All 3 entries tagged Vai

Paint Your Thoughts

It is another busy Wednesday with long but interesting seminars. During today's VAI session, we were first asked to listen to a piece of music, and then paint whatever image or graphic that we thought well represented the music. To be honest, I was a little bit concerned when I heard this task, because I am not much of a arty person and have never been good at painting stuff. But it is always nice to have a try.

The music itself was not so attractive, at lease I felt this way. I didn't sense many colors in it. There were certain rhythm going on with strong drum beating in the background. My work was more symbolic I'd say, well, compare to my classmates'. When I heard that music, it reminded me of a high way in an early morning. There were not many vehicles and everything was kind of in grey. And then the day was getting brighter, and the road were gradually full and things started to turn red. So I simply using lines and dots to express such feelings.

After, Jonathan hung all of our paintings on the wall. Then the roon suddenly got shining. I was absolutely amazed by what my peers came up with. That was a wall of imagination and creation.

There were two pieces which I'm especially fond of, or rather had strong echo with. The one done by Dinos was just mysterious. I like the dark background but with curving wave at the bottom. And the small colorful dots illustrated some contrast somewhere in between.

The other one was from Jessie, another Chinese girl. When I first looked at her piece, it looked like a Chinese character to me. Yet I couldn't tell which character it was. Then she explained that it was exactly a Chinese word ¡°ÔÏ"! I was just impressed by the smart trick over there.

The second part of the seminar, we listened to a man reading a poem with some weird background music. And we were asked to pick out one word that we thought most represented the peom and express it on the paper, whether write this word down or using images.

I chose VISION and wrote it down in different range of colors. I put it in a cold tone to maintain the calmness which was delivered by the speaker. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take pictures of this part due to the time limit. My classmates also raised many fantastic ideas. Some chose WISDOM, some chose STRUGGLE, and some using colors and graphics to represent the words that hit them.

: 07 Nov 2007 21:32 |  Tags: Vai |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Starbucks Ad

We were asked to choose one particular piece of ad which applies a specifie approach of expression. I instantly chose this one when I saw it. I think it is a piece using randomness. And what's more, it delivers a casual and relaxing feeling. With the text SOCIALIZE on one size, the whole piece seems quite balanced.

And Jonathan added that these circles are not so random as they are seemed. Actually the artist must have come up with many different versions of arrangement with these circles, to ultimately bring about this balance.

And I think it is a vivid illustration about a bunch of friends hanging out together, which really fits to what Starbucks is trying to convey. And the background looks like a piece of napkin, which is smart to hell!

I like this ad.

: 31 Oct 2007 20:16 |  Tags: Vai |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A WOMAN TO KILL FOR

There was a very interesting part during today's VAI course named CONCEPT BOARD. We were given a blank white piece of paper and several copies of fashion magazines to create a vision or concept for CD J'adore perfume within 10 minutes, which was very challenging. Concept Board is quite new to me, yet a very common and workable approach in advertising.

Four groups came up with four totally different visions, which I think were all outstanding due to the time limit. The J'adore bottle shape ad was quite impressive in my mind. It was a truely romantic way to express, just as they presented. The red lip right in the middle was kind of narrating the relationship between men and women. The faded colors, even black-and-white snap shots were nicely balanced the whole scenery.

I think our group did excellent too, and obviously in a unique way of expression. There was a slogan A WOMAN TO KILL FOR which really standed out the whole piece. The concept was easy and direct. A chic Dior kind of lady, a mysterious guy with his face covered behind, a gun surrounded with burning fire which sturred the passion and desire. Finally, we cut the border of paper, which was also an out-of-box approach.

I should have brought my camera to capture the essence of group intelligence. Well, maybe next time.

: 17 Oct 2007 21:59 |  Tags: Vai |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem