the sweet smell of ideas...

hey guys, it's been a while. Back in Malaysia now and the couple of weeks have been truly tiring as i'm getting back to the flow of the malaysian lifestyle. The food is good as ever however sadly my diet has changed since i got back, barely touch a grain of rice and all i eat is side dishes and guess what i found out? The secret of maintaining your weight. Uh huh... should sell this secret to all the ladies out there, i'll definitely make a fortune. hahahaha Anti-carbo diet is the secret along with daily exercise and plenty of fluids(pure h2o i mean). Greens have been my best friend since i got back and fibers too. And lastly, love life despite what it throws at you, be enthusiastic bout it, be grateful for it and be ever so vigilant bout what you consume that leads to personality and character building whether it's physically, mentally or spiritually.

Was in Johor during the weekend to deliver supplies to the relief camps to aid the flood victims. It was awesome and cool cuz' it was like a 4wd expedition throughout the state. Been through the throat-drying-scorching-sun, heavy-flood-thunder-rains and neverendless-drizzles-of-crazy humidities. As much as it was a church trip i'm glad that this trip has taught me more than as much as ministry is concern. The work is out there guys, as far as church ministry is concern i realise sometimes why we keep our range of ministries within the church. For there are so much more people out there who needs the Lord. And besides having the opportunity to share the gospel i was amazed at the amount of people that were involved in this, its in a way good to see not only the church at work but the nation as a whole, the malays, the indians and the chinese. For once there's no racial discrimination and differences that shows what a great nation can achieve in unity together rather than disparity. For once there was no religion to share but just simple packs of rice, there was no color differences but only the boxes of colored fullcream and chocolate milk and nothing as sweet compared to tonnes of sugar packs to the faces of gratefulness. This day everyone was serving only under one of the lord's commandments and that is to love one another.

After a long tiring but worth-it trip i decided to take a whole day off hibernating and woke up till today with a huge amount of creativity 'flooding' thru my head, lucky in hand i had a few projects up and funny how i finish all 3 projects in 24 hours. Kinda krazy actually but gotta start getting in the cash flow and i'm freelancing now. Business card will be out soon. Anyone knows of anyone who needs some design done?

Anyways, first up following after my recent encounter with the micronesian government is another logo design for a development corporation in Palau, This was a task that is usually a test for me as there is a lot of issues concerning restrictions to governmental design based projects. As a communication designer for this one i was constantly reminded of the fact that we don't really get a choice sometimes if what the client suggest doesn't comprehend to our own personal taste or vision. But this was a sorta experimental as well and it brings sort of a nostalgic feeling to me. *hint* *hint* School badges. Coat of arms & family crest was the concept and theme: islandish. This logo represents features of the national flower, bird and also traditional house of Palau. Upon researching irish and english coat of arms i found that wavy lines like the one you see in the logo represents sea and water so i decided to put the motif in along with the full yellow moon as part the flag of the country and the blue as well. The brance of peace(as used in the UN logo or usually the crown on caeser's head) signifies DUHH!!!! PEACE lar what else? *doink* hahahaha This is only the first draft so don't laugh, looks so much like a school badge!!! cannot tahan!!! (click to enlarge)




Next up is a little rebranding or rather revamp & rebrand project. Pacific cellular services deals with well as you can read... they fix phones. Called in by favour to design a logo and sign board for a branch up in Ipoh. Apparently there was an error when the details were sent to me weeks ago and i called the client asking for the details and he said that he asked another designer to come up with one as he thought i was already working on it. Slight delay but it's all good now. Anyway here's what the other designer came up with:



Ahhh... how i miss malaysian designs especially this kind. To those of you who MIGHT even think this is feasible, i'm just gonna jump off the building. YES ladies and gentlemen, more tragic than roadkill for dinner. Such an interesting company like this usually have good niches but bad degree of publication and design. It's cluttered and messy and it has no sense of concept and theme. Oh wait... maybe... just maybe... concept: JENG JENG JENG and theme: ROJAK. I think hardly anyone would walk pass this store and notice anything bout it. What bout people who drive pass, there's so much information on the signboard that i'd probably have to be stationary in my car and squint my eyes to read the stuff on it or maybe even moving a little like 0.01 km per hour.

I'd say let a signboard be a signboard and not like the classifieds you read on the newspaper. Clean and simplify it and keep only the most important info details limited. Just enough to get the message across on what's the name and what you do in your business. Cuz that's usually how people notice signboards like road signs simple, clean and gets the message across quickly. Visual stimulating the mind or shocking the stimulation with visuals is a very important and useful thingy. With every word starts with a visual and with every visual starts with a word. Well i guess i talk too much sometimes, not too proud of it really to some i sound showy. Not like the stuff i do is great but i do my best in the best i know how to. Just that i thought these guys had a good story to tell but are not conveying it properly in the right channels. Kinda like to think of it as a phone clinic, anyway i thought the logo that was done had some potential so i decided to modify it a little and here's what i came up with:

I notice that i've created a corporate profile for the client after the logo and signboard was done. This is good because it'll come in handy if in future the company were to grow and branch out, they will have an identity that's already been built. By doing so there's a clearer vision of what the business is all about, it projects a sense of reliability, efficiency and professionalism as compared to the other one from before. Simple, clean and quick to the senses.



Lastly, and entry from Eximius School of Performing Arts. A business card is needed and here's a brief of what i've done as the first draft for the layout. Going for the clean and classic concept...



So here ye go, gonna make my move now, got a long day ahead of me. Have a good week and God Bless. And as usual comments are welcomed as well as condemnations and insults :)

Adieu...