts of home at my access. I essentially only have work to do which actually serves as a great motivator.

I feel this plan worked so well due to the emptiness people tend to feel if they don’t do anything. By changing my surroundings, I have essentially removed the choice of slacking since that choice is only valid if I am present at home. Leaving me with only two choices, do my work or waste my time in a classroom doing nothing for 8 hours.

Psychological research has proven that the hardest thing for human beings to do is nothing.

Overall, Motivation is an important factor for a designer to maintain. Without it. All that’s left is a vicious cycle of procrastination. And by the time that motivation is rediscovered. It would be at a less than desirable time.

Word count: 275 words

Class Activity:

On a side note, the predominant focus for the actual class activity was more heavily focused on Social Skills and Empathy. Both having a greater emphasis in teamwork rather than going at it alone.

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Week 3 - Connecting Practice With Society

With the rise of influencers and social media stars also gave way to a new brand of social issues altogether. The particular issue? The rise of streamers encouraging entitled and inconsiderate behaviour.

To raise awareness to this issue, me and my group mates decided to base our documentary on the issue to bring more awareness to the situation

Understandably it begs the question. How is this specific issue worth discussion? The answer to the question is simple. The current generation tends to be caught up in such trends, seeing social media as a fast track to fame and wealth. Especially children who find themselves easily influenced by those they idolise. 

One such example would have to be the British streamer Mizzy. In 2023, Mizzy rose to internet infamy with his ‘pranks’ which included committing acts of blatant trespass by entering restricted areas or homes and even theft of other people’s pets. Causing mass distress amongst the community.

And not just Mizzy, as recent as this year. Another streamer made headlines as of late by the name of Johnny Somali. Similar to Mizzy, Johnny would randomly harass and in general act as a public nuisance to the local populace.

These issues are concerning, especially when taking into account how easily impressionable adolescent brains are as a result of a development of their cognitive abilities as well as limited life experiences.

In conclusion, one should be wary as to how they make use of social media, as such a powerful tool is not only easily accessible by anyone, but will also, inevitably be used to influence communities throughout the globe.

Word count: 268 words

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Week 2 - Connecting Theory and Practice

After this week’s session on my identity in Graphic Design. I was left pondering the topic for a while as I reflected on my choice of words and images during the class activities.

For context. The first activity where I was to create a collage of 5 images and words that best described my identity as an art student was quite the food for thought. During those 20 minutes, I thought back on how I tended to handle my school assignments and exercises. In particular, how I handled my Studio work. Recalling my work creating a Bi-Fold, and how plain and empty the cover and back page of the work was. How long it took me as well as thinking back on how I tend to handle work in general only resulted in words of self slander with words such as ‘Unimaginative’, ‘Burned out’ and ‘Procrastination’ that came to mind. 

Bi-Fold Pages

Class Activity 1

It was only supported by my response for the second class activity where I was to present a sketch that defined me as a designer, choosing to present a drawing of a stressed out person gripping his head due to all the pressure. Something I felt suited me as a person.

Class Activity 2

I am aware that this sort of thinking will need to change considering my course emphasising on creativity. Especially considering the requirements will only be more intense compared to last semester. In conclusion, I think that a key takeaway from the lesson would have to be for me to focus more on the positives of my personal identity in order to better cope with whatever struggles I may experience during the course.

Word count: 273 words

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Summary

After experiencing a semester of Imagination and ideas. I personally felt that throughout the weeks, my abilities in analysing and interpreting certain artworks and how I can approach my own personal assignments have improved. Better preparing me for anything that could be thrown at me for the next semester.

As the weeks passed, my personal knowledge and understanding of analysis, function and design principles of art has widely increased. To take a few examples. Through the analysis and interpretation of signboards of restaurants in week 2 helped me understand the meaning behind certain signs and their choice of designs. Another clear example of this would have to be the Art Ecosystems assignment of week 12. 

In the case of week 12, it was more unique in the case of it being a viewing of artworks instead of a direct briefing. Nevertheless, the task required me to carefully analyse the work in order to find common interest and discuss what I personally felt interesting about the work itself.

It’s these examples that fuels my personal opinion and belief that the overall session mainly developed my skill in both analysis and interpretation of artworks.

(Signs from Week 2)

(Artworks from week 12)

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Week 11 - Postmodernism

After careful thinking about the session that took place this week, what I feel are notable ideas from the session would have to be the use of fragmentation and distortion within design.

For the activity, me and a partner were tasked with creating an advertisement poster bearing the use of Typography, Fragmentation, Plurality and Distortion. Although the poster me and my partner created was unrelated to both of these words. I’ve obtained this specific interest and inspiration through surveying the posters of my fellow classmates and works online respectively.

