[EN/CN: OrientalHub Cover Image Design Contest] Neon City Skyline

EN

Hi Steemit!

Previously, I posted about Singaporean hawker centres as an entry for the HK-JP-SG cultural challenge contest organised by @orientalhub, and I miraculously got 3rd place among the Singaporeans! 😄 It was a really interesting challenge and I'm glad I participated.

Anyway, Orientalhub has recently organised another competition; a Cover Image Design Contest! I've taken an interest in graphic design in recent years so I thought I'd participate in this contest as well.

The main theme of the cover image is:
Incorporating the philosophy of @orientalhub -
“ An oriental boat sail in five oceans to seven continents in hopes of bringing out talents and synergy amid cross-community collaborations, promoting community harmony, and connect people together without geographical borders.”

So this is the design I came up with:

Here's the breakdown of the design:

I wanted the background to be dark since the font on the Steemit cover photo is white regardless if Dark Mode is activated, and I saw previous designs cutting off the design with a different colour in the middle which I thought didn't flow very well.

I had a few elements in mind I wanted to incorporate into the design; the oriental boat (obviously), some buildings, a mountain, a pagoda, some flowers (maybe sakura, even though I know that's Japanese), and a Chinese dragon. Over time I realised I had too many elements so I had to cut them down.

The main thing was figuring out how to combine those elements with a dark background. I was thinking of doing a reverse-silhouette style (white on black), but I also wanted some colour in the design, and it would be a tad bland if it was just black and white. This also made me decide to use a dark blue gradient for the background instead. Coincidentally, it also represents the ocean at night.

So I went about googling images of Hong Kong to get some inspiration, and then it hit me; neon signs! HK has always been known for their neon signs along many of their streets. It's definitely a staple in their visual culture. Singapore has even emulated them in one of our malls (Jurong Point).

After that the rest of the design fell into place. I used a city skyline since the image is fairly wide, then I put the boat in front and the dragon in the back (so that it looks like he's flying upwards). I couldn't really incorporate all the elements I thought of, since it would end up very cluttered, but I think it turned out okay. I finished up by adding the name at the top, as a background to the actual text.

This is a previous iteration, before I got the idea to hide the dragon behind the buildings.

Here's my first draft that I drew by hand on my phone. I'm pretty sure only I will understand what I'm drawing 😆

I had to stick with something simple since I don't have my Wacom tablet with me, and I don't have Photoshop, so I had to use a mixture of online tools and MS Paint. I think it still came out okay though.

I'm not sure if participants are allowed to submit more than 1 design, because I'm still thinking of other ideas. Maybe @orientalhub can clarify?
Anyway, hope you like it!

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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中文

你好 Steemit!

此前，我發布了有關新加坡小販中心的消息，作為@orientalhub組織的HK-JP-SG文化挑戰賽的參賽作品，我奇蹟般地在新加坡人中名列第三！😄 這是一個非常有趣的挑戰，我很高興我參加了。

無論如何，Orientalhub最近組織了另一場比賽;封面形象設計比賽！近年來我對平面設計感興趣，所以我想我也會參加這個比賽。

封面圖片的主題是：
結合@orientalhub的理念 -
“一艘東方船駛向七大洲的五個大洋，希望在跨社區合作中發揮人才和協同作用，促進社區和諧，並將人們聯繫在一起，而不受地理邊界的影響。”

所以這是我想出的設計：

以下是設計的細節：

因為Steemit封面照片上的字體是白色的，所以我希望背景變暗，而不管暗色模式是否啟動，我看到以前的設計在中間使用不同顏色的設計來切斷設計，我認為這種顏色流動性不好。

我想到了一些我想要融入設計的元素;東方的船（顯然），一些建築物，一座山，一座寶塔，一些花（也許是櫻花，儘管我知道那是日本的），還有一條中國龍。隨著時間的推移，我意識到我有太多的元素，所以我不得不砍掉它們。

最主要的是弄清楚如何將這些元素與深色背景相結合。我正在考慮做一個反向輪廓風格（黑色白色），但我也想在設計中使用一些顏色，如果它只是黑色和白色。這也使我決定使用深藍色漸變作為背景。巧合的是，它也代表了晚上的海洋。

所以我開始搜索一下Google的圖片，以獲得一些啟發，然後它打擊了我;霓虹燈！香港一直以沿著他們許多街道的霓虹燈而聞名。這絕對是他們視覺文化的一個主要部分。新加坡甚至在我們的一個商場（裕廊角）效仿它們。

之後，其餘的設計落到了位置。因為形象相當寬闊，所以我使用了城市天際線，然後我把船放在前面，把龍放在後面（這樣看起來他就是向上飛）。我無法真正融入我想到的所有元素，因為它最終會變得非常混亂，但我認為它沒有問題。作為實際文本的背景，我通過在頂部添加名稱來完成。

這是以前的一次迭代，然後才想到隱藏在建築物後面的龍。

這是我在手機上手繪的第一份草稿。我很確定只有我會明白我在畫什麼。 😆

我必須堅持一些簡單的事情，因為我沒有我的Wacom平板電腦，而且我沒有Photoshop，所以我不得不使用在線工具和MS Paint的混合。儘管如此，我認為它仍然出來。

我不確定是否允許參與者提交超過1個設計，因為我仍在考慮其他想法。也許@orientalhub可以澄清？
無論如何，希望你喜歡這個設計！

謝謝閱讀！

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

Check out my previous post!
TacoCat's TrEats #4: Singaporean Fried Chicken 🍗