Final post for this blog assignment

The trimester is ending for many other students... but for me, it is already end. YEAH!!

I submitted the Environment Design project 2's Phase 2 today (the submission date is supposed on Friday, 13/5). However, me and my friend whom is submitting with me, did not manage to hand in our work to Mr Zul himself, as he has some errands to run. Thank goodness, kind Mr Halim helped call Mr Zul and we passed him our work instead. Mr Zul will have to get our work from him. Thank you Mr Halim!

Recalling the whole packed and rushing trimester, I have learnt many things from this subject... designing effective navigational signs and also making full use of space for exhibitions... I have actually made the effort to go to the library and borrowed books to read on those matters. I also enjoyed the technical drawing sessions as I missed the engineering drawing that I did in my Diploma years and not to forget making mock up model of the navigational sign and also 3D modelling of the exhibition. Tired, but enjoyed!!

Looking forward to a new trimester!! Chao~ God bless all!

Mother's day is tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. And I found some Murphy's Mothers Laws to share here (Murphy has many laws... if you have time, go check each of them out).

• Mothers only offer advice on two occasions: when you want it and when you don't..
• A mother's love is a better cure than chicken soup, but chicken soup is cheaper.
• Your mother is the only person that knows more about you than you know about yourself.
• Any time you are unable to solve a problem, ask your mother. She probably won't know either, but she will fake it.
• Maternal instinct is stronger than any force known except an IRS collection agent.
• The more you try to stay on your mother's good side the harder it will be to figure out which side this is.
• The nicer a mother is, the greater the probability that her kids are rotten.
• If you can't remember whether or not you called your mother, you didn't.
• The motherly advice you ignore will always turn out to be the best advice she ever gave you.
• If you forget, mom will remind you of all your mistakes so you don't repeat them.
• Anything you do can be criticized by your mother - even doing nothing.
• Never criticize your mother's cooking if you expect to get any more of it.
• If you think you have any secrets from your mother, remember who has changed your diapers.
• You can't "out mother" your mother. Don't even try.
• Never lie to your mother. And if you do, never think you got away with it.
• The harder you try to hide something from your mother, the more she resembles a webcam.
• The older you are, the more you feel like a child around your mother.
• All mother's have a "How To" manual. That's because they wrote the book.
• Mother's way is best. If you don't believe it, ask her.
• Everything is a good idea till you mother finds out and tells you why it isn't.
• One mother is company, two is a psychic reading, three is a hen party, four is a bridge club.
• If you don't have time to study the drivers' manual, drive your mother somewhere and get a quick refresher course.
• When you are broke, ask mom for a loan. She will help you remember what you wasted all your money on.
• The more expensive the gift you give your mother, the longer she will "save" it before she uses it.
• No matter how wrong you are, your mother will not hold it against you. She may remind you a number of times, but she will not hold it against you.
• No matter how much you eat, you can never get so fat that mother will not offer you more food.
• If a mother does not have an item, she will have the recipe or the directions.
• The more times mother reminds you to take an umbrella, the greater the probability of rain.
• Accomplishments are made possible by your mother - failures are your own fault.
• Never forget who rocked you as a baby. That's something else you will never be able to repay her for.
• Mother can always tell you a better way to do something after you've already done it.
• The longer it's been since you cleaned house, the more likely it is that mother will visit.
• No matter how small your mom is, she will always be bigger than you are.
• The more you detest an item that belongs to your mother, the more likely it is that she will try to give it to you.
• If you do it yourself, mom could have done it better. If mom does it, you should have done it yourself.
• You never are as good as other people's children. You are never as bad as mom imagines.
• The only thing more accurate than a mother's advice is her memory of the times you didn't take it.
• The funnier the joke is, the more likely mom will think it is dirty.
• Never tell your mother you have nothing to do. She can always find something.
• If the job of a mother is going smoothly, she thinks she isn't doing it well.
• There are always two sides to a story - the way it really happened and the way mother remembers it.
• Mothers always "know." We don't know how - they just do.
• Murphy's mother told him so.

Hmmm... I agree almost 95% of the list. :D Mothers are wonderful gifts given to us that we really have to treasure because there is no one else in this world who can replace them.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there!!

*list taken from http://www.murphys-laws.com*

My 3D exhibit

After some ups and downs and rush of time as I want to submit this final project 4 days earlier than the date given, I manage to get my 3D model of the exhibit done. I am quite satisfy with it. It turned out to be exactly as I imagined.

Top View

Side View

Facade View

Lastly, 3/4 View

World's Fair

I came across a Google doodle on 1st May 2011. It's the 160th Anniversary of the First World's Fair (global).

World's Fairs originated in the French tradition of national exhibitions. It then was followed by other national exhibitions in continental Europe, and finally came to London where the first real international exhibition was held on May 1, 1851.

The Google doodle reminds me of the France's Eiffel Tower's story that Mr Zul shared in class few days before the doodle appear on Google page. Eiffel Tower was supposed to be a temporary exhibit! ...but they maintained the structure since 1889 until today as it is quite impossible to dismantle.

