Intercultural Design - Project Compilation

January 09, 2023

Intercultural Design - Project Compilation

10/01/2023 - 28/02/2023 / Week 01 - 07

Ellyn Saw Mei Hui / 0353358

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Intercultural Design - Project Compilation

QUICK LINKS

Intercultural Design - Tokyo Trip Reflection

LECTURES

♡ Week 1

The class began with Mr Asrizal as well as Ms Anis briefing us on what we are expcted to complete for this module. Then Ms Anis started her lecture on Culture, Design and Research. She talked about the different ways to conduct research, the process as well as the research design system. Before the class ended, we were to form a group that consists of 6 individuals from different semesters or courses.

♡ Week 2

This week, Mr Vinod was invited as a guest lecture. He gave a talk on how he redesigned Malaysia's school badges and the process of how he came about it. He also shared very fascinating informations on heraldry and the way to design it.

INSTRUCTIONS

GROUP 24:

PS: All of our weekly group meetings are conducted on discord.

Fig 1.1 Group 24 members

Group project timeline:

♡ I created a timeline in docs to ensure the project is smooth sailing. It was much easier for me to track the progress of my group as well as providing a clear timeline for my members.

Fig1.2 Group project timeline, PDF

PROJECT 01 - PROPOSAL

♡ Work in groups to come out with a proposal for our chosen topics.

Things to include:

200 word write up defining and interpreting the theme in relation to the chosen cultural elements.
Citation is necessary as evidence to the research.
A minimum of 3 preliminary ideas in detailed sketches, each with individual rationale.
Visual references (visuals that inspire/influence those ideas)
Reference list
Picture credits
PROGRESS ( WEEK 1 - 10/01/2023 ) :
♡ Our group had a meeting on Wednesday (11/1) to brainstorm ideas and topics that we will be doing.

Fig 1.3 Our group meeting on week 1

Fig1.4 Voting for topics

♡ There were many ideas being shared but our initial final 3 topics are Wagashi, Origami and Packaging. I created a padlet link for our group to share our findings on the topics chosen. After an hour or so of researching, we came to a conclusion to discard the packaging idea as everyone did not know which direction to go for.

Fig1.5 Padlet (link)

♡ After discussing, our final 3 topics are:

Wagashi - Jiamin & Janaan
Origami - Sofia & Ellyn
Harajuku Fashion - Rachel & Reena

♡ We also decided to split our research tasks equally with 2 people working on 1 topic.

The groupings are:

Wagashi - Jiamin & Janaan
Origami - Sofia & Ellyn
Harajuku Fashion - Rachel & Reena

WEEK 2 - 17/01/2023 :

♡ We were told to compile all our research into a miro board or a presentation slides by 18/1 so Mr Asrizal and Ms Anis could finalise on who is being in charge of different groups. Our group had a meeting on 18/1 to work on the slides and submitted our progression on the same day.

Fig1.10 Compiled research for feedback, PDF

WEEK 3 - 24/01/2023 :

♡ CNY holidays, no classes

♡ Our group also did not have our weekly meeting but we focused on refining our research and proposal according to the feedback given by Ms Anis on 20/1. Other than that, we also started working on the draft sketches for our ideas. Sofia and I are in charge of doing the sketches for our origami topic.

Fig 1.11 Origami draft sketch progress

WEEK 4 - 31/01/2023 :

♡ No classes this week but presentation on Thursday 2/2.

♡ This week we focused on finalising our slides and prepare for the presentation.

FINAL PROJECT 1: PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

(Canva link)

Fig2.1 FINAL proposal, PDF

♡ After the feedback recieved from Mr Asrizal and Ms Anis, our group decided to brainstorm on what we can do for our topic besides creating an app. While walking around on campus after classes, Sofia and I came up with the idea of creating a 'zine' but with a touch of scrapbooking to translate our experience in Japan to our idea. Fig2.2 shows our revised idea.

Fig2.2 Revised final idea for wagashi

PROJECT 02 - DATA COLLECTION

♡ This year we were lucky enough to travel to Tokyo, Japan to conduct our research since pandemic restrictions have been lifted. A total of 10 groups will be travelling to Japan and my group is one of them! We flew to Japan on 6/2 and arrived back on 12/2.

