2. Pictogram
Theme: IDEA GENERATION OF NUS LOCATION:
- Mindmap2
Ok, after much consideration, I decided to work on the NUS Lover’s Park. Why so? I guess part of the reason is lesser people will think of doing it? I hope.. (fingers crossed…) [I WANNA BE UNIQUE!!! ~screams]
Another reason being that after studying in NUS for more than a year, I’ve heard about Lover’s Park, but it never came across my mind that it’s the park I always pass by when I’m walking to take the Central Library Lift!
And I didn’t know that’s the shortcut to SoC and business faculty either! Gosh, I’ve been taking the long way for so long~
Thus, I hope to create a sign that can be painted on to the floor at the area near the Lift beside Co-op to mark the entrance of Lover’s Park!
STAGE 1 – ABSTRACTION RESEARCH
After reviewing the lecture slides, I decided to look up on the different types of pictogram available online and modify them to let my human pictogram have different themes
Click here to go: Research on human pictogram
STAGE 2 – DEGREE OF ABSTRACTION – PHOTO + 5 STEPS OF REDUCTION
- Original Picture of NUS Lover’s Park & Abstraction 1
This picture was take from the second story outside NUS Central Library. I bet not many people will notice that the path of the park is in stripes!
In abstraction 1, I used the commonly used toilet pictogram to represent lovers in the park.
- 2. Focus zoom and 3. abstraction focus
I zoom in on to the ‘lovers’. I added a bush to make it look more like a park, as the trees kind of blocked the ‘lovers’ if I placed another tree there. I changed the ‘lovers’ and it became the Bendigo 2004 version of pictogram.
For the third abstraction, I modify the pictures I found in wikimedia as the unofficial summer olympics pictogram to become the ‘lovers’as I focused in more, I added flowers beside to make it look more like a park.
- 4. Further zoom and 5. abstraction
OK, I zoomed in to the lovers’ faces, and the images were adapted from 1984 Los Angeles Olympics pictogram. Though it couldn’t be recognised anymore as only the upper half of body is seen. The female is recognised by the flower on her head, while the heart is decorated with flowers which signifies the heard.
I got the idea of the last abstraction from a picture I found called the environmental leaf. If you notice, the 2 footprints belong to a male (the one with rounded tree) and a female (the one with a more pointed tree. So it kinda shows several messages in this one picture. 1. Heart outline -Path in the park + Love, 2. Footprint in a park + Male and Female, 3. Toes of footprint= trees.
I actually wanted to make the inner footprint look like 2 person kissing or facing each other, but it ended up looking like 2 kidneys! Arghh…
A3 Abstraction Process
- Assignment B: Prototype 1
CLASS REVIEW:
Ok, I realised I did the whole reduction process wrongly after the tutorial. We are not supposed to add or change the picture, but only simplify the picture.
Some mentioned that the abstraction Picture 3 and 4 looks as it they are on bed! lol… I didn’t even think about that! Perhaps I was too engross in the human pictogram!
Abstraction picture 2 was suggested to be the chosen pictogram, thus I should shift it down to the 4th abstraction instead.
Some people like the last one a lot, hmm, but I don’t think I can include that… though I spend the most time on it… sigh… so much with the footprint, tree toes and hearts…
STAGE 3 – Prototype 2: Degree of Abstraction – Photo + 5 Steps of Reduction (A3 size)
- Top view photo of NUS Lover’s Park and Abstraction 1
Once again, the same picture used, and this time, I realised something! The tree nearest to the orange tentage has ferns growing on it. Most importantly, it resembles a heart! Hmmm… is that how the name comes about? lol… That is the tree I’m planning to focus on…
So in my 1st abstraction, you can see the heart shape on the tree. I decided not to use any colours for the time being, focusing on the whole picture instead. I used the same toilet pictogram again.. The image was drawn using illustrator, I managed to master and overcome the fear of illustrator!! woohoo
- Abstraction 2 (Simplification of features) and 3 (Further zoom in)
For abstraction 2, if you realise, is actually my first abstraction from the first version. The difference is, I changed the ‘lovers’ to 1988 Seoul Olympic pictogram (of course, with illustrator again) as it resembles the simplified version of the toilet one. I also shifted the heart shape to the tree.
