LIMELIGHT'S PROFILE

When a self-confessed 'database person' turns his mind to the creative field, the results can be most surprising. Just ask this month's student limelight, Benjamin Encarnacion.

Wowing the crowd at Aniwow

Benjamin loves cars, gadgets, games, Japan...and New Media. After four-and-a-half years of working in the advertising and graphic design industry, he returned to The One Academy to embrace Multimedia Design and exercise his previously acquired knowledge in a new field. That seems to have turned out well for him, as he and his team recently bagged First Place in the Best Interactive Web Design category at the Beijing Aniwow! 2009 Awards, a yearly international competition aimed at encouraging young creative talent.

"Kids in Malaysia below the age of 10 are getting obese," he said of the motivation behind their winning project, 'Is Your Kid Chubby?'. "This is notable for younger parents because of their negligence for their kids at an early age; they let them eat too much and spend less time with them. They are also at the age where they're very busy and may not have time to be with their kids like they should. The challenge therefore was how to carry out the serious message "is your child getting too fat due to your ignorance?" in a very direct and memorable way. Our creative solution: communicate the seriousness of child obesity in an entertaining and informative format. 'Is your Kid Chubby?' also ties in to our art direction which was also cute and simple.

"Our lecturers Joanne and Eugene were happy with our work and mentioned that after a few minor enhancements, we should enter it into a web competition. On the horizon lay the Beijing Aniwow! 2009 awards which had a related category for 'Best Interactive Web Design'. We went for that. We spent about a week doing simple touch ups during our semester break to enhance certain sections before submitting the CD to the Communication University, Beijing, China."

The spirit of Malaysia Boleh

Benjamin and his teammates, Dominic Chin and Tan Sue Lin, were the first students from The One Academy and indeed Malaysia to take part in the Aniwow! Awards. Their success came as a welcome surprise against stiff international competition. "For three of our team members, it was their first trip to China! It was beautiful - and cold. We needed a lot of jackets. We met several international students as well, and gained much insight from Western professionals such as the pros from Dreamworks as they shared their techniques for animation and art It was a friendly, high-spirited experience to be with people all over the world that are just like us."

He confides further, "To be honest with all of you, I initially had doubts about taking this elective subject (Advanced Web Design) at first. However, a few of my close friends encouraged me to just do my best and most importantly have fun doing it. I walk away happy, satisfied and with a great sense of accomplishment. It does not matter what elective you choose. Every selection is correct. You just need to be passionate and happy with what you're doing to achieve such greatness.

"I hope that after this our juniors will feel inspired to enter Aniwow! in the future and make the presence of the One Academy stronger in China. Malaysia Boleh!"

Success, happiness and the Moon

Beyond the classroom Benjamin describes himself as meticulous, resourceful and absurd. "Humans cannot grow feathers, so we build machines with wings to fly or pack a huge amount of gunpowder on a 3-stage cylindrical rod just to go to the Moon. I've learned that sometimes we just have to be very radical whenever we approach a problem in order to tackle it as creatively as possible. The key is innovation; how do we either evolve or change the rules of the game to be one step ahead?

"I find that I love this line of work so much, I tend to give as much as I can to make it simply outstanding. I've learned however, it can sometimes dangerously lead to over-thinking or becomes decoration rather than solving the problem. As a creative business designer, my challenge is to find equilibrium between speed and craftsmanship: the balance of light and shadow. And not to get sick while doing it," he adds.

With two majors now under his belt, Benjamin plans to return to the creative industry. "I believe this to be the perfect combination in contributing to richer, creative business solutions for prospective contacts. (In five years) I see myself being transformed into someone that can be of great help to those who need my specialized skills. There are no shortcuts. I have to prove that I can be a causative value to a company first."

In parting Benjamin has this to say: "Success does not bring happiness, but happiness brings success. All of us are born into this world with nothing, yet after we're gone, anything we do echoes in eternity. So whatever you do in life, must not just bring joy to others but joy to yourself. Otherwise you're merely polluting the world. You'd never eat in a restaurant where the lead chef is a skinny, sad bloke. Know what you want to do in life, focus on it and become the best in your field. Make your specialty the reason everyone wants to go for you."