Fig2.3 Group 24's group photo <3

WEEK 5 - 07/02/2023 :

♡ During our trip, we took many photos for our data collection so we first sorted that out in a google drive. After that, we proceeded to work on our data collection slides.

FINAL PROJECT 2: DATA COLLECTION SUBMISSION

(Canva link)

Fig3.1 FINAL data collection slides, PDF

FINAL PROJECT - WAGASHI E-ZINE

♡ To produce a visual design utilising data collected from our research. Visual design outcome must be related to our intepretation of our chosen topic & given theme.

♡ My group's final idea is to create a e-zine, introducing different places in Tokyo (mainly Asakusa and Minato City) to get wagashi.

TASK DISTRIBUTION:

♡ Art direction & layout

- Janaan & Jiamin (illustrations & layout)

- Ellyn & Sofia (art direction & editing + finalising the layout)

♡ Photo editing

- Rachel & Reena

♡ Presentation board

- Ellyn & Sofia

PROGRESS ( WEEK 6 - 15/02/2023 ) :

♡ After distributing the roles for everyone, Sofia and I started to work on the art direction for our zine. We planned and managed to finish the art direction in a day so the other members could work on the zine as soon as possible.

Fig4.1 Art direction (1)

Fig4.2 Art direction (2)

Fig4.3 Art direction (3)

♡ Rachel and Reena were in charge of editing the photos (google drive for edited photos) . Meanwhile, Janaan and Jiamin worked on the draft layout for our zine. Fig4.4 shows how the layout looks like before any changes were made.

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13efiUfjRK02XjKUGbyQjhOWj_G1Rtsp4/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Fig4.4 E-zine layout attempt 1, pdf

WEEK 7 - 21/02/2023 :

♡ On 21/2 (Tuesday) our group had a interim progress check to see the progression for our zine and edietd photos. After the discussion, the members proceeded to make changes to our zine according to what we have discussed in the meeting.

Fig5.1 Progression notes

♡ Changes made to our zine layout after the progress check (from single page to double page layout because that's how it's supposed to be for any book design):

Fig5.2 layout attempt 2, pdf

♡ Janaan was in charge of illustrating the faces for our 'personal review ratings'. Initially she only did 1 set of faces but I suggested that we should include different expressions as we didn't like all of the wagashis that we tried.

Fig5.3 Suggestion to make different expressions

♡ The members are (from left to right), Ellyn, Sofia, Rachel, Reena, Jiamin and Janaan.

Fig5.4 Finalise character emojis

♡ Due to time constraints, we also decided to reuse the wagashi assets in our zine that Jiamin did for our wagashi draft idea which is the game app.

Fig5.5 Wagashi assets by Jiamin

♡ As for the zine name, we brainstormed and came up with these few options. Then we proceeded to vote on which name is the most suitable.

Fig5.6 Name suggestions

♡ 'Keeping up with Tokyo's Wagashi' is the our title since it accumulated 4 votes from our group! We also have a 'sub-title' for our zine which is 'A wagashi mini tour'.

Fig5.7 Deciding our sub-title by Sofia

♡ Zine cover progression from Janaan. She gave us 2 options to choose from and everyone agreed to go for the 2nd cover since it looks nicer.

Fig5.8 Cover options by Janaan

FINALISING LAYOUT - 25 - 27/02/2023 :

♡ Since Jiamin and Janaan were halfway done with the layout. Sofia began to finalise the overall layout and the information on every page for Asakusa since those pages were done first.

Fig6.1 layout attempt 3, pdf

♡ I was in charge of finalising spreads related to 'Minato City' as well as the others such as Introduction, About us, History of Wagashi, etc. At this point, the whole zine was almost done and I was just readjusting and re-editing the pages to make them look more scrapbook-ish.

Fig6.2 layout attempt 4, pdf

♡ Initially, we decided to have only 1 emoji of each member for each store but I noticed that there were too many sets of emojis (see Fig6.3) when editing since my members thought we were gonna rate each wagashi instead. I suggested that we should only keep 1 set of emoji so they don't look too messy and confusing in the zine. We end up deciding on 'overall rating' instead of individually rating the wagashi.

