Intercultural Design | Project 1 : Proposal
07.02.2025 - 23.02.2025 Week 01 - Week 03
Tracy Angeline Tio / 0362222 / Bachelor of Design ( Honors ) in Creative Media
Intercultural Design / Taylor's University
PROJECT 1 : PROPOSAL
- Visuals are :
- Cultural sensitivity in design goes beyond aesthethics, it also encompasses functionality, usability, and the overall user experience.
Design Sensitivity
For me, finding topic was the frustrated part since there were many choices and opinion for other members as well. We then decided to focusing on the country that felt international to us and our choices was Malaysia! (All of us were not malaysian :> )
Intercultural Design / Taylor's University
PROJECT 1 : PROPOSAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LECTURES
LECTURES 1 ( WEEK 1 - Culture and Design )
On the first week, Ms. Anis introduces us the general understanding regarding on this modules. The key aspects on this modules are about the Culture and Design.
- Culture and design are insperable, and as future designers, you need to be able to understand and express both as part of your creative skills development.
- We live in a visual information culture. Visuals are powerful persuasive medium to provide most of our information about the world. Based on the information from wearecomet.com, Visuals gave 40% of people more impacts than a text.
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| Fig 1.1 Proof that Visuals are Powerful in General Data Week 1 07/02/2025 |
- Everything that can be seen : wide, all-inclusive, including nature.
- Everything produced or created by humans that can be seen.
- Example : Logo, Tattoos (Japanese).
- Designers need to be aware of cultural nuances, symbolism, and context to create designs that are inclusive and resonate with diverse audiences.
Design Significance & System
- By understanding the significance of the graphics in it's cultural studies, philosophy, sociology and origin history. You are able to identify the social, cultural & political sphere where the design elements reside.
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| Fig 1.2 Design Significance and It's Example Week 1 07/02/2025 |
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| Fig 1.3 Design System and It's Example Week 1 07/02/2025 |
Design Sensitivity
Cultural Sensitivity Awareness contents of :
- Symbolism and Imagery : Certain symbols and images may carry different meanings in different cultures. Should be mindful for Designers.
- Color Considerations : Colors can have cultural significance, and their meanings may vary across different societies.
- Typography and Languange : Choosing fonts and text styles that are culturally appropriate is important.
Addressing Cultural Sensitivity contents of :
- Inclusive Design : Designers should strive to create products and experiences that are accessible and inclusive for people from various cultural backgrounds.
- User Research : Conducting thorough user research, including etnographic studies, and user testing across diverse groups.
- Localization : Adapting designs to specific cultural contexts through localization can enhance the relevance and acceptance of a product or service.
- Cultural Awareness Training : Design teams may benefit from cultural awareness, traning to develop a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and sensitivities.
INSTRUCTIONS
MIB BOOKLET :
MODULES INTRODUCTION :
PROJECT 1
Proposal
On this task, we were instructed to form a group of 6 people and create a proposal to concretise ideas, supported by research, for a final design revolving a given theme that reflects students’ understanding and interpretation of global issues and design aesthetics.
Requirements :
- The general theme is “Everyday Design”
- Everyday design refers to the observation and analysis of design elements that are seamlessly integrated into daily life. These designs may not be iconic or extravagant but play a crucial role in shaping the cultural and functional aspects of society. For your project, students can explore how design influences and reflects culture, behaviour, and identity through commonly encountered objects, environments, and systems.
- Produce some preliminary ideas on how to visually express your interpretation using design language. Each idea is to be supported by a short rationale. Conduct visual research to help expand your idea generation.
- https://www.notion.so/Theme-Everyday-Design-15ccca1fe9228017bfddd5a930f00e8f?pvs=4\
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1. Ideation
On week 1, we were instructed to form a group consist of 6 members. In class we tried to find a different number of group as instructed and here are the list of the members :
- Tang Lilin [0376668] - Group Leader
- Gao Yiming [0360273]
- Tracy Angeline Tio [0362222]
- Jessie Eileen [0367269]
- Sun Jiayue [0376224]
- Pan Ruining [0378138]
We created a whatsapp group in class for communicate through our ideas. After that, I gave them a references from previous students to gain a general theme regarding on our task. Altough the theme is different, we got an ideas of the flow for this modules.
To make us easier for gave an preliminary ideas for the task, I made a Figjam board to discuss together in online.
Fig 3.1 Idea Discussion in Figma Board Week 01 08/02/2025
On the first week, we firstly started to find the country and their culture to be researched later. First ideas was to make the Hairpin combined in China, Japan and Indonesia Culture by Lilin and Yiming. I also had added another ideas which are the Make Up tradition in China, and the Street Art / Mural in Malaysia Streets.
Before the next class on week 2, we have a physical meeting to discuss and finalized ideas we want to show. We decided to go with the Hairpin but since there's not much information regarding on Hairpin in Indonesia, we only focusing into China and Japan country.
