Zin

Oh yeah!

2010-09-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

Today was my very first productive day in the studio. I did some doodles and background painting on canvas. I remember how fearful I was to put a piece of line on a paper before, since I was afraid of not making it perfect. Such an engineered mind! It hasn't been so long though that I now feel much more comfortable with my pens and pencils, quicker and more relaxed than yesterday. I tried so many things, but the sketches didn't feel right at the end. However, I saved them with little movements instead of sending them to the garbage bin right away. They are still far from being good, but who cares! I enjoy a lot! I work like a child again while discovering my tools, playing with different things and teach myself one more time that every moment is already perfect and you don't have to worry about making it.
That's why today felt so good...

2010-09-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

I said I had been trying to catch up Vancouver since I came back. Thanks to Beata Kacy. She helped me re-focus, work and have fun from my photography again. We had a pregnancy project and did some series of shots beside her belly casting. Here are a few photos from the project.

Underwater

Studio

Vintage

Photography: Guzin Taskiran
Editing: Beata Kacy

Bell Casting

Bell Casting: Guzin Taskiran
Photography: Roksan Kohen
Editing: Beata Kacy

If you wanna see more, please go to the website http://ginger.soigne.ca/, which she made for her lovely girl, Ginger :)

Roksan Kohen

2010-09-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Before I went to Turkey, I had started doing a website for my friend, Roksan Kohen. She is a great artist. I love her work. Her art is alive and so meaningful for me.

by Roksan Kohen

It was a great pleasure for me to help her build a new website. Her main requirement was to be able to update her images in the gallery without needing anybody, which was impossible on her previous website. This is what I have designed for her.

http://www.roksankohen.com/

As simple as it could be, yet to the point. I used the Slideshowpro Director to manage her galleries and feed the flash based slide show component on her website. Now, she enjoys having a total control on her albums and being able to change the content herself.

I'm back...

2010-09-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a long time since my last post here! Almost 5 months... I was busy with lots of projects and of course graduation. Before I move on, I just wanted to share a few photos from the show. Here are some of my works at display...

And great instructors of the program... They were and are truly amazing!

with Tene Barber

with Jessica Rush

with Greg Treadwell

Almost a week after my graduation, I went to Turkey to visit my family and friends after more than 3 years. I came back on July 30th but it took me almost a month to get back on track again. But here I am! Refreshed and ready to work on new projects :)

Grad Show Poster

2010-04-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

Last week, we had a shift from what we were doing in web design so far and started to work on our graduation show poster. Maybe because it was about our own graduation or it has been said that it's gonna be challenging and unusually stressful, I was a bit nervous. But I tried to take that challenge as an opportunity to get out from my comfort zone, to look at things differently and get some new set of practice. I reminded myself that even the challenges have their own reasons to be there and what you learn after them is precious. So I got my peace of mind back.

I didn't quite think about visuals for this time. All I wanted was to do something with typography. I even didn't bother to create a mind map, which I used to do all the time in my previous print design projects and have seen it quite helpful. I was uncomfortable, judging my ideas for not having solid concepts yet, but I wanted to do everything different this time. Just play, try things and change it. So, here comes the first poster...

I didn't like it. It was too simple, flat or boring. Without even going really far on that one (actually I tried couple of more on this idea with different colors, longer format and straight positioning), I thought it's not working. My muscles needed some sort of relax because of tension I was creating on myself, so I tried something more fun, still not with a concept but at least playful. I did this one in photoshop.

Ok, I liked it better than the previous one for sure because I've spent much more time on typography and had so much fun but it was not quite there either. I wanted to have some sort of concept, a message to convey to viewer, which was very important for me. I revised my ideas again, but each time I lost more from my confidence, which created some sort of negative thinking that leads to further criticism, skepticism about my skills, creativity. I stopped doing anything on the poster till Sunday. I just wanted to get some fresh idea and got back to my very very first thumb in my sketchbook, which I hadn't even tried yet. I was too scared to apply it because I didn't believe that I have the skills to try what I had in my mind. This one would be heavily inspired by the book, David Berman's "Do Good Design, which Tene had recommended us to read. I was also scared to convey that inspiration truly and nicely to my concept. But I had to give it a try. Here it comes the last one.

I imagined an alley in Vancouver, which was full of electrical wires. I tried to give a feeling of you turning from that alley and coming across with a wall graffiti or writing on a wall. I took the words "Design Can Change" in the sense of the power that design has to change the world. I wanted to keep it as simple as I could in terms of colors or textures to leave the viewer with the message alone. I wanted to have a clean design. I am not very happy about my execution but I am happy that I gave my idea a try. What mattered to me was the effort that I spent on it and the challenge itself.

