Friday, September 16, 2011
I've just finished doing more design work for two new projects that I was tasked with by the ship. One is a small job, designing an emblem for the Best Sailor award given by our Squadron. The other is for a 20th anniversary event for the Flotilla. But first, the award.
This award is something new introduced by the Squadron, and it follows closely behind what our ship also introduced at the start of the year. As to whose idea it was, I have no clue.
Every season, or every three months, about five ratings (as in ME1, whose equivalent would be 3SG - 2SG in the old scheme, as well as NSFs) would be singled out from the Ship's Company by the Officers and Chiefs of Departments. What they'd look out for, I imagine, are qualities such as being hardworking, reliable, and simply doing above and beyond others. Subsequently, they'd be subjected to a mass vote by the rest of the ship's company, open to everyone, on a sheet of paper pasted in a passageway. The Best Sailor gets a nice plaque, a not-so-nice certificate, and a yet-to-be-finalised one day off.
So far, there've only been two seasons worth of sailors nominated. I kid you not, I was on the list for the very first season. And I was the only NSF on that list. I got kicked off that list when my iPod incident came to light. That, and my 14 extras.
But I digress. This squadron's one aimed to have an emblem to boot, and it goes that they had delegated the job to some clerk to design something. I was told the design was an anchor with an 'S' overlaid on it. Suffice to say, they felt it wouldn't do. Our Coxswain, or CSM equivalent, happened to be chummy with the Squadron Coxswain, and said he'd get his crew to do it. Two other guys and I were arrowed, of which verdict was left to the Sqn Coxn to decide whose to pick.
Truth is, I didn't put in 5mins of work in that. I put quite a lot of effort into thinking something up, much more than it took to execute it. I believe logos are difficult things to design, trying to make something simple and yet having to represent so much. Furthermore, anything with the Navy has been done to death with anchors, ship bows and wave crests. I thought about it for some time, even asking for a deadline extension.
On the other hand, my junior who studied at Lasalle with graphic design, was totally lackadaisical about the task he had been assigned with. I was told prior to this that his designs were of the whacky sort, which brought to mind those oddly drawn animals kind of designs I can't appreciate. When I told him he had been arrowed for the job, his first response was, "Oh, eh ask you ah, when you do this sort of thing for ship, would you get paid?" To which I laughed heartily (really, this time) and educated him to the sad job that was carrying out an arrow. Obviously, he responded by saying there's no point in putting effort into it if you're not going to get paid.
Anyway, after I got my off 'handed' to me that day, (I had actually been waiting for the verdict for some time as to the verdict that awaited the three designs) I went back and did a re-look at the design, like I told myself I'd do if my design got selected. This is because I didn't put in my all to the design, having been bogged down by other commitments. Here's the second draft, to which my Coxswain also felt was better than the previous one.
The Helms is actually the same model I had traced out earlier, backed by another copy and edited here and there to give it a slight three dimensional feel. The crocodile is not all the same; I spliced another photograph of a croc with it's mouth open. I also deviated from the source picture to make both the creature and object have a more intertwined feeling. The banner was redone as I felt the previous one looked too detached.
***
Regarding the other design I had done for the 20th Anniversary, it was also an arrowed job from my Chief, (WO equivalent) who had seen some of my previous efforts. He was put in charge of publicity for the event, and roped me in despite knowing the event's scheduled date was three days after my ORD. It has now been revised to a whole month after my ORD, on the 5th of June.
20 years in the making made me opt for a nostalgic, old school approach. Yet what was intended was for both old and new to be encapsulated, and I had to change tact and go for this. More posters are to come, but that'll be for the future.
Labels: design, drawing, jolly pirates, navy, NS, thoughts
posted by joseph at 9:39 PM