Intercultural Design

11.01.2023—03.03.2023 (Week 1—Week 8)
Rachel Madeline Purwanto / 0356994
Intercultural Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Proposal, Data Collection, Final Poster and Project

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❥LECTURE 

Week 1 — Culture, Design & Research
Designers have to be more vigilant with their artworks.

Research = work process
- more data, crucial info
- help visualize sketches into projects and help convey the message properly
- help identify the social, cultural and political sphere where design elements reside. 
- understanding the significance of graphics in its cultural studies, philosophy, sociology and origin history.
Ex : Sailor tattoos (Differentiated by its interpretation and art style)
- protective talismans in sailors' superstitions, records of important experiences, markers of identity, and means of self-expression. Uses elements such as the anchor and rope to convey the message.
Ex : Japanese tattoos
- convey societal status, spiritual symbols. Used as a charm for protection, symbolizes devotion.

Fig 1.1 Design System

Research Process

1. Before writing the proposal

- Secondary findings : data collected through published websites and existing resources (wikipedia, youtube documentaries, design sources, inspiration)
- Primary findings : sketches of proposed artworks based on research form (sketches, storyboards, wireframe)

2. After producing the proposal
- Primary findings : data collected by you and your team (on site observation, interviews/surveys)
3. During creation of artwork
- Final design production of artwork (processes, team contributions)
- Data collected through published and existing resources (how to instructions, safety and regulations)

Week 2 —Visual Culture
- Arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded
- Ideas, customs and social behaviors of a particular society
- Could culture also involve certain disciplines or crafts?

School Badges : indicates of someone's possession or indicates someone's loyalty to a certain community or society
- Malaysian School Badges : public school emblems are based on a medieval European heritage 

What is Heraldry?
- Science and the art that deal with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations.
- symbols are originally identification devices but would evolve to encompass other functions over time
- identification was conveyed through he coat of arms of the achievement 
Overtime it became a hereditary system where it passes down from generation to generation. 

The Achievement : School emblems based on the central element, the shield (Coat of Arms)
Rule of Tincture (Colour rules in Heraldry) 

Fig 1.2 Rule of Tincture https://curiosityuntamed.com/heraldry-lesson-plan-and-activities/?print=print

Blazon : Argent, on a chevron Gule charged with 2 sheeted Malay daggers placed bendwise and sinister-wise with hilt facing upward in Or, in between a crescent in chief dextre and a 14 point mullet in chief sinister and a rampant lion in base all sable.

Modern emblems are lacking context of geography of area or people, not easily remembered and made without sentimentality and context to it. 

Rule of Tincture violations 
- Use of written text in the coat of arms
- Use of scrolls to write the school's name in place of the motto
- Poor crafting
- Lack of unity in design and general compositional issues
- repeated use of the same charge

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❥INSTRUCTIONS 

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❥TASKS 

1. PROPOSAL 

Before we started on our proposal, we had to decide on a culture and a topic so all of us decided to come up with 2 to 3 cultures and their traditions to propose then collectively vote on one of them. 

Fig 1.1 Ideas from each group member for culture and topic

We all decided to go for Day of the Dead as that was the tradition that stood out to the most of us and the culture that we were all mostly familiar with.

We then did further research on its history, origins and how they often celebrated it and started to brainstorm for ideas.

Since we aren't able to observe or witness the Day of the Dead festival on site, we needed an alternative source to get a glimpse or a grasp of the visuals of the festival. To get further insight on the festival, we decided to watch youtube documentaries of people setting up offrendas for their dead relatives and the movie Book of Life and Coco. 

Fig 1.2 Scene from Book of Life https://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-the-book-of-life-1201326270/

Based on the scenes where the characters were in the land of the dead, I observed that they had different colours and symbols with their respective symbolism and significance to the character's lives, thus I decided to do further research on that. (further research on sugar skulls design could be seen in figure 1.6 on slides 11-12).

We all came up with 3 main ideas for the outcome based on the chosen culture and topic(more detailed research in Figure 1.6 slides);

1. Sugar Skull Design

- Create a skull or a mask in the shape of a skull and colour them in different colours according to 4 different elements (wind would be blue, earth would be green, etc) Everytime the colour of the light changes, the skull would reveal a different design of the history of the Day of the Dead which tells a story about its past. Different skulls have different patterns and designs which are influenced by the interference of other cultures. 

