Hello again,
Welcome back! As this is going to be my last blog post for this module, I would like to first give a big shoutout to my Prof (Kai En)! Thank you Kai En (I know you are reading this post) for being so generous, patient, and also understanding throughout this whole journey. It has been a pleasure to be your student and I really enjoyed every bit of the learning with you. So, here I am, sharing with you my last reflection and thoughts regarding the final group project — A Millennial's Guide to Mastering the Art of Staying at Home. 

When our group first started conceptualizing this ebook, we brainstormed on a number of topics such as Fashion and Financial Planning before settling on the topic of a stay home guide for COVID-19 situation. As you would have read our Design Document, we believe that this topic would be most relevant to our current situation, especially with the Circuit Breaker in place. This guide will come in handy to millennials like ourselves who are usually very active during normalcy. With the Circuit Breaker situation, we think that many millennials may be under some stress, and can become restless and fidgety if they stay at home for long periods of time. This can negatively impact their mental wellness. Hence, we came up with the guide to include a number of interesting tips and tricks to amp up their productivity and also to get them to stay healthy and sane. All of us contributed various ideas which were later included as the bulk of our content and information in our guide.

First Draft (For Presentation)
During the initial design process, I was in charge of the cover page (Page 1) as well as the content pages (Page 4 and 5), and I used Affinity software to design these pages. Before I began curating the pages, I went to the document setup to change the margins to 20px and the color to RGB as we are now submitting it as a digital ebook. 

Concepts and Illustrations
For the cover page, I wanted to evoke a sense of vibrancy and liveliness through my illustrations. Hence, I decided to portray a view of apartment units and the activities that owners may be doing in their homes during this COVID season. These are all 2D illustrations (figure 1). Some of the objects were traced out by the pen tool, while others were freehand drawings using the pencil and paint tools. We chose the dark turquoise and mustard yellow colors from our mood board as the main colors for this cover page — for the background and the window structure respectively because we think that the colors provide a good contrast. As to the typography, the Helvetica Neue and Savoye LET fonts were used for the title on the cover page. I wanted the typography to be slightly different on the cover page and one that can demonstrate an 'artsy' vibe given the “art” theme in our title – "Mastering the Art...". Accordingly, this explained the choice of the Savoye LET font.




Figure 1: 2D Illustrations (traced or draw)


The content pages (Pages 4 and 5) had a similar design style as the cover page. Here, we are trying to depict the various activities that will be recommended in the later pages of our ebook. These activities include the making of a mask, cooking, working at home, and doing yoga and meditation (figure 2). We wanted to have a similar layout to the Ikea magazine which we found during our research. For the words on the content page, I used the Helvetica Neue font as its typeface and they are of varying styles to differentiate the importance/ranking of the text e.g. header, sub-header, and sub-text. I also used a different color from the mood board to highlight the important keywords of the text.



Figure 2: Pages 4 and 5

Designing using Affinity
Along the way, I used a multitude of InDesign shortcuts that were also applicable in the Affinity software. Some of these shortcuts include Ctrl +, Ctrl -, holding of the spacebar to navigate, and locking of layers to move the objects in front. I also found the color picker tool extremely useful because not only can I keep the colors from the mood board on my swatches, I can also pick up other colors that I think are effective in conveying a certain mood and replicate them in subsequent design elements. The RGB slider also allowed me to check whether the color is exactly the one that we are using in our mood board so as to ensure consistency. Interestingly, I learned that if the items are all grouped together, and I duplicate one of the elements, the element will still be in the group. This caused a bit of difficulty when arranging the elements (i.e. send to the back or bring to the front) when designing another element with the duplicated piece of illustration. I also realized that clicking on (|'\) on my keyboard will also allow me to view the illustrations that went beyond the page.

Consolidating 
After the rest of the members have curated their pages and the designs, we had an online meeting again to look through everyone's designs. I provided my own perspectives and thoughts on others' work and also gave some suggestions to make the designs more relevant and neat. Through the process, I realized that I can be very particular about the alignment of text and graphics (Figure 3). As it was difficult to explain the possible changes to the other party, most of us tried to describe the outcome that we envisioned the page to look like. By jotting down all these suggestions, I then went on to help the group to make the necessary changes. For most of the pages, I standardized the typeface as well as the font size used. Other amendments include rearranging the graphics and illustrations to make it more spacious and reducing the text to make the pages look less cluttered. I also changed some of the color schemes as the group thinks that they are either too similar or clashing with the chosen font colors on some pages.


