Getting to know DDM Students Series #003 - Ibrahim

After getting to know two Year 1 (2011 cohort) students for the last two issues, this week, we will peek into the life of a Year 2 DDM student -  Ibrahim Zubir!

When I was given his name for interview, I was told he is the current "poster boy" of DDM.  After viewing his profile at Facebook, I understood why - he looks so charming and friendly!  Seeing is believing.. check out his photos below to see what I mean!

Before coming to Singapore Polytechnic, Ibrahim studied Retail Management (NITEC) and Integrated Logistics Management (Higher NITEC) at ITE College East.   Woah, what a contrast from what he is studying now!

Ibrahim felt that both his courses at ITE have developed him well, "Through my Retail Management course,  I developed better communication and inter-personal skills.  I learnt how important it is to understand the customer’s needs and how to be a great sales provider."
"In Higher Nitec I took Integrated Logistics Management as I wanted to explore something new, and how this industry works. It is basically about business, how to handle goods, goods that are imported and exported and delivery through various transportation modes such as vehicles, ships and plane."

I got curious to see that his secondary school and primary school were both in the West - Hong Kah Secondary School and Yung An Primary, yet, he decided to enrol in ITE College East which is the opposite side of the island from where he stays!

Ibrahim explained, "I didn't mind the distance because ITE College East was then one of the newest campus during my intake.  The facilities was the best among others. I wanted to experience a new environment on the other parts of Singapore; also during that time, I wanted my school to be far away from home, so that I could have a little freedom. And the last reason was because of the interesting courses that the campus provides, with real work industry facilities such as 77^th Street outlet in the campus, for our training sessions."

Wow, from how he described his educational experiences before he came to SP,  Ibrahim has a wealth of interesting stories to share indeed!


Next, I asked him these questions and here are the answers he gave:

Name three favourite things:
My three favorite are All Spider Man Movies, American Idol, and Music Band, MAROON 5.  My three favourite songs from Maroon5 are Misery, Goodnight Goodnight and Never Gonna Leave This Bed.



Ibrahim, how do you think your friends think of you and what do you think of yourself?
My friends think I am a sympathetic person and I agree. 

I guess they think I am so because I can easily understand other people feelings' and being concerned towards them when they are facing problems, especially my friends.
Personally i think i am an ambitious person
I always give my best in everything that I do till the very end in order to achieve a great result until I am fully satisfied. I wanted to achieve my dreams of becoming a very successful person
in future.

What are your favourite modules in SP?
After studying for 2 years, my three favourite modules in SP are DVDE (Digital Visual Design), DEAE (Design and Aesthetics) and VEFX (Visual Effects).

• I appreciate DVDE because this module has helped me develop my skills of using Adobe softwares such as Photoshops and Illustrator. 
• I enjoy DEAE (Design And Aesthetics) because it helps me explore all the different area in the media industry such as photography, graphics design as well as website design. 
• As for VEFX (Visual Effects), I love this module because I love to edit videos and add cool effects to it. 

What is your CCA in SP?
I join the Photography Club. I learned some photography skills and tips of capturing different types of shots, we also did photography outing at popular places in Singapore such as Chinese Garden and took night photography at Clarke Quay to capture the night scene.



Ibrahim, can you share with us what are your strengths and weaknesses please?
I believe these are my strengths and weaknesses
Strengths

1. Optimistic person, as i always think positively in whatever things that i do.
2. Sociable, as I'm friendly and able to get along easily with everyone.

Weaknesses

1. Easily distracted
2. Spendthrift.  I spent a lot on shoes and apparel. When I see nice things, I will just buy them :)
   
   

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I like his answers to this question  the most :)

Ibrahim, so who or what inspires you?

Hanagumori Digital Painting

I am inspired by

1. Hanagumori Digital Painting by Diane Ozdamar
2. Steve Jobs and
3. Mr Leon Chua (SP Lecturer)

• When I first saw the Hanagumori painting, it totally caught my attention right away. The painting really wowed me, as if it was a real person staring at me, haha.  I love every detail of the painting that the artists drew. Especially the character eye and the textures of the work piece.
• To me, Steve Jobs is the reason why things are getting much simpler today in the technology industry. I believe his passion and dedication for work has made him to be one of the wealthiest and successful businessmen in the world, and I hope to be like him too. 
• As for Mr Leon Chua, I remember how he showed us his portfolio and some school works that he did during his time. All of his works are very inspirational, seeing the work which he had done was way much better than most of us now. He always motivates his students, and gives honest and generous comments when we had consultation with him for our design work. Mr Leon is a lecturer who teaches his students with great passion.

If you can be somebody else for a day, who would you choose to be?
If I can be somebody else for a day, I would like to be Peter Parker a.k.a Tobey McGuire the main actor from Spider Man Movie. So that I'm able to use the spider-web to explore around the world and capturing great photos at the same time.  

Ibrahim, can you share with us some of your favourite photography works please?
My three favourite works are as below.

Paddy Field

Lady Knitting

Young boy by the roadside

Preview of Getting to know DDM Students Series #003

Sorry for the long hiatus, work has been busy!

But not to fret, we are coming up with a good one in the next issue - our handsome Year 2 going on Year 3 DDM posterboy Ibrahim!

Look out for him on 27 Feb 2012!

Getting to know DDM Students Series #002 - Nicholas

Hi peeps!

How time flies, it's been a week since we last featured Fifi, the rock-climber cum passionate digital art designer and now it's time to feature our next student in the list.

Today, we present Nicholas Ching,  a former Bukit Batok Secondary school alumni who describes himself as a ROCKER.

