Common Module - AY25.26 CTS B

As of currently, I do not find myself particularly good at a specific area of design, but I do find a lot of interest towards illustration, and since young I have always liked coming up with my own characters and adding my own narrative storyline to it. I had a natural inclination towards reading picture books as well, so I had a lot of exposure and inspiration, reading picture books since young. I have always liked children's books and dreamed of creating one myself.

When it comes to my design impact, I would like my impact to be towards children/ youths, normalizing expressing emotions and reaching out for help, especially in the field of mental health/ psychology. The reason why this impact means a lot to me is because I have lived experience with mental health, and I believe that advocating for it can help reduce stigma and raise more awareness. I am also a gymnastics coach for kids and youths (age 3-13), and given my exposure working with them I have learnt what their interests and temperament are like, which would help me create my own picture book in the future.

If freelancing my own picture book doesn’t come to play, I would love to help design visuals and media for youth non-profit/ social impact agencies, innovating ways to reach out to youths more, this could also weave illustration into the works I create. Some youth mental health organizations I know of is Impart SG and Limitless SG.

Steps I would like to take is to diversify my portfolio with varying works of illustration and also adobe software works, and perhaps try to do my internship within a youth social impact organization.

One design reference I have is this children’s book named “This World might say this, but I believe that!”. It is written by Kelly Tay and illustrated by Chloe Chang (Fig 11, 12, 13). This book “challenges some of society’s most entrenched ideas about childhood — giving parents and children a new way to connect on a deeper level.” (Chang, 2025)

I thought this design reference is very appropriate to my design vision, as it explores stereotypes or stigma in the realm of feeling emotions. This children’s book also touches on the topic of mental health as well, which is something that interests me greatly. I love that it debunks some common societal myths and gives a new perspective on these statements. Additionally I really love the representation of the multicultural races that we have in Singapore, intentionally reaching the local audience.

Overall, I believe that following my passion and knowing what motivates me is important! With the correct support and knowing my design direction can greatly help me pursue something that I enjoy.

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My group’s final manifesto, “Identity is the key to the world,” emerged after a long process of refining ideas. Although we initially struggled to craft a slogan, this statement captures how essential self-knowledge is. Understanding one’s identity allows us to unlock our potential, generate fresh ideas, and collaborate meaningfully with others. It became clear through our discussions that identity is not just personal, it shapes how we see, interpret, and influence the world.

Collaboration also played a meaningful role in the manifesto process. My group and I exchanged ideas and experimented with ways to visually express the slogan. Our final illustration, featuring the Earth as the base of a key and the word “identity” as its shaft, was an attempt to balance the concepts of “World” and “Identity.” (Fig 6)

Although the drawing was slightly rushed and turned out a bit messy, the process itself reflected our collective effort and negotiation of meaning.

Now on to more personal reflection— I think there are some common themes within the different topics we learnt in CTS-B. While I feel “identity” is the base of all our topics, there are a few other subthemes such as creativity, self-reflection and criticality. I would additionally add two slogans “Create always, think deeply.” and “Art history doesn’t define us, but propels us forward.”

Thinking about our first slogan, I reflected on Week 1’s exploration of the relationship between critical thinking and creative practice, as well as Week 3’s discussion on how designers can act as social agents. These two weeks overlap in the way they encourage us to engage critically with society and create change through thoughtful design. I applied these ideas to a concept I developed for my Visual Journalism module (Fig 7 & 8), where I focused on raising awareness about migrant workers’ issues. Researching case studies and listening to their lived experiences helped me understand how design can amplify voices that are often overlooked.

I did not end up using this for my final project, but I thought that this was good research of a current social issue, and the way it can be portrayed visually through photography. 

For the second slogan, I connected Week 4 and 5 together as we were looking at Artistic lineages. I strongly believe that having awareness about art history and previous artworks really helps us to become stronger designers, as we learn from the past but enhance it to create something better.

For example for Craft, we learnt the concept of Folding, and using it for our zines/ publications in design. When I did some research, I learn that folding dates really long ago, especially in Origami, Japanese culture, as shown in Fig 9.

