15 - 02 - 2020

To prepare ourselves fully for the trip, we decided to come up with a grocery list and plan what food we would have in the three days. I am glad that we started this before the show as we found out what we would not have. I think it is a good start for us as a group that we share thoughts and solve the little problems even before the trip.

16 - 02 - 2020

This is the day right before I head to Wenhaston to meet Verity and Erica. When I was packing the bag, I thought about how and what would I go to work on the trip. For me, I think it is a chance for me to escape London, although you can get almost everything in London, I always miss the peaceful moment which is just quietness and breathing in the fresh air when I am out in London. I feel like always overflown information everywhere in the city. So my sim in these three days would be enjoying myself while I can live in a peaceful environment but also producing work that is based on the environment and also recording my emotional changes. 

As my project is about changing my working way and prospective, I would just bring brush pens and sketchbook because I want to limit myself on media and see what can I do with them. Probably I can find some new ways to use the media. Another aim for the short trip is to listen to my group-mates and mark down anything that would help my project.  

17 - 02 - 2020

Today is the first official day of the commune project, it was a long from London to Wenhaston. I was really excited when I got on the train to Ipswich, and as soon as I can see myself getting away from London, I felt like that I am actually breathing as in without all that rush and pressure, my mind actually relaxed. When I reached Halesworth, it was much ritual then I excepted but all I wanted was to go back home and see how does it look like. 

The house was really cozy and I did not think of a nice house like this after all the travel I thought it was like another B&B place just plain simple with basic bedding. Turned out it is a holiday house of Verity’s friend family. The first thing I and verity did was a short introduction to the house then we just simply plan the day. The challenge that I had was using my not dominant hand to draw, Verity was my challenger. At first, I hated it so much because it just didn’t feel right but after a while, it actually got more interesting because it gave some uncontrolled moments.

18 - 02 - 2020

Today is the only full day we would have in Wenhaston, we wanted to explore the area. Although the village is under a ritual environment, it has a very flat landscape in general. So we just want to walk around to see if there are any interesting to see. I and Verity went to a campsite shop to get some more grocery so we can have enough food during the trip. I really enjoyed the first day mainly because of the freshness, everything just seems so simple and there's not much of pollutions around and I just have this relaxing mind. 

Before Erica, Verity and I head out for the walk, we have come up with the challenge of the day for each other, today I need to add my home culture into my work, even only a small part of it. I would not say the walking experience is a completely enjoyable experience, the views and environment are awesome, but I think the weather was probably too cold for a walk.

After we settled down back in the house, I found it was extremely hard to communicate when we are not using a common language, Verity was speaking French, Erica was speaking and I was speaking Cantonese. Before we start the language challenge, we started this based on a joke and I thought it was going to be easy and fun. But as soon as we started the challenge, I just feel overwhelmed as I was trying to figure out what are my friends try to tell me. Even though it was tough, but we have found a way to communicate using body language. 

I think what we did can be applied to what I do in my work, I should never rely on words when I am creating work, the work should always be able to speak for themselves and it is a good thing for the audience to interrupter to the works as well.  

19 - 02 - 2020

Today is the last day here in this cozy house. To kick start the day, it was the nightshift, I was on the last shift and over the three hours, I did some sketchbook and watched some youtube videos. We did not do much work in the morning as we needed to clean the house before we catch the train in the afternoon back to London. When I was taking the train, although I did not do any drawing or type anything, I was just think ing back to what we did in the three days. There were lots of surprises on the trip. We had a few deer talks which I did not expect at all. We talked about religious views and how do we see our future.

We have come to agree that although there are lots of different sounds in society, people should be respecting others' views and listen to them and also try to understand even though is it not something that you have a strong opinion with. This is really similar to my project though as I want to explore different perspectives even under the same topic or issue while you have an opinion with already. This is because I want to see and learn why would people have different views.  