This month we speak to Tan Zi Hao, a New Village boy who has successfully dabbled in commercial art, fine art and even the performing arts.

Curious Kyoorius Culture

Zi Hao makes a big point of infusing cultural elements into his work. "I think image-makers are interpreters of culture; whatever we do reflects our background and social upbringing. The value of an artwork lies in its historical and cultural relevance. As visualisers, our knowledge of local history and tradition is highly important because that is what makes us original." He further adds, "History and culture are substance to design. Design without substance is superficial."

This is the sort of young man Kyoorius Designyatra had on hand to design their Siar-Siar guidebook when the renowned design conference and talking space arrived in Kuala Lumpur in 2008. He and his team joined Figtree Design Studio's experienced designers to come up with a whimsical guidebook for visiting designers to learn e about Malaysia's capital city. "Considering the targeted readers... the places and products introduced in the booklet were hand-picked based on what my group mates and I deem inspirational to them. The cartographic illustrations contain many details and the copy needed to be interesting. The booklet needed to portray a fun and zestful journey for all.

"The idea came from logical thinking, by visiting and observing Petaling Street and Jalan Tun H.S. Lee again and again. I'm pretty happy with the outcome as that was the first book we made. I personally hope that the tour guide booklet is a successful visual translation of the essence of the streets and the journey. Being different from other guidebooks, I hope the readers may find it interesting to explore the kitsch and the profound culture within their trip." Zi Hao is still itching to give the project another attempt, however, citing the organized design and 'polite' typefaces as being out of step with Malaysia's noisy streets.

Art for art's sake

We mentioned performing arts earlier, which our young subject is quite happy to talk about. "I initiated a theatre group called Logamaya. We have done two series of plays since 2007. The group focuses on socio-political commentary, satire, dark humour, conceptual plays and performance art. Our topics are mostly political.

"Projek Semai is another art project I initiated to introduce art education to early learners. Inspired by community art projects like CAIS, it is an attempt to bring arts to the children through conducting non-conventional workshops based on studies of Montessori's method and Piaget's theory."

'A relevant visual artist'

On the topic of inspiration, Zi Hao has this to say: "My principle for inspiration is it should be derived from the concept that we have and nothing will do better at inspiration apart from the concept itself. I try to avoid using visual references during my working progress. Even if I have to, I will only get a minimum amount of references and analyse them thoroughly.

"There are people whom I've met and have immensely changed my notion of art-making: Marion D'Cruz, Mark Teh, Fahmi Fadzil, Fahmi Reza, Joseph Foo, Chu Yuan, Farish Noor and the late Redza Piyadasa (never got to meet him, only read about him). They don't inspire, they make me aware of the intrinsic values that most of us have but have never appreciated. This awareness later becomes my source of inspiration."

Now that he's graduated and headed for greener pastures, Zi Hao wishes to continue working on his projects and research, read up extensively on local traditions and venture into fine art. "Not interested to work in big agencies," he says firmly. "It's a little ignorant if you ask me to further my studies in the West - no point studying foreign culture when we don't even know about our own."

Zi Hao is also currently writing a series entitled 'Decoding Serdang', some parts of which have been published on arterimalaysia.com. Just when you think he couldn't get any busier, he also works in oil, produces short films, makes sound art and experiments with sound and extreme music. He sets himself quite the timetable, but it's all part of a plan.

"I hope to become a relevant visual artist (being relevant is more important than being merely 'established' today) in Malaysia. I will change people's mindset about arts and culture, generate awareness and appreciation on culture. Hope to have the opportunity to educate the younger generation about local culture, arts and design language. How would I do it? Read, research, travel and read."

Bruneian designer Lee Yi Zheng has many dreams, and perhaps one of them involves a world free from the itch of a mosquito bite. The young designer and her group pitched a packaging design to Merck Industries, and we speak to her today about the experience.

Sway the bugs away

For practical training, Yi Zheng and her group (Jonathan Yap, Melvin Gan and Vince Lee) had to design a package for sunblock containing Merck's IR3535 insect repellent. The result was Sway, the casual sunblock that 'keeps the mosquitoes away so the fun stays!' The idea was triggered by a long brainstorming session and a commercial featuring Japanese star Kimura Takuya. "While we were watching the Gatsby Body paper TVC, Takuya's dance movements made us think of the swaying movement people do when they're chasing mosquitoes away. Through that, we drew more in-depth conclusions about 'Sway'. Watching funny video clips does pay off!