Luba Lukova

2010-03-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

I have met Luba in one of poster design books long time ago and immediately attracted to her work. She has become another woman in my life, who has a strong voice and makes a change through her art. Here is a short but nice article if you wanna know more about her.

http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=3782

Typographic Web Banners

2010-03-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some of not super creative, yet simple typographic web banners that I've made within half an hour. The objective of this assignment was to 'recognize the limitations of typography on the web and explore alternate solutions, to break away from computer generated typography by creating a handmade web banner.' Handmade things are always fun, and also help your mind and hand connection stay in tune.

craft

2010-01-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

I took a day off yesterday from crazy type work that we have been doing for weeks now and In-Design. I felt refreshed. I participated a workshop in Octopus Studios and designed a little jewelry. Maybe I wasn't doing any type work but typography is still there. Funny!

Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free.

2009-11-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p.html?lame
:)

What I have got from Crawl!

2009-11-22T23:08:00.001-08:00

A lot! Seriously! I can't say "standing there and waiting for 3 days" was great (lol) but I've got so much inspiration from every artist in the studio which meant a lot to me! I felt very lucky to be around such an amazing group of people and once more convinced myself that the secret to being authentic and creating some cool stuff is hidden behind doing things with love or doing what you love! Mind might be great to solve problems or overcome the challenges but your heart is your true guide! And your mind doesn't know how to be patient but your heart definitely knows!

The Crawl

2009-11-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here is an update for you :)

The Eastside Culture Crawl is happening this weekend. It is an annual FREE 3-day visual arts festival. It involves artists in their studios who work on the east side of Vancouver, BC, Canada in an area bounded by Main Street to Commercial Drive and from First Avenue north to the waterfront. It will be happening in 45 buildings. So be ready to get tired! :)

The dates are:

November 20: 5pm to 10pm

November 21+22: 11am to 6pm

I will be in Octopus Studios for 3 days. So, hoping to see you there! :)

Choosing Your Priorities

2009-11-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

From the book, Design Rules For Letterheads. I thought it might be a good one to share and keep in my mind while we are getting closer to clients' world ;)

"Hugh Dubberley offers some of the most illuminating and succinct advice I have come across. He lists three standard requests of many clients when commissioning designers: these are that the design job should be...

1. GOOD

2. FAST

3. CHEAP

...and then he advices the designer to respond by telling the client to...

pick two!"

Animations

2009-11-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

Animations (especially the short ones) are great source of inspiration for me. I thought this might be a good one to post as we have recently been busy with designing a poster about a social issue and we might be questioning what design's role is in creating a social change, which is also the topic for an upcoming GDC event on Nov 19th.

art & fear

2009-10-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you alone, what matters is the process: the experience of shaping that artwork. The viewers' concerns are not your concerns (although it's dangerously easy to adopt their attitudes.) Their job is whatever it is: to be moved by the art, to be entertained by it, to make a killing off it, whatever. Your job is to learn to work on your work. (from "Art & Fear" by David Bayles & Ted Orland)

Type&Image: Book Cover Design

2009-10-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here are my cover design explorations for Eckhart Tolle's book, "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" with there different methods of type and image in graphic design.

Separation: Here I decided to use the bottom left part of the image for title and author name since that part of the image was a little bit out of focus and was giving nice area to work. I used bubbles as windows to separate my type from my image. I used Bauhaus Std. font for the title and Arial Narrow for the author name.

Fusion: I used Vanishing Point filter in Photoshop to write the title to create a unity with the image's vanishing points and the title. My fonts are Arial for the title and Arial Narrow for the author name.

Fragmentation: Different approaches in this method are to use irregularities, displacement, interruption and exaggeration in your type and image. And I wouldn't choose none of them when I think about the content of this particular book. But still explored it.

... And

2009-10-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

he said: "Stop trying to make yourself perfect every moment, instead just make the moment perfect!" :/

Dave McKean

2009-10-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

Dave McKean (Illustrator for Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" Series)
http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/

You can go crazy once you start to search for photoshop artists/illustrators/designers. I have gone actually! I think photoshop has given a chance to anyone who wants to become a digital artist and create a digital art without having a serious art background. Lots of them might have enough skills to please my eyes but only few of them has the ability to touch my heart and stay with me for a long time. Dave McKean is one of them. His conceptual works, colours that he uses, how he layers his images and his versatile personality reflected in his art, truly attracts and inspires me!