On 13-14th February, we had consulted into the lecturer regarding on our ideas. Hairpin was a good choice but it might be hard to blend with everyday design since the design is not modern. In order to fix this problem, we came out with others new ideas which is Phone Case. Phone case was a suitable for everyday design means, so it immediately got approved. Our next focus is to find a suitable topic for the phone case design.
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| Fig 3.2 Phone Case References (China Culture) Look Week 02 13/02/2025 |
Lilin then decided to focus on Malaysia famous culture which is Baba Nyonya or known as Peranakan Culture. But then, our goal was to study more than one culture so we tried to add on the China Hairpin culture, and do the research in general first.
2. Research and Planning
As our topic was finalized yet and we got the Supervisor already, we started to divide each part to be assigned by each members. I took a part as a researcher materials on Peranakan Culture and create the presentation slides as well.
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| Fig 3.3 Research for Proposal Week 03 19/02/2025 |
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| Fig 3.4 Meeting in Discussion Room for Presentation Slides Week 03 19/02/2025 |
At week 3, we meet everyday starting from 19/02 until 22/02 to finish our proposal quickly. Since peranakan culture characteristic is quite wide, we specific it for only focusing on it's accessories (Nyonya Hairpin) and Textiles Pattern (Kebaya or in Porcelain).
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| Fig 3.5 Working on Presentation Week 03 19/02/2025 |
After spending around 3 days to work with, we finally finished our proposal and the presentation slides. On saturday (22/02), we meet again to discuss about the presentation and also the trip to Malacca for the next task.
At the submission day, finally we able to finish our first task! I was proud for all of my group members. Even some of them find it hard since all the materials were on English, they still tried to do their best and ask for some help if they don't understand especially for some word pronounciation.
FINAL OUTCOMES PROJECT 1 : PROPOSAL
Final Proposal Document
Fig 3.6 Final Proposal Document Week 03 22/02/2025
Final Proposal Slides
Link : View HERE
Fig 3.7 Final Proposal Slides Week 03 22/02/2025
Final Presentation Video
Fig 3.8 Final Presentation Video Week 03 23/02/2025
FEEDBACK
Week 1
- First week, no feedback given since there's no tutorial and practical class.
Week 2
- Through the hairpin idea, the research overview was good but you need to think about on is hairpin can be related into everyday design object or not. (Feedback by Dr. Charles and Mr. Asrizal )
- We change the culture from China and Japan into Malaysia Peranakan Culture and use a bit of China Minnan Culture. We developed more product ideas which is phone case and Mr. Zeon approved our ideas. However we need to focus more detailed throught the research materials first.
Week 3
- The research material and topic about Peranakan culture is fascinating and appropriate, But make sure you tried to summarized this part into 200 words of overview regarding on the culture topic and the everyday design you plan on.
- Tried to focus on Hairpin and Phone case ideas, you don't need to think about new product idea again.
- Address more the chosen everyday objects in your overview.
- For the new ideas, you can try to think about how you can combine these 2 objects into 1 object.
- A little bit missing gap regarding on Hairpin culture in Minnan research. You need to do a little research about it too.
Next day After Tutorial Class Feedback (21/02/2025) :
- Good job for the proposal slides. All the information were fine, but on the preliminary ideas part, you can add 1 more slides to explain what are the elements on your design and the meaning of it.
- Find more references on Peranakan patterns since your topic more focusing on it after the hairpin and phone case references.
- The proposal of your pages is a bit too much, you need to reduces the page from 25 pages to 8 pages and just highlight an Important part.
- Everyone must have a part in Presentation videos, and your faces must be there in video.
On 23/02/2025 :
- All submission was good and can proceed to submit it.
REFLECTIONS
Experiences
This group task had made me learned a lot. At first I got a little doubt since most of the members is not really fluent in English, that would made us hard to communicate. After progressing until week 3, everything works smoothly and it was only a little problem since our research direction is not strong enough and the topic were too general. I guess it is because we meet everyday physically instead of online chat, which make all of us connected and could solve the problem quickly.
Observations
I observed that all of the task was connected until final project and if we don't have the research direction clearly, that would made us hard for the final task. The task is not just about the product, but it also need to come out in Tiktok video, so all of it should be planned from the start.
Findings
Learning Peranakan Cultures and Minnan Hairpin culture was a good journey and I get to know it a lot. One of it was the textiles on Kebaya or known as Batik. As an Indonesia, we also have a batik culture and by learning peranakan, it made me know the difference of Batik Indonesia and Malaysia. I found malaysia batik used more vibrant color and only focusing on floral and fauna. Meanwhile in Indonesia, we mostly focuses on Brown or Blue color. Regarding on its motif, Indonesia have more various and complex pattern that have a philosophy behind it.
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