Now, folding has translated to more contemporary design, such as this fashion designer experimenting with folding in clothing (Fig 10).

Overall, there are a lot of valuable takeaways from CTS-B, really enhancing my knowledge about identity, creativity, culture and development.

When I think about my critical self-reflectivity, I have very good emotional intelligence (such as processing my emotions and working with others) but when it comes to idea processing, sometimes I struggle. An example is for Studio this year, my project mate is Huyen. In the initial stages of our project, I was able to figure out what the task is and collaborate with Huyen so that we can be aligned. However, when it came for both of us to split up the work load and each of us took one brand idea each, it became challenging for me to figure out what to do next.

I found the double diamond diagram created by the British Design Council very interesting to look at (shown in Fig 3), and I probably get stuck in the “Discover” stage quite often. I do quite a lot of research for my projects, but sometimes the exposure is either not in the right direction or is not narrowing down my ideas effectively. Therefore, because I do not have the right foundation for my ideas, I find it hard to progress to the “Define” stage and so on.

A specific website that I'd like to explore is "It's nice that", a platform for designers to share their works, as shown in Fig 4.

Their mission is to:

"inspire the global creative community. We champion diverse talent, showcase original projects, offer industry insights and nurture creative growth." (Itsnicethat, 2024)

Given their mission, I love how diverse the platform is and all the creative works that designers come up with, and it is a great platform to gain inspiration from.

Therefore, using the Double Diamond framework and websites like Itsnicethat, I would like to target my research to be a little more specific, but also exposing myself to more design elements as well.

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Design Council, British. “The Double Diamond.” Design Council - Design for Planet, 2025, www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/the-double-diamond/.

I think that having a strong identity in your work really allows for individuality and makes each designer or artists’ works a lot more personal or special to them. I particularly found the class activity to be really engaging, working on a visual identity for myself. I decided to create a social media profile picture for myself, and it is shown in Fig 1.

I decided to use a whale shark and cat motif to show my passion for these animals. The illustrative design choice is used as well to show how I like illustration. The whole design looks quite cartoon-like, and I think that is just my natural drawing style. 

I think one thing I can be more intentional with is why I use these two animals for my profile picture, and how I can integrate it into my future portfolio.

When I got home, I worked on fine tuning my profile picture by adding color (as shown in Fig 2). I deliberately chose a light purple shade to the background as it also shows my preference for brighter colors. As I didn’t spend too much time doing this, a bit of the lines are a bit messy - which I could work to clean up a bit more. I think another part I could explore is the typography as well, perhaps instead of handwriting my brand name out, I could use a specific font instead to standardize across my brand.

Overall through this exercise, I have learnt to lean into my passions and interests, and use it in my work to enhance the personal quality in my designs.

I think that due to Critical thinking and Creative practice being contrasting in nature, they make good tools to create more dynamic products/ works. Through the lecture, I also learnt that they are not mutually exclusive, but they do work hand in hand with each other.

One example is Human-centered Design (HCD). HCD is a type of design that focuses on people and their context. They "They seek to understand and solve the right problems, the root problems." (IxDF, 2021). This design practice is intriguing to me as it requires a certain level of empathy and understanding, and having to critically analyse human’s behaviors and patterns to come up with certain design solutions.

One example of this is User Experience, or commonly known as UX. This was first introduced by Don Norman, when he realized that designers also needed to recognize that computers have a certain way of working that contradicts human behavior. In the 1980s when people started to use computers more, problems started to arise. The early Unix Ed system did not prompt users to save their work, leading to many of them losing their work unexpectedly. Using the UX approach, human-centered designers started to realize the functionality of computers, and continually make developments that make users' lives much easier.

For example, as shown in Fig 5 - a dialogue box was created to improve the experience of people working with these tools.

Therefore, analysis and critical thinking is a continuous feedback loop, the two processes feeding into each other. I am learning about UX in my digital skills class. I would like to translate critical thinking into making my website and apps more applicable to human patterns and behaviors.

