The Bag

I have known this animation for a few years, and remembered about it yesterday for some reason. It was made by Erick Oh, and is hand drawn.

About Erick Oh (from his website):

ERICK SOOHYUNG OH (오수형)
Erick Oh is an award winning animation artist based in Los Angeles. His work has been introduced and nominated at Annecy, Siggraph, Anima Mundi, Ars Electronica, Student Academy Awards, LACMA Director’s Night, and numerous other film festivals. He spent most of his life in Korea where he started producing a variety of work, in which the boundaries were blurred between media and contents. Even though it is in animation where Erick feels most comfortable as his main tool to communicate and interact with the viewer, he would not consider himself only as a film maker but as an artist who continues trying to expand the definition of animation and art. By building on his fine art background established in Seoul National University, Korea where he achieved his BFA degree, he continues his in-depth study in animation. He is currently enrolled at UCLA’s MFA graduate film program.

Çubuk Logo Progress

This time, I think I made a lot more progress than the “Ç” prototype. I cleaned out the white chopstick stand, and discarded the clumsy ç, and made another one in the same form in another style from scratch. The first one looks very bad because the ç is smaller. The other two look similar but they’re actually different because one of them is more condensed than the other – although not so quite.  I think I like the last one better. So here is the result:

Logo – progress?

I know that neither of the both might be used as a logo, but I’m going to try and see if anything will evolve from this.. I really need feedback though.

Territorial Self Portrait

Here’s my photography homework, territorial self portrait. My intention was making a circle or hexagon with my head in the center of it, and my arms protruding from everywhere in different actions but it didn’t quite turn out that way because;

1. I didn’t have enough subject matter

2. I couldn’t set my tripod high enough so I had to get help from mom – who is much shorter than me and she had to use a ladder. Seriously.

3. Even though I checked the light several times, checked the angle at every shot and instructed mom how to take the picture, she didn’t quite do it as I wanted it to be.. I can’t blame her though.

So, anyway, my favorite shot is the one with my dog, Miki. Here is the whole thing and the one with Miki:

 

Ç is for Çubuk

I don’t really like letters like ç, ş, ğ, ö and ü. I guess because they mean extra work. Sigh. Anyway here is the prototype of Ç of the Çubuk Chinese Restaurant Chain Corporate Identity Project that I’ll be working on this term for VA 301. I used a bamboo chopstick and carved the tip, dipped it in ink and drew the first one, and then converted it into vector in illustrator after scanning it. Did a few editing since it badly needed it, after learning how to use the pen tool from the tutorial I told about. So this still does need editing. And maybe I won’t even use it. Though I think I might somehow turn it into some kind of a logo. I tried – unsuccesfully – turning it into a fortune cookie but it doesn’t really look like the letter Ç when I do that.

Illustrator Pen Tutorial

I was having an issue with Illustrator since I’m not very used to the program. This tutorial here helped me out a lot with its videos. So if you don’t really know how to use the pen tool, the tutorial teaches you in max. 10 minutes.

 

Tüyap Exhibition

Remember about this post about the picture I made? Well it’s going to be displayed in the Tüyap exhibition, starting tomorrow until the 8th of November. Be sure to go see it :)

 

aBowman

I loved these gadgets from aBowman, which you can add to your page if you wish to do so. Love the animation.

Here are some screenshots from the aBowman gadgets.

What about the style? – The Istanbul Guide / Search Engine Idea, Keşfekeder

Here are some images that I think will be helpful of the VA 301 class to define the interface of Keşfekeder, the Istanbul city guide/search engine site.

I think this might be the closest one to keşfekeder, since people can have their own accounts. Istanbulcityguide helps in categories such as events, hotels, information, sightseeing, shopping, fairs and so on.

It might seem totally unrelated, but myanimelist is basically a search engine where you can have your own account and select what you have watched, rate it, and have recommendations about it. Plus the layout is very very simple to use. The same system could probably be used for for keşfekeder. People could rate other events and recommend other events for other people too.

Ege told about not for tourists last week in class. It's layout is quite simple, and you can have your own account as well. I liked the neighborhood part of the site. Might be useful to use the same thing as "semts" in keşfekeder. Love the simple map. This screenshot is from the London page, but they also offer service for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, Philedelphia and Atlanta.

Lonelyplanet is one of the most popular tourist guides in the world. This screenshot is from the Istanbul page. Lonelyplanet focuses mostly on permanent places and events because they cannot constantly update the whole worlds' events. But the basic layout is nice, and you don't have to search for a long time to find what you are looking for.

