Post-lecture (3) Thoughts: Iconic, Symbolic, or Indexical Sign?

Signs can be confused sometimes, and to me, symbolic and indexical signs can be confusing sometimes. A sign can take on iconic, symbolic and/or indexical meanings at the same time and the most important thing is to identify what it represents what it symbolizes and what it does have an indirect relationship with respectively.

Let's take a look at a few examples :)



The above is a common sign we see around in our daily lives. It can be an iconic representation of how we express the number "2" but symbolically, in specific cultural contexts, it can be a expression that expresses happiness. To verbalize it, it would mean "yayyy!. Pretty sure that I don't need to exemplify when and where we use it \/
(__)

The inverted version of it actually symbolizes a rude message in some cultural contexts as well, but not in the others. What a symbolic sign expresses, is dependent on the culture a society has.



The above is a funny sign the message that "marriage is the end of your happy life of singlehood" has always been a joke for many people because it is true in a sadly humourous way. It is an iconic representation of a man and woman walking down the red carpet in a Western wedding, and it is also indexical of the idea that your singlehood is officially over upon marriage. The relationship between marrying someone and the ending of life as a single person is abstract, however this relationship can be linked through this sign.

This a small discussion on signs, in a nutshell.

Lecture 3: Iconic and Indexical Sign Exercise

Today we did an exercise in class! Having insufficient time because we had another lecture after, we drew an iconic and indexical sign of "man" but Julian said it was too cliche! So we set out to come up with more iconic and indexical signs :)

Iconic Sign



Direct resemblance and representation of a black man's face. It shows his race as a Negro but does not have any other meanings expressed in the image.


Indexical Sign



Sign on the door of an eatery points towards the idea of racial discrimination against blacks.
No direct resemblence, no physical representation of a black man but both the whites and blacks who've seen this sign will understand that it is refering to a "black man" and the underlying meaning is supporting discrimination.

Assignment 1: Final Prototype

Concept 1



I changed the colour gradients a little, and i thought the hamsters can't be edited more.

Concept 2



i'm gonna stick to the perfume bottle, because the tie looks abit awkward hanging in mid-air in my opinion! as for the high heels, comments were that i should change the heels to stiletto instead of platform heels but i feel that platform heels gives the A a more solid feeling and doesn't exactly take away the attention that it's an A.

Hamsters?

AFTER LOOKING AT IT FOR VERY LONG, I THINK MY HAMSTERS DON'T LOOK LIKE HAMSTERS.

Greetings and feedback on Assignment 1

Hello all fellow NM2208 tutorial/module mates! :)

Fortunately, and unfortunately, I did not present today during tutorial due to a lack of time. However, it would be great if you guys can comment on whether my sketches are fine!

Stuff that I think I should improve on after going through today's critique session:
1. Noise - Too much detail will bring the audience attention away from the alphabet itself

Things to change for my final prototype: in Concept 1, my hamsters may increase "noise" and make the audience focus on the activity of the hamster itself and not what alphabet the hamster forms.

2. Alignment - Letters should be positioned at the same level in order to enhance easy identification

Things to change: I'm not sure if my concepts have any major errors for this point...

Alright! I don't know what to do with my hamsters honestly speaking. Hopefully I can get some suggestions? :)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, in advance!
<3
All the best for your A1 as well :)

Assignment 1: KT1101E Introduction to KAI (Concept 2)

Brainstorming Process:

There's black to prove that white is white. There's evil to prove that good is good. Similarly, there are things which I dislike to prove that I really like other things.
Feelings of liking something, is distinctively different from feelings of disliking something, and that describes, simply and by broadly categorizing, what we feel towards everything around us.

I'm generally a neutral person towards everything and usually I have no strong feelings of dislike but there's one thing which I believe, is almost innate.
I DISLIKE (apologies to people who like it) POLKA DOTS. I have not idea how these blotchy round things tessallated on a single surface can be deemed as aesthetic. But, I understand appreciation is subjective and I respect people's choices of liking it as well.

