A Tale of the Singapore River, A Tale of Singapore

The Singapore River is only a small river, but it carries great historical importance. It is a tale, which witnesses the development of Singapore. On this spot, the tale of the Lion city is being told: Singapore’s past, present and future are all shown completely.

Once a small fishing village in Southeast, Singapore’s fortunes rose and fell because of the China-India trade, until January 28, 1819, when Sir Stamford Raffles landed along the banks of Singapore River, the destiny of the Singapore River was changed forever. So did Singapore.

As time goes by, a modern miracle appeared along the Singapore River, which surprised the whole world. Citizens of this city work hard along the river during the day and enjoy meal or a drink with friends in the evening. The small village have become a modern metropolis of hustle and bustle. However, some things remain the same. The Singapore River still flows through the lion city, peacefully and serenely.

These photos were taken along the Singapore River…

I Love the City

I know that Singapore is not my hometown, but I love it. I have stayed in Singapore for more than four months and I do enjoy myself here.

It all started with the first sight. I don’t believe falling in love at the first sight, but when I saw the pretty island before the landing of my flight, I had to say: I love it.

Then of course the city, ever changing but always well organized. I feel pretty safe here, not only for the safety, but also for I know how things work here.

Last but not least, the people here. Be they professors or classmates or waiters or taxi drivers or safe keepers or just people walking by, they are always nice, polite and very helpful.

I ‘m not sure if I will stay here or not after my graduation. However, there is one thing I am sure: I love the city, from the very first sight.

What A Wonderful Singapore

I took some shots with my DC in National Orchid Garden of Singapore and edited them as well as I could. I added What A Wonderful World, a song I like, into the video as well. I think the song is suitable for those flowers and for my post as well. Enjoy！

If you want to see the national flower of Singapore, National Orchid Garden is a perfect place to go. By the way, it is inside of the Botanic Garden of Singapore, so you could enjoy these two places together in half a day! Flowers, trees, swans and turtles, you could relax yourself with the fragrance of the nature in the centre of Singapore. More information, please have a look at http://www.sbg.org.sg/

If you are a bird lover, don’t miss Jurong Bird Park, the home of thousands of pretty and smart birds.

Want to know more? Here we go: http://www.birdpark.com.sg/

Rationale of My Portfolio

Overall Idea:

I think “My Singapore Weekend” campaign is designed for those who work in the communication industry. Basically they will be busy with their work and research and may not know a lot about Singapore. And during their stay in Singapore, they only have got a weekend to know this city, so the campaign should express more information about what the city looks like and if it is possible, give some suggestions about what to do in the weekend as well.

I think most of the participants of ICA 2010 will be experts in communication industry who should be older than 30 years old. They have comparatively higher social position and decent jobs, therefore, I think the whole design cannot be very childish.

My Slogan:

My slogan is “Discover Nature & Enjoy Singapore”. I am not Singaporean. Before I came to Singapore, my impression of Singapore was a totally modern city with countless skyscrapers, crowded people and traffic jams. To some extent, it is true. Singapore is a modern city, but actually Singapore is much more than that, especially its excellent environment, the interesting zoos, splendid parks and charming natural reserves. That is why I would like to make my slogan something like “Discover Nature & Enjoy Singapore”. It is what one could do in the Singapore weekend. The modern side of Singapore is lovable, but I do think people should know the other side of the city as well. And then, the slogan will be used as the theme of the whole portfolio.

My logo:

The main part of my logo is made up of several leaves, which could stand for nature. Besides, I think the shape could be thought as petals or feather. Actually the shape of the main part is from the side look of an orchid (please see the photo below). Since Orchid is the national flower of Singapore, I think it will be better if I could make it as my logo. And I hope my logo could be looked like a bird or a flower or a butterfly, which makes people think about nature immediately. The only problem is that I am not sure about my execution. Besides, I keep the colour of the logo similar with the logo of ICA 2010 Singapore. Basically I think they should be in coincidence, because “My Singapore Weekend” should be a part of a campaign for ICA. I hope people could more or less know the relation from these two logos.

The Poster:

My poster

Please download from:  http://aprilshan.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/poster_shan.pdf

The poster is based on my slogan “Discover Nature & Enjoy Singapore” and it emphasizes the word “Discover”. I want to show the natural scene behind the skyscrapers. To show “discover”, actually I got two ideas, magnifier and turning page. At last, I decided to use the turning page one, because I think it is more direct and comparatively easier for me to execute, because I had no idea about how to use Photoshop at all. The front scene of the poster is from a photo taken not far from the Merlion. I think the photo could more or less show the concept of concrete jungle, even though the buildings are not that ugly. If we turn the page of the buildings, we can see the flowers behind them. The orchids are vibrant and its colour can make people relaxed and comfortable, which is on the contrary of the buildings. And I used same colour of orchids for the tagline “Discover Nature & Enjoy Singapore”, which is corresponding with the flowers revealed. And about the font, I wanted to make “Discover Nature” more natural and soft, like the branches of trees, which make people feel friendly and comfortable. For “Enjoy Singapore”, I just wanted to keep it clear and strong to convey a message: You will enjoy yourself in the Singapore weekend!

Newsletter:

My Newsletter

Please download from: http://aprilshan.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/newsletter-standard.pdf

I think the appearance of the newsletter should be more or less related with my theme and poster. So basically I used the element of “turning page” in some parts. Besides, I think the similar colour could make my newsletter consistent with the poster; therefore, I used different pink and green a lot to divide different parts. Also, both of the modern and natural sides of Singapore will be shown in the newsletter. I think some information should be provided in newsletter, so I included some introduction of the city and gave some tips about where to go. The website is also mentioned in the newsletter in case readers would like to know more.

Blog:

I think blog is really useful for the campaign, especially if the target audience is working in the communication industry. I prefer to keep it simple and clean. But I still use the element of orchids in the header of the blog. Also the colour of the blog is consistent with my poster and newsletter. There are some original videos and photos in the blog, I’d like to show them the pretty natural scenes in Singapore in a more visible and direct method. Besides, the link of ICA 2010 Singapore, ICA and Nanyang Technological University has been given as well. If the target audience would like to see the update on these websites, it will be convenient.

Finally, I want to say “Thank you” to our Prof. Paragas. I did bother Dr P a lot during my creation. Many thanks!