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THE DATAI PITCH : THE CORPORATE BROCHURE

The Datai is indeed a very special place. I was living and breathing The Datai for about a month for this pitch. What The Datai is, is that it is unique, there is only one. It did not come out of a template.

When I was looking at the collaterals for The Datai, it appeared to me how important the brochure needs to reflect the soul of the place. The current brochure is very stiff, rather corporate. I am not suggesting that we take away the grid system in designing editorial or go handmade and scrap booking. But the soul which is whimsical and poetic needs to come alive in each spread. This is achieved in the detailing. It is all about the choice of typefaces, the way the photographs are cropped, the way the grid system is manipulated to look effortlessly whimsical.

I love the copy here. I borrowed it from an old cruiseline ad.

I WILL STUDY A SUNSET.
I WILL BE NAKED MORE.
I WILL DISCOVER A COLOUR.
I WILL PUT FIRST THINGS LAST.
I WILL MESMERISE CLOUDS.
I WILL BE AMPHIBIOUS.
I WILL EAT A MANGO.
I WILL GET A REALLY GOOD TAN.

THE DATAI PITCH : THE DATAI GUIDE JOURNAL

During my stay at The Datai, I realised that the collaterals are very corporate. Even the little nature guide book found in the rooms was selling the guided tours. I think it is important to generate revenue but it should be effortless and not hard sell. One of the ideas I had was to create a guide book for The Datai.

Apart from the free nature walk in the morning and the evening with the legendary naturist Irshad, there are not many activities. I guess if you want any form of activities you had come to the wrong place. But this guide puts you back in touch with nature. It will help you to appreciate nature more and perhaps on another level.

There are recipes using very local ingredients and even ingredients one can see growing wild around The Datai. This is Malaysia at its best, making use of what is available in the rainforest, showing the codependence of Man and Nature.

The guide book is designed like a scrap book. These are photographed spreads of scrap books. They show the flora and insects you can expect to see at The Datai.

This is the reason why I call it a 'guide journal'. It is not just a guide. It is also interactive. On the left is a photograph of a spread of a pressed flower, and on the right is a blank spread where you can press your own little finds.

On the left again is a photograph of a spread with feathers of common birds found at The Datai, On the right is a blank spread where you can collect your own.

A photographed spread of a scrap book where you can doodle, draw, or pen your random thoughts.

The guide book is designed like a scrap book. These are photographed spreads of scrap books. They show the flora and insects you can expect to see at The Datai.

On the left again is a photograph of a spread with feathers of common birds found at The Datai, On the right is a blank spread where you can collect your own.

A photographed spread of a scrap book where you can doodle, draw, or pen your random thoughts.

THE MONOGRAM PROJECT : WEI YU CHAN

I designed this monogram for my dear designer Wei Yu. It was her birthday and I thought I present a CWY monogram to her since I am not in the same country to buy her a meal. She loves typography by hand and so this monogram is planned as a little sign-off, like a copyright mark she can place at the end of all her typography work. She is also a very prim and proper lady, I love how the WY forms what seems to be a collar.

BRAND DESIGN POSTERS

These are the initial mocks of the in-house posters for G.A Brand Design. Like most startups, budget to create anything in-house is *Ahem* miserable. I wanted them to be clean, punchy and funny. With a royalty-free stock account, I went to create some of these posters. I wrote the copy based on the stock I found. These are sitting dormant in the server but it cracks us up every time I look at them. I wonder if they will ever use them but it does need more crafting.

This is a creative-industry-only poster. This was really designed for friends in the business. WPP is one of the largest creative group and they stand for Wire and Plastic Products. It is an entity that holds the leading company names in the industry. This is to say how key creatives are now in smaller setups, so why bother with the exorbitant fees from the WPP agencies.

AIR ASIA SHOOT

This is an ancillary campaign for Air Asia to sell their add-on services. 'Real' talents were picked from friends of friends. They are real customers and not models. We have also used their real names in the ads to add more believability.

SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM AMSTERDAM

It occurred to me that I had to, or rather should create a festive jpeg and send it to the people I care about. My absence on Facebook probably makes it difficult to connect with some friends, but I try my best to connect by writing personal emails. I wanted to design something to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It took me a long time before I figured out what to put on my screen.

I thought it has to be something related to Holland. The windmill perhaps? The clogs? But when the weather turned for the worse, this image became apparent in my head. Waking up one morning and seeing the sight of icy pavements and grey skies, this rather pathetic yet funny image appeared. This is the famous Dutch soused herring, one of their national foods if I may say. I absolutely love the taste of soused herring, so this is not a piss take at all.

The term soused herring usually means 'soaked in a mild preserving liquid', and can be used to refer to raw herring in a mild vinegar pickle or the famous Dutch brined herring. As well as vinegar, the marinade might contain cider, wine or tea, sugar, herbs (usually bay leaf), spices (usually mace), chopped onion.

The word 'soused' can also describe a marinaded herring that has been cooked. The herring can be baked in the marinade or fried and then soaked in it. It is served cold.