- Abstraction 4 (Zoom in view) and 5 (Simplification to shapes)
Abstraction 4 is a further zoom in, and the unofficial summer olympic pictogram actually looks like a simplified version of the Bendigo one. A pitu for this picture is that I can no longer focus on the heart on the tree… boo hoo…
Abstraction 5 are made up of simple shapes. The bush below the tree now becomes a oval shape, making the tree look like a flask instead. The lover’s pictogram was adapted from pg 53 of the pdf Jing sent us. Now it looks real simple.
FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS:
I got some feed back from my friends, some of the ‘lovers’ of abstraction 2 and 3 don’t really look like female and male. More like gay partners. Arghh… so picky. But I decided to change the head to make it more like female.
The flowers were found to be a little extra, so I decided to remove them~
So here it is:
- The females now have a different hairstyle to differentiate from the males
After editing…
- Top view photo of NUS Lover’s Park and Abstraction 1
- Abstraction 2 (Simplification of features) and 3 (Further zoom in)
- Abstraction 4 (Zoom in view) and 5 (Simplification to shapes)
My tutor feedback that the difference between abstraction 1 and 2 is not obvious and simplified enough. Since it’s always better to be able to improve and revise your work, I hange to make the simplification more obvious.
As I was having trouble choosing between abstraction 3 and 4, as I like the graphics in 4 but I feel that the heart I spotted on the tree should be included.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I realised that my prototype is not something that can be placed on a circle or triangular symbol as it has a lot of white space which represented a place. The pictogram represented a location, not a message like “Beware of yor phone”, “This way towards the water point” etc etc which is what the callenge is.
Should I put it in an arrow sign? Or footprint? or heart symbol?
After experimenting, I decided to go with the arrow sign as a simplebox without any directions seems weird to me.
Experimentation Prototypes
- Using Abstraction 4 as the sign
A square looks ok on flat, but not on the ground. I find hanging a sign like this on the ceiling will be weird, thus the decision for painting on ground. But having white border and inner layer looks very fake and it will only be dirtied after few days of stepping. Hence the decision for using only black.
With the black print on the ground without any border looks very odd because of the tincomplet trees and stuff. Plus it doesn’t really tell me what the sign is trying to say.
- Using Abstraction 4 with a round symbol
I tried using a round shape but it looked out of place still…
I still feel the heart on the tree is necessary… Change is needed…
- Using Abstraction 3 as sign, made a round sign to experiment
Use of abstraction 3 but with a huge chunk being cut off or it will be too small. I realised it look like abstraction 4 with a different human icon.
Thus, I decided to include this change into my abstraction 4…
- Using abstraction 3, replacing the heart in the tree with red, in hope to make it more striking
I attempted with a red heart to see if it works out. Apparently, not really…
- Using abstraction 3 and 4 on a footprint
- Using Abstraction 3 with a directional sign
Using abstraction 3, I made it into a directional arrow to indicate “Walk here” and the path picture in the sign still seems weird…
Which makes me come to a conclusion that Abstraction 3 is NOT REALLY suitable for the final prototype.
Thus, I did some modification again and taadaa….
STAGE 4 – FINAL WORK:
- Top view photo of NUS Lover’s Park and Abstraction 1
- Abstraction 2 (Simplification of features) and 3 (Further zoom in)
- Abstraction 4 (Zoom in view) -now with addition of heart shape to keep constant and 5 (Simplification to shapes)
THE CHOSEN ONE
- Chosen one
I used edited Abstraction 4 and made the arrow facing upwards instead of sideways, eliminating the problem of the path.
I added a “Welcome to NUS Lover’s Park” Sign to better express the meaning of the sign. As I have people who commented that it looks like calling people to see people kissing over at the place where the arrow is indicating. So much for the Lover’s Park.
My tutor commented that it seems a little to messy, I think it’s because of the black gradient in the arrow, which my primary concern is to NOT make the tree branches look to odd, being cut off in the middle.
This is the one I’m most satisfied with, and I didn’t have the time to further revise it …
So… That’s the FINAL one~
Oh, btw, I found 2 other students working on NUS Lover’s Park! Argghhh, but it’s seems quite different… Hmmm..
