Intercultural Design | Projects
05.02.2024 - 24.03.2024 || Week 1 - Week 7
Yong Zhen Xing || 0359473
Intercultural Design || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media || Taylor's University
All Projects
Jumplinks
Lectures
Instructions
Project 1 (Proposal)
Project 2 (Field Study)
Project 3 (Visual Design)
Feedback
Reflection
Lectures
Week 1 :
Class Summary (Online) :
This first lecture was an introduction on the projects that we will do. We also had a lecture on Culture and Design and how we need to be aware on design sensitivity when it comes to culture.
Lecture :
- Visuals serve as a big purpose in communicating how something can/should be represented.
- Designers should be aware of culture nuances, context and symbol in order to create a design that resonate with diverse audiences.
- In culture design, the design system is a way ensure that you don't overlook simple meanings behind certain cultures.
- Elements such as symbolism/imagery, colour choices and typography/language should be considered when creating a design especially if it is about culture sensitivity.
Week 2 :
Class Summary (Physical) :
This week's lecture was about culture, design and research. Then we had time to discuss with our group members on how to proceed with our projects.
Notes :
- Through researching, artworks by designers could convey a more meaningful message rather then relying on creativity and intuition.
- Researching before beginning any types of project could help with gaining important information needed. These information gained could later then be used to visualize the idea of the project.
- Knowing how to do a deep analysis based on an observation can help designers understand on why certain things are designed the way that it is.
Week 3 :
Class Summary (Physical) :
This class was more of a questions and answer session regarding our concerns on project 1. After that, we had a discussion with our group members to finish the project.
Week 4 :
Class Summary (No Class) :
This was our data collection week and there was a portion of the class that were still in the Japan Trip.
Week 5 :
Class Summary (Physical) :
In this class, we had a discussion with our assigned lectures about our data collection progress.
Week 6 :
Class Summary (Physical) :
In this class, the lecturer shared the deadline for our finals. We also had a discussion with our assigned lectures about our final assignment progress.
Week 7 :
Class Summary (No Class) :
There were no classes this week. This week only serves as a purpose of a final consultation if needed with the lecturer through microsoft teams.
Instructions
Project 1 : Proposal
These projects are separated into 3 but are basically 1 long continuous group project. In this first part, me and my group had to find a culture or subculture that are perceived as sensitive and do a study on it. We then also needed to come up with at least 3 preliminary ideas/sketches based on the theme of what we would go for.
Planning (Choosing a topic) :
At first we plan to do Gaming Culture as a topic, upon further discussion on the topic, we talked about game clothes and how that could be sensitive to some cultures. That was a good base for the idea but then one of my group member suggested Modesty as our main topic instead since it had a wider reach. We all agreed and decided to stick with it.
So we each then did research on the topic modesty and decide by ourselves what should our sketch output be. We also decided to each have our own sketch so that we'll have more ideas to think about for our final project. Back to the research, since modesty is such a wide topic, one we should really emphasize or do a study about is definitely modest dressing, and so we did.
Idea :
For my preliminary idea, I decided to do on traditional clothes since different cultures have their own style/way on how they design traditional clothes and why they are designed the way they are. Because of this, I decided to do something sensitive but interesting in a form of an artwork. That idea is creating an artwork where the subject wears a piece of clothing that contains 3 different traditional clothes from each culture. I chose 3 because because it's an amount that is workable but also because they are the 3 main culture in Malaysia which are Malay, Chinese and Indian.
Individual Sketch :
Below here is the sketch I came up with from the idea.
fig 2.2, Traditional Clothes Combined Sketches (22/2/2024)
After each of our members shared our ideas/sketches, we worked on finishing the slides and presentation which can be seen below.
Final Outcome :
fig 2.3, Group 53 : Modesty Proposal Presentation Deck (PDF) (24/2/2024)
fig 2.4, Group 53 : Modesty Proposal Presentation (25/2/2024)
Project 2 : Field Study
For our second part of the task we needed do data collection about our proposal whether that be in visual, oral or even as an artefact.
