january & february breaks

i’ve forgotten totally about the January & February breaks collage!

So here it is, one month late :-p

November & December

September & October

July & August

memories in a bag

Went to The Bag exhibition yesterday. It was rather interesting looking at old advertisements and packagings. However, taking the photographs was a challenge as there were lots of reflection with spotlight all over the place. These are the few better ones after major cropping!

In the beginning was the ratten basket. In 1950s, new kraft paper was imported, using one colour letterpress printing before moving to offset printing in the 80s.

The Carlsberg PVC carrier bag was rad! Also was the long rectangle-shaped Red House Katong Bakery plastic bag printed with its iconic building graphic, imagine a loaf of old-style bread fitting nicely in it, perfect.

Ovaltine and Milo! The must-have drinks during Sports Day that came in big container. Even though the advertisment was nothing like these during school days, but i was feeling really nostalgic... awww childhood memories :-)

More familiar brands like 7-up, Yaohan, Katong Emporium, C.K Tang and Robinson. Lastly, look closely at the paper carrier next to 7-up, what a hilarious name! Can’t they name it ‘Rooster Brand’ instead? Ha!

The Bag: Carrier bags in Singapore from the 1950s to the 1980s

National Art Museum, The Balcony, Level 2

Till 18 April 2010

dullness in the air

Recently, it has been nothing but

boredom

uninspired

restlessness

So some happy fridge pictures to cheer myself up :-)

The smiling egg is inspired by Fine Little Day.

unbelievable mess

i can’t believe how much mess was accumulated over the past few months – receipts lying around waiting for tax filing, countless bottles and boxes for packaging reference, piles of books to be read, scattered stationery... umm no excuse.

Books dumped in all the wrong places – on the floor, on top of other books, wrong shelving.

More, in the wrong places – printer sitting on the floor conveniently, cables hanging as if on a suicide mission, recycled papers threatening to jam the cabinet doors.

Lastly, i won’t even think of showing this with doors open. Well, blamed it on my crazy work schedule for the past few months. It’s the most convenient excuse.

Alright! i know i know! It’s just a matter of self discipline, i heard you –.–|||

line drawing, literally

Drawing lines is my best way to daydream and keep fingers busy at the same time (itchy fingers, i have). It keeps me calm (almost therapeutic) and best of all, i can draw on any picture on hand.

Writing alphabets is therapeutic too, (see the post below) but it requires more concentration, thus unlikely to do it during meetings*, watching tv* or daydreaming etc.

*Doing one thing at a time can sometimes be boring, especially watching tv.

quotes and pencils

Quotes (from around) that mirrored how i felt at some point in life.

update: i’ve corrected the title from ‘phrases’ to ‘quotes’,

not sure why i typed that in the first place :-p

make a mess

Introducing one little journey’s mess – a picture blog on ‘after meal’ that i started back in January. i wasn’t sure about keeping it then (and still not sure now), thus didn’t want to blog about it before. The images were mainly taken after my daily break which i thought the mess looked rather interesting sometimes.

Pop over to see here :-)

who?

Harry Potter is staying nearby, but i would much prefer it to be Edward.

Just something silly out of boredom... going back to work now!

the ‘before’ covers

These were the initial proposed book covers and slipcases for the Stamps Collection book last year. The theme was Botanical, based on one of the stamp series launched in 2009 – 150 years of Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The top image was the first proposed visual. The theme botanical was presented in a graphical way to give a modern feel. And to illustrate the idea of both the past and present of Botanic Garden, a pearl shimmering paper was chosen for the slipcase (represent today’s modern image) and a raw texture paper for the cover (unwrap to discover the long history of nature). Clients’ main concern was ‘too many die-cuts’, they wanted to make sure there will be no issue during the production, also it wasn’t ‘green’ enough. Hence, the die-cut was revised to emboss and the colours to green.

Option 2 – Nurture (rain). Growth (plants). Nature (earth).

The slipcase is to be debossed with botanical line images on raw cardboard with a highly glossy print sticker for the title. The cover takes on the colour and effect from the cover sticker – silver printed line images on glossy bright green paper. Clients were not keen on this and it died after the first presentation.

After some time, clients decided they wanted to feature The Blue Pea Vine on the cover instead. This was followed by x rounds of revisions (i totally lost track) and finally the cover was completed after several months.

i hope i’ll have the chance to ‘recycle’ these designs :-)

moon & light

i saw these two images on my messy desktop and decided to daydream along with all the songs related to moon/moonlight on my itunes. These are what i got:

1. Backdrifts (Honeymoon is over) – Radiohead (Weird song. My favs from Radiohead remains as Fake Plastic Trees and High And Dry all these years, while Last Flowers is my No. 2 top most played on itunes, a total of 237 times)

2. Dancing in the Moonlight – David Kitt (don’t remember i heard this before. It was okish)

3. In a manner of speaking – Nouvelle Vague (don’t know why this came up from the search, but i ♥!)

4. The moon – Cat Power (weird)

5. Moon – Sia (weird)

6. Moondance – Michael Bublé

7. Old devil moon – Jamie Cullum

8. Sail to the moon (Brush the cobwebs of the sky) – Radiohead

9. Shoot the moon – Norah Jones

10. Still holding my stomach in – The Tenderfoot (again i don’t know why this is here. Weird song)

11. Under The Moonlight – Travis (♥!)

12. 中國戲曲: 月兒彎彎照九州 – 趙徫平 (In the mood for love soundtrack)

13. 六月和十二月 – 達明一派 (wow i haven’t listen to 黃耀明 for so long! Love his voice)

14. 心中的日月 – 王力宏

15. 殘酷月光 – 林宥嘉 (♥!)

16. 風月寶鑑 – 黃耀明

17. 16月6日晴 – 陳奕迅

18. 2005月光閃耀 – 王心凌 (What? i used to listen to her songs? *blush*)

Conclusion: i have many (weird) songs that i don’t even know of their existence.

cupcakes pattern

i made 24 cupcakes today!

And that’s all i did today.

make noise

i had a bit of free time yesterday and decided to quickly drop by Noise Singapore. It was between my yoga practise and dinner apppointment (only less than 15 minutes), and had to scan through the works really fast. So some of the pictures above were shot from the booklet given.

i like the way how some of the prints were displayed in ‘colour separation’ format (although actual colour separation prints would have bleeding out of the crop marks, but they do look like the real thing). It feels as though we are looking at the process rather than just the end product. In which this case, goes well with the theme “Tools of Creativity”. There are some really interesting pieces on display, check it out if you happen to be around the area.

Noise Singapore

Raffles City, Level 3

26 February to 10 March