Alessandro Taini

2009-10-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Alessandro Taini (Concept Artist for Video Game "Heavenly Sword")
http://www.talexiart.com/

I have never been a fan of video games and always found myself having hard times to sit, play and enjoy them. But Heavenly Sword has become exclusion to this. It's main character, Nariko, has become my source of inspiration for my future graphic novel project. As if she was what I have been thirsty inside, a figure of strength and wisdom, while reminding me that we are not the stories our family, friends, people around keep telling us about who we are, rather we are what we have chosen to be. She still couldn't make me a video gamer but has definitely made me a modest fan of Alessandro Taini. Just be patient with his website. It takes some time till you get there and see his art works.

The Nude Wall

2009-10-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

Do you wanna check this out?

http://thenudewall.com

You can find some information under "About Us" page but it is shortly a new, online hub for artists, designers and photographers to upload their artwork into an online competition for their artistic peers to vote on and ultimately purchase. Artists get paid when their work sells - not just commission on the profits, but on the total sale price.

No entry fee for the competitions is required.

Stefan Sagmeister’s List of “Things I Have Learned”

2009-10-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

Just watched a 15 min. talk by designer Stefan Sagmeister and wanted to share his small but inspiring list of things he has learned so far!

Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doeses.
Having guts always works out for me.

perfectionism kills the enjoyment!

2009-09-30T00:40:00.001-07:00

Well, it does for me, but I think I am getting better on this. I have been teaching myself to play with things and have fun without focusing on the result and I got the taste of it with this illustration assignment. I didn't know where to stop, how much details should I add and how precise I should be but after I have realized that I don't even have to finish everything, I could leave some things/parts simple with a little touch or even not, I enjoyed myself and what I did, more!

This is one of my photos too. Thought using triad colour scheme (blue, red, yellow here) would do just enough job for this illustration. Now I notice that I could do some things different or even better, but I just thought I should let it go, as it is, and be happy with it! And I am...

blues

2009-09-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is my first illustration. I know it looks very simple and maybe even like cheating, but it was not that easy for me as it looked like. It is one of my photos and have chosen it to be able to focus on pen tool properly without worrying much about how to draw the shapes or anything else. And I used analogous colour scheme to get the same feeling in the original photo. I got more comfortable with colour swatches and pen tool after this. Am I kinda happy with the result? I think so...

Legibility

2009-09-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

It simply means how clearly something can be read and contrast is the key to it. Here is my example and I would welcome any rankings from 1 to 5, where 1 is the most and 5 is the least legible.

Simultaneous Contrast

2009-09-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

If the eye becomes over-stimulated by a single colour, the eye will attempt to balance it and will pick up a opposite of that color for any neutral area nearby that hue. I've used two different hues but the same gray for the background surrounding the butterfly. According to theory, I should see the opposite colors of these hues in the gray areas. What do you see?

Color Context

2009-09-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

I think this was the most trickiest part for me in this assignment. I have had hard times to choose my colours in my pattern to apply color context to it. Colour context simply means a colour will look different when placed aganist various colours. Although they are the same, they may appear different, like more or less bright when they placed near other colors.

Here is the tail wings and the frame of the big wings in the first and second have the same hue, saturation and brightness values. I think small, tail wings worked well but still not sure about the big wings. It's not the best but I think I have fairly achieved my goal. Any comments are welcome! :)

Color Theory: Advancing/Receding & Vibration

2009-09-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

Advancing/Receding:

Colours have advancing (means they appear closer) or receding (means appear farther away) quality. In other words, intense, brighter, warm (red, yellow, orange) colours come forward but less intense, cool (blue, green, purple) colours and darker values recede into the background.

Vibration:

Here is the theory; "Adjacent colours will vibrate if they are highly saturated (vivid) and roughly the same value (brightness or intensity)" But the vibration effect would be pronounced more with the complementary colours (the colours sitting opposite to each other in the colour wheel).

The first one above is my example for advancing/receding part and the second one is for vibration. I think vibration works well, but I am not sure whether I've achieved the goal for the first part or not. What u think?

Color Theory: Warm & Cool Temperature

2009-09-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Colours can be compared in terms of warm to cool. Cool colours contain blues, greens, violets and any colour steps in between. Warm colours more tend to be reds, oranges and yellows.

In this part of the assignment, I tired to create the same tile but 2 different versions, changing only their colours to demonstrate warm and cool temperature. I think this was the easiest step for me, the rest was more tricky. I was working on a butterfly pattern tile in the class. So, here is my warm and cool temperatures.

