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Monogram Design

 ASSIGNMENT 5

Jonathan Hiew - 0333787

Assignment 5 is my final major project for the module. A monogram is what I need to create for this assignment. A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. An individual's monogram is often a very fancy piece of art used for stationery, for adorning luggage, for embroidery on clothing, and so forth. These monograms may have two or three letters, but not limited to it.

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In this assignment, I am to develop my very own personal monogram which reflects my personal style as a person and as a designer. Based on approval, I am to create stencils using the approved monogram and print them onto 3 different items of my choice.

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Marta Dahlig art

My monogram sketch

When I first had this assignment, I was uncertain (as like any person would) of a definite theme would fit for my logo. I thought of having it bold, striking, twisted, bubbly, or even just classic theme. I started working on my monogram sketch by looking up on tutorials in YouTube and observe the way they would play around with the lines of a letter from an initial. I got the gist almost immediately.

- My Monogram Design -

Part 1 - Exploration I

Click image for the full size

As with any other assignment, I took out a blank piece of paper and starting jotting down my ideas and mapping them out one by one, trying to describe as much properties/details as I can. Above are pictures of my mindmap. The first item is "Imprisoned Self". It basically means that I am locked inside a place and I cannot escape. The meaning behind this is that at times I feel like I should hide my true self because that person isn't whom everyone likes. So I put up a facade and make myself look much more outgoing, confident and friendly. I use humour as a "defensive mechanism" if I run out of things to say - or if at all, just to keep the conversation going.

Imprisoned Self

Identity Box

Next, the second item is called "Identity Box". It contains pictures of me showing who people may perceive me to be, and sometimes I think that this other self of me is really nice, but I cannot forget who I really am, so I am at a loss for my identity. Through this, I decided to have a fascinating idea of combining both individual items relative to one another (still 2 items separately). Inside the box of my Imprisoned Self contains a photo of me when I had black hair while my Identity Box contains lots of nice pictures of me with my dyed hair. This is because the me with the black hair is the original me, and partly the reason why I dyed my hair is because I wanted to look different as well, which ultimately makes me feel different. Moving on, my third item is a "Get-to-know-me/Describe Me" item. I thought of following the layout like my Seven Deadly Sins assignment. If you haven't checked that out, click here.

Get-to-know-me/Describe me Item

The 3rd item is called like so because the rest of the paper dangling beneath my picture contains things that I've been described about by my friends. I had asked them to describe 3 different things about me, each limited to one word. I made use of my marbling ink and beginner watercolour skills to design the paper for this item.

Part 2 - Monogram Design Artwork

Above are pictures of my progression to finding my personalized monogram. I had done lots of sketches and ample time to think about the design. How I came up with this design is that I kept on experimenting different techniques and layouts of my initials. That is the only way to find out the monogram you really like and that suits you. I chose this kind of design because it shows simplicity, and that is the theme I chose. This is basically counted as my fourth item (artwork). I have put a picture below of my finalized artwork of my monogram design.

Part 3 - Items 1, 2 & 3

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I had bought my materials in DAISO and also POPULAR Bookstore in Sunway Pyramid. I designed the box by making it have a mystifying look and an ambiguous feel on it because the box shows emptiness and feeling lost. The two colours I chose were ultramarine blue and violet because those are my two favourite colours, next to black which explains the inside of the box. How I made this design was by using watercolour paint with a few types of brushes. I had wet each face of the box before beginning my watercolour, so that it would have a watery/smoky effect which I was aiming for. I was really satisfied with the artwork around the box. The only disadvantage is that the watercolour could not dry completely on the box. I had left the paint on for a couple of days and my fingers were stained with the watercolour. The surface of the box felt slightly damp. So, this became a problem for my box. I decided to wrap it around with plastic so that it wont stain the holder. With the help of my good friend (thanks Carla), I managed to do so on the day of the submission. I had waited out until that day to see if it had dried but it didn't.

I thought that to make it look more presentable, I thought of stores in shopping malls that display their products on a lighted stand such as a brand new phone. It makes it look really stylish. I made the stand out of reused cardboard which I had found somewhere and wooden dowels that I have bought from "Uncle & Aunty Shop" in Taylor's. The colour I had chose for the panel of the stand is orange and yellow (warm colours) only because it contrasts with blue and purple (cool colours). Personally, it gave an artistic vibe to it. I made it look watery/smoky as well to maintain the mysterious feeling.

I also had a very interesting thought to have the stand light up from inside. From here, I remembered a time where I had played around with paper and lights. I decided to cover the stand with paper that had words written from the inside. The first picture shows how it looks like when it's total darkness. The following pictures show the stand lit up from inside.

Look at the magic!

I had chosen those 4 words; Patience, Love, Hope & God because they're the 4 things in my life that give me a purpose. Inside the Imprisoned Self box is dark, void and empty, so I'm filled with emptiness. I decided to write a crumpled, old note that contains a poem I had made up about this. I made it by tearing a piece from a regular A4 paper, and I crumpled it with my fist, wet it with clean water and made it have a dirty effect by using my grey watercolour paint and dab all around. You can see the note below.

The item is finished up by chaining up the box with a padlock and attaching the note with a cotton twine. After that, I moved on to my next item "Identity Box". I bought a storage box from DAISO and it suit perfectly to make it look like a personal belonging to keep memories. I had already thought of making it look like a trunk because of aesthetic purposes.

I had wrapped the faces of the box with an A2 drawing block 100+gsm. I couldn't paint directly on the box because it already has patterns and I would have to use a lot of paint just to completely conceal the pattern of the box. I used double-sided tape to stick the paper around the box. Then, I painted it with poster paint, using Chrome Yellow and Lemon Yellow. I chose those 2 colours because I thought it would look like a trunk (or at least a chest). For the stripes around I used Black poster paint. I also used a piece of an A2 drawing block to make my monogram at the top. I did the artwork around using watercolour paint using Viridian Green and Sap Green. You can find out how I did the monogram down here

I cut off the design of my monogram as a template to paint on, so that it would be easier to do so. However, as you can see at the end product, it is not perfectly done because some of the paint had seeped through the edges of the cut paper. I knew then that it was not the best option, but it would have to do.

Then, for item 3 (Get-to-know-me/Describe me), I had used wooden dowels, thine and A2 paper (which i cut into pieces of A5). I tied knots at the ends of the dowel and I used a hole punch to punch holes at the corners of the paper. I tied a loop to keep the papers intact to each other and the dowel itself. You can see a couple of images below on my progression

Making all these items had finally paid off because the outcome was more than satisfying for me. I had solved the problem on my box that had watercolour still damp on it by wrapping it around with plastic book covers. I had a little help with my friend (thanks Carla). Overall, I have actually poured a lot of feelings and thoughts into this assignment. It actually did not feel like an assignment anymore at some point but more of an initiative that I'd like to have it done. I am proud of my outcome and to me I have done a really great job that I'll give a clap for myself.

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