A few posters I've noticed made use of blurring the image slightly to achieve a more main interest within other subjects within the poster itself. The reasoning for my sudden specific notice of the design choice was because the choice of design gave me inspiration on how I could approach my final assignment within my Craft module. 

For the final assignment, we were tasked with disrupting images to create montages. My personal idea was to create a montage of images representing my life, eventually growing to the point in life I was at. I felt that I could use distortion to represent the haziness of my childhood memories in the montages by blurring certain portions of the image. As for fragmentation, I was inspired by images of cracked artworks online. I feel that fragmentation could also be used as well to represent the gaps in my memories through my photo montage.

(Posters containing Distortion)

(Images containing fragmentation)

(My Personal take on Fragmentation and Distortion)

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Week 10 - Post Structuralism

In my opinion, a notable concept I’ve gotten from today’s lesson would have to be how I view simple signs, locations and imagery. Specifically deconstruction, something I found myself relying on during the photo walk.

Deconstruction forces me to look at things a bit more differently, this, along with the fact that I was partnered with someone else who also had no idea what we were taking forces me to change my perspective of things and carefully break down the pictures to find the closest things to similarities between the pictures.

Creating the slides after the photo walk was quite a challenge considering the pictures seemingly had no relation to each other in the first place. It took a bit of consultation with my partner before we both came to the conclusion that relation between the images can be applied in other ways after careful analysis and interpretation.

Specifically, one of the images, A carpark sign and a table set, at first glance would have no relation to me whatsoever. However, the relation between both images would have to be the order of things. A carpark has an arrangement in terms of designated spots cars may park while a table set requires chairs and a table to be neatly arranged together. Proving a relation between the two images.

Deconstruction can also help me with a current issue with my photography assignment. For said assignment, I was tasked with capturing three images and creating a poster that associated these three images with Valentine's day. With deconstruction, I can interpret certain items found online differently in order for me to come up with the required resolutions.

(Image of the car park and the table set)

(The three images)

In the case of these photos, I have to figure out a way to relate these images with valentine's day to create a promotional advertisement. For the assignment. I am also permitted to use an online image that should contain a relation.

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Week 4 & 5 - How to analyze a work of design

Through week 4’s session, I feel that my knowledge in making connections with items has been drastically improved. Specifically, through making choices and uses of mediums.

The session taught me how I could widen my creative spectrum by associating certain items and media by analysing what sort of material was used in its creation. The specific opinion came about as I compared the materials brought into the class together. Grouping them through their relation to each other by its material. By doing so, I feel that my own personal view on mediums that could be considered related grow as well.

As an example, I can use this sort of thinking for a project in my other design class. For this project, I was tasked with creating posters that explained a visual narrative. By applying the ‘How design means’ framework. I could complete the assignment by widening my range on what could be considered related to my current assignment.

In the case of week 5, through careful analysis of the museum’s works and mediums as well as reading through the slides of analysis frameworks. I found myself asking questions about the work’s context and forms. These questions came to me after taking pictures of dated newspapers and old artworks. Observing the old works made me question the process and purpose of the works and especially its aspects of form. 

These questions arose due to an assignment related to creating trading cards for certain artists. The museum trip led me to ask myself how I could create a trading card that related to the artist’s ideas and personal ideals as well as how the trading card should be framed and scaled to certain proportions as well as which parts of the trading card should be enlarged and considered more important than the other.

(Week 4 activity)

(Visual Narrative poster)

The visual narrative involves a poem. In the poem, there is a line that states 'There are no buses here, only feasting spirits.' This gave me the idea to put ghostly apparitions in a photo of an empty bus stop to showcase the poster's relation to the poem.

(Week 5 pictures)

(Trading cards)

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Week 3 - Semiotics

In my opinion, a notable idea I’ve gotten from today’s lesson would certainly have to be the way I interpret certain advertisements and posters. The lesson today taught me how to analyse the messages of advertisements and posters, their meaning and choice of design specifically, teaching me how I could see posters and messages with a different perspective.

As an example, when I take a look at a christmas themed coca-cola poster, the intention of the advert is already clear to me. By using the character Santa Claus in the ad with a message saying ‘Give a little happiness’. It’s clear that the intention of the poster is to motivate consumers to drink and encourage others to drink more coca-cola to promote their own brand over competitors.

I could also use Semiotics for the upcoming Image Composition work on week 4 where I would likely be editing photos. Sitting through the Semiotics session also reminds me of how simple it is to send others a message that is both easily understandable and readable for users without the need for words makes me appreciate the simplicity of the design as well as the cleverness of its designers. 