Fig6.3 Double sets of emojis (too messy)

A1 POSTER (for presentation) :

♡ Sofia started working on different layout options and putting in the necessary information first. She did a few for horizontal and a few for vertical view.

Fig7.1 A1 poster for presentation layout draft by Sofia

♡ After that, I picked 1 from horizontal and 1 from vertical and began finalising them. I decided to change the fonts for title / headings and paragraph texts. I also added background to both of the posters and changing some of the information included in our poster.

Fig7.2 Vertical A1 poster, attempt 2

♡ Personally, I like the layout for the vertical version but my group members seem to have preferred the horizontal one more so that was the one we chose to use for our presentation.

Fig7.3 Horizontal A1 poster, attempt 2

♡ To make it easier for us during the presentation, I decided to include the flipbook link on the poster itself. So when our members are presenting, they can just click on the link and it will redirect them to our flipbook instead of having to exit the pdf poster and then clicking on the link somewhere else.

Fig7.4 Flipbook link in presentation poster

FLIPBOOK PROGRESS - 28/02/2023 :

♡ After finalising the layout, I began to upload the pdf file of our zine onto fliphtml5 to create the flipbook. Once again, we were stuck when deciding which binding to go for. Fig6.1 shows the standard stitching which gives off the 'e-zine' vibe. Whereas Fig6.2 (loose-leaf binding), has a more scrapbook aesthetic which is what we were going for.

Fig8.1 Standard side stitching
♡ We decided to go for loose-leaf binding as it fitted the concept of our final outcome more. To view our flipbook -> Keeping Up with Tokyo's Wagashi
Fig8.2 Loose-leaf binding

FINAL PROJECT SUBMISSION:

FLIPBOOK LINK: Keeping Up with Tokyo's Wagashi

Fig9.1 Keeping up with Tokyo's Wagashi, pdf version

A1 PRESENTATION POSTER SUBMISSION:

Fig9.2 Presentation poster, jpeg

Fig9.3 Presentation poster, pdf

FEEDBACKS

Week 02 - 20/01/2023

Lecturer Feedback:

Feedback from Ms Anis for our research

Week 04 - 02/02/2023

Lecturer Feedback: (proposal presentation)

- game app for our chosen topic (wagashi) might be too complicated as we might not have enough time to complete it but if we are confident then we can go with it

- try to think about how to translate your experience in Japan to the final outcome

- final outcome can still be changed but make sure to finalise it first before going to Japan

Lecturer Feedback: (after revising our idea)

Feedback from Ms Anis after revising our idea

Week 06 - 14/02/2023

Lecturer Feedback: (data collection)

- Overall very good data collection, points are short yet straight to the point

- Come up with a good layout to translate our experience in japan

- To ease our workload we can use templates from canva as inspo and make it our own, find 1/2 very good design and based on that we can come up with our design

- Think of a good / quirky name for the e-zine

- No need to print out a1 poster

Week 08 - 01/03/2023

Lecturer Feedback: (final outcome presentation)

- Nice & well done

- No changes to be made

REFLECTIONS :

This module is definitely an eye opener as it allowed me to learn more about the cultures that I am unfamiliar with. It made me gain lots of knowledge on the topic my group chose which is wagashi. While presenting, I also got to learn from the different types of topics that the other groups were doing. I was lucky enough to be able to experience first hand data collection in Japan. Though I've already took modules like Design Research Methodology, being able to collect and see the data right infront of your eyes is far more fascinating. It was also my first time being a leader so I may lack the experience to lead but I am grateful towards my kind and understanding groupmates. They always lend a helping hand whenever I need it the most and I would not trade my group for anything else. The only thing that dissapointed me was that we did not have enough time to carry out the final outcome as I really liked our initial idea which was to create a wagashi cooking game. I believe that if this module was carried out in the long semester, that outcome would've became a reality!

QUICK LINKS

Intercultural Design - Tokyo Trip Reflection

FURTHER READINGS :

(Origami_research for proposal)

Origami: The Japanese Art of Paper Folding (source)

Everything you need to know about Japanese origami (source)

https://www.britannica.com/art/origami/History-of-origami

These two websites linked below suggests that Origami actually originated from China but was popularised in Japan.

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Ellyn Saw Mei Hui (0353358)

Intercultural Design - Project Compilation

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