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I think that this module was a very challenging one and more philosophical than I thought. There was less of the practical stuff but more of the theoretical stuff; which is way out of my comfort zone - but really expanded my perspective on how art is connected to so many things around us. Especially regarding Week 1, 2 and 9 where we discussed phenomenology, aesthetics and cultural materialism, these topics really got me to think about how the world functions around theories and ideas, and really shapes how the world works as a whole. My favorite week was probably the Semiotics week (week 4), because the main gist about it is perspective-taking. Culture and environment really shape us as humans, and depending on what we learn also shapes how we view the world. I think perspective-taking is really important for us as artists as it allows us not only to expand our ideas but also cultivating an open mind.

I can also connect WOII to my interests such as how children's books are created. Zooming into one week about aesthetics, aesthetically wise childrens’ books have a certain style, such as its playful and immersive elements, bright and bold visual and typography as well. There is also a language aesthetic accompanying it as well - repetitive, short and upbeat phrases such as “Brown bear brown bear what do you see?”, a famous picture book by Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jr. With all these elements in play really helps me to understand when I illustrate my own children’s books in the future, what factors I should be considering, since my target audience would be young children.

Overall WOII is a module that really stretched my thinking skills, and helped me to think more critically on different topics, art movements as well as philosophy.

I think being aware of the art ecosystem is really important for us as artists to really understand the different stakeholders but also resources around us that we can utilize to create our works. I strongly believe that art is all about collaboration, having people get involved, getting people inspired but also inspiring others. With this cycle in place it really allows everyone to grow as designers and artists, to create more meaningful pieces for the world.

As for my internal art ecosystem, a career that I would love to pursue is a freelance childrens’ book illustrator. This would mean getting in touch with various authors, publishing companies but also expanding my network of other illustration organizations out there as well. One well-known book publishing organization in Singapore is Landmark Books. They are an independent Singaporean publisher specialising in high-quality illustrated books, Asian subjects, Singapore literature and children’s books (Landmark books, 2025), as shown in Fig 11. I really like how they have a variety of books supporting budding local authors and illustrators in Singapore. As for Singaporean’s local illustration organization, it’s known as the OIC (Organization of Illustration Council). They host various illustration inspired events, to help illustrators share their works. One main event they host yearly is called FOMO, an art market for illustrators to share their works, as shown in Fig 12. Having awareness about this event can help me consider if this is an event I can participate in in the future, giving me this opportunity to promote and share my works!

Overall having an art ecosystem is inherent as a designer or artist, allowing people to make connections and create a cohesive network between each other.

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I think that Postmodernism is an interesting topic as it really allows for creativity and spontaneity, which really allows artists to think out of the box, but also make new and meaningful connections to other topics. One such example in the design industry would be Barbara Kruger. I really love how she integrates cultural influence within her artworks, allowing us to question and really think about how our culture shapes our identity.

Her most famous work, “I shop therefore I am” (1987), as shown in Fig 9, is a commentary on consumerism culture. It talks about our capitalist society and how consumerism has influenced us as humans. Aesthetically wise, she uses a lot of bold typography contrasting against a muted color background - which is the epiphany of postmodernism since the layout is not only a very dynamic one, but also a very conceptual one as well.

When I think back to a postmodern style that I have applied in the past, I remember one work that I have done for the craft module last year, as shown in Fig 10. We were supposed to think about different types of lines and use different tools to create a composition of various lines. I found it quite challenging to just let loose and allow myself to creatively showcase the different lines, but in the end I found it fascinating the different textures that also came to life in the process.

I have noticed when applying the postmodern ideals into my works, sometimes we just need to have fun and embrace the process. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to postmodern works, just embrace and self-interpret.

I thought Semiotics was an interesting topic as it is quite subjective, and it was intriguing to me to make connections about how we interpret certain things. There is the denotation part, based on what we see, that is more literal. However it was the connotation part which was interesting, as everyone can make their own judgements on what they see.

For example, taking this poster from Mahatma Gandhi hospital, they are trying to show a message that smoking and drinking is similar to being “trapped”. The denotation would be that the cigarettes are shown as jail bars, and you can also see a silhouette of an alcohol bottle around it. However the connotation would be very different. The reason why cigarettes are shown as jail bars is because they want to show that just as inmates are trapped in jail, cigarettes can also have the same effect. The alcohol bottle may not be as prominent, but also enhances the connection to the jail cell concept.