The soused herring (maatjesharing in Dutch, or matjes in German and Swedish) is an especially mild salt herring, which is made from young immature herrings. The herrings are ripened for a couple of days in oak barrels in a salty solution, or brine. The pancreatic enzymes which support the ripening make this version of salt herring especially mild and soft.

The word 'soused' can also describe a marinaded herring that has been cooked. The herring can be baked in the marinade or fried and then soaked in it. It is served cold.

ROKKI FOR TUNE GROUP

roKKi is a division within Tune Group and an ancillary part of Air Asia. It has launched itself as the inflight connectivity, wifi up in the sky. There are also online magazines, shopping and many more to come under it.

When the roKKi peops asked a namecard, I thought the namecard has got to be different. If the whole essence of roKKi is to rock it, why can't the namecard be a stencil?

CITY ART FOR A HOTEL CHAIN

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Bandung : The Rose Syrup Milk Drink

I was commissioned to create a series of artwork for a hotel chain. The brief was, ahem, very brief and open. So I came out with this series knowing that there are chains in most popular cities. This is a budget hotel chain, which in their rebranding will be targeting at the flash packers. I picked 3 cities to begin with, looking at local themes. I planned for this rebrand to help the chain sell their hotel art as well. This will help when it holds a local concept which the tourists can purchase as a souvenir. I picked Kuala Lumpur and London as I know the culture. I have visited Florence before but that probably look at bit forced considering the 'local facts' came from research instead.

Funny enough, there was so much politics within the agency we were freelancing for, we had to use a pseudo. So instead of Suzene Ang, we picked Siti Arbaya considering the first batch of artwork showcases concepts from Kuala Lumpur.

All the digital art pieces will be printed on canvases and placed in the hotel rooms as well as in public spaces in the hotel. They will have a scannable code that unveils the local theme. These are fun pictograms that impart a bit of the culture to the visitors.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Milo Dinosaur : The Heart Attack Drink of Iced Chocolate with a Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream, Whipped Cream sprinkled with Chocolate Powder

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Roti Tissue : A Popular Indian Thin Bread to be eaten with Curries

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
London Cab arriving at the Gherkin, 30 St Mary Axe

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
The Spotted Dick : A Tradition English Pudding with Raisins topped with Custard

FLORENCE, ITALY
The Duomo : In the year 1600 a bolt of lightning hit the copper ball on top of the dome. After the ball was hit, it rolled down the side of the dome and landed down on the street. The white circle (made of marble) shows you where the copper ball hit the ground that night.

FLORENCE, ITALY
Boar of the famous Loggia del Mercato Nuovo in Florence ~rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Firenze, a tradition that the goes back as far as 1766.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Bandung : The Rose Syrup Milk Drink

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Milo Dinosaur : The Heart Attack Drink of Iced Chocolate with a Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream, Whipped Cream sprinkled with Chocolate Powder

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Roti Tissue : A Popular Indian Thin Bread to be eaten with Curries

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
London Cab arriving at the Gherkin, 30 St Mary Axe

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
The Spotted Dick : A Tradition English Pudding with Raisins topped with Custard

FLORENCE, ITALY
Boar of the famous Loggia del Mercato Nuovo in Florence ~rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Firenze, a tradition that the goes back as far as 1766.

THE MONOGRAM PROJECT : WERNER AEBERHARD

It was WA's birthday in July and as a token to say thanks, I designed him a monogram. He was in Sri Lanka and was not planning to stop by Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, hence this very remote birthday gift via email. Everyone should have a monogram. And when I thought I should give WA something, his monogram came very naturally.

I am not big into birthday wishes so I thought I would put a default message on the 'card' just so that it is also a daily reminder to live life to the fullest. He has a 'soul dog', this Jack Russell named Dino who follows him everywhere. Also inspired by the Nipper dog with the gramophone, the WA monogram was born.

LOLITA BOOK COVER

Something like 5 years ago, we participated in a Lolita book cover contest held by renowed LA architect, John Bertram. We didn't win but our entry was highly praised and more talked about than the winning entry. We were contacted recently to provide yet another artwork size to be printed in a publication.

John Gall, vice president and art director at Vintage/Anchor Books and designer of the latest cover of Lolita (see samples of his work here), kindly agreed to review the submissions and picked his own top choices. His favorite is by Suzene Ang of Singapore:

”It takes a second before you see what is going on. It’s abstract enough to keep it metaphorical, yet literal enough to imply a sense of story. I love the tease of having the type run up the leg. Elegant, with a sense of humor.”

Gall made a point a few times of stressing the difficulty of the task: “This is a tough assignment. So many clichéd images to either avoid or make new. Not an easy task. I teach a cover design class and wouldn’t give this as an assignment in a million years!”

TUESDAY OCTOBER 13TH, 2009

A Makeover for Lolita

A while back, I linked to a contest to redesign the cover of Nabokov’s Lolita. We now have a winner. It is not the cover at left. That one is by Suzene Ang of Singapore, and it was chosen as best not by John Bertram, who sponsored the contest, but by John Gall, a brilliant designer and art director at Vintage/Anchor. He said: “It takes a second before you see what is going on. It’s abstract enough to keep it metaphorical, yet literal enough to imply a sense of story. I love the tease of having the type run up the leg. Elegant, with a sense of humor.”

