Think Outside The Square

Lecture

On the projected screen, all that I can remember was these amazing cut-outs that was done by our seniors. All of the cut-outs are cut out from a square, and the pieces are arranged in a way to make very amazing designs. Our assignment is to do as such. Thing is, I'm quite stumped on this.

Ideation

We are to map out any potential theme ideas for our cut-outs. I have a few ideas that I'm not even sure of, one is about human behaviour and another one was about Noir. Ms. Lisa suggested that the human behaviour theme is quite interesting, it's just that I will have a hard time trying to make it into a design with great aesthetics. So, I went with Noir. This however does not last with a turning point into this assignment.

I wanted to combine the element of typography into the noir cut-out. Which Ms. Lisa turned to me and said, "Why not you scrap that and go with typography as your theme?" It opened more possibilities for my cut-outs but I only have one problem, making my own typography is not my strong suit.

The furby with one side of the palindromes

A typography element that I'm planning to infuse into my cut-outs are palindromes. Palindromes are words that are read the same forward or backwards. The difference here is that mine will make different words when read forwards or backwards. One example of the word I'll be using is 'pals', if read backwards it will be 'slap'. That's the rough idea.

The colour scheme I'm going with

Another element I need for this cut-out was an object of aesthetic value. This will attract the attention towards the words written. I've decided to go with a Furby because of its multi personality behavior and the fact that it works with many different colour combinations. The words will make up the structure of the furby. The colour scheme I'm going with is purple and pink. Which is the colour of my favourite ice-cream flavour, cotton candy.

The composition of the typography that's going to be cut

For the asymmetry cut-out, I was thinking of using the 'desserts' and 'stressed' palindrome. For this one, I'm trying to convey something that might show a change of behaviour from receiving desserts. At first, I was trying to draw out the composition one by one but it was extremely time consuming.

So, Ms. Lisa taught us how to bend the alignment of words by typing them on a shape. The object that will accompany this cut-out are gummy bears.

Cutting

Expanding the square isn't as easier as last year's cut-outs. It requires us to be precise in our cuts. I made a few mistakes here and there. Some parts were actually torn, so I had to recreate that torned piece. I was in quite a panic when some of my friends were able to finish one of their cut-outs in that short amount of time. Trying to cut faster only made it worse as my cut-outs have very small pieces. So, I got no choice but to relax and take my time with it.

Another problem that I faced was that my small pieces keep missing. I tried to put it inside a case, and I lost that case. Aren't I lucky. I however managed to finish the first cut-out. Yay!!! The second cut-out was left in the dark for five days before I picked it up again. Big mistake. This one actually took it's time to complete. I never expected that it's gonna take an hour to just paste it on the mounting board. Oh well, lesson learned.

Results

I'm very happy with the first cut-out. It's exactly how I imagined it to be. I don't know about you but I think furbies are creepy. The cut-out depicts the furby as being cute and cuddly on the outside, yet evil on the inside. The furby on the left-side is made of positive space typography. The words are also positive aspects of life to accompany the use of positive space. This furby portrays what we see the furby as on the outside.

The furby on the right however shows that on the inside, this furby is the exact opposite of what we perceive it as. Using the negative space to create the typography that accompanies the negative attributes of the furby. The typography creates an intaglio effect that shows that the these attributes are inside of the furby and a bit hidden. It's a bit like showing the true hidden nature of the furby.

There's another way to look at it actually. In a way, the furby represents a sort of human behaviour to act differently than they really think. What you are to other people might not be who you really are. Some people are just good at hiding their true self compared to others.

The second cut-out represents the way that life seems to treat us. You can't deny that life is not a straight journey. There are hardships that you have to go through before being able to get what you want or even need. The word 'stressed' embodies that hurdle that we have to go through and 'desserts' exemplifies the good things to come out of that hardship. Further more shown by the alignment of the typography, where 'stressed' is a straight sturdy line while 'desserts' is of a bending and quirky line. Gummy bears act out the words in their own playable fashion.

I had a composition problem with the second cut-out because of last minute work. I pasted it wrongly, and the other pices had to follow suit. Which didn't follow the original composition I had in mind for this particular cut-out.