20/21 - 02 - 2020

After Commune, I think those three days definitely help with developing the project proposal. The theme of our commune group is art out of inconvenience, which is really similar to what I initial to do or would be the key element for my personal project as for part three, I won't use this as a chance for me to explore, I don’t want to be trapped to a way of working already. What I mean is that I think when people get comfortable with doing something, okay they would be good if you do something over again and again which I am 100% agree with. However, would my mind be stuck in a certain way to think if I have only one working method? Therefore part three for me is the opportunity to play and do things that I am not used to. 

First is to change the way I work, although I know that I should always work from sketchbook to develop and explore ideas, I have this habit of working backward. Of course, I can still produce work that I like, but working backward seems a bit of cheating to me because I have already put my mind in a place that limits me to dugout something new. 

And based on that idea, I want to have different working aspects developed after the project. And to allow myself to have fun I have found keywords that literally opposite of how I work and try out during exploring and experimenting.         

24 - 02 - 2020

Shaping shapes is an interactive project which encourages us as a visual communication designer to play with the audiences. After seeing the presentation, it reminds me of a video I saw on YouTube before, it was a campaign of Nestlé Contrex. There are a bunch of bikes connected to a big screen, as soon as the first audience take part, the line stripes start to power up and attract the audiences to take further part. I feel like for this project I want the audience to really take part in my work, even I want to depend on the audience. Before the start of commune, I have been thinking about the PPP, and after commune it has given me a clearer vision of what I want to do, therefore I want to treat this project as a research part for my fmp.

In the afternoon, as I only have a loose vision what I want to do for fmp    and the first thing for me was to make a clearer vision of what I want to communicate in the project. I want to bring out to my audience that it is never a good thing that we are stuck with one ritual and should always find a new way to work if we can. And I told my friends about my idea, Verity has pointed out that my audience for Shaping Shapes should then be people that have a very repetitive life, such as office workers. I then develop my audience and location possibilities based on repetitive life.      

25 - 02 - 2020

After the audience and location are sorted out, I then think what can I do that can be easy to care out in King Cross Granary Square office area, and aiming for the office workers there. Mt initial idea was the area around Moorgate tube station and the office workers there, but I want the workers actually to participate in my work willingly and I feel like King  Cross would be a better location. 

When I think of repeat action, scratch card is the first thing come in my mind, and I think what if my interact project is a scratch handing out to people, what would people react if things don’t happen to what they except. I begin to work on sketchbook to develop ideas and the final idea is that I would have a scratch card hand out to the people and I would give them instruction and I would have a camera next to me and audience to record their reaction, my outcomes would be the cards and a documentary.

The scratch card would have two parts, the centre part of the card is going to be a plain colour and the top and bottom part of the card is going to be a pattern of some graphic. There would be to steps for the audience to play this scratch card; 1st: start with the middle part and scratch the card with a repetitive gesture. 2nd: Play around with the rest of the card however you want and reveal the little surprise.   

26/27 - 02 - 2020

Today is another day to look at PPP, after coming up with the proper scratch card idea, and my vision on the final project is much more clearer now. Like I said before, I want to challenge myself in the project, and I have come up with the eight keywords to start my project 

• Consistency 
• Pattern
• Chaotic
• Quick
• Minimise
• Repeat
• Dependant
• Improvise

I want to feature these eight words as the base of my work, along with it  because I really enjoyed the project “40 hours” which is a time-based project, so I want to include time element to my own project as well and let the words and time associate with each other, I think the best is that I set a time period for each word and with that, I can investigate how would I work differently in different time period as well. 

On the 27th, I went to the the publication party, the last project in part two for all graphic students, different pathway had different starting point, but most of our work got exhibited in the same place just feel amazing. One of my favourite publication was an artist book, it doesn’t have a ‘book’ form and instead, it is a mini installation, it is a little cupboard  and there is a little illustration inside each drawer. The reason I like the work is that the surprise that I get from every little drawer, probs in a book form I would also have the surprise but opening the drawers just fun to me, the work is really delicate as well.   

28 - 02 - 2020

When going through the scratch card idea again, I feel something is biting off as the one card might be too confused for the audience. So I decided to have two cards instead and have instructions printed at the back of the cards. So when people receive the cards they would know what to do without me telling them what to do, like before the first card would be a plain colour with a repetitive gesture, the second card is pattern or graphic that the audience can scratch however they want to. 