This personal opinion of mine is further bolstered by Carl's Junior’s sign. The act of putting a smile on a star while utilising colours like red and yellow which invokes feelings of passion and warmth already gives off a comforting and welcoming vibe to the restaurant.  It’s these simple sorts of ideas I could learn from and implement in my own personal work without the need to over complicate my designs or mistakenly plagiarise works from other artists.

(Coca cola poster)

(Carl's Junior)

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Week 1 - Phenomenology

In my personal opinion on the matter. After going through numerous works of my peers, the few that would stand out in my opinion would have to be Roan’s concept of time as well as Renee’s interpretation of Shadow. 

What made Roan’s concept stand out to be so much was the simple use of different leaves from healthy green leaves to the faded brown ones. Showing the effect time has on all living things eventually. These images also reminded me of artists that highlight their works on the environment. Specifically the artist ‘Georgia O'Keeffe's work: Autumn Leaves - Lake George, N.Y.’ due to the artwork showcasing a green leaf turning brown. 

On the other hand, Renee’s interpretation of shadow wasn’t the usual black reflection on the ground. Instead, it was more focused on the horror aspect of shadows. Something no one aside from Renee thought about when I scrolled through the slides. In fact, the drawings are eerily similar to the creepy drawings sketched by children which went viral due to its element of horror but to a more high quality degree. 

To add a side note, I also felt that the pictures encourage more ‘out of the box’ thinking when I do my work. To add an example, my concept of time was mostly clocks. A straightforward way of thinking compared to Roan’s interpretation being a comparison of leaves.

(Autumn Leaves)

(Roan's Pictures)

(My Pictures)

(Creepy Kids images)

(Images 15 & 16)

(Renee's drawings)

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Compulsory Question 3

If I could choose a collaborative project, I would have liked to collaborate with the Film course. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with the film industry, dreaming of being at the very least associated with the creation of a movie. This is why if given an opportunity to do so. I would like to put my poster designing skills to work by designing a poster for one of the Film diploma projects someday, giving me a taste of what it feels like to be involved in a film production no matter how small it may be. (Question 1)

One day, I would like to be tasked with creating an advertising campaign to raise awareness for the animals in the SPCA as I am an avid lover of animals and owner of a dog myself. Through design, I could create posters and videos that advertise and highlights the reasons why someone should adopt rather than buy and raise even greater awareness on the subject matter. (Question 2)

For a community project, I would like to raise awareness for the less privileged and lower-income families of Singapore by working with a charity organization, Habitat for Humanity by using video production. I’ve always felt that the issue of poverty was an overlooked factor in the country. By creating an awareness video, I could highlight the issues poorer families face daily and how these issues could be addressed directly if not completely eradicated. (Question 3)

If possible, I would like to someday become a freelance front-end web designer to further pursue my passions. Web designing has always been one of my greatest passions and something I could see myself doing as a full-time occupation. I believe Critical Thinking Skills could help me in terms of this line of work as it encourages me to think creatively as I help design websites for clients as web designing, like art itself, requires creative thinking to create attractive websites that can lure in and satisfy future clients. (Question 4)

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Compulsory Question 2

In my opinion, Critical Thinking Skills teach us how to approach our assignments more creatively and cooperate with others in a more effective manner when necessary. As the weeks passed by, I slowly noticed certain changes in habits when I was working on assignments. At first, it was subtle, but slowly, I felt as though I could better cooperate with my peers during group assignments. Learning from my mistakes and accepting criticism instead of lashing out or countering with my own set of criticism was the first change I noticed. Soon, the relationship between Critical Thinking Skills and the other modules became even more noticeable, specifically the connection between Emotional Intelligence and photography. I could feel Emotional Intelligence affecting what I considered to be a better picture, tending to better observe my surroundings as I felt that certain locations gave the pictures a more ‘symbolic meaning’. Another prime example of this ‘connection’ I feel with the other modules would have to be my sudden lack of fear for what I perceive as failures. I tend to take more risks with my work in Studio than I normally would. It also taught me to look at failure in a different light, teaching me that it could also be another form of success in a way. I could view ruined works a bit differently and expand on said works instead of giving up out of anger and frustration. Most importantly, Critical Thinking Skills connects with the other modules in the most important way above all. The importance of time management. Due to the number of modules, time for work tended to be the greatest concerning factor above all. Critical Thinking Skills teaches me the importance of managing my work and rest in order to maintain a healthy and creative mindset, a necessity in a design course.