"'Sway' is derived from the movement of swaying away after using our product to repel mosquitoes and insects. It is also the movement of the hand driving away or catching mosquitoes. Sway also has the same pronunciation with the word "Suay" meaning 'bad luck' in Hokkien. We concluded that while being bitten by insects is very disturbing, if 'you' were the only person being bitten it would make it even worse."

A glimpse of the future

It wasn't all smooth-sailing for the student designers, however. For a few weeks, they became quite familiar with the effects of design by committee. "Every time we showed the client (representative) our work, she would be pleased - then the following week or a day before the meeting, she would come up to us with a lot of complaints not from her, but from (her) other colleagues," she laments. "We had to keep on altering our designs. To solve that problem we got the help of a fellow Merck project group head's opinion during the meeting. Things went much better after that." Despite such other hiccups, Yi Zheng and group finally passed with flying colours.

"This project has really exposed me to what the industry will be like once I step out from college," she says, able to frame the experience in a positive light. "At least I having a short preview of what I'm about to face helps very much to prepare myself in the future. Our goal was just to satisfy the client's needs, and of course win the pitch. We finally produced a variety of promotional items and two sets of marketing plans for IR 3535. As for what I hoped to achieve, it was to develop the idea further to convince the client to buy our idea and also to add this work into my portfolio."

To sleep, perchance to dream

Yi Zheng went on to be elected the Marketing deputy head for her batch's graduation campaign. Before being part of the marketing team, however, she had never had the experience of approaching potential sponsors for assistance. "On the other hand, it was fun because I got to travel around meeting people and trying to understand more of their companies."

On the design side, she draws further inspiration from her dream world ("I love sleeping") and the words of her lecturer Kins Lee. "He always motivates us to going crazy with our ideas and constantly reminds us to be human. 'Real world, real world' is what he always says and it always reminds me to think deeper with practicality in my designs and ideas instead of just pretty but non-functional design." Her studies motivate her to understand more about the world around her and translate it into her work.

Yi Zheng aims to make her mark in a top ad agency and, fuelled by the success of her career, go "chillin' with mates in Greece". We certainly hope that no dream is out of reach for this aspiring young designer and her people-centred approach!

Loh Tion Ming is a down-to-earth, hard-working young man. This time we speak to this Johorite with a penchant for print, Photoshop and playing piano.

Professional content

When it comes to work, Tion Ming prefers print media and campaigns, as evidenced by his strongest works. "(Print media and campaigns) are more challenging, interesting and fun. It really makes me want to work hard thinking through a concept and exercising my design sense; without these two things, it is impossible to do a print campaign," he states firmly.

"It's a basic requirement as a designer to have a sense of design and how design communicates, so people looking at it will know directly what message you have to tell. Though design skills are a convenient tool, don't depend on them like software. The important thing is a relevant concept and theme, and how you design and play on it."

Interest drove the young designer to The One Academy and then to major in Advertising and Graphic Design, a field of communication in application all over the world. His goal is simple: to inspire people with his best work and show them designers are professionals, not just individuals who create without thinking or meaning.

Three years of dreams

Tion Ming's strength lies in ideation, or so he says. "It's the most important part when creating any artwork and showing our creativity in communicating with people. I'm good with digital manipulation, and have lots of experience with Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, but I still want to improve many more of my skills. It will help me to edit the works more realistically and efficiently, and see the work to completion. But I'm not fond of reading! I can't sit for a long time to read a book and stare it down. I will try to change these bad habits as soon as possible. After all, as a designer, patience also plays an important role, right? I'm from a Chinese-educated background so although my English is poor, I'm working to learn and develop a grasp of it. Language is also a weapon nowadays."

Between assignments and projects, Tion Ming plays sports, mostly basketball, for teamwork, indulges in Chinese calligraphy to train his patience, and plays the piano. For him, translating ideas into artwork is much like performing a concert. Indeed, when we interviewed him for this piece he was on the cusp of graduation. Was he planning to spring a new opus on the world?

