Intercultural Design Final Compilation
5/2/2024 - 22/3/2024 Week 1 - Week 7
Wong Kai Xin / 0353027
Intercultural Design / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / The Design School
Final Compilation
INSTRUCTIONS
PROJECT 1
Description:
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 “Cultural Sensitivity in Design”
- You are to study a cultural phenomenon, or a particular subculture that is
perceived as ‘sensitive’, and “frame” your study within the chosen theme.
- You are to convey this cultural aspect without altering the actual facts but
within a presentable interpretation and adaptation that raises awareness from
the viewers.
- 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.
Week 2
Individual research:
For my individual research, I researched on the dining culture of Japan. I
thought it was an interesting topic to talk about as Japan has a different
dining culture to my own country, Malaysia.
Dining culture in Japan research (PDF)
Week 3
After getting into groups, we discussed our opinions and gathered our
individual researches. We shortlisted our choices to
Kimono Patterns, Wabi-sabi and Food Culture. After a thorough
group discussion, we decided the final topic we will be going with is
Wabi-sabi.
Next, we had to come up with sketches for our topic. This is a sketch I did
for our Wabi-sabi topic.
personal sketch
I was inspired by lamps I have seen on Pinterest that had a touch of
Wabi-sabi. It is not perfect but there is still a beauty to it, which makes
it special.
Week 4
After going through a team discussion, we all agreed on my idea, the Wabi-sabi
lamp. For the prototype, we thought of using a 3D machine to help us create an
overall shape, then mould it into a shape we like.
Submission:
Feedback:
After showing our proposal slides, Ms Anis suggested that we combine the topic
"Kimono Patterns" as well as "Wabi-sabi" for our project.
PROJECT 2
Description:
Students will conduct a data gathering collection process about the
culture with relevance to the theme and your research objectives.
Requirements:
The students are required to collect visual, oral, textual and tactile
artefacts that would be part of their research materials for the ideation in
Project 1 (proposal). All collected artefacts and materials must be recorded,
kept and documented, accompanied by necessary information such as the type of
artefact and material, its purpose, its symbolism, its cultural/historical
background, and more, depending on the kind of artefact and material.
Data Collection Methods
Some of the methods by which you can collect data:
• Observation study.
• Interview of relevant stakeholders (from the lecture series, you may
approach any of the guest speakers for an interview, if you deem their
presentation useful for further research).
• Online and/or actual physical material* visual research of the selected
culture (the people/arts/symbols/architecture/text/calligraphy etc.)
Data collection of my group:
data collection (PDF)
Week 5
We then had to come up with sketches for our prototype.
We initially decided to come up with clothing that had wabi-sabi elements
interpreted into them as we thought this was a good way to showcase the
wabi-sabi concept.
Feedback:
-Wabi sabi inspired photoshoot
-Focus on texture (if continue with our sketches)
-explain sakura idea into visual
-maybe can make a cover page of a book
-our idea now too predictable, make it unique and meaningful
Week 6
After going through our feedback, we had a thorough discussion a quite liked
the idea of creating a book cover page. We started from square one and gave
our opinions on how we could design the book cover.
initial sketch of final prototype
This was our idea of the book cover, inspired by books with a cutout design. We decided to have pages that could send a message to our viewers on wabi-sabi culture.
I was assigned to write the book cover title, "侘びの無常" (Wabi no mujou) emphasizes the impermanence linked to wabi, which embraces simplicity, humility, and the appreciation of the transient nature of life. It was quite challenging since I was not used to writing Chinese characters, however with some research and references I referred to online, it helped me a lot.
Feedback:
- the initial idea is to have wabi sabi, it should be simple
- if doing physical, get the right material, for the person that received
the book, to have an understanding about the wabi sabi
- don't direct interpretation of wabi sabi, sakura can be leave as branches,
have a cohesive outcome
- physical can directly interpret the texture
- important is the way to present, doesn't mean need to have a physical
outcome
Submission:
PROJECT 3
Description:
Upon the completion of the research, data collection, participation in all
class lectures and tutorials, presentation of a complete proposal and
research data, students are to produce visual design outcomes related to
their interpretation of the given theme.
Requirements:
Utilising the data collected from the research trip, students are to produce
visual design outcomes that reflect their interpretation and definition of
“Framing”, bearing in mind to consider cultural and aesthetic aspects,
balanced with their design knowledge. Various directions and approaches can
be engaged in, such as experimental design/art with the use of
manual/digital or combination of both media.
Week 7
We focused on completing our final slides and presentation, as well as improving our final prototype
Feedback:
- Can consider to add in texture from prints that reassemble Japanese
pattern sakura
- Can extract patterns from kimono, and apply to illustration
- Remember that the presentation is to focus on the final outcome and
how we present, also remember to relate culture sensitivity to what we
are doing
Submission:
final presentation slides (PDF)
REFLECTION
Although it was a short semester, the amount of things I have learned from this module has been very useful. Through the Japan trip, I have gained tons of inspiration from places we went, and used those to help come up with more ideas for our project during brainstorming sessions. I have also learned how important teamwork is and how communication is extremely crucial and I was delighted with how cooperative my team members are throughout our whole journey. Not only that, I really liked how our tutor gave us beneficial feedback, helping us improve our ideas and without her feedbacks, I never thought of this amazing book cover being our final outcome.
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