Besides the idea, I start to search for how can produce these scratch cards. I have found that I can create my own scratch paint by mixing washing liquor into acrylic paint and finding other ways to create the scratch surface. As for the content, I have decided to use Lino because I want to have a sketchy feeling and I think the Linocut would leave some mark on each card and every single one of them is different make them all individual and special.

02 - 03 - 2020

Today has a surprise presentation in the morning secession, we have to show the idea that we have for shaping shapes, after telling the class and tutors my idea, they like the scratch card idea as it is engaging to the public and it would be a fun interactive project. Here is the problem, why would the audience stop for me and do the scratch card for me. No one is going to do a favor for you without anything which was pointed out by my tutor. So now instead of two cards that I want to keep as the work outcome, I need to create the third card for the audience, the card can be a message from me to the audience, or explaining why do they need to follow the instructions. 

03 - 03 - 2020

There was an incident happened in Oxford street, there was an Asian student got beaten up because of his race and look. These are all due to the Coronavirus, there are people think the virus is only brought by Asian and discriminations happened around the world because of racism. Two friends, Owen and Tiffiany created a mockup mask using kitchen towel paper and with text ‘corona don’t discriminate’ printed on them. I joined them and other foundation students and head out these mask  at the UAL Camberwell campus. We want to remind people that even though there js a virus spreading worldwide but it is not an excuse for people’s discriminations.   

After helping Tiff and Owen, I feel like people should be really considered that they should not be finding different excuses for doing shit to people simply they are scared because of some untruth. And I have decided  to expand the work based on what they had done. We came up with a manifesto with specific colours and texts we are using for this campaign.  

And I develop my work from the manifesto. Owen is the leader of this project and I mostly keep pitching the idea to Owen and he suggested I expand my own ideas as he thinks it would be great if everyone has different work to contribute to corona don’t discriminate.

And the first idea came to my mind, I want to make a print for this, along with the mask, I want people to have something to hold with the mask, something that they can keep or spread to others easier as the mask you can not wear again after you have worn it.  

04 - 03 - 2020

Today is the crit for shaping shapes, although I have an idea for Shaping Shapes, after doing corona, I decided to show that to the class instead. I told Umberto about the idea for the corona, and in the afternoon we have a relief print workshop, so I decide to use the corona mask as the base element for the storyboards. 

As I want to recreate the texture of the mask in the print so I picked a paper towel as the print object, the outcome turns out really good as well. Tutors think that I should definitely expand the idea.    

05 - 03 - 2020

I never thought I was going to expand my friend’s work but after helping to hand out the mask to people, I realised that as a visual design student, even visual designer, it is my job to share to the world that things don’t usually would necessarily see in their life. 

Since I want to hand out prints to the public, although it would go along with the mask, they should speak for themselves anyway. So for the print, I want to include the mask, the text, so the paper/card version of the paper towel mask can be kept or pass on easier. In the print, as to resemble the mask, the elements that I am going to include air the mask, the slogan and maybe the coronavirus. 

As I am developing the idea, I think just having one side of the print does not really do anything as the mask would be something iconic in the campaign and if I want to use to print to spread the tag is less the same, therefore a message is needed, and it would go to the back of the mask, I would tell the public why are people wearing mask. So a simple sentence at the back and spreading the fact to the public that the virus is never an excuse for any kind of discrimination.  

As I don’t want the card’s size too big and people can not keep them easily, the print is going to be A5 which would be just the right size. 

10 - 03 - 2020

After coming up with the idea of the corona campaign, I realised that I should start to do a mock-up and first attempt. I have done two lino cuts  for the mask print, I think the second one looks better as the size is smaller and the texture looks better. After I have finished the lino, I scanned the lino and start to do some photoshop. With the manifesto, I have chosen pastel as the mask colour and dark red for the content so the words.   