Eastside Culture Crawl: Visual Arts Festival

2009-09-21T23:21:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

The Eastside Culture Crawl (ECC) is an annual FREE 3-day visual arts festival involving artists in their studios who work on the east side of Vancouver, BC, Canada in an area bounded by Main Street to Commercial Drive and from First Avenue north to the waterfront.

You can find the details in the post cards beside, but the dates for this year is:

NOV 20: 5pm to 10pm
NOV 21 + 22: 11am to 6pm

Luckily, I have got a chance to be part of this event this year under the Octopus Studios and will be showcasing some of my works on print. Please check when you have time! I'll be reminding when the event gets closer, but mark it down in your calendars too. I would love to see you there!

Design Elements/Texture: Exploration of a Good Example

2009-09-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

I have chosen this book cover as my example for the use of texture in graphic design. It's a Turkish book and I've recently finished to read. The title of the book is ASK (you should read it as ASHK), which means LOVE in Turkish. The texture goes beyond a simple illustration of a leaf. It is actually a photograph of the radiography of a leaf, but in the shape of a heart. The strength comes from its clarity and simplicity.

For me, good photography is stronger than words. But if you have a good photography and powerful words, even better! If the photography is a good one (like here) then you can trace elements of design, which are well-used too. Lines here are veins of a leaf symbolically resembling veins in the heart. The life brought to leaves through veins is the same like the blood (life) carried by our veins to our heart. The novel tells a modern love story between a Jewish-American housewife and a modern Sufi living in Amsterdam, set against a historical background that narrates the spiritual bond between Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. So the shape here is a representational, intentional and meaningful one supporting the title and the content of the book.

Design Elements/Lines - A Self Critique

2009-09-18T03:37:00.000-07:00

My design element was "Scale" at first, and Jason had "Lines". He offered to change his paper slip with me and we did :D I was fairly happy with my scale exercise but not with my lines. So thanks Jason for the offer. It has given me the chance to re-do my line exercise and have a bit better snapshot to post.

In Line exercise, the objectives were:

-- To define, explore, and create lines of varying type, quality, direction
-- To create the illusion of spatial depth and texture
-- To explore lines ability to convey emotion
-- To gain experience using some of the basic drawing tools in illustrator.

I tried to create different type of lines with varying quality & direction and explored a bit more what the line is. My favorite part in exercise was creating the illusion of spatial depth by playing with blend tool. It was quite fun to draw very basics lines first and then fill in between. I didn't know what to come up and had fun. But it was a little bit challenging for me to work with lines to create a texture and emotion. My object for texture was close up of an old tree, but I think it looks more like a forest with thin trees and a sun behind. There is always a better one, especially if you are at the very beginning of your learning curve. Could be better but I am Ok with my texture. And creating an emotion was the hardest I guess. Since I love spiders and their nets, my hands unintentionally started to draw a spider net and a cartoon spider. What I felt afterwards were two, actually opposite, emotions. On the one hand, it gave me the emotion of being light but very agile and strong (for the hunter). On the other hand, there was a feeling of fear and falling in a trap (for a hunt). I think with my second try, I did better with lines and overall satisfied with what I did. I gained a little bit more experience with drawing tools in illustrator and gave a better demonstration of the Line element. I had some awareness about the importance of Line through photography, but hadn't had a chance to study it that closer. So this exercise taught me that Line is very simple to draw and work but could be the strongest element of design by carrying personality and expressing emotions.

Goal Setting

2009-09-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

One day Martha Graham, who was an American dancer and choreographer, said very quietly:

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

How truly and beautifully said! Her words made me remember that I have that vitality, the life force, energy moving in me all the time and putting me into action (like now it made me start to a design program). Maybe world is already full of graphic designers or digital artists but there is only me, only one of me in all of time. So my personal goal, here, is to unblock my unique expression and don't let it lost! Since there is no way for me to determine how good I am or how valuable what I did, my only focus would be just to keep my channel open and let that life force and energy move, in and out. And I know that when action is pure and selfless, everything settles into its own perfect place.

But...On the way to achieve this very personal goal, I do need some measurable steps to know that I am still on the track walking with a concentration and discipline. So at the end of 9 months, I would expect myself to,

-- Use Illustrator, Photoshop and In Design proficiently and take any design challenge without being afraid.

-- Learn conceptual thinking and add more creativity to my photography.

-- Build a solid and authentic portfolio.

-- Build my own website and manage it without being in need of any other person.

-- Get connected with my class, play and have fun with them :)

My source of inspiration?

Could be anyone and anything I come across with on my journey and help me tap into creative source within myself.