Week 14

this will be the last week for the semester...i still can't get used to it...still thinking that next week we will still having class...nvm...XDD

This is the most important thing i've learn from UTAR

in the past, i always the SOLO man, i don't often rely on others.
i never believe a group working on 1 design will be eazier...

however, in the Degree life, things get tough and tougher...
everything seems to be heavy on my shoulder...

Luckily, there are a group of friend always there for me...
lol, not to say FOR ME, we were there for each other...supporting each others' back...

i learn that, a designer need no necessary to work alone
working in a group, we can share the task, share the pressure, share the happiness and share the GLORY!!!

Week 13

i just realized there is a way to achieve creativity
is to break the stereotyping

usually when people talk about a story of a princess, the 1st idea comes to our mind will be, the princess is weak and being protected, spoilt, rich and most importantly is innocent.
people will feel boring with this kind of story, is like, we already know what will be going on next.
 the story will not be attractive...

 FOR EXAMPLE...Hunts man and the snow white
they twisted the storyline in another way, to give the audience a new and fresh thing, they will think that the impression of princess is suppost to be like this and that, however it isn't something they expected, but beyond their expectation.

same with the picture above, red hood, cindarella and snow white, the image has twisted the other way round, which give a new idea towards the audience...they will feel like..."oh whatz that??" they will have the interest to continue the story...

however it still depends on who are the target audience, like the previous assignment we did, storybook for children, the idea and creativity is some how limited... like the picture above will not be suitable to kids...

Week 12

The picture above is about a great designer, giving advises to the young designers

although i don't know who is this guy, i'm totally agreed with what he had said to us

im not going to elaborate 1 by 1, but just focusing on 1 of the lesson

"3.Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture"

"life is viceral"

in this generation, people are carrying electronic devices like smart phone tablet laptop everywhere...
even when we are having meal together, it is easy for us to notice that there will be atleast 1 of the gang will stare at the phone...
it breaks the connection between them and the world...

to be able to do good designs, we need to learn more, see more, and to adapt it without stereotyping

week 11

This is a graphic about a character from a Japanese Manga called Naruto
i started to read this manga since when i was in primary school...almost 9 years i've read...
at 1st i was reading it just for entertaining...as i grow older, i read it for learning...
learn something that parents, and teachers don't teach...

i witness the growth of the Naruto
since when he was a young naughty, but ambitious kid
growing up to be a responsible, helpful youth
that willing to sacrifice himself for the peacefulness and justice, for his country, for the world...

from the picture above you can see from left to right
he is growing up, obtaining new ability and using it in a correct way...
the process of life is strange, as day goes on, we have to grow, to be much mature than the old us...

the main key of growing, is to be able to accept challenges
have aim, and trying our best to achieve it...

Week 10

There is a game on facebook call Tetris Battle.
quite a number of my friends are playing this game, this is a nice and excited game i would say
this is the interface of the game.
and just before a couple minutes, i have arrived God of Tetris in both 2P and 6P

what im trying to say here isn't about how good i can play
i bet there will be a lot more people outside that are above me...
in fact, i actually learn something from this game.

for those who played this game before they should know, if 1 of ur piece placed wrongly
this game would be difficult to continue...needless to say defeating the opponent.
what i can say is, always place faith in ourselves, think positive when we are facing difficulties...
life is tough like tetris, as when we place the piece wrongly, it would be a disaster...
but if such accident exist, don't be tention and don't know what to do..
in fact we should stay calm and try our best to solve the problems before we lose the game...

if we are lost without trying to win, thats the disaster...

Week 9

I always stare at the night sky when im lost of motivations and directions, not only in the path to be a designer, but my life...
Suddenly recalled a memory from previous semester
"We can see there are many designers out there who are breaking the rules to find creativity, but rules are meant to follow, not to break"
"Before u breaking the rules, u must understand, obey and digest the rules"

it inspres me, not only on my way to be a designer but also my life...
but im not going to talk about my personal stuff here, i know it isn't proper to discuss about personal stuff here...

