the oeuvre of Tommy Wong » Illustration

“PT” logo and early sketch

Tommy — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:54:21 +0000

A while back I created a logo for a friend of mine who had the initials ‘P’ and ‘T’, for a piano related business. I did some sketches of an early design where I found if I flipped the arrangement of piano keys upside down, I could see the letters ‘P’ and ‘T’:

After some refinement, I brought it into Illustrator and polished it off:

Carbon icon set

Tommy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:18:30 +0000

I designed this carbon icon set during the early phase of the UNSW Blackboard development using Illustrator.

Australia Day 2010: BBQ Like Never Before

Tommy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:44:37 +0000

http://australiaday.org.au/experience/

Found this poster in the Daily Telegraph titled, ‘Your Country Needs You To BBQ LIKE YOU’VE NEVER BBQ’D BEFORE This Australia Day’. I love this poster for two reasons: a) it’s a reference to war posters in the 20th century (alluded to by the graphic style, propaganda title in the second-person (YOU) demanding action, bold stance and posture of figures, subdued colours) that has been pulled off well, b) it’s a snapshot of past graphic design that sticks in our minds – we clearly recognise this poster as a reference to war propaganda style posters (in the same way Jaguar E-Types or first generation Ford Mustangs are the faces of 1960s car design).

But I wonder whether the poster could have reflected a more realistic skin/race tone of current Australia. Don’t get me wrong, the poster does incorporate ideas of multiculturalism. But it’s something about the blue coloured clothing, meat products and lack of Asian figures portrayed which make me feel uneasy. That is, blue reflects the Australian flag and is usually worn by Caucasians because I’ve been informed through TV that it makes their blue-eyes pop *Kanye shrug* (could have shown ‘traditional’ clothing), and that we can assume one or more of the meat products being held are pork, which is forbidden to be eaten by some in faith, and many of Australia’s immigrants (and indeed citizens now) are Asian.

But aside from these, it’s a fantastic poster! Makes me want to throw a few snags on the barbie me-self.

Archicomic: Yes Is More

Tommy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:16:45 +0000

I’m looking to grab a copy of Bjarke Ingels‘ archicomic ‘Yes Is More’ – it would make for an engaging and fun read. What other forms of writing and illustration can be used to explain and talk about architecture?

Illustrated Folded Paper

Tommy — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:00:16 +0000

Origami is cool, but geometric paper folding is better. Makes for a nice facade don’t you think?

This paper fold was my inspiration for the folded motif in the UNSW banners:

Papergraphics by Yulia Brodskaya

Tommy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:28:52 +0000

Brodskaya uses strips of paper to create striking graphics. Most of Brodskaya’s work tends to have a floral look to it – with all the curved and spiral embellishments. I recall Myer had a papergraphic for one of their catalogue covers: wish.

Could papergraphics be used in an innovative way to present architectural plans? A hybrid between a model and a graphic collage?