Art is Everywhere
INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIONS
[ DANIEL ]
It’s definitely difficult to sum up this entire module in one reflection. But in this reflection I would like to highlight a few takeaways and also what we’ve faced as an agency. This module helped me understand myself as a person and also how to work in a group. This is because working for this project we’ve faced several obstacles and also achieved certain things that we as an agency want to achieve. It help me understand the strengths and weaknesses of each individual. Due to the difference of everyone in the group we manage to pull of things that we once started thinking that it was impossible. Also I’ve learnt how to micromanage my group and also myself. This is because there were many different that’s happening simultaneously throughout the entire planning face to executing the campaign. We’ve all agreed on executing this campaign is because we would want to take up the challenge of raising the bar of the final year project module and also to inspire individuals that are uninspired.
The experienced that we’ve all been through this project is definitely one of a kind and we wouldn’t able to expose in other assignments. Reason being is because we will have to embrace each other’s working styles and also incorporating everyone’s ideas. There were a lot of changes and also unforeseen obstacles that we will have to solve together. For example, having trouble with budget and also getting artists to work with us. Personally I am truly grateful for All is Amazing being our client and also having the help from The Ministry Experience on developing the technical app for our augmented reality portraits idea. Both company helped us in so many ways and they do not expect anything in return. They share the same vision and also the main objective with us which is inspiring the uninspired individual. This objective motivates us a lot during the execution of the exhibition because being able to see the faces from each individuals that have visited our booth is definitely worth it and help us understand that the hard work and effort that we’ve all put in is a total success.
To sum up this module, I would say that we could’ve improve a lot more and also rectify several things that have been made and be considered a mistake. However, we would all definitely agree on one thing that is not stated in the main advertising objectives for our final year project which is to inspire individuals that are uninspired.
[ ESTEE ]
I was lucky to be given a chance by my group members to let me in Happy5ive when I first asked if I could join the group. They are the one that showed me that anything is possible and that we should challenge ourselves to strive for things that are out of our comfort zone. After our proposal got accepted by Ms. Leila, we were quite lost, not knowing how exactly to execute our Final Year Project. It required a lot of planning, and we even faced many obstacles and rejections. At first this project felt like it was almost impossible to achieve, especially in such a short period of time, but we pulled it off in the end. It was not easy as there were also some miscommunications that happened within the group but we gave everyone a chance to understand each other better, and some time to bond.
This assignment involved many help from All Is Amazing, Ministry Experience, three other local artists, KOL’s and even my uncle. We could not have made it through so smoothly if it weren’t for their help. Our client All Is Amazing is a perfectionist, therefore had really high expectations in the things we do to represent the brand. The process of creating so many content was not easy as we had to come out with so many different ideas but towards the same directions. There are many moments where we creative block.
Our main objective was to inspire creatives to be confident and to encourage them to express themselves through art. The reaction given by audience and guests on the exhibition was priceless. It was a sense of satisfactory as we made this whole unbelievable idea came to live in just two months. Not only that, we tried to make our other media vehicles such as social media postings and radio jingle interesting as well. Our contents were interactive enough to gain engagement with quite a number of viewers and followers on our Sini Sana Seni Instagram account.
One of the biggest concern for me throughout this project is on achieving our first Advertising Objective. We initially aimed to help All Is Amazing increase 5% of their followers but Ms. Leila gave us the challenge to go for 10%. It was not easy as we were also not allowed to use our client’s Instagram account to post our contents, that’s why we had to create our own Instagram account for Sini Sana Seni.
As a whole, I’m grateful for Ms. Leila for giving us the opportunity to work on this project, to believe in us that we can make this happen, and for the guidance she gave, always making sure to keep track on our progression. I am also blessed to be able to work this bunch of people who are different and unique in their own ways. This whole project now feels just like a dream, an unforgettable one.
[ JOEYEE ]
The Final Year project was a great learning experience. The experience, knowledge and exposure I gained from undertaking this project was excellent. My research and study throughout the project proved most helpful, most especially regarding my future career prospects. My team and I had the opportunity to work with All Is Amazing, Asia's leading creative photography collective as our client. We also managed to collaborate with Ministry of Experience to incorporate Augmented Reality to our campaign.
At first, I was uncertain because I never work with Augmented Reality before. But thanks to the Ministry of Experience, the team helped us to develop an Augmented Reality app for our exhibition. It was indeed challenging for all of us, as we have to finish all the AR videos in less than two weeks for the team to develop the app. The AR videos process included interview, photoshoot sessions and post edit.