Rules are meant to follow, to guide us whether what is right, proper, and what is something that we should avoid to do...
before we approach to be a Great designer in future, we have to 1st understand all the principles and theories in design, breaking rules without understanding it, its like taking the risk to create bad design...

there must be a reason why rules exist...so...if it is not harmful to us, why not we just try to understand and follow it??
that's all for today...thanks...

week 8

i got this picture from a facebook that shares funny photos.

what it inspires me on designing is
things around us, are ordinary, normal, yet BORING...
to achieve something creative, 1 of the way is to combine these boring stuff into 1.
like what we see from here.
2 completely different things, people will never link it together but with creativity and nice observation, they achieved it.

week 7

this particular photograph was taken by me at Melaka.

i'm not good in photography class seriously, even though how hard i try to learn and practice, im still in the below average level. and i was there in melaka for a photoshooting trip under UTAR, i was stress because i dunkno what to take for assignments. but then suddenly there is a guy, holding his guitar and started to sing. i could feel his effort, his emotion, his feeling from his voice. i was kind of touched, so i stood there and watched his performence. after a few minits pass, i slowly realise, he was totally ingored by people around us, non of the people listen to him, his performence. suddenly, i felt the loneliness as i believe he might felt that too. But the loneliness doesn't stop him from playing his music, i seriously being touched by him, and i've learn something from him also.

i learn that no matter how people look down at our design or artwork, we as the creator, shall never abandon them. it's like how our parents treat us, never abandon us no matter what we've done.
we should treat our design as our kid, something that we put a lot of effort in. no matter how bad they look, just never abandon it, or insult it by saying "OMG its ugly and its from myself"

week 6

Look at this gate
this is what we call  CREATIVE design!!!

the 1st thing come to our mind towards the idea of gate is plane...made by wood or steel...and for sure the shapes or outline are almost similar...

there are many ways to achieve a good and creative design...but i realized only 1 would be the most effective way.

1. Forget the original layout or the stereotype of the particular things that we are going to work on.
2. Look around you, what you have beside you, or infront of you, anything could be the inspiration for your design

like for examples (im just guessing but there is a possibility), the designers of this gate might just probably playing a game about dragon, or walking on the streets and got inspired by a dragon poster...

i believe creativities can be inspired by something from our daily life.
the creativeness of the design is not that necessary to be beautiful than others, but special than others, in a way that people don't expect to see in their daily life.

week 5

The pictures i posted above there are a series of concept art for an MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role playing game)...but so sorry that i cant remember what is the name of this game. =u=|||

There are several things that i actually want to talk about with these pictures.
the reason why i posted these pictures isn't because that i love this game.
in fact, i don't play video games that often especially for online games.

First, is the EPICNESS !!!
the epicness still the major reason why i post these pictures.
i like stuff with epicness, like what i've mentioned in the 1st post in this blog
the epic musics that being used in majority of the best selling movies
also some epic movies that involves wars, the concept of gods and demons, all those kind of things
(for example, "300 The Spartan", "Lord of the Rings", "Immortal" and "Clash of titans")
from my point of view, i believe that the sense of epicness has a great power to motivate or improve the potential, spirit or even the faith within us. 

however, i found alot of people that actually dislike things like this
especially girls, they claimed that the storyline is complicated and boring

Second thing
i'm interested in collecting all these kind of concepts art. WHY?
for those who don't know me very well, they will not know that i'm actually having a hobby of writing stories and drawing my own comic
and the biggest aim of my life is to complete a COMIC book of mine.

well i can't say that i'm pro in it, but i actually have A LITTLE bit of experience of drawing comics
i've written story with epicness as well
and the most difficult part i found isn't about the setting of the story
but the CHARACTER DESIGN!!

designing characters for fantasy style of story is far more heavier than any 1 of us can imagine.
(i was refering those who got no experience with it.)
it requires alot of researches and observations, sometimes even references.
this is the reason why i collected all these concepts art, not to copy, but refer.
what i will do is to adapt their concepts, moods, designs and ideas, and improvise.