Today,Eiffel Tower (named after the its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel) stands 324 meters tall being the tallest building in Paris and also the most-visited paid monument in the world.

Vivid Sydney

Vivid Sydney is a festival of light, music and idea; takes place at the Sydney Opera House. This year, this wonderful event will take place on 27 May - 13 June. It is Australia's major international lighting festival and it is acutely aware of how important it is to minimize environmental impact and show leadership in smart energy use and carbon emissions reduction.

Vivid Sydney has maintained a low-energy focus since the first event in 2009. Many of the light art installations and projections will use minimal energy to encourage the public to think creatively about sustainable urban light solutions. The installations use the latest clever technology and several installations, amazingly, use NO energy at all..and many use less than a toaster or are solar powered.

Vivid Sydney colour the city with creativity and inspiration, featuring breathtaking immersive light projections on the iconic Sydney Opera House sails, performances from local and international musicians as part of Vivid LIVE and a free outdoor exhibition of interactive light sculptures.. These all will take place after dark.

Ok, enough of all the Vivid Sydney intro. Now, let's take a look at how they turned the Sydney Opera House sails into something spectacular (using the container as a content)...

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. It is very creative indeed. Such a grand event, but using minimal energy. Simply amazing!

The design of my exhibit.

The game of GOLF~

This is my concept board for the exhibit. I used green as the main colour of my theme because golfers love golf because it is played in a large plain field full of greens... and they get to relax while they play. Usually a golf course is beautiful and serene; very peaceful, calm and nice place for a get away.

According to the plans above, I structure the exhibit according to the feel of a real golf course.

On the first floor, there is a hug hole besides the 2 stairs, resembling the cup for golfers to holed the golf ball at a real golf course. The top floor of the exhibit is covered with green grass carpet and also few small terrains to look like a real golf course. The benches are placed there for people to sit and relax and also chit chat while they are there. The huge golf ball is there to attract people's attention to the golf exhibit. The 1st floor of the exhibit is basically a place for visitors to rest and it can also be a discussion area.

The ground floor is where the fun is. Before entering the door, they will be greeted by the exhibit assistant where he/she will stand by a "tee-like" table. When visitors enter the door, into the hole, there is a huge screen on the left hand side: for videos about Cleveland company and their expertise on the golf clubs, and on the right hand side is a collection of the new series of Mashie clubs in glass exhibit. Then visitors can enter deeper into the hall, where the golf simulators are. 2 golf simulators will be placed there for golfers to test the clubs.

I really cannot wait to construct it in 3D. :D

Murphy's Law in design

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I agree with the statement above; which is typically stated by the Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong will eventually go wrong at some unexpected time; maybe times when you cannot afford to make mistakes... too bad, things will still go wrong.. or times when you are very certain that the things you do are at their perfect levels... still, things will go wrong as well.. as we, human beings are not PERFECT beings.

Take this for example, an article written by a professional writer who has been in the field for years, been proof-read by many persons, being approved by editor and published! There is still a small chance of some errors appearing in the article; even though the chance of errors occurring in the article is very teeny weeny small....there is STILL a chance for things to go wrong. Maybe a small extra "r" in the word "petty" which makes it pretty... , or a little grammatical error where "I is reading"... who knows what will go wrong. All that we know is anything that can go wrong will go wrong...it is just a matter of time and place...nothing is impossible... :)

Murphy's law... indeed something to ponder....

Interesting

I think that this is a nice example of using container as a content. Instead of just being a normal flat billboard, this one is made crumple in the middle part; just like a real accident between a car and a truck. It is very eye catchy and also gives people a very good impact to remember this ad. To all drivers out there, "Do not tailgate~ It is not worth it."

Elements that I would like to include in my exhibition booth

First of all, my exhibition is about golf. So, the first thing that came to my mind is to design the booth in a circular shape.

However, it is really difficult to construct as I need to do a lot of calculation.. So back to basic. Using up a 6 x 9 meters² size of space with little creativity.

Then, I would like to have golf ball(s) on the ground of my exhibit.

Something similar to this. Maybe one or a few.

And definitely some area for golfing. An indoor golf set / golf simulator.

A place for testing the equipments. But for golf, there are golf simulators available.

Some examples of golf simulators that are available in the market.

Research on exhibition designs

Exhibition booths are places where companies and other agencies placed their services and goods to be promoted or introduced to their audience. In order to attract their right customers, they have to know them well enough inside out to design a booth that attracts them to it and also sends out the message that you wants to tell them.

I search for some exhibition booths' references from the internet and also library and found some interesting ones that I would like to share here.

These 2 booths have very interesting entrance.

Very neat and tranquil feel of exhibition; soft and relax.

Swirling exhibit. Giving the audience a place to sit or stand in the carpeted "tunnel".

Curvy, wavy boards with poster and scripts. people can sit or stand reading.