Rough Guides is another popular tourist guide like lonelyplanet. But I think the layout and logo doesn't look as professional and simple as lonelyplanet and the given information is much less. I think the guidebook of this brand might be more detailed though.

MSN city guides is pretty nice for US locals. The screenshot is from the Miami, FL page and as you can see, the weather forecast, a detailed map and featured restaurants, events etc. are shown in one page.

TimeOut is another popular city guide. This screenshot is from the Tokyo Page. Personally, I think it's in the middle of lonelyplanet and roughguides in the sense of quality. And I guess it works both for tourists and locals. It seems like they update events like the istanbulcityguide, so it's more local than both lonelyplanet and roughguides. The layout is quite simple, therefore finding the information you want is very easy too.

I know the layout of the Australia Community Guide is below average and all, but I think it might give a good idea of content. For example the sub-categories of the title "Animals & Pets" are Aquariums & Supplies, Birds & Wildlife, Dog & Cat Boarding & Breeding, Dog & Cat Clipping & Grooming, Dog Training, Horses & Pony, Pet Care Services, Pet Foods & Supplies, Pet Shops, Veterinary Services. Well I guess giving information for the locations of ice-skating places in Istanbul will be useful for the people who are interested in ice-skating..

Istanbul.com is a website still in beta. The layout is simple, but the logo seems like it was stolen from somewhere. People can have their own accounts, but I'm not quite sure how it works. This might also be close to keşfekeder.

The World Travel Guide is just another classic travel guide website, and just like roughguides, the website doesn't provide much information. The important thing is, you can print your own mini-guide from this site. On the left side-bar, you can click "Printable Mini Guide" and the site gives you choices to select like "Sightseeing", "Shopping", "Culture" etc and you can print your own guide. This function could be useful for keşfekeder.

I guess one cannot leave out Wikia while talking about an information site. Usually wikia sites are the same format as wikipedia, just like in wikitravel. Honestly, wikitravel doesn't give any useful information about Istanbul for people who live in Istanbul, but on the other hand, people are very familiar with the wikia layout and might want to use an easier site like this one.

Istanbulartlist is a guide of events related to art in Istanbul. I really do like the map in this guide. You could view the pdf of the guide if you click the image.

Many people who use the most popular search engine, Google, does not notice that they could customize their own google with iGoogle, when they log in with their google/gmail accounts. This screenshot is from my own customized iGoogle, and I do find it very useful at times. Keşfekeder, as a search engine, could do use with customizable banners and applications as well.

Another customizable information site/search engine is mysu used by the students of Sabancı University. Keşfekeder could use the same system of applications since our Course Schedule could be replaced with an Event Calendar.

I use Flock as a browser because it's very prone to being customizable. I am sure I will use keşfekeder too if it might prove to be easy to navigate and if I could customize my account and widgets/add-ons.

What about the style? – The Second-hand / Handmade Clothing & Accessory Shop Idea, Bitpazarı

Here are some images that I think will be helpful of the VA 301 class to define the style of Bitpazarı, the second-hand/ handmade clothing and accessory shop.

BLOKE Clothing provides hard to find and exclusive brand name evening casual wear for men in Calgary. I liked the slogan and the placement here.

The Attic wholesales used and vintage clothing to companies and individuals all over the world.

Another image from "Attic Vintage". The barrels look quite interesting, and this setting might attract the younger population.

Again, an image from Attic Vintage, but this time we see a wall of clothes. Quite original.

More photos from Attic Vintage, which is very close to the image of Bitpazarı in my head:

"the ATTIC Vintage Clothing Store is designed in a distinctive retro look and feel. Its like stepping into a time machine. 1965, here we come!"

Another vintage clothing store, peanutbreath, has a wide selection of vintage clothing too. I think this one is not bad, although the Attic has much more options. I like the clothing racks of peanutbreath though.

I really also liked retrostar, which is in Australia, just look at the store. Love the changing rooms.

There is also a Right to the Moon Alice Vintage Clothing, who claims to have worked with several movies including "Mona Lisa Smile", "The Kite Runner" and "All Good Things". That's quite impressive, and their 20,000 square foot warehouse is too.

So I guess these kinds of places have rows and rows of clothing in a large location where people have to thumb through for a long time to find something just for them. But this might be more attracting since most of the clothes are one of a kind.