I like his choice more than the grand prize winner, but I can see why it didn’t appeal most to Bertram. One of Bertram’s big complaints about previously published covers was that they focused on Lolita’s sexuality and “serve[d] to re-traumatize the poor girl all over again.” The winner he chose, Lyuba Haleva of Bulgaria, pleased him by focusing on Humbert: “Somehow it all feels right to me and very inspired, and although the typeface is anachronistic and suggests to me a classic European novel, it seems to work.”

TUESDAY OCTOBER 13TH, 2009

A Makeover for Lolita

ON BOOK COVERS : LOVE STINKS

This was for a book cover brief. The story is about the journey of love, about some characters finding their way out of rejection and pain, and then finding hope and love again. It wasn't the easiest of briefs. Love is subjective. Moreover, there are so many underlying themes in the story, it is difficult to find an an image.

WHAT CAN YOU SEE? VLADIMIR NABOKOV WANTED YOU TO SEE THROUGH THE EYES OF HUMBERT

When I first started designing book covers, which was for Venus Febriculosa's 'Lolita' book cover... it became apparent that book covers are difficult tasks. They need to be direct, yet implicitly reflecting the theme of the book. 'Lolita' is an even more difficult title to work on. There has been interpretations, mostly the painting of the girl herself which has been glorified by Stanley Kubrick's film. The girl has always stereotypically been portrayed as the young siren, with the heart-shaped shades, heart-shaped lollies, feet too small for those high heels...etc.

But I thought as much as she is portrayed as this little seducer, she really is not. The theme is not about the girl, but how Humbert with his obsession saw her as a sex object.

The only visual that stood out for me was John Gall's. When I saw that, I got so thrilled because it showed such brilliance. Many people thought of it as crude and obscene, but that really is the underlying theme of the book! He rotated the orientation of a young girl's lips. Nothing obscene about it. The only obscenity is in that of the viewer, or in the case, Humbert.

What was more exciting for me was Gall was one of the judges of the competition.

I wanted to create something abstract, like an optical illusion of sorts. It is almost challenging the audience on what they can see, and bringing them into the psyche of Humbert and what he can see from simple, innocent things.

It took a long while to get out of the stereotype of crowning the girl as a siren. I started breaking down photographs and graphics into the simplest of shapes and colors. The more closeup, the more abstract, the simpler, perhaps the more effective.

I came out with this graphic and sent it to some close friends to test it out. No one got it. Some of them saw many different things, some even said picket fences. I don't know how that happened. I then proceeded to send them the cover again with the title and author's name. Everything became very clear, although some still took a while. That for me, is already a success. You label it as what Humbert had label her, and it creates an insight into his world and how he saw things and interpreted them.

Vintage/Anchor Books' vice president and art director, and designer of the latest cover of Lolita, John Gall, kindly agreed to review the submissions and picked his own top choices. His favorite is by Suzene:

But I thought as much as she is portrayed as this little seducer, she really is not. The theme is not about the girl, but how Humbert with his obsession saw her as a sex object.

What was more exciting for me was Gall was one of the judges of the competition.

THIS WAY FOR TADEUSZ BOROWSKI

This was for another brief from Bertram. 'This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen' is from a series of concentration camp journal-inspired stories.

Many stories about the Holocaust showed images of Auschwitz, or shower heads and barb wires, ...etc. It is a challenge for any revamp of book covers these days. Too many imagery have been used and what could inspire the theme in a new way?

Here is a little excerpt from Wiki :

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, also known as Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, is a collection of short stories by Tadeusz Borowski, which were inspired by the author's concentration camp experience. The original title in the Polish language was Pożegnanie z Marią (Farewell to Maria). Borowski was not part of the resistance against the Nazis during World War II in Warsaw but his girlfriend at the time took part in it. She was captured, and because he was so much in love with her, he went to a known resistance meeting place in order to get arrested in an attempt to go to the same concentration camp as her.

He was incarcerated at the notorious Auschwitz death camp. In searing, satiric prose Borowski details what life and death were like in the Nazi concentration camps. The short stories are linked by the themes as well as the presence of the main character Tadek, who serves the role of the narrator as well as the central character. To a large degree the short stories are autobiographical.

Tadek is a condensed version of Tadeusz and there is a high likelihood that Borowski was writing from experience. But the two "characters" themselves are different. Tadek is a survivalist with a hard shell. Borowski, described by others, was a leader and a man who nobly helped others and did not only worry about himself.

It needs a twist in imagery no doubt.

Borowski wrote with a light of positivity even though the situation was grim. Although it was depressing, Borowski always had a glimpse of light at the end of tunnel. I played with the negative of film and portrayed a raven flying by with a bone in comparison to a dove, surrounded by a red hue which surrounded the area when bodies are incinerated. The rest of the image is the recognizable gate of Auschwitz. We see that Borowski could have flipped his reality to give him more hope, or that it could be the negative of hope due to the grimness of Auschwitz. In either way, it is up to the reader to judge.