A set of golf clubs...

I decided to focus on the golf clubs in the exhibition booth. The company that I chose is Cleveland Golf. Cleveland golf is a famous company in engineering suitable golf clubs for each individual golfer.. Famous golfers like Keegan Bradley, Vijay Singh and Gary Koch uses Cleveland Golf clubs.

Golf clubs are used to hit golf ball; composed of a shaft with a lance on the top end and a club head on the bottom. Long clubs are for propelling the ball to a comparatively longer distance and have a lower amount of degreed loft. On the other hand, the short clubs are for propelling the ball to a comparatively shorter distance and have a higher degree of loft. Typically, the actual physical length of each club is longer or shorter, depending on the distance the club is intended to propel the ball.

The "driver" is the largest-headed and longest club - used on teeing ground to tee-off long distance.

The "Wood" is slightly shorter but still comparatively large-headed clubs - used for long-distance fairway shots. (typically made of metal now and gradually replaced by "fairway metal")

The "iron" - most numerous and versatile class used for a wide variety of shots.

The "hybrid" - embody the characteristics of both woods and irons, varying degrees and are increasingly being used in preference to long irons in many places (easier to use for average golfer)

The "putter" is used to roll the ball across the green into the cup.

*information obtained from Wikipedia and Cleveland.com

Choosing a company for exhibition booth project

There are many choices of companies that were given in the project brief. I think that fashion and accessories and also cosmetics are going to be popular choices. And then, I am not really into automotive and aeronautics or even marine engineering.What more to say about military equipments.. >.<

I decided to choose something simple but kind of alien to me... Golf; which falls in the category of Hobbies and Leisure. I have uncles playing golf.. I never followed them to any golf course. I don't really understand the game of golf. So, there are more work to be done.... to understand Golf!

Before doing the research on golf, I think that golf is a boring game. However, after some research. Actually the game of golf is pretty interesting. The golf course has 9-hole or 18-hole field, and are divided into several parts based on each design. There is teeing ground, rough, sand bunkers, water hazard, fairway, just to name a few of the field areas. Like any other games, there are rules to be followed...calculation of points based on the hits you used to get the ball into the cup, different clubs are for different purpose of hitting.. and the list goes on.

People plays golf to escape from work. They want to get out into the green, away from the busy workplace or city. They can spend time alone or with mates at the golf course. Most important thing is they felt relax while they are playing golf.

I think that choosing golf is quite a right choice to make as I gained some extra knowledge from this assignment. :)

Have a relaxing day!

My navigational design for Zoo Negara

I present to you my design for navigational signage for Zoo Negara. It is to be placed at the main entrance of the zoo; where people come in and out of the premise. I placed the cubes in a "building block" like arrangement, which to me, looks fun and interesting. The zoo is a place for excitement and knowledge seeking. So, I placed the silhouette of the animals instead of using the real picture of the animals. There is a map of the whole zoo in the middle of the sign. :)

Container as content

In my understanding of the statement " Container as content", I would interpret it as using the container itself to deliver the message to audience. Instead of letting the wall to be empty, it can be decorated or be transformed into something interesting with message for audience to read or see o even explore on. A very simple example is sticking posters on the wall or simply a wall mural. Below are a few wall "containers" being used as a content.

Transformed a wall into unusual shape, with seats and also embedded with screens.

Placing baskets on the wall and also posters.

Posters placed all over the wall.

A huge wall mural painted by an artist.

By using a container as a content, it brought out a new and different view of the thing than it originally was.

*Photos are taken from Google image.*

Last week's belated post (2)

Since my previous post is about bus stops, I found few other bus stops' advertisements online and would like to share them here. Most of it are attention grabbing and creative and some are funny ones. In my opinion, the advertisers want their customers to be introduced to their products or a scenario outside their retail stores. The bus stop is a place where people will stay for quite some time to wait for the bus... So the chances for people to see and experienced their products are bigger. And, as we all know, waiting is boring... so, people who are waiting for the bus can have fun with the advertisements while waiting.

Promoting The Simpson's: making the bus stop to like the living room of the cartoon.

Promoting security glass: putting the stacks of money in an open area.

McD's advertisement: use of reflection creatively.

Ikea furniture: placing a sofa instead of normal bus stop seats.

Promoting hiphop music: Do you want an afro?

They are many more bus stops advertisements out there which are really interesting to look at. Happy searching...

Last week's belated post (1)

I saw this one advertisement for Carl's Junior burger in Singapore (February 2010). It really caught my attention and made me looked twice.. and the 3rd time i turned my head to look at it again, I took this photo with my camera phone.

This is actually a bus stop. The legs are real, solid, 3D relief sticking out from the side of the bus stop. The huge burger has a little dimension further out from the bus stop's wall.

I personally think that this advertising idea is pretty interesting and effective. It successfully shows the Big Carl's burger is REALLY BIG! (with the comparison to the 1:1 ratio of a human size legs).