After making the attempt on photoshop, I want to start making the process as I want to create the card print soon or later. Think of the mask is going to be a lino print, I think it would the best for the words to be screen-printing as it would look much neat. So I think it would be great for me to prepare myself further and make the positives for the print.    

11 - 03 - 2020

Today is the personal tutorial with Umberto. I actually am kinda panicked before I see him. Of course, I have done work that I want to, but is that enough? 

When I first see Umberto, I presented to him the corona mask idea. He thinks that I only need one template for the front of the card with the slogan of “mask for protection, not discrimination”. And he thinks that I need to make a better version of the mask, a version that when everyone looks at it, they would know this is a mask right away. The reason for that is that he suggests that the mask can be a feature of my personal project, as my idea for the project now is to discover new perspectives after the work. And my starting point is discrimination, and he says to me that the mask can be a symbol for me. Even I am not doing the corona campaign, the mask can still be the icon. I then realised that what he means is that discrimination always happens to the minorities in society and most of the time they do not speak up for themselves, so the mask can sign of standing up. I really like the idea because it is smart to have a sign and I think this can have a strong impact.

12 - 03 - 2020

After talking to Umberto, it surely helped a lot for me to think more straight forward. I feel like there are always so many ideas flowing around and I can never get to settle to one. I think my tutors actually just give me the confidence to just go and have trust in myself. 

I have decided to change my project proposal, instating of having a range of different things going on, it is time to simplify the project. First, the communication of my project is to gain a new perspective from what we are used to in our life. I need to remind myself all the time so I don’t draft my mind away. And to start the project, I have chosen discrimination as the starting word and then I develop from this. The first case study is ‘corona don’t discriminate’ I think it is important that I have no bias toward either side of the event. I need to be calm and reasonable when I tackle the topics.   

And getting my head much clearer now defiantly helps a lot, and it just gives me an energy boost and keeps myself being productive again.    

13 - 03 - 2020

The first thing to pick up after the tutorial is definitely the design for corona don’t discriminate. I start to question myself from Umberto’s to make a better design. How can I do a mask design that is iconic, people can just tell that is a mask right away? Then I start to look at different types of face masks that people wear during the corona period. Other than the surgical mask, there are people wearing some more advanced masks such as N95 or even those masks that have a filter. I start to think why are people even wearing a mask? People are concern about themselves, they are scared to get the virus, in some sense, they are also creating a barrier for themselves, kind of like a shield protecting themselves from the toxic world which is full of shit happening every moment.

Therefore I begin to think why don’t I take it over the top and just fo for further with introducing the gas mask, which I have actually see in real life, there was this guy in London wearing one during the pandemic. Discrimination is such a toxic gas spreading all over the world, people should be protecting their own from this nasty shit. And gas mask would be more sensible compare to the normal face mask.   

16 - 03 - 2020

Today is the last day in Archway, I have decided not to come to school after today as my family and I started to discuss going back to Hong Kong or not due to the pandemic. So today I need to figure out what if I am going back to HK in the future is that going to stop me from finishing the course. I really wish that this has never happened, it just doesn’t feel right when I know I am going to be working from home and without the access to the studio, I just feel a little bit off. After the morning, hearing from Lucy that the rest of the course is going to be turning into  online class, I have a mixed feeling about it. I know the world is all about digital now but I just love the feeling of making things from my hands and physically holding something which I can touch and feel them. Knowing that the course is going to continue to make me feel calmer. And knowing that we can still be in touch with tutors also help the anxious getaway. 

But thinking to the plus side of the pandemic, it actually helps me to understand myself more. It kind of just force me to think of all the what if. As a visual designer, we always need to face different situations and questions and finding solutions to solve them. I think it is a good chance for me to keep finding different ways to work things out.    

17/19 - 03 - 2020

After talking to my parents then we decided that I am going back to Hong Kong due to the spreading of coronavirus in the UK. My parents think that although there is a big risk to take the flight, Hong Kong would be a better place for me to stay as I can at least be with them while this pandemic. This decision actually have messed up what I have planned for part three, after the last day in archway knowing that the rest of the course would be done online, I have been looking for an alternative is there any studio I can use in London, but after realising I am heading back to Hong Kong I need to find studios in Hong Kong instead. 