While the poster connotation is pretty literal, some people may not have the same idea. If the caption below was removed, I think that the poster can also be interpreted that cigarettes have the same consequences as drinking perhaps. Both interpretations are valid, and just goes to show that elements of a poster are both inherent to add clarity and meaning to the design.

Overall Semiotics are part and parcel of the design industry, and I think as designers we need to be mindful about the different interpretations that can come out of our works, and how we can make it as clear as possible towards our intended audience.

Today was a bit of a recap for me, since I had already learned design analysis when I was in SOTA. However I found it intriguing the processes used to make/ design certain objects. Particularly from the lecture I was really fascinated how the Bamboo was used in Thailand to create very intricate patterns and handicraft objects (TATnewsroom, 2020), as shown in Fig 1. I definitely noticed a lot of things are influenced when creating the pieces. There is contextual influence, how the process of weaving has been passed down from generation to generation, so there is this traditionality and unwavering practice that the weavers use when creating their handicrafts. The material they use is also organic, and is native to their country - thus making it easily accessible and also enhances the culture they are in. Taking this practice also makes me wonder about the culture that I am in, how can I use Singaporean culture and integrate it into my works? Whether it be using the concept of the food, the way we speak, the diversity of the people here, all these things can be used in my works to build a greater sense of identity. 

As for Week 6, the field trip was an enriching experience for me that had a lot of cultural motifs everywhere I walked. I particularly enjoyed seeing a lot of the Malay and Islam shops, and I thought the area was a very bustling, colorful and lively area. Regarding the task assigned, in response to categorizing activity we did previously, a unique theme that my group did was “ocean theme”, as we had coincidentally brought items that relate to sea creatures, namely a paper mache dolphin, a crocheted octopus, a stingray souvenir, and a small glass bottle with a ship in it. To add on to this category, I found a roll of cloth that had pictures of small fish and coral on it - and thought it would fit nicely as it also has to do with being underwater (as shown in Fig 2 & 3). 

For the new category, I wanted to analyse cafes in the area. I noticed that cafes were a huge part there, and that they all differed in their style or theme - but remained consistent with their minimalist outlook. I noticed that with their advertising, they mainly use clean typefaces like san serif fonts, and try to make customers feel comfortable there with their simple and chill designs. A few of these examples are shown in Fig 4-6.

Overall I think the field trip enhanced my ability to be more observant and recognize why designers would choose a certain style or theme to their particular design project. Especially in the F&B industry, their designs always appeal to their audience.

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Today I learnt that aesthetics is not just about the pleasing qualities to a piece of work, but also about recognizing the distinct and unique qualities to a particular work. In class we analysed different signages, and I thought it was interesting to categorize and make connections to the signs we see around us. 

Furthermore, I was pondering whether aesthetics is an objective or subjective topic. Perhaps it does not matter, or, an answer may be that aesthetic properties have both subjective and objective aspects, which are perhaps even inseparable, at the same time (Pećnjak, 2019). The article argues that an artwork can be perceived as beautiful by someone due to the qualities the artwork may have, but the artwork can inherently also have the beautiful qualities that may not necessarily be subjectively viewed. I think the article is a very complicated one, but I thought it was interesting to learn about aesthetics from a research perspective - that aesthetics can have a lot of meanings to it.

I can also connect aesthetics to our current project for Studio. As we create our postcard, poster, brochure and catalogue for a particular artist, it got me to think about my artists’ style. I have chosen Odermatt & Tissi, and here is an example of how I have utilized their aesthetic to create my own poster.

Given they are Swiss designers, the lines and shapes are really clean and have a very structured grid system. I used the similar diagonal grid format and similar lines in my poster. I think as a designer myself - it is important to take some qualities from an artist, but it is also important to add some of my own personality inside it as well. That is why when we compare Fig 7 & 8, you can see that there is a gradient in Fig 8, and there is also a lot more playfulness in the lines I have used. Learning about aesthetics helps me be more critical of other designer’s works and take their qualities to enhance my own works!

