Mural Competition Report

Michelle (0373843)

Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Mural Competition - THE SHOW (Graduate Showcase) 

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INTRODUCTION

Figure 1.1 Event Poster

I joined the mural competition in THE SHOW event hosted by The Design School of Taylor's University at Atrium, The Starhill on October 6th, 2024 from 4 p.m until 6 p.m.

Figure 1.2 Team Members

We needed to form a group of a minimum of 5 people and a maximum of 8 to register, so I participated in group 2 which consists of:

• Chin Jia Wei, 0379807
• Leong Jiahui, 0353469
• Madeline Ordelia Tjahjadi, 0376920
• Maria Ashley Sundoko, 0372793 
• Medha Rallabandi, 0377598
• Michelle, 0373843 (myself)
• Ng Jia Xuan, 0375273
• Valenz Jycee Primadi, 0373407

The theme of the mural is Unity in Diversity. We need to create a mural design following the theme given on 2 large papers which combines into one artwork at the end. We are given 3 mini sets of Faber-Castell's water color pencil and a time of 90 minutes to complete our mural. We are allowed to bring our own art materials to compliment the supplies given.

CONCEPT & PREAPARATION

Figure 2.1 Brainstorm

Figure 2.1 Idea

Our plan is to draw various kinds of people in many different art styles and colors using different art tools to represent diversity, then unite everything together by including gold details in each character.

COMPETITION DAY

My team and I arrived early to have time to explore the event, brainstorm, and prepare both mentally and physically for the competition without the need to rush. 

Right after we arrived at the Atrium, Starhill we see Miss Anis to register, then I explored the event. There's an XR workshop which is super cool! It's fascinating to see people doing their artwork in XR projected real-time. Though I'm really interested, I didn't end up trying it out because my mind was too busy thinking about our competition.

Figure 3.3 Senior's Work 1

Figure 3.1 Senior's Work 1

Figure 3.2 Senior's Work 1

Around the area, there's also many senior's works displayed. I'm totally amazed with every single one, it brings me excitement for my future works. The showcases really inspired me to do well in my studies and to create splendid arts and designs 💫.

After exploring, it is competition time. We sat down and got ready while the MC is opening the competition. We took out our art supplies and sketches, set up our working space (arrange our chairs as table and big wooden board as paper backing), and even took off our shoes to get comfortable.😂 

We started our mural with a bit of a shock because the paper size is a bit smaller than what we anticipated, so we need to make adjustments to our design plan. But overall, I think we did well, by distributing our work equally and managing our time well. 

Figure 3.4 during competition

In brief, our progress was:

1. Roughly plan for the people's sizes and placement together.
2. Split into groups of 4, working separately to draw and color in detail on the 2 papers, switching sides and tools from time to time to fully denote "diversity".
3. Collaborate as a whole at the end for final touches together.

We completed our planned mural design 15 minutes before the time runs out, so we added colorful lines leading towards the center that was not part of the first plan, but I'm glad we added them. To me, the lines added connections between the people which better represent unity. We even have time to sign the back of the artwork and took a picture together with our finished mural a couple seconds toward the end.  

FINAL OUTCOME & REFLECTIONS

Figure 4.2 The Mural

This is how our finished mural. We didn't win, nor do we get a special mention. However, I'm proud of us for participating and trying our best. I'm thrilled we got to challenge ourselves to think of ideas, to combine and eliminate some without clashing, to then transform them into reality. It was a lot of fun to design and work together as a team, knowing many different art styles, sharing thoughts, skills and supplies. I got to enrich myself with new experiences in teamwork and also new knowledge about design. Meeting other teams and seeing their designs widened my perception and inspire we to keep learning, improving, and reflecting. It was definitely a memory that I will treasure.

NOTES

Analysis I've done about our mural to note for improvements in future projects/competition:

• Our concept doesn't deliver inform unity in the clearly and strongly.
• Need to have a solid foundation (idea) which conveys the theme/message easily and accurately to the viewers
• Our design has too much character which is small in size and hard to see from far away, so it isn't ideal for mural and it doesn't allow many details in each individual character
• Design needs to suit to the media.
• Too much elements doesn't allow us to put much detail into the each individual since the time is pretty short.
• Think realistically what can be done within the deadline/time limit without reducing the artwork's quality.