I know that for a fact that Hong Kong is not a creative city like London so I did not except there are many places I can find for me to do work. I am looking for a printing studio that would allow me to do prints. I am really excited when I found the Hong Kong Open Printshop because they even have the Chinese letterpress there. Compare to English, I think Chinese characters are such a fascinating thing to explore as each character is formed base on parts kind of like alphabet but every single of them is individual and unique. I can’t stop thinking of using Chinese letter print for my work, I really want to try out a new technique and I think the press-print is such a tradition that is not popular anymore in Hong Kong society anymore. I simply want to learn how to do it and keep this in our culture. 

27 - 03/02 - 04 - 2020

After the 12 hours flight, I am exhausted and it was really an experience. When I went to the airport, what I saw was just insane because of the coronavirus. There were people like me just wear masks and   raincoat and I thought that was all I need for the protection. And then I saw there are people wearing hazmat suits with masks, goggles, and gloves. My first reaction was like it that even necessary but deep down I was panicking that I was not fully ready for this flight. I didn’t eat or went to the toilet for 12 hours, I was just on my seat. And thinking about it now I could have to use the time to work on something as I was limited with the movement. 

Anyway after the flight, because of my concern, I decided to take the test for corona right away and I ended up waiting 9 hours for the result. It was negative. As soon as I was backed home, my quarantine life began. I planned what to do before this as I want to make sure that I would all everything I can. 

The proper day that I start the quarantine, I knew that the plan was not going to work as there are problems coming up. Although I tried to find a printing workshop and thought it might not be that hard to get what I want, it is a completely different situation when I start to figure out what is going on when I am in Hong Kong. I talked to a friend who studies in HK, and she knows about what scenario about the creative industry in HK like. I got really frustrated when we talked as designers and creative people in Hong Kong, although there is a circle here that everyone knows about everyone, I perhaps would not even say that we have an art culture here. 

And when I realise that I can not have access to the printshop just pushed me back to the two weeks that before I went back to Hong Kong, again simply just lack of motivation because I don’t think I can actually get any work done. I keeping looking and talking to people and I found risograph. The hope lit back up when my friend told me about there is a print studio that specifies in risograph and she thinks that the studio would be better for me anymore as I am not making a large industrial printing amount. The reason that I like risograph is that they can have really subtle and bright colour prints, I think the colour would just bring me back to life.    

06/09 - 04 - 2020

After having a clear direction,  like once again, I am back in the game. Quarantine is actually worst than I plan is going to be. I thought that I was going to be productive and use the time wisely, turns out I wasted week, but to make sure I would be using my brain and keep it function, I have c0me up with a timetable to make sure myself to be on track. The first thing to do is to make sure I have a strong foundation for this project as I want to be sure that I don’t let myself down this time as it is a chance for me to have full control over a project with tutor’s help. 

After corona don’t discriminate, I am back to step one, I want to make sure that I have enough to back me up as I am working on this project. So the first time is to research. Although I have a very light concept about what I want to work on, because of the topic I have chosen, I can not just do some work. So I decided to treat myself have no idea what discrimination is and start finding different forms of discrimination and go through different examples. 

I think it is important for me to work on a project that I can relate if the creator myself can’t even agree or feel related to my own project how can I communicate to the audience? So I set a rule to the form of discrimination I need to be related to or have a strong feeling with it and that is going to help me tackle the topics much easier. I have chosen gender identity, sexual orientation and race discrimination as the big features for this project, as living in Hong Kong, a claim ‘international’ city has a very serious problem with these three basic things which should not have any big issues happen due to these topics. Turns out going through case studies and events, there are lots of bullshit happened as people just being arrogant.    

I have mix emotions when I was going through the issues, I feel terrified actually about my own home. I just feel like even I live in this beautiful city, the inside of it simply just so full of shit. Things literally should not be happened are happening, people do not respect others that are not the same with them. I just have a much clear direction after all the case studies, I want people to realise that they are privileged. Along with progressing the project, I am going to do more research to support the work.