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A collaborative project I’d like to do is exploring the connection between Music and design. I find music a very open ended course, as it requires a lot of experimentation and exploration, especially with composition. I think it will be cool to initiate a project where students can explore how various types of music makes them feel, and explore different types of font and typography to create their own posters related to the music genre or song. For example, pop music generally has a very upbeat and catchy tune, so bright colours and bold font may be applicable to create the posters.

A final project that I’d like to do is a children’s book on mental health. I strongly believe in imparting mental wellbeing and regulation techniques from a young age. Kids are human too, and can feel intense emotions at times. I hope by illustrating these regulation techniques in an engaging and narrative way will help kids to learn how to manage their emotions better, and carry on these skills into adolescence as well as adulthood.

A career that I want to pursue is a children’s book illustrator. Collaboration skills will be very important in this profession, especially when working with authors and publishers. There can be a lot of ideas exchanged between both the author and illustrator, and finding what works best for both parties is crucial for the publishing process. Conflict diffusion may also be an important skill as between the author and I there may be some disagreements with how the illustration process might go, and being able to openly share opinions, receive feedback and find a compromise is key.

“Understanding and Managing Emotions: Children and Teenagers.” Raising Children Network, 4 June 2024, raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/development/preschoolers-social-emotional-development/understanding-managing-emotions-children-teenagers. 

Photography - I think digital media can apply to the photography module. Recently, we had a typological assignment where we photographed some images according to our selected topic. I chose to do hospital food, 9 separate photos but keeping the blue bento box constant. (Fig 1) I think learning categorising and documentation skills makes us more conscious about our environment. I have learnt to be observant with things around me, and how I can creatively make connections between my immediate and remote surroundings.

Craft - For craft I applied my collaboration skills. For our week 2 class, we learnt about the concept of lines. I worked with some of my classmates to convey an idea using only string and yarn. (Fig 2)  In the end I feel more than the actual creation process itself, I also learnt how to communicate and figure out what we can do as a team. I found my strength in getting the discussion going, keeping the flow by asking further questions for idea development.

Digital Skills - Week 5 about growth mindset really resonated a lot with me. As digital skills is quite a challenging module with a lot of softwares I am unfamiliar with, navigating those challenges proved difficult for me. Having a growth mindset while learning digital skills looks like being okay with failure and mistakes - and not letting them define me as a person. I want to let those challenges motivate me instead, to consult my friends or teachers when it gets really difficult, and learn from those mistakes and try to do better the next time.

Studio - The first lesson where we defined what critical thinking is can be applied to Studio. Since Studio is mostly about creating our own artworks, having a sense of self-identity is important. I loved the lecture by Pooja Nansi, where she helped break down identity into five questions that you could ask yourself. In the future if I get stuck about how to make my artworks more personalized, I could always revisit these questions and figure out how to apply one of those questions inside.

Nansi, Pooja. “Critical Thinking Skills A Week 1 Film Pooja Nansi.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Aug. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAHqOIuCsUs. 

As my group mates and I were pondering on this question, a metaphor of a snail came to mind. (fig 1) Snails are very slow yet tentative creatures. In order to get to a particular place, they have to crawl very slowly. You can also find them in the most unexpected places. People have associated snails with patience and resilience as well (Kravitz). The same can be said for the Critical Thinking module. There are various soft skills and values that we learnt and can apply in design, which is never a race but needs to be learnt slowly and steadily. Just like how we find snails beneath our feet; sometimes through unexpected experiences, we learn to find a way to apply the skills.

The lesson that resonated the most with me was the Emotional Intelligence topic. I strongly believe that emotional intelligence is something we build as we interact more with others, and comes from the heart. That is why in our drawing we described the Emotional Intelligence topic as the core of the snail, with a motif of the heart in the centre. I find emotional intelligence a strength of mine, as I find it easier to empathise and relate to others experiences. However, I also learnt that forming boundaries is also a crucial part of emotional intelligence, knowing my extent of helping others without expending my own mental health.