"Three years have passed very fast - it's like a dream, or like it happened yesterday," he mused. "Over these years, I've really learned many things. Being a designer sounds very nice, but deep down you need to be patient and to spend a lot of time thinking without sleep. It's hard but when your work is finished you will feel really satisfied and happy with the results. All that time you spent brings you happiness. When people look at it and say, 'Wow, well done!' it really feels like you've succeeded in your life. Sometimes you may feel like giving up or wondering if you have the ability to continue. But when these stupid questions come out, I just...carry on. I'm a bit scared now I'm going to step into the real world, but I have the confidence to handle my job and just do well as a designer. It's something to remember before heading out to work." With such words, one can only presume the way ahead is bright for this TOA graduate, and we wish him every success!

This month, Eunice Ang shares with us a story of triumph over all odds, wooden towers, and how she won the Bronze Junior Designer Award in 2009.

Game for victory

At first glance Eunice Ang might just look like your average young lady who loves handicrafts and cooking. But looks can be deceiving, for by the end of her second year with The One Academy she already had a Young Designer's Award under her belt. Taking part in competitions was her way of boosting her confidence in her work, and such a chance came once more when the Junior Designer's Award 2009 rolled around. Confident by this time in her furniture designing skills, Eunice signed herself up and literally started her game plan.

Eunice's entry, Tumble Tower, was a modular sofa based on the combinatorial game theory of Jenga, a game involving a tower constructed of fifty-four wooden blocks. Players are required to remove one wooden block from the tower and balance it on top. "You can see both concave and convex lines where some of the wooden blocks have been removed," she explained to us. "From there, I thought of adding function to the sofa. Apartments have limited space, so for me a practical apartment needs a multi-functional, space-saving sofa for the living room. That's what I took care of when I was designing."

Eunice prides herself on being hard-working and punctual, and indeed managed her time very well during the contest period. After finishing all her assignments (and never before), she spent most of the time that remained on developing her design and tutorials with her subject lecturer, Mr Tan Tiong Lay. But there was yet one more hurdle to overcome: producing a 3D rendering of the design when one has not yet had formal training in the software.

Help across majors

To solve this problem, Eunice went to batchmates in Digital Animation and requested a crash course in the necessary software. "It was a really tough struggle for me but they were very helpful. They asked me not to give up and taught me patiently...One of my other strengths is being able to ask questions, because while asking questions, I learn more interesting things in studies and life."

Some sleepless nights later, Eunice submitted her entry and hoped for the best. While she had hoped for some sort of win, she could hardly believe it when Tumble Tower won a Junior Designer Award (Bronze). She has also not forgotten the driving force behind her success.

"If not for my classmates and lecturer, I would not be answering all these questions right now. They kept encouraging me to take part when I felt like giving up. Also my family and friends, they really supported me when they knew I was taking part in the competition. Thank you, my lovely family and friends!"

'Be practical, yet crazy'

Upon graduation, Eunice plans to take a month's break and do some part-time work for the experience before setting off to pursue a degree. "In the future...I see myself as an art director or already owning my own design firm, maybe? Ha ha. I wish that would happen when I open my eyes next morning. I'm sure it's going to be tough, but I will work hard to make that moment come. And I think support from my family and friends is the greatest motivation for me."

"For me, design should go crazy but not over-the-top, especially in interior design. It should lean towards the practical side because it's space designed for people to live in. My advice to my juniors is to work smart, not just hard. Always know what you want and express it." We look forward to this practical designer's new creations. They're bound to be stunning!

For our Illustration students, drawing becomes more than just a means of expression; it's a way of life. Chew Shing Yi speaks to us this month about the path she chose to take through her major.

The journey of an artist

Blessed from an early age with sound skills in drawing and observation, Shing Yi took part in several competitions through primary and secondary school, culminating in her winning a full scholarship from The One Academy. "I was extremely happy and since then have never given up drawing," says the Teluk Intan resident. It was then a natural choice for her to major in Illustration, as she "felt it was the right path".

During her final year Shing Yi was elected as her graduating batch's treasurer. "It was a big responsibility for me to manage and keep track of my batch's funds. Even so, I learned something from it and quite enjoyed it." Since then she has graduated and at the time of writing, is pursuing a Graphic Design degree in the United Kingdom. "I chose to study Graphic Design as I wanted to know more about design. The ability to come up with new and fresh ideas is important. With all of these implemented we can communicate the visual message that we want to share with the audience."