Figure 3: Before the readjustment of alignments


Final Draft (For Submission)
After the presentation and the critique, our team felt that our prototype could be further improved on. As such, we had another meeting to relook at our flaws and the mistakes made. This time round, I was in-charge of re-designing the e-book and it was much easier to coordinate than the previous round.

I must say that the critique was extremely useful. The first thing we wanted to address was the typeface. Although the Helvetica Neue font is quite elegant and modern, we all agreed that it might not be the best typeface for our title, header, and sub-header. Hence, we went on to find other possible typefaces which include Aquilone, Edingu, Wavehaus, and League Gothic. However, as typeface like Aquilone does not come free, after trying the different typefaces on our prototype, we thought Edingu is the best. It is sleek, unique, and modern. A

fter that, we chose Avenir as our main body text font with varying styles to mark up the different importance/emphasis of the text. We also wanted to standardize the background color so we picked a cream color. Its base color is actually the mustard yellow in our mood board but we played with the opacity and the lightness to get this cream color. As this cream color is similar to the mustard yellow that we used for our window structures, I changed it to s dark blue turquoise color so that there is a contrast — hopefully, it's eye-catching to you too.

 

    Figure 4: Color schemes for header and text

We also picked these two colors as shown in Figure 4 from our mood board as our text font color. These colors were then used consistently throughout the document. At the document page setup, I also kept all the pages' margins to 10 pt after I estimated the amount of space we needed for our graphics, illustrations and text.

Conceptualizing and designing: COVID-19 at one glance
Revamping these two pages wasn’t easy. We had a hard time redesigning because we wanted to (1) enhance the richness of our content and  (2) to allow the information to flow better and create continuity.

To start off, we researched more aggressively on the different possible timeline designs and managed to chance upon this layout (Figure 5). We thought it was the most apt for our overall e-book look among all the others that we found. Using this design as a reference, I designed a similar upward sloping timeline that spreads across both pages. For the timeline, I experimented with different tones and hues of the navy turquoise color as its base to demarcate the different time periods using different shades of colors (Figure 6). To ensure readability, I used white for the text which was one of the exceptions for this ebook.



Figure 5: A timeline design as a reference



Figure 6: Different tones and hues to differentiate time periods

With the timeline in place, we could clearly see four empty spaces at each corner of the spread. Thus, I recommended the group to place four different sets of information (sub-topics) into each corner of the spread to enhance the richness of our content and for better positioning (proximity).

The green virus vector was the main illustration for this topic so it was spread across both pages and aligned in the centre. Just like the timeline, it acts as a linking element for the pages in an attempt to create continuity for readers. I also drew the little human vectors "running away" from the virus so as to elicit a sense of fear in the readers (Figure 7) to warrant their attention to this page. For these graphics, I tried to use a mix of 2D and 3D illustrations, I added some shadows to the muscular man at the back and drew his limbs in a different angle so as to make him seem as if he is running forward from an angle. I am quite satisfied with the outcome as I thought it gave the segment a bit more depth.

To make things more interesting, I presented a part of the content in the form of twitter threads as shown in the segment of How Severe Is This Issue (Figure 8). I felt that the presentation might seem more fun and relatable to the millennials, especially when the 'countries' are tweeting this information. We hope that this would make them want to read more closely to the fine text. Similarly, under Why You, Millennial, I also wanted to grab their attention by having headlines instead of paragraphs of text.



Figure 7: Human vectors running away from virus


Figure 8: Tweets

Conceptualizing and designing: Content Pages (Page 4 and 5)

During the process of re-designing, I decided to let go of my previous design layout as many have commented that the graphics on Page 4 seemed to be out of proportion to those on page 5. Although it was a pity, I believe that it would be better to remove the background to reduce noise and just focus on the graphics of the activities which can be simpler and neater. Hence, I regrouped the items and/or activities into their respectively categories (sub-topics) of the ebook and enlarged them on page 5. Using gestalt principle of proximity, I deliberately left out some space between these “categories” to make them seem “unrelated” so that readers can easily recognize each of the activities and items in an orderly manner. This also help them to better navigate through the flow — from the lady reading on the sofa to the yoga session at the bottom.