With this in mind, I decided to sketch a second Concept, Polka Dots. Polka dots on clothes, on accessories, on bottles or any possible objects, much to my dislike, of course.

(By the way, I told my best friend before that if she ever wants to wear a Polka-Dotted top out, choose a day whereby she won't meet me. It has never happened before but I guess if it really does, I'll just have to bear with it, I heart my best friend over Polka Dots so it's OKAY.)

Dresses, Pants, Tie, Playsuits, Perfume Bottle, Heels, Belt, Pouch/Bags and... Finger Nail. These were the items I've seen before in Polka Dots (ack) and I came up with different ways to shape them into K, A, and I, and at the same time, covering them in Polka Dots wherever possible.

(I have to admit that drawing a finger to show the finger nail was quite a morbid idea but I tried to make it look not so morbid. I'm lacking in drawing skills so I'm not sure if the finger came out well.)

Concept 2 Thumbnails



Looking at all my sketches, I chose Sketches 2 and 4 because I thought Sketch 2 made KAI look the most obvious and I quite like the combination of PlaySuit, Heels and Traditional Perfume Bottle. Sketch 4 was considerable because I feel that I should choose something atypical and unpredictable as compared to Pants and Tie in Sketch 1.

Concept 2 Roughs





Concept 2 Prototype



The fact that I'm drawing a self-concept which is supposed to show what I dislike, rather than like, I feel that adding in the concept of being a Circle is "better than being a polka dot" would help a little.

Assignment 1: KT1101E Introduction to KAI (Concept 1)

Brainstorming process:

Julian assigned us our very first piece of homework (Hallelujah!) and it got me thinking about what I like and what concept I can come up with.

Personally, I REALLY love hamsters. Not as pets (I'm quite bad at taking care of animals I think), but purely appreciation of them as an animal species on Earth. I've sat on the bus countless times and tried imagining everyone as hamsters. The auntie opposite me in tight-fitting black top and bling-bling shiny heels will look equally mismatched to her age if she's a hamster. The young boy with his mom is an epic image of hamster mom trying to restrain a cheeky hamster kid. Okay enough about humans as hamsters, that's a personal and private fantasy.
Riding on the concept of Hamsters, I began thinking about what else I like and a list appeared.

List of hobbies and interests: Muay Thai (Kickboxing), Japan/Japanese language and food, Money. Well, these are my utmost priorities now in life, at least.

After stoning, sleeping, and rolling around on my bed, EUREKA!

I wanted to come up with a concept that shows what I like, who I am, and also who I want to be. So I thought it would be interesting if I drew hamsters which characterized each "I" who I wanna show to others.

I want to (am going to) learn Muay Thai and show all those chauvanistic guys out there that I can kick their a**es and doesn't mean I'm a girl they can impose stereotypes on me or climb on top of girls using the habitual excuse of "gender inequality". My dream is to be able to translate Japanese proficiently in future and I'm equally obssessed with Japanese food :) As for money, well, money is never enough.

Hence, eventually I envisioned a fierce-looking hamster which is wearing boxing gloves for K". After that, a hamster stuffing its face with a triangular-shaped Onigiri (Japanese rice ball) sounded SO CUTE and so it was decided for my "A". Lastly, a hamster dreaming/thinking of money all day along as "I" is a close personification of myself as I've been taking up more than one part-time jobs to earn extra cash (personal reasons).

Concept 1 Thumbnail



Concept 1 Roughs



Looking at my sketches, I chose Sketches 3 and 4. For my "K", all looked similar but I preferred the combination of side-view of face and back-view of body as well as front-view of face and front-view of body. For my "A", I thought it is better to enlarge the triangular-shaped Onigiri as people (I assume) would associate a triangle-shaped object with A and not a hamster standing with feet apart/doing a cartwheels. For my "I", the general idea of a small young hamster aspiring to have lots of money is shown better in 3 and 4. Money, drawn as a dream bubble, or a flying piece of note, would explain it's position being above and floating just like the dot in "i".

Concept 1 Prototype