Intercultural Design

on

03.02.2025 -  17.03.25 (Week 1-7)

Celine Christabelle Patricia / 0374872 

Intercultural Design / Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / The Design School

Table Contents

  1. Lectures
  2. Task
    • Task 1
    • Task 2
    • Task 3
  3. Feedback
  4. Reflection

Lectures

Lecture 1: Culture and Design

Visual Culture: study of visual objects focus on material (design) and how they interact to people.

  1. Everything that can be seen (Objective Visual)
    • In general view, wide all inclusive
  2. Anything that has been created by humans
    • Has function, content, and communicative purpose
    • Aware with cultural nuances, symbolism, context resonates

Fig 1.1 - Visual of Trees

  1. First tree
    • It has leaves, it also has roots, there is nothing special
  2. Second tree
    • The Bodi tree, the tree that represents Buddhist
    • It has function and purpose, related to religion and culture.
    • Origins, a brand that sells product with organic and natural materials
    • It has a purpose
Not all of your target audience is smart enough to understand your design. 

Fig 1.2 - Visual of Tattoos

  1. Sailor Tattoos
    • To mark the journey they have went through
    • For recognition when they die
  2. Japanese tattoos 
    • To symbolize societal status, spiritual symbols and protection charm
    • In the past years, tattoos are also symbolized as part of Yakuza
Designers must be aware of cultural nuances and symbols when creating design that resonates with diverse audience.

Fig 1.3 - Design significance

  1. Artifacts and product (Implementation)
    • Logo, what you see
    • Tools and Technology 
  2. Norms and Values (Design language)
    • What you look and feel, design elements, design function, 
    • Aesthetics
  3. Basic Consumption (Cultural Function)
    • Values, Principles, Practices
    • Purpose
Before finalizing, ask target audience for opinion, for example by survey. 

Design Sensitivity
  1. Cultural Sensitivity Awareness
    • Symbolism and imagery
      • Certain symbols and image may have different meanings in different culture
    • Color considerations
      • Colors also have different significance in different societies
    • Typography and language
      • Choosing fonts and text must be culturally appropriate, especially when dealing with diverse audience. 
  2. Addressing Cultural Sensitivity
    • Inclusive Design
      • create products that are accessible and inclusive for people from various backgrounds
    • User Research
      • helps designers to gain insight into cultural preferences
    • Localization
      • to enhance the relevance and acceptance of a product or service
    • Culture awareness training
      • to develop a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives

Lecture 2: KL Design Festival

Design is broad, fundamental of design is art

Everyday Design

  • How design influences your lifestyle?
  • Do you collect things designed to your liking daily?
  • Do you design identity by deciding what you wear to build your persona?
Design, Is it for people to use or just a decoration?

Zebra cross, Arrow - design
Design : Art for consumption

How does art exist in the existence of AI?
Designers could actually be more flexible, better research and fundamentals. We are lacking of thinking designers. Create a strong narrative so clients don't overlook. 
"I encourage my team to use AI, prompt is important, rubbish in, rubbish out"
To use AI, designers need to think of a good prompt to create a great design, not just random prompt. 

Project 1 - Proposal Ideation

Brief - Everyday Design
Everyday design refers to the observation and analysis of design elements in daily life. These designs may not be iconic or extravagant but play a crucial role in shaping the cultural and functional aspects of society. Make preliminary ideas (at least 3) on how to express culture in design language. 



Project 2 - Data Collection

Brief 
Students are required to collect visual, oral, textural artifacts that would be part of the research materials according to the ideation in Project 1. Data collection method can be anything, observations, online or physical research on material, interview, relevant to the topic. 


Project 3 - Final Project

Brief 
Document the experiences when making this project through Tiktok Page. This page should serve as a cultural journal, where you record, reflect, and creatively present your interactions, observations, and insights about everyday design. The goal is to communicate these short videos to broad audience.

Project 3 - Final Project Tiktok Account

Feedback
from consultation

Week 3
It is important to how does the packaging used as a vehicle of cultural awareness. The rationale is about logo/package design becomes a messenger as cultural awareness. Then outcome can be anything, reimagine this item or this logo or typeface from other culture, or just a documentary how this apply in other culture, in Asian or Western culture, also depends on how you document it. 

Week 5
Put the picture that has written information in the slides with larger size. If the output is video documentary, make sure it is within 30-40 seconds, 1 brand can per part or more, and you need to know what to put in the video.

Reflection

Through out this module, I have learnt the significance of culture in everyday life. Through the lectures I have received and research I have done together with my teammates, we found out that things around us reflects cultural elements. Every brands are made through deep findings, having their own values and functions, and also the purpose. The philosophy of brands has vision and goals on how they serve customers. By these findings I have learnt, designs that are created by a look of an eye has a deep cultural meaning. 

From the data collection that our team conducted, I also notice that designs plays a very big role on how to attract customers. By knowing so, I realize that artwork that has been made around us have gone through a long process, from ideation, researching, and to the final product, which will end up becoming masterpiece that would please everyone's eye. 

When doing this project, I find it quite difficult to cooperate with some of my teammates since we have different visions on how to reach our goals. Experiencing myself as a group leader, it was challenging because I need to make sure that everything we did is right on track. Fortunately, I have some teammates that are very willingly to do and assist on doing the projects. It was like a rollercoaster, we went on a lot of ups and downs and eventually made it to the end. 

For instance, this module have given me significant learnings about culture, not only theoretically, but also the practice on real life, exploring cultures that could be found closely in our daily life. This aspires me to learn more about cultures in the future, whenever I am creating a new project for myself or for my future clients. 

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