DPI : PROJECT 2 : PHOTOSHOP EXERCISES + REFLECTIVE WRITING

 

21/4/2025-30/5/2025 / Week1-Week6

Tan Tzu Yu / 0374460

Group 2

Digital Photography & Imaging (GCD61204)

Project 2

---

PROJECT 2 :

For Project 2, we are required to create a poster design using elements of photography, typography and vector graphics for the HONOR competition.In order to start , we must first decide on the themes and then the category we are going to do. There are 4 themes available :

1. Renewal of life: Return Contemplate, human beings' relationship with all things.

2. Cultural Prosperity: Celebration - A Totem of Renewing Festive Culture

3. Genesis: The Future - Imagine the Innovative World of the Future

4. City Inspiration: Beauty - The Scenery of Hometown

My final choice is Renewal of life as I have an idea of doing a digital surrealism poster.

MOOD BOARD (3 Poster reference)

 

POSTER 1	POSTER 2	POSTER 3

 

RESEARCH ON TOPIC

Theme: Renewal of life

Category: Magic Lock Screen

Title: Roots Remember Our Names

Summary of your design concept: This digital surrealist poster is a gentle invitation to pause, return, and reconnect. It plays with scale, nature, and symbolism to question what it means to be human in a world that we share with all living things. Set in an impossibly lush, dreamlike meadow—goldfish swim through the air, mushrooms tower like temples, and a massive cat watches peacefully over it all. A lone figure stands grounded in black, surrounded by the words: “Roots Remember Our Names.” These fragments of language are not just poetic—they're a call to remember who we are through where we come from, to reflect on how disconnected we’ve become from the natural world, and how surreal that disconnection really is. The Y2K and vintage textures add a layer of nostalgia, mirroring how we often look backward in order to move forward. At its heart, the work explores the renewal of life—a visual contemplation on how everything is interconnected, alive, and waiting for us to listen again.

SKETCHES OF MOCKUP POSTER

 

SKETCH #1 (Hand Drawing)	SKETCH #2 (Digital Sketch)

POSTER DEVELOPMENT

PROGRESS #1	PROGRESS #2

 

Theme: Renewal of life

Category: Magic Lock Screen

Title: Roots Remember Our Names

Summary of your design concept: This digital surrealist poster is a gentle invitation to pause, return, and reconnect. It plays with scale, nature, and symbolism to question what it means to be human in a world that we share with all living things. Set in an impossibly lush, dreamlike meadow—goldfish swim through the air, mushrooms tower like temples, and a massive cat watches peacefully over it all. A lone figure stands grounded in black, surrounded by the words: “Roots Remember Our Names.” These fragments of language are not just poetic—they're a call to remember who we are through where we come from, to reflect on how disconnected we’ve become from the natural world, and how surreal that disconnection really is. The Y2K and vintage textures add a layer of nostalgia, mirroring how we often look backward in order to move forward. At its heart, the work explores the renewal of life—a visual contemplation on how everything is interconnected, alive, and waiting for us to listen again.

Title : Roots Remember Our Names

Summary : This piece began as a reflection—on nature, memory, and the quiet bond we once had with the world around us.

In today’s hyper-digital life, it’s easy to feel disconnected. We rush, we scroll, we forget. But the earth doesn’t forget. The grass still grows. The goldfish still swim—even if, in this world, they swim through air.

“Roots Remember Our Names” is a surreal dreamscape that blends nature, whimsy, and nostalgia into one visual story. A lone figure stands in the center—perhaps lost, perhaps just still—surrounded by floating fish, towering mushrooms, oversized flowers, and a massive cat looming gently in the background like a watchful spirit. Overhead, fruit floats as balloons, reminding us that even the smallest things can carry us somewhere new.

The words scattered across the image—“Roots,” “Remember,” “Our,” “Names”—aren’t just decoration. They’re fragments of a feeling: the longing to return to something essential, something shared. They whisper the idea that even if we’ve forgotten our place in the world, the world has not forgotten us.

The piece uses vintage collage aesthetics, grainy textures, and Y2K design language not just to be visually fun, but to capture that bittersweet feeling of memory—how the past often feels dreamlike, distorted, and oddly beautiful.

At its core, this work is about renewal—of life, of self, of our relationship with the living world. It’s about slowing down and remembering that we are not separate from nature—we are nature. We belong to the field just as much as the horse or the flower or the drifting cloud.

Whether viewed on a phone screen or simply contemplated as art, I hope this image feels like a soft exhale. A reminder that no matter how surreal the world feels—there is beauty, memory, and meaning in our roots. And they still remember our names.

Fig 1.0 : Final Poster Design

Fig 1.1 : Final Overall Visual Design

Fig 1.2 : Final Square Poster Design

Fig 1.3 : Final Phone Display

Fig 1.4 : Final Flip Phone Display

REFLECTIVE WRITING

Through Project 2, I’ve get to explore more things in Photoshop and at the same time I had also get to recall back what Mr Fauzi taught us in class before , It was a fun and new experience. At first, it felt overwhelming but it became easier when I do more. In my opinion, brainstorming ideas was not that hard but the hardest part for me was finding the pictures that are suitable for my design and are my own photos, but luckily I did managed to find most of the elements that I needed and came out with a satisfied design.In this project I am happy that I get to explore Photoshop my own and play with all kinds of different designs,I didn’t just learn the functions; I also discovered how to be more creative and think outside the box.