Art Direction - Final Project / Art Direction Guide
7.10.2025 - 23.12.2025 (Week 3 - Week 14)
Chong Hui Yi / 0363195Art Direction / BDCM
Final Project / Art Direction Guide
TABLE OF CONTENT
1.
Instructions
3.
Feedback
4.
Reflection
LECTURES
INSTRUCTIONS
Final Project: Art Direction Guide
Instruction
For the final project, each team builds on a shared concept and SDG
theme. Students create individual Art Direction Guides for their
focus area, acting as Art Directors responsible for research, visual
development, and print-ready production. The team also produces a
Group Master Identity Sheet to maintain consistent branding across
all guides.
Team Roles
Our team consisted of three members: Karyee, Melvin, and myself. I took on the role of Art Director, leading the overall art direction, branding & merchandise design, and also supported aspects of the card game development.
Karyee focused on the card game design, while Melvin was responsible for the interactive website.
Overall Art Direction
The overall art direction kept everyone’s designs consistent, and I made some improvements to the initial choices.
Typography
Initially, we chose Rokkitt for headings and Montserrat for body text. However, when applying these fonts in our designs, I realised that Rokkitt’s slab serif affected readability. It gave off more of a coding or technical feel, rather than the digital, playful vibe I wanted to match the concept of emoji as a tool for digital communication.
Fig. 1.0 Initial typeface selection
At this point, I discovered Realtime Colors, a website where I could preview how our chosen fonts and colors would look in a web context.
Fig. 1.1 Example of the initial typeface pairing visualised on a website
(https://www.realtimecolors.com/?colors=11100d-fcfcfc-ffdc2e-fff3cc-ffba24&fonts=Rokkitt-Montserrat)
Fig. 1.2 Final selected typeface
Fig. 1.3 Example of the final typeface pairing visualised on a website
Logo
Previously, I designed the logo using the Rokkitt font. I noticed the spacing between the “O:” and “T” was too wide, making the logo look unbalanced at smaller sizes. I refined the kerning to achieve a more harmonious flow.
I also experimented with Poppins for the logo, but while it aligned with the rounded, digital aesthetic of emojis, it felt too neutral and lacked the expressive personality I wanted for the brand.
Fig. 2.0 Logo design variations
The final logo is shown in Fig. 2.1. On the black background, the text changes to white for better contrast, while the “O:” emoji symbol remains the same yellow in both versions
Fig. 2.1 Final Logo
Colour
Next, I refined the previous colour palette by defining primary and secondary colours. I also created a greyscale system, which is useful for text hierarchy, dividers, or content that requires subtle layering. Each colour includes usage guidance to ensure consistency across applications.
Fig. 3.0 Colour Palette with usage
Later, Karyee noticed that the colour palette I created was in RGB mode, which would produce significant colour shifts if printed in CMYK. She helped select the closest CMYK equivalents, and I then consolidated the palette with HEX, RGB, and CMYK values. I also realised that the off-white in the secondary palette didn’t show any difference from pure white in CMYK, so I removed it.
Emoji System
Since our project revolves around emojis, having a consistent emoji style was essential. The current options include Microsoft, Google, Twitter, and Facebook, each with distinct designs. We ultimately chose Google’s Noto Color Emoji because it is the most familiar and widely recognised, and its flat style fits our overall clean, minimal aesthetic better than the more 3D style Microsoft emojis.
Fig. 4.0 Google Noto Color Emoji (downloaded from HERE)
Branding & Merchandise
Mascot Design
For mascot design, I then digitalised the earlier sketches in Illustrator. In the initial mascot explorations (Fig. 5.0), the mascot had a predominantly black body. I added yellow blushes to make it friendlier and cuter, while also experimenting with different heights, foot shapes, and facial designs.
From these options, we ultimately chose the “slightly shorter” mascot as the base shape.
Fig. 5.0 Mascot Exploration 1
During further refinement, I experimented with a yellow body, which better conveys our brand colours and enhances recognisability. In Mascot Exploration 2 (Fig. 5.1), I tried different colour combinations and accessories, ultimately selecting the second option. While the red in the blush does not belong to the official colour palette, it was considered necessary to maintain a friendly and expressive appearance.
Fig. 5.1 Mascot Exploration 2
I also created a 3D version of the mascot in Nomad. This was my first attempt at 3D, and there is still plenty of room for improvement. The original idea was to use it for a PopMart-style blind box or to showcase the mascot in 3D on the website. However, due to unsatisfactory results and time constraints, I ultimately decided not to pursue this option.
Fig. 5.2 3D Mascot Exploration
Finally, after several rounds of exploration and refinement, I developed a series of mascot assets featuring different expressions and poses, creating a complete mascot asset library. The concept behind the mascot is that it wears a mask representing the “Digital Symbol,” the fixed emoji we send and receive, while the facial expression beneath the mask represents the “Personal Interpretation,” reflecting how each individual uniquely interprets that symbol in their own context.
We named the mascot “Momo,” combining “MO” from Emoji and “MO” from EMO:TION.
Fig. 5.3 Mascot Assets
Merchandise
To start the merchandise design, I considered what items could be included in a potential campaign. I began with the tote bag, making the mascot the main focus to boost brand recognisability while also showcasing the logo. After experimenting with different layouts and colour combinations, I concluded that a white background best suits our style and content.
