Intercultural Design : Task 1_Proposal

5.2.2024 - 23.2.2024 （Week 1 - Week 3)

Ruthlene Chua Zhen Si 0365222 

Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media - Intercultural Design GCD 61304

Task 1: Proposal

Task Jump link

  • Lectures
  • Instruction
  • Task Requirement
  • Proposal
  • Feedback
  • Reflection

Lectures

01-Culture & Design
  • Due to the close relationship between design and culture, one must be able to understand and articulate both
  • Introduction:
    • We live in a visual information culture with an unprecedented explosion of images. Therefore, Visuals serve as a powerful and persuasive medium for conveying most of our information about the world
  • Why do visual graphic exist? Why do they look the way they do ?
    1. Everything that can be seen: The theory involves nature and is comprehensive and wide-ranging. Nature is not simply cultural unless it carries meaning and representation
    2. Everything produced or created by humans that can be seen: This implies that everything people perceive and produce with the intention of representing something has a visual component and has functions, content, and communicational aim.
Figure 1.0: Example of Visual Graphic

  • Awareness: In order to create design that are inclusive and resonate with diverse audiences, we must be aware of cultural nuances, symbolism, and context
  • Design significance: 
    • Identify social, cultural, and political contexts of design elements
    • Understand significance of graphics in cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, and origin history
    • Simplify process through breakdown and expansion via design system in this module
    • For examples:
Figure 1.1: Utilize Nature Republic as provided examples to demonstrate the importance of design
  • Cultural sensitivity awareness:
    1. Symbolism and Imagery:
      • Symbols and images can have varied meanings across cultures
      • Be aware of cultural interpretations
      • Prevent unintended misunderstandings or offense
    2. Typography and Language:
      • Cultural appropriateness is crucial when selecting fonts and text styles
      • It's important to consider language variations and ensure accurate translations
      • Ensures effective communication with diverse audiences
    3. Color Consideration :
      • The cultural associations of colors can vary greatly through nations
      • This knowledge aids in making appropriate color choices
    4. Inclusive Design: 
      • Make experiences and goods that are inclusive of individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and with varying needs and abilities
    5. Localization: 
      • Design localizing to certain cultural settings increases the acceptability and relevance of a product or service
    6. User Research: 
      • Do extensive user research to have better understand cultural preferences and behaviors
    7. Cultural Awareness Training: 
      • To get deeper knowledge of varied viewpoints and sensitivities, design teams might benefit from cultural awareness training
02-Culture, Design & Research
  • It is a must to understand the critical relationship between culture and design to successfully improve  creative talents, aspiring
  • What challenge designer face ?
    • Greater challenges in expressing creativity through borderless technologies, striving for beauty, stunning & appropriateness
  • Why Research ?
    • Research : Being vigilant with our artworks requires more than just skills, intuition, and creativity
      • To unite theory and practices of design to establish project rationale
      • To gather more data and process into crucial information to start own workflow
      • Help visualize project, course and convey messages properly 
  • With research ?
    • Able to identify design elements in social, cultural, and political contexts while understanding importance in a variety of fields
Figure 1.2 : Design system

Figure 1.3: Design system in pyramid form
  • How to do research?
    • Process:
      1. Before writing the proposal: 
        • Secondary findings: Collect data through publish and existing resources ( Wikipedia, YouTube, Design source etc.)
        • Primary findings: Sketches of proposed artwork based on research from secondary findings ( Sketches, Storyboards, Wireframe) 
      2. After Producing the proposal:
        • Primary findings: Data collected by you and teams ( On-site observation, Interview/ Surveys) 
      3. During the creation of artwork:
        • Final design production of artwork (Processes, Team contributions)
        • Data collected through published and existing resources ( How to instructions, Safety & regulations )
Figure 1.4: Example of Observation Exercise

Instruction

Module Information Booklet

Task Requirement 
Theme: "Cultural Sensitivity in Design"
  • Explore a culturally sensitive phenomenon or subculture within the chosen theme, maintaining factual accuracy while raising awareness. Develop preliminary design concepts supported by brief rationales, utilizing visual research for idea enhancement.
  • Prepare a PowerPoint presentation containing:
    • A 200-word write-up defining and interpreting the theme in connection with the chosen cultural elements
    • Provide citations, visual references, picture credits. Present minimum three design ideas through detailed sketches, with individual justifications.
      • Compile a comprehensive reference list, acknowledging all sources utilized.
Proposal

Week 1
In order to help us with our future task and to get more knowledge about cultural sensitivity design, we are advised to do some research before beginning the assignment. The lectures provide us with a clear brief on cultural sensitivity. 