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Compulsory Question 1

In my personal opinion, I find my understanding of Critical thinking skills to be the definition of a mixed bag. I always struggle to understand the concept of referencing, frequently finding myself extremely frustrated when I try to conduct research on the weekly questions. The Visual Metaphor I chose to use as an example reflects my struggle to understand the research of Critical Thinking Skills and how I sometimes feel when trying to conduct research. (Question 1)

For me, over the past 14 weeks of Critical Thinking Skills, what I personally considered to be my favorite activity would probably be the house-building exercise of week 2. I felt that way as it was still a period of time when everyone in the class was still relatively new and getting to know each other. Through that activity, I felt that we were slowly bonding with individuals that we knew were going to be our friends In the near future. (Question 2)

The value of working in a group can be displayed through the word collaboration. By collaborating with others, the ideas of numerous individuals intertwine. Formulating even greater ideas into a singular assignment. Working in groups also tends to be a great time saver. Due to a larger number of people cooperating, there is a lack of need for one person to come up with numerous ideas for a project or assignment due to there being multiple people formulating ideas as well. Saving time in general. (Question 3)

In my opinion, I wish that I could understand researching for writing reports better. Whenever I attempt to research quotes or references, I tend to receive no inspiration and end up becoming extremely frustrated as a result. This glaring weakness is something I hope to change in the next semester. (Question 4)

Image by DCStudio on Freepik

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Week 3 - Emotional Intelligence

In my opinion, I feel that the strongest aspect of myself would have to be my self-management. For a large majority of my life, I would normally find myself feeling completely isolated and alone as a result of my slight social awkwardness. I feel that due to this feeling of loneliness, I find it easy to manage projects and assignments alone rather than discussing them in a group. Of course, however. Because of this feeling of slight self-isolation as well as being normally used to doing work solely by myself. It tends to result in me damaging the relationships I have with my peers. If one would ask me about my relationship with others, the usual response would be rather negative at best due to my inability to maintain a positive relationship with others amongst my peers. A prime example of this would have to be the skit me and my classmates were doing this week. Despite supposedly being tasked with working as a group to create a skit. I found myself unexpectedly throwing my own ideas on how the script should be written without regard to the ideas of my own groupmates thanks to my hobby of scriptwriting. Taking up what could be considered as a ‘self-assigned’ leadership role despite my usual case of social awkwardness. I feel that my actions were a prime example of my strengths and weaknesses negatively clashing with each other.

Image by Freepik

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Week 2 - Collaborative Skills

As someone who acted as a collaborator, I would think my main strength would have to be my ability to issue ideas to my team. Numerous ideas would mean numerous options to consider building our monument. However, despite my ideas. My inability to come up with something more effective and agreeable amongst my groupmates as well as my lack of a fallback plan would have to be a few of my most glaring weaknesses. Likewise, despite being able to work with others in general, my lack of charisma as well as my feelings of awkwardness towards people who I was still rather unfamiliar with would prevent me from inputting my ideas in general unless asked. Thus, further hindering my group. In general, I would consider my main strengths to be an imaginative and cooperative person who is held back by his inability to think of better ideas, formulating a backup plan in case if the initial plan ends in failure as well a gross lack of charisma and confidence. (Question 1)

With an unlimited budget and more time, I would most likely use my money to buy a larger amount of hard and firm materials in order to make a sturdier and larger structure. I would personally choose to maintain the current monument’s initial design but make some changes to its aesthetics. More specifically, the roofing and chimney of the structure would most likely be changed to cardboard as newspapers aren’t a sturdy enough structure to maintain for a prolonged period. (Question 2)

Image by jcomp on Freepik

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Week 1 - What is Critical Thinking?

My initial understanding of critical thinking was non-existent before the start of class. In fact, I was not aware of critical thinking in the first place. However, the class I took helped me better understand what critical thinking may be. If I had to reflect on what I may have learned on Monday, It would most likely be how I opt to express myself to the world. I think that for me to succeed in my module. I would have to think about how I define myself to other people who may see my work in the future. I would also have to conquer my fear of failure as doing so may halt my growth and progress in the future. For me to do so, I would have to learn to explore beyond my current boundaries and seek out inspiration in places where least expected. (Question 1)

In general, what I had learned about Mindfulness mainly would be the basic privileges I would normally take for granted and keep it in mind in the near future. As for how I would apply this to my learning environment. I would likely be more aware of my surroundings and how my work and attitude when around my fellow classmates would affect them on a personal level. (Question 2)

An eventful moment that occurred during the time in class would be how me and my new group of friends opted to slowly grow our bonds by comparing our portfolios. By observing our individual creativity as students of a design course. We not only gained insight into each other. But I feel that we have also learned how we could improve upon ourselves as well. (Question 3)

Image by storyset on Freepik