Hobbies and careers

For Shing Yi, illustration is an opportunity to draw and play around with many other mediums. "I always feel very lucky and blessed that my hobby will be my career," she explains. "It has led me to the right path of my life and passion. I believe that with a strong base, anyone can handle different types of art styles and more work opportunities will come naturally.

"I feel that there are a lot of things out there for me to explore and to figure out. After I graduated with my diploma from TOA, I thought it was not enough for me and wanted to explore more, so I decided to further my studies in UK. I have gained a lot of new experiences here. I think I will never stop looking for more experience as it is our nature to be curious and to want to learn more to solve the challenges in our lives."

Fashion and style

Shing Yi's personal style, a blend of lines, textures and young women with fantastic eyelashes, is influenced by the likes of painter Audrey Kawasaki. "Her drawing techniques are amazing and fantastic. The way she harmonizes the colour along with her composition just makes me feel great whenever I see her work.

"Currently I am still developing and exploring my own style during my free time. My personal style is influenced by fashion; it's very feminine and includes fancy fashion sense or accessorisation."

The road ahead looks bright for this young illustrator, and in the next few years she hopes to begin work and carve out her niche in the world. "I hope I can be very successful and gain expertise in my field. I know all these may not be easy to achieve, but I will do my best and work hard for it, for my own sake. Nothing is free in this world. Everything has to be worked for and achieved by yourself, because all these are for yourself and your life."

Digital Animation graduate (and batch president) Kok Yip Sun is nothing but determined to achieve his ambition of becoming a great concept artist. This month he shares with us his story, his dreams and his steadfast outlook on college life.

Kampar's coach

Yip Sun comes from Kampar, the mining town famous for fishball noodles and chicken biscuits (kai zhai peng) that was immortalized in Malaysia's first martial arts film, 'Kinta 1881'. It was in this town he coached his high school's basketball team there (and still does), and became involved in Kinta 1881's casting and art direction, particularly since they found out he was 'good at drawing'.

But he doesn't intend to remain merely good at drawing; this young man has wider visions ahead. He explains: "I will not pick only my favorite subject or my strengths to work on but will try to study every subject under the syllabus and try to make myself also work the same (amount) for all the subjects. I know I can definitely work it out perfectly for my favorites and strong subjects, but we cannot ignore other subjects and should learn to accept challenges. Positive thinking has made me able to handle obstacles in an easier way and turn them into challenges to make myself improve. Instead of blaming the difficulty of tasks, I prefer to take into consideration my own abilities to handle them."

We might well be writing about Yip Sun the Illustration graduate today instead - his strong art sense would have taken him far, but after further consideration and some input from his parents he chose Digital Animation. "I knew that just to create a beautiful painting or design could not bring me full satisfaction; I needed to learn 3D modeling and 3D animation. I needed to express my feelings of art to others with all these media and bring the art to life."

Coach's concepts

Once he began majoring, Yip Sun discovered his passion was suited for a specific branch of work: concept art, the visual representation of designs, ideas and moods for use in audiovisual media. Fine art didn't grab his attention; what did was the random, loose style of concept illustration. Inspired by Android Jones, an outstanding concept artist whose art ventures into myriad other fields, he began his journey towards his new goal.

"CG pre-production concept design...requires 2D and 3D knowledge. Concept design is all about ideas, creativity, visualization and art. Great concept design will make people believe in it and love it. So to make CG concept design even better, 3D sense in form, shape, material and also animation knowledge is needed by a concept artist to make a complete and persuasive design. Studies on both 2D and 3D arts will widen your perspective in seeing things.

"It's very common that some people realize they don't want to be animators and so focus more effort on other subjects. For me this is not the right way to study; although I know I want to be a concept artist, it does not mean that I will just focus on drawing. Perhaps I should focus on subjects that are not related to concept art but might be my weaknesses in the future."

Yip Sun's positive attitude and his passion for sharing his experiences endeared him to lecturers and peers alike, and resulted in his election as graduating batch president. After graduating, he went to work as a junior CG artist. It's all part of his plan to finally become a top-level concept artist.