Our main idea for our campaign is to promote art is everywhere through photo exhibition, our mission is portray different types of art such as music, copywriting, fashion and photography. I am glad that we managed to interview different types of local creatives. I believe we lacked focus at certain stages throughout this project due to creative blocks and other assignments. One of our prime challenges was planning the schedule of photoshoot for each creative and to match All is amazing schedule. We had to make multiple changes and lucky we managed to resolve it.
My favourite part of this project was our photo exhibition, to see our vision come alive was amazing despite all the challenges we faced. People were amused by all the AR videos and some of them didn’t believe that it was a student’s work. I am pleased to say that we accomplished our vision.
Last but foremost, this has been my favourite project throughout my two years of Mass Communication Bachelor. I appreciate for Ms. Leila’s guidance and my team’s hard work. I would like to thank our client, All Is Amazing for their supervision and time, to the Ministry of Experience for their effort and trust on our campaign and the creatives who willing to be a part of our photo exhibition.
[ LOBACH ]
I’ve attended most of the seniors’ BMC showcase for the past few years and have always told myself that I’m going to do something so different that allows people to interact and engage other than just scanning through whatever that’s displayed at the booth. At that moment I’d not had anything in mind that would achieve what I had in mind for the longest time. I was also concerned that we won’t be able to select our own client as I recalled some of the seniors’ batch were given clients instead, luck was on my side, we were able to pick our own clients!
I had my internship with a tech agency that focuses on augmented reality, virtual reality and projection mapping. During my internship interview, my employer asked what I had in mind for my final year project and I told him that I’d like to do something engaging and related to arts. Ever since that interview, he constantly asks and offers to give me help if needed. After being exposed to the wonders of augmented reality, I was determined work on a project related to augmented reality.
It wasn’t easy for me to convince them to work on something so foreign and also not easy for them to digest what was I trying to pitch to them, it was a huge challenge for all of us and i’m grateful that all of us worked together and pulled through it until the very end.
The process of creating content was tough as all of us had our minor subjects and the assignments given were as heavy as a major course. Our client, All is Amazing was very supportive towards our ideas but also had high expectations at the same time.
When we consulted The Ministry Experience, they were handling a few clients’ projects at the same time, which was a crazy time to ask them for this favor to help us out with programming our final year project. Despite their crazy tight schedules, they agreed to help us out as an individual initiative right after the discussion.
It was really tough to schedule everyone’s time along with major creative blocks we had during the process. We had times where we were all stressed up and almost getting into arguments, however we’ve all managed to talk things out calmly and cleared the air between everyone. I’m grateful that my team was professional enough to take it with a pinch of salt and focused on what has to be done.
Our main objective as a team was to inspire and encourage people to experience the possibilities of art through our photo exhibition and we’re proud to say that we’ve achieved it. It was truly an amazing experience when people came to tell us that they felt inspired to do something creative after going through our exhibition. The reactions on the visitors’ faces while interacting with the portraits were priceless, we’re really happy to create this unforgettable experience for them.
Nevertheless, I’m grateful for Ms. Leila’s patience for giving us the chance to work on something with passion, guiding and never giving up on us until the very end. I would also like to thank the team behind All is Amazing for being supportive and understanding throughout the whole journey, to The Ministry Experience who made our ideas come to life despite their busy schedule, the artists Mr Rubin Khoo, Midnight Fusic, Nadine Jasmine and Paulius Staniunas for making time and being a part of our project and last but not least my teammates Sara, Daniel, Natalia, Estee, Joeyee and Selva who made this final year project a success. It was an ideal ending to my final moments as a uni student at Taylor’s University.
[ NATALIA ]
To sum the past few months in a couple of paragraphs would not do the experience justice.
It was a bundle of emotions; hectic, challenging, gratifying and inspiring all in one. From the beginning, we were confident solely based on our group dynamic.Having previously worked together, we had faith in each other that our open communication and symbiotic relationship with each other truly helped us get through the campaign.
We harnessed each of our strengths and came together to create an out of the box campaign, something that we, as Happy 5ive, always felt suited our group dynamic. We think big, and execute just the same.
Although this is a great trait that we have, it can also be our biggest weakness. Our campaign combined several elements such as augmented reality, video shoots, portraits and an exhibition so it was difficult to find a suitable timeline to merge all the parties together.
Whilst last minute, we managed to create an exceptional project within the strict confinements of scheduling and budget. Some things were overlooked, like the cohesiveness of the theme, but regardless the campaign stood out by becoming a unique and interactive exhibition.