So firstly we discussed on what kind of data we should be collecting. We decided to also narrow down to modest dressing as it would be an interesting topic to do a study on. We then decided to collect data about the general public as it is the best way to see what the public thinks about such a sensitive topic.
Data Collection Methods :
1. Online Survey
When creating the online survey, we first got our group to list out as much questions we can on a document form about modest dressing. Then I was tasked to select some of those questions to be put in a google form. We each then shared the google form to everyone we know. We got a total of 19 responses from the survey.
Online Survey Link (Google Forms) :
https://forms.gle/dhgWPQXCndDyUDx9A
Below shows all the data for the 19 responses we got!
fig 3.1, Group 53 : Modesty Online Survey Response (PDF) (16/3/2024)
2. Physical Interview
For the physical interview, we have decided to ask similar questions to the google form survey to get a more first hand kind of impression for the answers. We decided on several best questions and then selected 4 of the best ones to ask people.
fig 3.2, Question Voting for the Physical Interview among my Group Members (6/3/2024)
Next, 2 of my group members did the transcript so it could be easier to refer to. (The recordings can be listened to in the final slide)
fig 3.3, Transcript for the Physical Interview (7/3/2024)
3. Field Trip Study
We initially decided to take photos of clothing from stores to see what the general public choices are when it comes to clothing, but after discussing with the lecturer, we have decided to change path and just take pictures of people in different areas. So me with some of my other group members then took photos of the public in malls as it is the more crowded places compared to places like the streets. I chose to do in 1 Utama Shopping Centre since it is often packed with people.
Link To All Photos :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ty48s0xL3MO2b6N9XA3zFF_FhumUwhj-?usp=sharing
Final Outcome :
fig 3.5, Group 53 : Modesty Data Collection (Google Slides) (10/3/2024)
Project 3 : Visual Design
For our final task, we now needed to create a Visual Design whether it be a physical or digital from our initial proposed idea and our data collection.
Planning :
At first, we didn't really know what to go for so we went to the lecturer to ask for opinions. After a quick discussion, the lecturer suggest either the Modesty Board Game or the Poster Photography Lookbook. It was up to us to decided which we wanted to do on.
My group and I actually leaned towards the board game even before the discussion, so we went for that first. Unfortunately for us, we didn't know how to make the game interesting or engaging. There was no purpose for the game, and we thought that even if you won in the game, it doesn't really matter if it felt nothing. With how sensitive the topic "modesty" is, adults probably wouldn't enjoy the game either as it would be very awkward. So because of all of the problems mentioned, we had to jump ship to the poster photography lookbook and compared to the board game idea, this one had a solid foundation in the concept aspect.
References :
For references it wouldn't make sense for a single person to gather all the references. So what we did was compiled all of our references together and selected the best ones in terms of clothing choice and poses.
fig 4.1, Photography Moodboard (23/4/2024)
Photoshoot :
We first decided to shoot at BookXcess RexKL as it has a very warm tone with a cozy kind of feeling. Next was trying to find willing models for the photoshoot. We got one of our group member (Hanson) who was willing to be one of the models, while the other model comes from another group member's friend (Vincent). After looking at references, we had a rough idea on what kinds of poses we would be taking for our models but when taking the photographs there, we definitely experimented with a lot of different poses and styles.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VXUWg6PHNypevO2ZJ5J35RIBVLKdstbS?usp=sharing
Next we begin designing our very own photography lookbook. We first tried sketching the composition to see where everything would go, but after trying the layout on google slides, we found that to be better than sketching as we could experiment with the colours and sizes on the spot. We brainstormed many different layouts before only getting the ones we liked.
fig 4.4, Cover Experimenting (27/4/2024)
fig 4.5, Introduction Experimenting (27/4/2024)
After finishing the photography lookbook, all that was left was doing the presentation deck for our photography lookbook.