As one of our goals was to ramp up our content, we decided to add a new sub-topic — Get in the stay-home fun mood. I intentionally added the partial navy turquoise borders on both sides of the pages so as to provide a more holistic view of the pages and to establish visual balance.


 Figure 9: New content pages

Conceptualizing and designing: Study Tips and Tricks & Why Buy When You Can DIY (Page 6 & 7) 


 Figure 10: Inclusion of app recommendations

For page 6, I amended the color scheme together with some of the content and graphics. We added in some app recommendations as we believed that readers might also want to check out some of these apps that can help them achieve their goals. This also explains the additional icons and illustrations of the app brands on this page (Figure 10). As it is a step-by-step guide, we created differentiated layers by using a darker or lighter shade of cream color for each section to create a strong visual rhythm and balance.


Conceptualizing and designing: Let's Get Cooking (Page 8 and 9)

Page 8's concept was inspired by my friend's Instagram stories. She is a food nutritionist and a fitness junkie so more often than not, she would post her fitness routine as well as food recommendations on her IG stories. As such, I decided to present the information on these food recipes in an IG story format. To make it more entertaining, I included the caption with hashtags that users would usually put on their stories (Figure 11). For the illustrations, we understand that there had been inconsistencies because of the outlines. Hence, we removed the black outlines of these food illustrations. Meanwhile, we also rearranged the format in which the content was being presented.

                                            

Figure 11: IG stories of Dalgona coffee making

Conceptualizing and designing: Time to rejuvenate and get in the stay-home fun mood (Page 10 and 11)


Figure 12: Use of different layers

Our team felt that our previous layout for the last two sub-topics was boring. Hence, I was recommending to the group to use the concept of a "hidden object mystery game" for these two pages. I felt that it would be more fun if the readers have to navigate and locate the various items on the page themselves and then read the labels/information to find out more about each item. However, the challenge was to keep the “game” concept in an orderly manner. Thus, we decided to design two settings on both extreme sides of the pages while the texts congregated in the middle. This is also to create an asymmetrical visual balance. For the graphics, we either draw or trace out various elements and created both 3D and 2D perspectives whenever we deemed necessary. I also used various layers to work on different sets of designs in order to prevent confusion (Figure 12). It was really fun to draw out the #crashlandingonyou vector, the armchair as well as the hand. I was also very fortunate to have my team mates giving me feedback from time to time to improve on the designs. They also assisted by drawing out some elements that helped me ease some of my workload.

Final thoughts
I must say that this whole journey had been extremely fulfilling. Although it was a difficult piece to curate, especially when we were all working remotely at home, it had given me an opportunity to learn about the different forms of designs, the importance of design elements and others’ perspectives on my design. I have been wanting to learn this since two years ago and I am really glad I finally plucked up my courage to take this module in my last semester. In the midst of using the design software, I finally understand the beauty of it and how efficient it can be. Although I only had the time to explore the basic features of the software, I strive to look into creating more 3D isometric style vectors and also figuring some of my doubts, for example cropping in other shapes’ formats using the vector crop tool and masking objects into other shapes to improve my skills in the near future. I am also thinking of getting a drawing pad as I found it really difficult to draw using my mouse. The ‘layers’ functions also allowed me to create more items in a complex and noisy design and make better comparisons and adjustments. As I tried to apply some of Gestalt principles in this ebook design, I find that I am still lacking in many ways. If given a chance to improve on this ebook, I was thinking of rearranging the cover page’ illustrations to make them even more “grouped” than now and also, I would have inserted a game element in the last section of our ebook for readers to pick their preferred activities and home and then we give them a “Covid-19 personality” breakdown for them. This would increase the entertainment level of the ebook while keeping it an informative guide. All in all, I really had a great time working on this group project with my teammates and I hope for the best for everyone in the future.

As Winnie The Pooh once said, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard,” I guess I am really lucky in every sense.

Thank you!


Till we meet again,
Joanne Toh