The Fashion Festival Bali

Branding is not exactly the first thing in mind when I describe myself as a designer. Its a part of design I barely explore as I tend to steer towards publication / photography / illustration jobs.

But in a way, i'm glad to be given a chance to develop the brand identity of The Fashion Festival. The full outcome of this project was still nonetheless a team effort. The logo was already designed by MGROUP's creative director, and all I had to develop was the general branding identity. That is the whole 'green text over b+w photography' and developing the 'green plus' as an icon. After the initial branding was established, the rest of the team continued to apply it on the rest of the event collaterals.

The Fashion Festival Bali 2013 - Branding

Creative Direction: MGROUP
Design team: Rachel Mantiri, Camilla Rusconi
Photography: Zac Steinic

DISSECT

Inspired by Alberto Seveso. Been trying to figure out how he does his photoshop collages for ages... Now that I sorta figured it out I can move on to other things

Model: Thibaud (FAUVE Agency)

CATHAY

So the other day I was casually browsing the internet and decided to check out one of my ex-agency I used to work for: Tuber Productions. When I left the company their website wasn't launched yet so it was a pleasant surprise to find some of my early works uploaded in their site. :)

This client was CATHAY and my task was basically to illustrate/design their promotional campaigns. It was all fun and games really, the client was pretty open to all kinds of concepts as long as it was  colourful and edgy.

I miss jobs like these :P

On a random note, Tuber Productions logo was designed by yours truly as well. ;)

MOODSCAPE

A while back I had an offer to print an artbook in order to promote a newly opened printing service. They requested 152 pages of artworks, which is pretty much gave me a heart-breaking revelation: That I dont have 152 pages worth of artworks!!!!

What the heck was I doing all these years? Have I been slaving to clients that I dont even have enough artworks I could proudly present as "my own"?

Tragic.

So I ended up in a situation where I will do nothing else but create! My deadline to submit "152" pages was in 3 days since my offer... Sounds impossible but It had to be done for my sanity's sake.

Fortunately for me I got another 2 days extension to work things out... I had to keep churning out new artworks and expanding on some old ones within the short timeframe. 3/5 days I kept wanting to give up, but thankfully I've gotten a lotta push and support from the people around me.

In the end, having to create 20 new pieces in 5 days is ridiculous... So eventually I negotiated to reduce my page count to around 96.

Voila! I have my very own artbook! with plenty of new works to upload on this blog :)

here's the cover artwork

Rainbow Riot!

Haha it's been over two months since my last update! It actually takes more effort for me to get my lazy-ass up and promote my works via social media than actually creating works. I wish I had the luxury of hiring someone to do the uploading/updating for me!

Ah well as for travelling, it seems i've gotten used to my Bali - Singapore lifestyle already. Not as exhausted as I used to be... in fact its been fueling my creativity!

So here's whats new at the the moment!
This project I've been working on sometime last year, it was to create psychedelic prints for Josiah Chua's lastest collection CAPSULE, ☾☄★ RAINBOW RIOT.
 
Josiah and I were interns at CATALOG MAGAZINE many years back. He was an intern stylist while I was an intern graphic designer. We spent many cheeseburger sessions bouncing ideas back and forth. So naturally I had a lotta fun doing these, mainly cause we knew what we love to create already!

Sink or Swim?

I'm exhausted... I've not gotten used to this lifestyle of constant traveling. I just did 20 hours of road-trips and flying from Palopo to Singapore. Which in the past would've been a fun adventure for me. I'm not old or anything but I just don't have that kinda energy anymore since I gave birth.

...anyways this is supposed to be a design blog! So anyways during my time in Singapore I worked on this mystical looking piece:

Its an artwork used to promote Voice Of The Ocean: ADEX Photo/Video Competition. The Whale Shark photo was shot by Cassandra Dragon.

Horizontal Web Banner

Original Ad printed in Asian Diver Magazine

Best of both worlds?

I've put myself in an interesting position right now...

Last year beginning of 2012 I decided to try out the "fully freelance" work style. After working for years in an environment of talentless egos battling hard to publish their mediocre ideas, I was sick of it all! The bosses, the offices, the cliques and the politics. I wanted to rid myself of all that and keep things simple...

Probably the worst motivation ever to be self-employed, as much as i like the absence of others (with exception of my clients) the work load just got so much more complicating. No longer am I the free-spirited designer that can draw something "pretty" get paid and leave. I've started taking on the roles of a sales, marketing, management, etc... all those miscellaneous work that drain me of my energy to actually CREATE ART!

Fact is I'm introverted. Communication takes more effort for me than any usual person. But I HAVE to communicate. Its ridiculous that the longer I continued my "freelance" the less I felt "free" and slowly enough I've started to miss the days of sitting pretty in an office, reading Clients From Hell while waiting for someone to give me work.

Well 2013 has blessed me with the best of both worlds... a deal that keeps me alternating between a "full time" schedule in Singapore for two weeks and a "freelance" life in Bali for the next two weeks. I guess I can switch back and forth between a hectic city life to a relaxed island life. Sounds tiring but I'm excited to see how this goes...

Anyways enough blabber here's a Geometric graphic piece that I plan to print into a shirt!

Cheers!

Seasons

Managed to dig up an old typographic-illustration I worked on (circa 2009?) Its too bad I don't do stuff like these anymore, its just that these things take me much longer than any other kind of work.

Ps. I hate the gears! But if i'm not mistaken I did it as a proposal for some watch client.

Lulu Yasmine

Just officially posted fall collection images for a Bali-based fashion boutique: Lulu Yasmine. They've been one of my favourite clients so far. I get to work both web-designing as well as the lookbook photography. Check it out, and don't forget to visit www.luluyasmine.com

Reggae Flyers

I believe every graphic designer would have that one friend (or many) who do up events and need a flyer designed. Mine just happen to be in the center of the Singaporean reggae scene a.k.a Dub Skank'in Hifi. Not really a reggae person myself, but of all the flyers I made in the past, these turned out to be my favourites :D

Karma Trio

I don't often get paid jobs to design album cover artworks. I wish i did, guess its a matter of knowing the right people... But lucky me I had a neighbor who was a jazz keyboardist, pretty well known face around Bali. He did a lotta experimental projects and one of them was the "Karma Trio": a jazz fusioned with balinese improvisational project.

Long story short, I get to design their album! The album had only 3 tracks but each were 12 minutes long; Titled 'Body', 'Speech', & 'Thought' That was pretty much my guideline into doing the triangular cover, each triangle portraying one track.

As far as printing goes, its a simple CD Slip. Would love to attempt a full on CD packaging one day.

Front Cover

Back Cover

CD Inside