A topic that I could work more on is week 6, about facts and reliable sources. We decided to put it as the trail that the snail leaves, as we believe that research is a process that happens as we progress through a project. We may not find all the information or sources at one time, but it takes accuracy and determination to continue reading articles. I believe that when it comes to doing my artist references for Studio work, this topic helps remind me to always citate my sources, and always look for reliable websites. (Fig 2)

Kravitz, Abigail. “Snails in Myth and Reality: What Do They Symbolize.” Medium, Medium, 18 July 2024, medium.com/@aquakerleaf/snails-in-myth-and-reality-what-do-they-symbolize-1135be099e3f. 

Describe an eventful moment you have experienced in this class, bearing in mind the key ideas of the day.

I think the second week of critical thinking was a very eventful class, as I was able to bond with my classmates more than ever before. We split into groups to create a monument, and my group mates were Aiden, Xin Ying, Serena, Sung Yeon and I. I thoroughly enjoyed the session as I was able to bond with my classmates, and there were a lot of good conversations and laughter that day. I really loved the silliness of our idea, to create origami chicken with cultural clothing - which did go as predestined but eventually figured it out. We even tried to fold an origami chicken with an A2 paper, but the paper was so thick that although we had the shape, the folds would not stick together. Eventually our end product was partially incomplete, but I was grateful for the time I spent with my classmates and getting to talk to them a little more that day!

2. Include selected images of your personal sketches, and explain them. In particular, which sketches did you like most? Which least? Why?

I think overall my sketches could have been more compositionally diverse, but I definitely tried my best to explore typography and how I could use the shapes of the letters to my advantage. I also liked how I tried to include the theme of “moving”, as it is a company that helps transport boxes and other products. Undertaking the challenge of using my non-dominant hand to draw was definitely quite difficult and frustrating at times, but I like how I had to concentrate more and trust the process of drawing slower than I usually do.

Left: I specifically like this one as I like how I managed to connect the “C” and the “y” together, while still maintaining readability!

Right: This one I don’t really like as it was the last one I did, it was recommended by Tim to enclose the word in a circle, but I don’t really like how it turned out as it became a little messy and not much creativity behind it.

Q1. We talked about “self-management”, “self-awareness”, “empathy” and “relationship management”. Which aspect do you think you are the strongest at, and which is something you should try to improve? Discuss with reference to today’s activities, and even your studio collaborations.

I think that I am strongest at “empathy” as I can really relate and understand my friends, and really try my best to support them in the best way possible. Because of that I really try to listen to my friends’ problems, not necessarily always giving advice but trying to give comfort and understand where they are coming from. As for which one I want to improve, I want to improve “relationship management”, as sometimes I can be too intrusive of people’s problems and I tend to also overshare too much without being considerate of other people’s boundaries. Today’s activities were really enlightening for me, as I was able to talk to Qi En and build a stronger rapport with her! I really loved the questions given as well, as it helped me to practise talking and having a conversation with someone I do not talk that deeply with so much. While she didn’t share much of her problems, I definitely listened in-tune and was open to her sharing! For studio collaboration, listening is very important and I think I have demonstrated it strongly in many of the group discussions we had!

Q2. What have you learned about Mindfulness? How might you integrate this into your learning environment?

I learnt that mindfulness is about being present in the moment, that despite whatever may be going on in your life - to put it aside and focus on your physical and emotional cues and let it tell you what you might be feeling right now. We tried a 3 minute mindfulness meditation before class started (Headspace, 2022), and it really helped me to be aligned with what was going to be taught in class. It definitely wasn't easy especially with the thoughts in my head, but I think with practice it will become easier. I think I can integrate these 3 minutes of calm by being mindful and taking just a few deep breaths in between each class to shift my mind to whatever the activity planned may be. I might’ve had a difficult time during the previous class, but being mindful will allow me to transition to the next class smoothly without being too overwhelmed by the past.

Q3. Describe an eventful moment you have experienced in this class.

I thoroughly enjoyed the introductions from all my classmates! During the sharings I really got to learn their nationalities, as well as the hidden talents of my classmates. I also really loved how I got the opportunity to reflect on things that I would want to share, to form a new identity that I would want my classmates and Tim to know. I also think Tim is a really humorous and amusing person and teacher, and I really look forward to more critical thinking classes taught by him and learning more about it with my classmates!

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