A fail attempt at Visual Design

As part of my major (Educational Communication), we are required to take DEVC141 (Visual Design and Techniques). And apparently, I'm not that gifted with the arts. My drawing skills are on par with an elementary student, and my photoshop design skills are somehow near average.

For a bonus exercise, we are tasked to do a logo challenge. I am to create a logo for Tito Ding (a staff in Devcom), and his business of selling kropek. 

And voila! 

Behold my output as a result of a futile attempt at designing, huhu. Now that I think about it, I made Tito Ding's face (yes, I stalked him on Facebook and downloaded his photo haha) look like KFC! LOL. And look at that prawn dangling on the letter P! Credits to the owner of that google image. Haha.

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Confession of a Shopaholic 1

This is not a book review.

This is a confession. A confession of a shopaholic.

Well, I really don't know if i should be called a "shopaholic". But then, I digress, if I cannot be called as a shopaholic, then what am I? Nevertheless, let me tell you my tale.

Ever since my boyfriend and I broke up, I have some extra money left. Though it's not that much. (Back then, that money was used for our every weekend dates. lol) So now, every time I go to a mall, I always, always bring out my ATM card (I always deposit my savings :D) and pay via BPI. Haaiist. CAll it impulse buying if you may, but I just really can't stop myself from buying... especially when I read these 4 dreadful letters: S-A-L-E.

So a while ago, my mom and I went to the mall to bring her laptop to claim its warranty services. Since it'll take time, my mom decided to go home and asked me to stay behind and wait. While waiting, I roam around and found myself at the department store. Without any further ado, I just noticed myself buying a pair of sandals and a tee. -_- Not only that. I also went to the grocery store and buy all those luxury toiletries I just bought. Not to mention I also bought an earring, necklace, anklet and a ring today.

It's not too much. Isn't it? Usually, "shopaholics" spend around more than a few thousands in just a single purchase. But I just spent around P1,300. Still, that's not the point. The point here is instead of saving, I always end up saving.

And frankly speaking, I'm scared. If this is how it's going to be... then I might not achieve what I want to achieve in the future. I will just be stuck in the middle of waiting and wanting, but in reality, there's no progress and the cycle repeats until I'm old and grey: saving a little, spending too much.

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In an Attempt to Make Him Happy

Poem written on Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 8:41pm

If I remember it correctly, my ex-boyfriend needs to pass 5 poems about certain topics. And on our conversation, he happened to have asked for my help. Being the willing victim girlfriend that wants to make her boyfriend happy, I obliged and wrote a poem about the topic "nature".

But to make the long story short, in the end, he did not use this. And thus, the irony is not lost on me: what a befitting title.

Forgotten and Forsaken

I have been walking endlessly

In this land full of misery

I hadn’t known the Earth would be

This lonely without any glee

I forced my eyes to see

What beauty has forsaken me

Rivers that are brown

Made my head go with a frown

Trees are cut mercilessly

By the machines effortlessly

I hear them crying saying no more

But the people just continued just like before

The love of Mother Earth has turned blue

Her sadness is felt without any clue

 Is this her revenge for everything we’ve done?

I wish time would return to do things undone

The hotness is felt by everyone in this place

The ice is melting leaving no trace

This indeed is global warming

That happened without any warning

Of course we deserved this

Since we’re occupied with our own bliss

Being very happy, you and me

Forsaking nature by means of technology

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LSS Song: Payphone

And I'll always love this song cover.
Payphone by Tiffany Alvord. ♥

Her voice is soooo angelic, and this cover (for me, anyways) is the best!
Even better than the original. 

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't likeMaroon5. Hell, I love them! But this song has just been too mainstream for them. I mean, hey, what happened to that classic vibes Maroon5 gives me whenever I hear "Won't Go Home Without You" and "She Will Be Loved"? It's loooooost.

So anyways, yeah. talk about LSS. It has been in my top charts for 4 weeks already. ;)

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Self-representation: Personal Logo

My very own personal logo.

This output is for my DEVC141 class - a personal logo. I really hoped I have portrayed myself well via this illustration. 

I used a lipstick, a kissmark, and a heart at the end of my name. I wonder what people thinks about it? Haha. I wanted to show I'm a bit girly, kikay and quirky at times. Haha.

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Reflections: Development Communication as a field of study

This article is originally a reflection paper submitted to one of my courses, DEVC70. I posted it here because I think it roughly provides an overview of what my course is and especially and what I think about it.

            When I first entered the college, I have no idea what course I am taking. I thought it was something similar to Communication Arts, Mass Communication and BS English to some extent. Indeed, I wrote this course in my choices because it has ‘communication’ in it. So you can really imagine my surprise when our first lesson way back in DevC10 was poverty.  I have no idea why we’re talking about poverty, why we’re talking about malnutrition, the poor poorer and the rich richer, why we’re talking about development. That’s when it hit me: ‘development’. I thought Development Communication was about improving communication tools, media or something like that. But I realized I’m extremely wrong.

            Development Communication, as a discourse, is not focused about communication. It is mainly about development... the development of the nation and the people in it. How are you going to communicate to the people to improve their lives? To unleash their individual potential in order for them to grow and develop without needing any help anymore? Indeed, it is the use of communication in development.

            Communication in development... communication for development. What’s the difference? I believe that DevCom nowadays is more on the first: communication in development. Maybe back then, back in the 1970s, when DevCom was first introduced, communication is just a tool for development - an external factor that is used for the society’s upliftment, that aside from communication there are many other ways for development. But now, I believe that DevCom evolved, one way or the other. It does not only use communication as an external factor, but communication is in development. It is now something internal, something necessary for people to develop. It is rooted deep in there; that without proper communication, whatever means people would use, development will be inefficient and ineffective.

            After rethinking everything, one would question: isn’t the main purpose of the discourse too ideal? Too noble? Too good to be true? Well, at some point, yes, it may be. It may be too ideal and not all of those ideals are feasible in reality. But then again, if we ourselves are to lose hope on us, who would bother go out of their comfortable lives and help us? We just need to have a positive approach on things. We can make the objectives of the study of Development Communication come true little by little. Maybe this is also Dr. Quebral’s realization when she changed the definition of the discourse from a ‘speedy transformation’ to a ‘planned transformation’: development need not be rushed, it just needs to have a specific time frame as a goal or a guide. We can take improving ourselves in our time, at our own pace. And if each and every one of us will use, apply and spread the values DevCom is sharing, then maybe, the Filipinos of this generation can experience being a citizen of a first-world country. We were once there during Marcos’ regime. Of course, we can do it again... with people participation, the right attitude and the right mindset. 

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TypARTgraphy

While the ever famous typography is artistic arrangement of different typefaces, font sizes, length and spacing, typARTgraphy is a play on the words typography and art. Basically it is the use of different typefaces, letters, colors etc., to create a visual art.

My DEVC141 teacher challenged us to do just this. So here's what I came up with:

This is a whale. Well, at least I intend it to be.

I used the lower case of the letter "L" as the body of the whale. Small "V"s for the fin and for the water coming out. The water sprays and the tail is composed of the letter "3". The eye and the mouth are done using the characters, ) and ^ respectively. 

But, then again, with my visualization skills and designing techniques, it may not do justice to typARTgraphy. So here are some of the better examples I found on Google. Click the photo to view the original website. This artist is indeed talented... *sobs.*

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