Week 4

After 2 weeks of suffering im finally back to UTAR and continue my studies...

i had my Drawing 2 lecture just now, and Mr. CK showed us Some TVC (TV commercial)
i found that a commercial actually could be very creative and attractive...
unfortunately, Mr CK said our class have no student is creative enough...
i will show him, in the Final assignment to prove that he is wrong!!!!
haha

week 3

Finally after almost 1 week of struggle, im able to go out today, but not for too long, just a while
just went to clinic and continue my MC, and my doctor saw my condition, he gaves me another week of MC, says i still not able to go out yet, but i think im fine now ? = =

nevermind, the post for this week im not going to talk about my sickness anymore

I hope if any of my reader could remember this cartoon from Nickelodeon, an astro cartoon channel, i 1st aware this cartoon when i was form 2, almost 7 years from now.
i was totally been attracted by this cartoon, the reason why is because for a american cartoon, the storyline and character settings are very creative, i never seen any american cartoon producer produce a cartoon in this kind of style, a NEW and CREATIVE cartoon i would say.

but i wasn't able to finish this cartoon since the Astro cartoon channel doesn't play the cartoon accordingly to the channel.
and very luckily, my girlfriend downloaded it for me!!! i always wanted to finish this cartoon !!!

ok its time for the main point, this cartoon actually inspire me a lot in terms of my thinking.
although it is a cartoon, but put down all the prejudices against cartoon, u could actually find alot of moral value or something nice for people to know from this cartoon.

it talks about WAR between 4 nasion, every one suffers from the war fire, they lost their families during the war, people force separating from each other, betraying, turn their backs on what they were believing. it discuss alot on HUMANITY.
then after all the mess, there is a Chosen One, came and rescue the world, telling us, never abandon our hope no matter what.

a very nice cartoon, i would say it is suitable from 3 to 70 years old... ^^ if u wanna try to watch, hope u can get something from it ^^

week 2

This is the 2nd week of my 1st year 3rd semester, and please congratulate me because im having CHICKEN POX!!! already 1 week absent from class since last week

since im having chicken pox, im not able to go outside the house. Within this week im very suffer from this desease, although the medicine was given, but its im still keep having fever, then recovered, then fever raise again...

however the 1st thing comes across my mind isn't my about my health, but my homework from college. like i said, i was sick until im hard to get up even for sitting position, not to mention my homework already then, even for now im lying down typing my blog.

What i actually thought is when im recover, i will have a lot of homeworks to be done
within a very very limited time period, and i know having chicken pox isn't a nice excuse to delay my work.

IT IS CHALLENGING and i LIKE IT!!

Week 1

Hello visitors, welcome to my blog
for those who don't know who am i, please allow me to introduce myself
my name is John Lim Chong Quan, currently having my 3rd semester in UTAR

this blog is dedicated for a particular subject in my university
so called "Creative Thinking and Idea Generation"
and i'm required to update this blog weekly talking about anything that i've learn, or anything that inspires me to think much critically and creatively, and also my ideas towards anything.

so the very 1st thing i would like to talk about is Epic Music!!
this is also the reason why i named my blog title as "The Reluctant Warrior"
its actually a name of this particular music.

here is the link, a very nice music i would say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jppobC_Inlk

i do listen to this kind of music everytime when i was doing my assignments and also some designs.
i found that Epic Musics like this are so motivative and it inspires me a lot in my work.
to me, Epic Musics provide me power, to stand against adversity, to fight for future (what i mean FIGHT here is to deal with Uni assignments and exams...XD)

in the end, i hope you guys will like it, and hopefully u guys can find something in this music
FROM THE BOTTOM OF YOU HEART...