WhitespaceLover

29 May 2011

Photos Feel Goood

When gloomy days come, as creatives we look for ways to bring the sunny days back in our life so we could continue being designers, artists and, ahem, lovers or whatever role we play. It’s simply hard to come up with nice designs when you feel like your insides have turned into mash potatoes, even your swift 15-inch MacBook Pro feels like it’s been wrongly injected with a decaf espresso when you're not in-sync!
So What to do? As for me, when these days come I turn to my personal Happy Days Archive, a.k.a iPhoto and Canon S95. It simply lifts you up to see vacation pictures, friends smiling, silly videos etc. Of course, no one can expect you to find endorphins seeing my family and friends fooling around, so let me just share these nice sunny pictures that is sure to make anyone feel better. Enjoy!

ile a vache, haiti photo from a distant hill

Île à Vache, Haiti. Always makes me feel good when I see this photo. Especially when it's gloomy, raining outside and when my insides feel like mash potatoes.

Abaka Bay, Île à Vache, Haiti. Good days. Good days.

Oooooooooh. The South!

If you enjoyed these photos, please let me know on the comments below. Thank you!

19 May 2011

Illustration: Cohones69 Mafia

Cohones69 Mafia. Those were the days... when everything seemed simple.

Some illustration a year back. This is perhaps how an Asian style mafia/gang would look, without the letters on the shoulders though.

And yeah, if you miss simple days... way way way back then, I endear you to leave a comment below.

16 May 2011

For The Love of Whitespace

“But whitespace is more than just a design style that was attacked and defended in Switzerland. As often demonstrated in Whitespacelover, it’s a discipline. It’s everywhere and in everything we do. It’s the lull between melodies, the calm before a storm, the breath before an I love you too, the stillness in prayers and the silence that allows us to communicate. Whitespace is life!”

-An excerpt from PubliGestion’s entry

When whitespacelovers are not busy eating, breathing and loving designs, they’re usually working as designers for creative agencies.
Here’s an entry, written by yours truly, at PubliGestion’s Bloggers Block—a blog where I also co-write. It’s a celebration or more like a tribute to The Swiss Style Design also known as, International Typographic Style or International Style. Without it our appreciation for excellent designs will not be the same. Of course, this is a visual design blog, so here are some visual goodies I created for this entry at PubliGestion.

One of the most useful, versatile and powerful law/philosophy of them all. If you apply this to your life, everything will change.

Ever wondered about what's the true motivation behind lorem ipsum? Hahaha!

Brush stroke. Nice Eh? If you notice, most of the images follow Pareto's Law. ;-)

Copyright © PubliGestion S.A. & Whitespacelover a.k.a. poNg li 2011 All Rights Reserved, unless stated otherwise. You may copy and/or use the content of this blog only if you acknowledge this blog and other party as the source of the material.

14 May 2011

Illustration: Stuck

"Cat Lover"

"Where is Henri?" A custom book jacket for Henri's gift last Christmas.

Okay, let’s be happy today. It’s the weekend! Just found these illustrations that we could all get amused with. No complicated designs or effects today, just nice colors and lines.
Personally, I’m amused by how technology has evolved. Now we could draw straight in the computer using Wacom. Would really love to have a Wacom Cintiq one of these days, it’ll be a good upgrade to my Wacom Bamboo.
And I need to say it again, whitespace is not always white.

11 May 2011

Illustration: The Tycoon

The Tycoon. Digital illustration in Photoshop. It's amazing how dreams in your head could turn into an illustration.

Modern tycoon-inspired illustration... actually more like Austin Power’s archnemesis Doctor Evil world domination kind of inspiration. A bit Chinese in theme, especially with the three dragons, Kuan Kung and the money tree on the side. Oh, the furniture is also Chinese, based on the emperor's dark hardwood chair and table.
Notice how whitespace is not always white.

08 May 2011

Packaging Design: Belly Deli

Belly Deli rice meal is project with Creative Juice /Manila 5 years ago, but I never saw its completion.

Adobo is a traditional Filipino dish of pork marinated and cooked with vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves and pepper corns.

Tinapa is smoked milk fish typically sold by street vendors in the Philippines.

Bagoong is a Filipino shrimp paste, sometimes made with crushed chili. Can be found in a salty-sweet or salty-hot variant.

Here are 5 reasons why we love working on Belly Deli’s packaging designs and why we would love to do more packaging designs in the future.

Packaging design incorporates all design and marketing aspects—logo, look, feel, legal requirements, shelf visibility etc.
Packaging design is the root of upcoming materials, such as posters, brochures, flyers and TVCs. Like a logo, a packaging is present everywhere. Personally, I think it is the less corporate version of a logo.
You need to think in terms of 3D when you make a packaging. There is front, back (in other cases side and bottom.) the material it’s made from, the thing that it will contain etc. It's a refreshing break from the 2D world.
When you’ve finally produced a packaging and see it come to life, it feels like you’re seeing/holding the Holy Grail.
Hands down, it’s fun to do packaging! You can play with it more.

Copyright © Whitespacelover a.k.a. poNg li 2011 All Rights Reserved, unless stated otherwise. You may copy and/or use the content of this blog only if you acknowledge this blog and other party as the source of the material. Belly Deli was a project with Creative Juice /Manila that never saw completion, and is displayed here for portfolio purposes.

04 May 2011

Film Photography

Pizza Delivery! ;-)

Honda Civic, full speed!

Walking at night. Katipunan Avenue.

Do you still remember those days, when there is no such thing as LCD preview, delete and GB on your camera? I personally miss those days, when you really have to think of each shot and spend hours in the darkroom making images come alive. There's somehow art to it.

01 May 2011

Ultimate Whitespace

One of the wonderful things you could do, is to exercise. It’s uncommon to many creatives to actually hit the gym, eat right and sleep right. It is as if a designing job comes with certain habits that naturally lead to a less healthy living. That’s why it's nice to work on the design and copywriting of a fitness centre. It somewhat awakens your gym mindset.

When you need to bring the best out of a brand/client, it also brings out the best in you.

Ultimate Fitness logo, was actually conceived thanks to a colleague's belt shape. The U in the logo is actually her, demonstrating a yoga position in our office at PubliGestion. It's surprising where inspiration comes.

Ultimate brochure, SideA. Everything we do, we take it to the Ultimate.

Ultimate brochure, Side B. Everything we do, we take it to the Ultimate.