The concepts of kings

Another part of Yip Sun's goal is to become a production lead able to manage the entire production pipeline. "I have to make sure my portfolio and my capabilities in concept art are known by almost all in Malaysia's creative industry by creating my own art book and also freelancing more with every studio or company in Malaysia. Last but not least, I also have to keep myself up-to-date with every latest innovation in this industry.

We asked Yip Sun's about his idea of a dream project. He prefers to keep mum for now, but lets slip that he hopes to create a work on par with James Cameron's epic, Avatar. "I want to make a feature film...that human beings have never seen or even thought of before."

His advice to his juniors comes in several pithy points: "Try to accept and do your best in every subject or task given to you. Being too calculating will not make you gain more but lose more instead. Always remember to work like a slave, create like a god and command like a king. There is no shortcut in studies." This is a man with a plan, and we certainly look forward to seeing him achieve his dreams.

Kuching girl Aurelia Liu is a perfect example of how to turn the impossible into the 'I'm possible'. This Multimedia Design major has a burning passion to learn, and it doesn't look like it's fading any time soon.

New Media

One of Aurelia's fondest wishes is to pioneer a change in Kuching's design scene. "I believe that there is more about designers than just operating computers and making pretty things; design does not mean designing pretty things but designing a solution to a problem. We could use more designers who can think and bring design up to a new level, especially in the local scene," she explains, which may be part of the reason she's also fascinated with master of simplicity John Maeda and the Renaissance master himself, Leonardo da Vinci.

Part of the reason why she decided to major in Multimedia Design was the flexibility afforded by the field. "(Multimedia Design) provides a platform to explore endlessly and the possibilities are unlimited. The ability to reach to people through different media, to me, is what multimedia design is about. Learning new things is like second nature to me and I would love to continue to be able to do that with Multimedia.

"The three years of my life in The One Academy were deeply motivated by my hunger for knowledge, to learn as much as I can. Coupled with my ability to learn fast, I took every opportunity in different projects to try something that I'd never done before, whether related directly to my studies or not."

Tea and coffin

Aurelia's time with us has led her to develop additional unusual skills (like making her favourite bubble tea for a business-related class) and provided some unusual experiences, like the time she filmed an embalming. Live.

"The most interesting part in my journey was the documentary my team did for Digital Video in Year 2 Term 3. It was about embalming, the process of preserving dead bodies...(it) was definitely not our initial idea. It happened when we approached a random coffin shop we found online and realized that there wasn't anything really interesting about the coffin shop, but there was the embalming room behind.

"I did not expect to do anything so bold in my course of study here but even then, throughout this production, we actually learned a lot from the embalmer. Besides helping us out with the shoot, he was nice enough to share some advice about life and seeing it in another perspective which was really an eye-opener. This project was successful partly because of some planning that we did but for most of it, we depended a lot on luck and chance. I will forever remember this experience and can proudly tell my grandchildren in the future about what I've done."

Aurelia was also lucky to have the support of her class behind her. As an example, she told us a story about her final term: "While I was stressed out handling our graduation campaign, a whole bunch of them posted love notes, giving me words of support and encouragement on my Facebook wall, which was really sweet of them. I'm really grateful to be able to share this journey with them and also with our dear lecturers; some of the best times in my life were spent laughing about something silly with a group of close friends."

Dreaming big, aiming high

For now, Aurelia plans to stay in Kuala Lumpur to gain working experience, even though she misses her friends, family and the glorious Sarawakian food. When she does go back, she can be found helping out her high school's St. John's Ambulance society as their designer and photographer. "Outside of my studies, I like to visit places and see new things - travelling and photography. I also like to spend time with my friends and share a laugh.

"I am looking forward to doing hands-on experimental projects and also have some fun with independent side projects to keep myself sane. I plan to continue to sharpen my critical thinking skills and on areas that needs to be improved to be better. In a few years, I hope to see myself climbing up the career ladder. I plan to gain valuable experience and recognition from here and set up my own company which will be extended to Kuching."

To her juniors, Aurelia says, "Always dream big and aim high. But be realistic too. You may fail, but it's all right. You gain more from failures. It's another step closer to success." With an outlook like that, we say Aurelia's well on her way to her dreams, and we wish her the best of luck.