Final Outcome :
fig 4.6, Group 53 : Final Photograph Lookbook (PDF) (27/4/2024)
fig 4.7, Group 53 : Final Project Deck (PDF) (27/4/2024)
fig 4.8, Group 53 : Final Project Presentation (28/4/2024)
Feedback
Week 5 :
The introduction could me more in depth instead of just touching surface levels. Next time when doing different types of data collection, the questions should be different instead of being the same/similar so that you have variety, but since the data has been collected, it is fine. Change your field study to instead of looking into the market and what stores are selling, look into what people wear in public, that way you gather a more useful data instead.
Week 6 :
The lecturer recommends to do either on the board game or a poster photograph lookbook. The board game can consists of commonly asked questions and doesn't need to be that complex while the lookbook could just be taking photos of a model in different clothing with some description about it.
Reflection
Experience
When I first entered intercultural design, I didn't know what to expect. Maybe we were to design a product based on a specific culture, maybe we needed to do research about a certain culture or maybe we even needed to do a study on a not well known culture. All of those could be interesting in their own way and maybe it'll be cool to see what design I could come up with depending on the task. What I didn't expect, was a full-on group project from start to finish. Saying I didn't like group projects would be an understatement. I despise it. Nevertheless, group projects are still always a great place to make new friends especially for an introvert like me. But just like any group project, there would always be contributors and people who barely contributes. My group is no different.
When it came to task 1, my group and I had a small hurdle where we got confused with the requirement of the task, but after discussing again, the task went pretty smooth till the end. Task 2 was however a different story. This task is probably the most demanding but memorable part out of the entire project as it require us to collect data by doing surveys, interviews and going on a field trip in 2 weeks. That is not very much time. But after splitting the work evenly, everything went well! We also learned quite a lot about people's perspective on modest dressing which is quite fascinating! On the final task, we went to BookXcess RexKL for our photographs which was pretty fun! The environment there is very lively yet has a calm tone at the same time. I also had a blast discussing the layout plan for our photography lookbook with my group. We all shared different ideas and tried experimenting with what works best. As for the outcome, I am happy with how it turned out and hope that the lookbook was evident enough to promote modest dressing to audiences.
Observations
While I was out to 1 Utama for the field study, only have I started focusing on what people was dressing in public spaces so I could get variety in a photo. I learned that the environment in the mall has people dressing mostly modestly and it made me just look more at people with different clothing to see the current fashion trends, which seems to be quite modest in my opinion.
From looking at other group's work, it was interesting to see what kind of topic direction they were aiming for and what was their proposed ideas are for the final. Many of the work, especially for the groups who went to Japan had plenty of data collection and photographs which was really fascinating to go through. Some groups also had a very stunning and clean presentation slides which was really pleasant to read through. Through observing other groups work, I have learned about some of their chosen culture along with getting some ideas on how to showcase our work better to produce a more cleaner presentation.
Findings
Through task 2 data collection, I have learned a lot on modest dressing that I would otherwise would have not known. From the online survey, I find it pretty hilarious that majority people likes immodest dressing yet suggests that modest dressing should be the new norm. It really just shows how split this 'issue' really is. From the physical interviews, it was interesting listening to people giving their first-hand impressions about the questions asked. From the field trip study as mentioned before, I definitely started looking at people's attire more to grasp the estimation of modest clothes against immodest clothes before coming up with a conclusion. And it seems that modest clothing are way more common. This experience has thought me to sort of appreciate my surroundings more instead of thinking about what I am supposed to do at the moment. It also thought me that everyone has their own opinions and I as a listener should respect what they have to say.
Through this module, I have also find myself to be a bit extroverted when it comes to taking initiatives. I would usually be the one that is scared to say anything and will wait for commands, but this time, there was a point where my group members didn't say anything for progression, so I took initiative and it went.... surprisingly well! I ended actually becoming the person to check for each of members' work and also a planner for my group's meeting/discussion times! Maybe our bonds got stronger, but I became confident at instructing my group on our work plans! No longer was I scared to ask for assistance or staying silent and waiting. This really made me discover a new part of myself, a sight that I never thought I would see.
Comments
Post a Comment