13/16 - 04 - 2020

After two weeks of quarantine, I am actually so excited to be out. I want to feel the vibe of the city under the pandemic as compare to London, I would say the worst moment had already happened, the breakout. After seeing the city by myself, the tension is definitely much less than what I felt from London before I left. It is a nice thing to see that everyone is wearing mask in the city as Hong Kong has been through the SARS pandemic before and everyone has the alert to protect themselves and others. My personal feeling about the environment just much calmer and more comfortable because when I was in London, there were some unfriendly stares, I know it is not actually physically discrimination but the mentally, there were still hard feelings. I just feel blessed that I can go through this period of time with my family as well, I always know that I am very blessed that I can be studying the thing I love and doing it in a better uni overseas, some of my friends could not even go back home because of different reasons. I guess it just some kind of relief when I know that I am with my family and we have each other to rely on.

20/23 - 04 - 2020

After a week of exploring the city physically, I think it is time for me to get back to work. I have kicked start the work by doing some sketchbook pages, drawing mind maps to spot the details that I can develop. Although doing research has given me a sense of what I am going to do, it is just in general and I need to put my thoughts into details now.  And after that, the mind maps have really forced me to look into the deeper of the subject and not just the surface anymore. 

And there is the progress tutorial with Umberto, which I think literally has saved my lost soul. My ideas begin to be flowing around myself and I was in the middle of my mental chaos. Umberto really likes the idea of going over the top, but he thinks that the gas mask would lead people in the wrong direction, as the first thing he can think of with the gas mask is the world war. He then suggested to me I should be looking at culture masks instead of just being stuck with a health mask. This helps me to explore more and not feeling trapped, I then start to look into masks from the different cultures such as the Mexican Deathmask, African Festima mask, and the Chinese opera mask. 

And to experiment instead of just drawing on paper, because I miss the feeling of creating things from hands, I want to make some paper cutouts.  Like Umberto said in the tutorial as a designer we should be cherishing this period of time (pandemic) and try to push ourselves to work as this is a completely different way for us to work and this might be just a one time in our life (hopefully). I felt like in this period over time, I am actually riding an emotional rollercoaster, there are ups and downs. There is a moment I just want to work but the next second I got so depressed because I am not working with my friends, with tutors and I am just working alone. But I should be thinking positively as this is actually just like the future, after graduate, being part of the society and working would just like this, I can just get the sense of my future as well which is a really nice and rare opportunity.  

After the masks experiment, looking into the mask makes me realise that every single one of the mask has their own stories, and for my creation. I am thinking of creating some mini-stories based on the case studies that I have looked at and come up with stories and the mask for each of them.

27/30 - 04 - 2020

Since I have picked up the work, I have been walking around the city. Mostly being inside cafes thinking about what I can do next for the project. I just love to work in a cafe as I can be more concentrate on myself when there are people around me. And I am very lucky that I can go to the streets and explore. I think it really stimulates my brain to think when I just look at different people and objects.

And to develop the idea further, the communication needs to be more polish. So it is time for another mind map and to question me. What cause discrimination, I have mentioned this before, this happens because of privilege and arrogance. And the communication that I have now is to trigger my audience to think about their life and self-realising and on the other hand to those that have experienced discrimination to have more confidence about themselves. So I would say that the project’s ultimate communication is to allow people to understand themselves more in both the good and bad sides. 

After the second tutorial. Umberto has told us that the course is going to be finishing soon. And we need to behave outcomes and evaluations about the personal project, and I told him that I do not want to rush finish this project because I think if I spend more time on it I can definitely have nice outcomes. Although the course is finishing and I need outcomes for the publication. This doesn’t stop me from working, Umberto said to me I should be working to this and bring it further. And this makes me think that under this social distancing and everything that we have been through these two months would surely bring impacts to our work, although there are a lot of confusing times, we have made our way to the end. And this is the last task I set for myself, I am going to finish this foundation course nicely and complete.