Fig. 6.0 Tote bag design explorations
I then looked for suitable mockups on Freepik. As shown in Fig. 6.1, the first and fourth designs featured the same mascot face, so I removed the first one. There are three tote bag sizes in total, with the largest size having two different design variations.
Fig. 6.1 Tote bag mockup
Next, I experimented with different water bottle mockups. However, I later realised that the coffee cup mockups looked better visually and served a similar function, so I ultimately chose the coffee cup for the merchandise range.
Fig. 6.2 Water Bottle mockup variations
I then designed the first version of the button pins, intending to create a series featuring our mascot in its different expressions. However, Mr. Kamal provided feedback that the background looked too plain and white.
Fig. 6.3 First version of button pin mockup
To address this, I added a grey “EMO:TION” text ring around the edge as a decorative element. While researching button pin production, I also learned that the design area, cutting size, and actual pin size are different, meaning I had to account for extra space that would be folded during manufacturing.
Fig. 6.4 Refined button pin
Fig. 6.5 All button pin designs
For the campaign, having a uniform look was important, so I designed both front and back versions of the T-shirt. Sizing was the most challenging part, as I had little experience judging how the design would appear once printed. I researched recommended print sizes for apparel to ensure the design would fit appropriately.
Fig. 6.7 T-shirt mockup
While designing the coffee cup, I realised that the sleeve is shaped like a fan and has its own folding and cutting lines. I created two versions: a black cup featuring our logo and a yellow cup featuring our icon.
Fig. 6.9 Coffee cup mockup
Card Game Design
(collaboration with Karyee)
While working on the branding, Karyee and I collaborated closely on the card and packaging design to ensure the overall visual style remained consistent.
Card Design
For the card design, Karyee had initially created a low-fidelity version. I felt there was room for improvement, so we stayed up late for two nights, refining the scenario, power, and emoji cards together.
Fig. 7.0 Initial low-fidelity designs of scenario, power, and emoji cards (by Karyee)
The refined cards retained a minimalist style. To distinguish the scenario cards, we initially designed them with a black background, which contrasted sharply with the white cards and highlighted their functional difference. However, Mr. Kamal’s feedback mentioned that the black felt a bit heavy and less playful, suggesting we could try other darker tones.
Fig. 7.1 Refined Version of Scenario, Power, and Emoji Cards
Fig. 7.2 Scenario card colour experiments
Karyee also explored alternative options, and in the end, we decided on a light yellow background for the scenario cards.
Fig. 7.3 Final Scenario Card
Packaging Design
In addition, Karyee and I worked together on multiple packaging cover designs over two nights. After feedback, the top-right design of our initial exploration was considered the strongest. However, it still wasn’t immediately clear that this was a “Card Game.”
Fig. 8.0 Packaging cover design explorations 1 (collaboration with Karyee)
After that, I explored additional packaging designs on my own, adding a clear ‘Card Game’ label and incorporating the mascot holding cards. Personally, I preferred the two designs in the first row, middle and right columns (Fig. 8.1).
Fig. 8.1 Packaging design explorations 2Then we finalised three packaging designs, with the third being Karyee’s refined yellow version. While Mr. Kamal noted that this design would likely attract the most attention, I felt that the mascot’s body colour blended too much with the background, making it harder to immediately recognise the mascot. Some might even perceive only the white face as the mascot. Additionally, the bright yellow of the outer packaging conflicted with the internal card design.
Fig. 8.2 Packaging design explorations 3
In the end, we combined the layout from the first design with a softer yellow, and Karyee consolidated it into the final packaging design.
Fig. 8.3 Final packaging mockup (by Karyee)
Art Direction Guide Booklet
At first, I was quite unsure how to start the art guide booklet and wasn’t familiar with what content a typical guide should include. I found a lot of useful examples on the website Branding Style Guides (link), featuring brand guidelines from various companies. These examples were helpful references and aligned with our design style. I collected the examples I found most relevant and shared them on our Drive for the rest of the team to use as inspiration.
Fig. 9.0 Brand Guideline Booklet Reference
Fig. 9.2 Typography guidelines for the booklet
Our art guide was divided into five main sections:
- Brand Essence
- Overall Identity (including Master Sheet, Logo, Colour, Typography, Shape Language, and Emoji System)
- Branding Art Guide
- Card Game Art Guide
- Interactive Website Art Guide
# Sections in bold indicate the parts I was responsible for.
Fig. 9.3 My part of the art guide
Final Outcome
Fig. 10.0 EMO:TION Brand Guideline Flip Book Link:
Fig. 10.1 EMO:TION Brand Guideline Booklet - PDF
Fig. 10.2 Final Presentation
Google Drive Submission Link:
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
This project allowed me to experience the full process from concept development to producing a complete art direction guide. As a group project, it was both large in scale and challenging. Taking on the role of art director helped me understand the importance of clear guidelines in maintaining visual consistency within a team.
I realised that design is not only created for personal expression, but must also be clear and usable by others. Defining rules, boundaries, and usage guidelines requires careful judgement and restraint.
I faced challenges in time management, as much of my focus went into the overall art direction and assisting other team members. As a result, my own branding and merchandise section received less attention than I had intended. In hindsight, I should have prioritised my individual responsibilities earlier, since each section contributes to the final submission and represents personal work. This experience taught me the importance of balancing team support with managing my own deliverables.
As this was my first branding-focused project, the most difficult aspect was creating a recognisable visual identity while ensuring consistency across different applications. Overall, this project strengthened my understanding of branding as a structured and systematic design discipline.
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