A Hong Kong Love Story

I entered into a Lesportsac Competition a while ago organized by HK design centre, and given that they announced the winners a short while ago, I think it's okay to go ahead and show my entry.

The competition was called 'Design your sac" (haha!), and it involved designing a pattern for the weekender bag by lesportsac.

According to the competition entry requirements, "The design should reflect and relate to local Hong Kong culture and should be presented in an artistic, creative and fashionable manner." The winners btw, are awesome. You can see them athttp://www.designyoursac.com/

My theme was a Hong Kong love story. Here is my process:

Drew a scene of Mong Kok, you're dirtest epicentre of HK, as portrayed in Hollywood movies that wish to demeanor HK as they do in movies like Jean-Claude Van Damme's "Double Impact" (awesome btw if you were into old-school crappy fighting movies). I think this is the view South just off of Argyle Street between MK KCR and MTR stops.

Added color. Blue's that represent being between buildings, shadowed from the sunlight. Oranges to Yellow to represent the warmth from the Sun's point of view.

Added dirty textures in saturated colors that I like to use from selected photographs. Kind of representing the feeling of 'gao lao's' (old buildings) in Mong Kok and such. Less about realistic representation, and more about atmospheric interpretation.

Street signs. Dirty. Textured. Very HK.

As my intention was to interpret the HK love story, i added a kissing couple to the illustration. This is my initial ink drawing for it.

Colored.

But after a while I realized how much it sucked, and that I really disliked it. So I redrew it.

I think less detail into the characters allows for an open interpretive quality that would relate to a wider audience. It's a very comic-booky ideal. If you have ever read Scott  Mcloud's 'Understanding Comics', it explains that the more idealized a drawing is, the more you see yourself in it. I think that's why people in HK love cute, simplified emoticons, stuffed animals and toys. They're simple, easy to understand, and very collectible. Hello, Kitty.

Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here is the final image of the couple imposed on the background illustration.

And an image of how I imagine it to be imposed on a Lesportsac Weekender bag:

In the competition submission, it is required to hand in an A1 moodboard that includes an explanation of design concepts, as well as sketches and photos of your process to conclusion.

Given that I only graduated last year in 2007, I imagined a line of entries with student-type  statements such as "My idea was to...", "The concept behind the design was...", and "Given that the requirements were to...."

I also find that to be a very appropriately HK approach to anything. Like following the rules.

So In my A1 moodboard, all i included were the final image, the image imposed on the weekender bag, and a love letter:

"Dear Love,

"It has been 5 years since I have left Hong Kong, only to find myself returning again. New York is not the same knowing that you weren't there with me. I missed something familiar. Like Meg Ryan and Woody Allen movies, I was attracted by the romanticism that is New York. But I have discovered that no such modern romance could ever occur in a place like that, portrayed as I had so blindly believed to be a fairy-tale city.

"Thus I have returned. For, unlike Hollywood interpretations of this place, Hong Kong carries its own affection unlike any I have ever seen in movies, because there is a truth here that doesn't need to be defended by a facade of fake plastic trees.

"I think what I'm trying to say is that I've been missing you. And you deserver better than what the others say about you.

"I want to romanticize Hong Kong.

"Forever yours,

"JJL."

Lub. I'm emo.