The experience gave me insight on how the industry works. From working with different people, to understanding discipline. Most importantly, it falls under the umbrella of being adaptable and learning on the go. It was vital to keep a level head - whether it was dealing with internal conflicts (such as creative ideas clashing) or keeping in line with the time management.
I am proud (and grateful) for the team, our clients and Miss Leila for this opportunity to create with such positive and driven individuals.
[ SARA ]
Summarising my experience for this module, the only line that runs through my head is “Go Big or Go Home”. From the very moment, we convinced Ms. Leila to allow us to challenge ourselves with All Is Amazing as our client while incorporating Augmented Reality, we had foreseen the sleepless nights and endless discussions. Now that it’s all over, I’m glad it all happened because it was certainly worth it.
As a group, we envisioned the same goal which was to create a movement that will inspire everyone — our juniors who will strive to do better than us, industry leaders who will be left impressed and overthrowing the stigma of mass communication leaving you jobless.
Collectively, we knew that this wasn’t just another assignment, it was our Final Year Project. Something that we will be proud of in the next 5, 10, maybe 50 years. It’s something that we will carry forward outside of our university days to support and elevate the local arts scene.
The biggest challenge I’ve faced would be creating a big idea/umbrella term that was strong enough to carry our rationale and executions. Our discussions went back and forth between All Is Amazing and Ministry of Experience who both gave tremendous help in fortifying our campaign’s concept. This was a problem I’ve had personally during my internship because it was difficult to point out a great idea from a sea of good ideas. However, I’m glad I’ve built a stronger sense of judgement and confidence after Sini Sana Seni.
Although we didn’t meet the advertising objectives that we’ve set (online brand awareness for All Is Amazing), we were able to fulfil our own objective : Connecting the right people for the right cause. Unknowingly, we’ve produced a reunion for Taylor’s alumni, Nadia Jasmine and Taylor’s former lecturer, Rubin Khoo by sharing their stories to inspire our exhibition visitors. As for All Is Amazing, we were able to be build a personal connection between them and our artists for future collaborations of their own.
All in all, I’m grateful for having such a strong team that I can count on, even when it comes to midnight favours, last minute changes and on-the-spot crisis management. Last but not least, I’m especially thankful for Ms. Leila who have been nothing more than patient and understanding when sharing her wisdom and concerns each step of the way. Surviving this module ended up becoming my most cherished experience in Taylor’s University.
[ SELVA ]
This was a fun and exciting project to be a part of. Over the years there have been many different and unique Final Year Projects but I am sure ours would be in the top 5, even in the years to come. I can safely say our group is probably one of the most ‘real world’ driven groups not only in the advertising major but in the entire batch. All of us here have experience working in the real world and have knowledge regarding the creative industry, which certainly helped in executing this project.
There is no fancy way of putting this; what made us stand out is not the campaign or the big idea behind the campaign. It was how we executed the campaign using Augmented Reality that gave us the edge. Augmented Reality is already becoming the norm in the modern day content dissemination and will only continue to become bigger. And perhaps that will be the biggest takeaway of our campaign.
I am certainly glad and a little bit proud to be a part of this project. However, to be honest, I think working in the real advertising world has brought up my standards. If I wasn’t working in a real agency, then I would regard this project as something epic but since I’ve been a part of large scale national and international campaigns, this ends up becoming a footnote rather than a headline. But I only speak for myself (insert smiley emoji).
Nevertheless, it has gotten the right industry people impressed, which I believe is the most beneficial part of this project. It helps in branding yourself and jump starting any one of our careers, but only up to that point. After that, what you do in your job is what makes you stand out. I cannot be more thankful to have such a group comprising of talented and high achieving individuals. Having such group members allowed me to have a better work-study balance and focus on the bigger aspects of what I’ve been doing this semester (working on actual campaigns and real life initiatives). But that in turn has also helped me in creating better work for this Final Year Project as well.
Could we have done better for this campaign? Yes. But did we do a great job? More so yes. It was something no group has done before, at least on a university level so this is something we can pat ourselves on the back. Last but not least, none of this would have been possible without Ms.Leila. I never viewed Ms.Leila as a lecturer but more like my superior in the working world. If all of us group members were creatives in an agency, then Ms.Leila would certainly be the Executive Creative Director. She was easy to connect with and very chill. Her experience in the advertising world has given so much value to her classes. This is so evident when she gives constructive criticism and feedback on how to improve our work.
Now let’s just hope the next sem kids don’t come in the way of our SOC Awards :D