Fifth choice but loving it
So how did a ROCKER end up in a digital media course like DDM?

"Actually, DDM was not my first choice, it was my fifth choice! My first choice was Media Communications in SP.  I tried getting in through JPSAE but failed, and was posted here"

But all is not lost.  As Nicholas added, "I like this course, even though it is not my first choice. I feel that this course is fun, and really cool. especially Photoshop! haha!".

Though he admitted he was initially quite disappointed that he did not get into his preferred course, the out-going student from Bukit Batok Secondary has learnt to adapt and blended incredibly well into his course and with his coursemates.

"I'm loving life here in SP, in this course.  Except for the part where I have to take less of DDM-type of modules under the Common Year One (CYO) curriculum,  I love everything else about SP and DDM.   I love the food here, the people here, everything in SP is really good! I find the teachers/lecturers and students are all very friendly, easy to mix with, after 10 months here, I have loads of new friends already! hahaha."

Paintball MANIAC?
So what does this active boy with boyish good looks do besides going to school?

"I love playing soccer and basketball and also paintball."

His passion with paintball is evident from the way he talks about it, "I really love playing paintball. I started this sport when I was in poly Year 1.  I've focused a lot on it and feel that it is something I'm good at."

What makes him love paintball so much, I asked him, "I think paintball makes me grow as a person.  Playing paintball really helped me realise how important teamwork is and made me communicate more with my peers and also realise how important friends are."

Nicholas playing paintball at a competition in ECP, Oct 2011

One question popped into my mind and I asked Nicholas, "Hey, why do you call yourself a rocker?"

Nicholas smiled and said "Well, I call myself a rocker because I listen to a lot of rock music, very fast-paced songs. and I like to dress like one! I am ALWAYS in jeans and band tees!"

Trying to act like a rocker!

Besides paintball and listening to music, like any typical teenage guy, he also loves to play video games like FIFA, NBA and  first-person shooting games like Call Of Duty and Battlefield.

He loves all kinds of western food especially fish & chips and steak.  But don't feed this boy any vegetables - he HATES them and Chinese dishes are not his cup of tea either.

Missing ManU
I asked Nicholas what would he want to do if he was allowed to be anything or do anything he wanted.   He jokingly replied, "Play all day, and get people to give me a huge allowance everyday!"

Later, he reverted to a serious face and shared this with me, "I really want to go back to Manchester and see that place again. I've been there once and really love it.  Manchester is the home of my favourite football club, Manchester United, and what's more, the food there is good, the houses are nice, everything seems great over there."

Nicholas at Old Trafford, a football stadium in Manchester

Anything else he really wants to do?
"Well, I really want to learn the guitar or another instrument as I love music and hate how I can't motivate myself to focus on something and perfect it instead of quitting it halfway."  I learnt later that Nicholas had tried to self-learn the guitar on his own but he could not discipline himself and gave up after a while.   He declares that in order that history would not repeat, he would sign up for guitar lessons in future, and put his heart into learning it this time, "I would live on the "never say die" slogan just like my father!"

Never say die slogan just like his father?
"Actually I really wish I can do something really meaningful to my life and make something out of myself.  I really wish I can make the people around me happy, for instance, my dad.  He's a really great father who inspires me alot.  He has the 'never say die' attitude, and always willing to help people no matter how badly they've treated him before.  He always helps me when I'm in need, teach me what to do and stuff"

So what's your philsophy in life?
"What goes around, comes around"
"A man who never made a mistake never tried anything new"
"All our dreams will come true, if we have the courage to pursue them"

If you can be someone else for a day, who would you choose to be?
"If I could be somebody else for a day, I would like to be David Beckham because I love soccer, and he is my idol. I love how he plays soccer and gets to play in those big clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan. It would be really awesome to be him for a day and imagine the things I could buy with his one day salary!"

So what would make this carefree boy really happy in life?
"I would be really happy in life as long as I know my family and friends are always there for me, and that I hope that luck would shine on me from time to time(I'm a rather unlucky person in some ways) haha. As long as everyone who's in my life right now is doing great, I'll be glad :) "

Winners of the Mini Contest #001 - Upload your works

Do you like Angry Birds? Well, I do, and so do many of the students in the DDM course!

2 weeks ago (12 Jan 2012), we ran a contest to give out Angry Bird souvenirs to the winners of the "Mini Contest #001 - Upload your works" competition on the DDM-DiXM Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/groups/spdixm).

Proof that Angry Birds is well-loved by the DDM students because the students from Year 1 to Year 3 responded enthusiastically! We received many many entries and wow, many of the entries were really impressive!

The students had a good time LIKING each other posts and conmenting on each other's creative works.

Here's some examples of how the students showed their support for their fellow coursemates' works:

Cwei Tay's "NEC Swan" received 12 likes within a day and he was complimented as being "Talented"

Jingwen's YEP Poster received 21 LIKES and was tagged as "LIKE-A-BOSS typography".

Actually, there were so many good works, and it was really hard to determine the winners.

But no choice, we had to pick winners, so finally, we decided the winners of this mini-contest on 16 Jan 2012.  There were 3 winners from each Year from Year 1 to Year 3, i.e. 9 winners in all.

Yup, all the winners will get Angry Bird souvenirs as a prize.  In addition, a laminated "certificate" like the one you see further below!

Here's the Year 1 winners Jess, Fifi and Camilla with their prizes and certificates.

Jess, Fifi and Camilla with their Angry Birds erasers and certs!

Each winner will also get a laminated certificate like this one!

So who are the Year 2 and Year 3 winners? Well, they will be featured in another post, so look out for it! :)