Week 2
As we are preparing for a study trip to Japan, our lecture told that we must conduct research on Japanese cultural. In order to collaborate effectively, we form groups of six to collectively work on an assignment centered around Japanese cultural sensitivity in design. To ensure fairness and broaden our understanding of Japanese culture, we decide to let each member to propose a topic, then vote on the most picked and serve as the primary focus for our assignment on cultural sensitivity in design. 

I was recently inspired to learn more about Japanese ghost culture after watching an interesting performance of the Japan Olympic opening ceremony on social media. I thus begin my investigation into the culture of ghosts with the intention of creating a ghost mask or other ghost-themed daily object.


Week 3
After we come out with all of our research, we vote the topic who all of us interested in and make further process on it, there are Kimono, Japanese Wedding Customs, Japanese Packaging, Ghost and Supernatural Belief, Lantern Motifs, and Kawaii culture. 

These are all the research we done: 

Following the voting process, we unanimously agreed and expressed interest in the topic of packaging and Ghosts with Supernatural Beliefs. Consequently, we decided to proceed with this topic, considering it as our main focus for the assignment. We assign task, complete the proposal and present it to our lecture and get feedbacks from her. After a review, she suggested that we integrate both themes, packaging and ghost supernatural belief, into our project and so we did.

Final Proposal: 

Unanimously, we settled on a specific topic titled: "How Spiritual Culture Influences Japanese Society." Subsequently, we began crafting a PowerPoint presentation accompany with 3 product with 3 sketches such as Yokai bookmarks ("yokai" also known as monster in Japanese), fox face mask and oni Popsicles (which means ghost popsicles , "oni" means ghost in Japanese). 

Presentation video: LINK

Feedback

Week 1
During the first week, following our decision to focus on Ghosts and Supernatural Beliefs as our topic, Ms. Anis said it is a good starting point and request to look forward on our sketches idea for our project.
 
Week 2
We discussions with Ms. Anis regarding our assignment, and she told us that we may carry on with the present workflow.

Week 3
Following Ms. Anis's review of our work, she recommended that we merge sketches one and two to create a snack box as our continue process for task 2. 

Reflections

Experience
In this task, we explore the crucial connection between design and culture, aiming to showcase our ability to conduct relevant research for design purposes. Lectures emphasize the importance of research, guiding us to seek accurate and suitable information. Working in groups, we learn to communicate effectively and foster teamwork. Research on cultural sensitivity necessitates continuous exploration for reliable information, requiring us to discern between truth and falsehood. Lecturers encourage critical thinking and problem-solving, allowing us to seek clarification when needed. This task prepares us for future assignments in Task 2, where we must propose a study on a cultural phenomenon or subculture. We must convey the cultural aspect accurately while raising awareness, demonstrating our interpretation visually through design language.

Observation
From the assignment, I found out it is important to highlight the significance of understanding visual communication in our image-driven society. Cultural sensitivity in design was stressed, emphasizing the need for me to be aware of cultural nuances, symbolism, and context to create inclusive designs. Research was underscored as crucial for me to understand design elements within various contexts and establishing project rationale.

Findings
During the lectures, I was deeply moved by the profound link between culture and design. It struck me how crucial it is to grasp both elements to create meaningful and impactful designs. Visual communication stood out as a potent force in our visually-driven society, conveying rich layers of information about the world around us. I felt a sense of urgency in understanding cultural sensitivity in design, realizing that it requires a keen awareness of cultural nuances, symbolism, and context to craft designs that truly resonate with diverse audiences.

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