4 Elements : 

- Fire : candles lit up to guide the spirits during their journey

- Water : Pitchers are left out for the spirits travelling to the land of the living so they can quench their thirst

- Earth : Variety of mainly traditional food is prepared for the dead

- Wind : Papel Picado are vibrant delicate paper banners strung and are decorated with elaborate cut out patterns that are said to allow souls to pass through. 

Fig 1.3 Short youtube documentary of the process of making sugar skulls

2. Marigold Bridge 

- Inspired by Coco, Marigold flowers at the side of the bridge and people standing on top of it, the day and night rotates lick a clock, changing the aspects of the work (outcome as GIF)

- Marigolds bridge art with 3D effect using red as the living and blue as the dead, so when using 3D glasses, depending on which side you use, different artwork shows. 

- Live wallpapers of marigolds and the bridge of the undead, so when they tilt the phone it will show how the living slowly transition to the dead.

Fig 1.4 Marigold Bridge from Coco movie

3. Instagram Filter with Calavera Skull Face Painting

Fig 1.5 Sugar Skull Face painting

We decided to further develop these ideas and research more of them in our proposal slides and come up with some sketches as well.

Fig 1.6 Final Proposal PPT Group 21

2. DATA COLLECTION 

According to the feedback recieved, we decided to come up with a revised idea from our original ideas with the Day of the Dead and we found that the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival has similarities with the Day of the Dead thus we decided to do more research on that.

Fig 2.1 After feedback research

Before deciding on the data collection methods, we had to come up with research questions, research objectives, and problem statement.

Topic: Chinese And Mexican cultures celebrate death

Research Question 

• Is there any common ground between Chinese ghost festivals and Day of the dead?
  

• What are the similarities and differences of the Day of the Dead and Chinese ghost festival?

Research Objectives 

• Find common ground between Day of the Dead and Chinese Ghost festival.

• To learn and get an in depth view on Chinese and Mexican culture on death

Problem Statement  Day of the dead and Chinese ghost festival are two types of festivals that are similar in terms of how they are festivals about the dead. However, both Chinese culture and Mexican culture look at death in a different light. Day of the dead is a celebration of death whereas chinese ghost festival is a fearful month in Chinese culture. We are all aware of how different these two culture’s opinion on death is but is there a common ground between both cultures? Our research question will be focusing on finding out if there is any common ground between Chinese ghost festival and day of the dead.

In correlation with the research objectives and the research questions, we decided to conduct several interviews and surveys to get multiple perspectives and views on both cultures as well as do some research on some artifacts that would be relevant for our final outcome.

To come up with a conclusion, we decided to take notes during each interview.

Fig 2.1 Interview Notes based on responses

Fig 2.2 Final Data Collection Slides Compiled

3. FINAL POSTER & FINAL OUTCOME 

Before we began our final project, we decided to come up with a couple of draft sketches and decided to use the first draft sketch combined with the third draft sketch. All of the draft sketches are a combination of the artifacts from Day of the Dead and Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival that were researched on in our data collection.

Fig 3.1 Draft Sketches

From the sketches that we chose, we decided to make the last final draft before proceeding to the artwork.

Fig 3.2 Final Draft

After the final making of the draft, we wanted to do more research on the colours and the visual elements we wanted to use to find ways to convey the message effectively.

Fig 3.2 Elements Research

Starting on the, final artwork, the flowers were drawn according to their respective colour palettes according to the elements research.

Fig 3.3 Illustrated flowers done on ibis paint and procreate

The flowers were then imported onto photoshop, where the background was sketched out and coloured. We arranged the flowers and to emphasize the realism, we duplicated the flowers and lowered the opacity then added the ripple effect on each of the flowers' reflection. 

Fig 3.4 Progress on Photoshop

The butterfly was separately animated on after effects which was then combined with the file on after effects.

Fig 3.4 Animating the butterfly on after effects 

The artwork was then animated on After effects, where the Marigold flower was animated to be drifting towards the path of the lotus flower, leaving a trail of Marigold petals to guide the dead.

Fig 3.5 Progress animating on After Effects

The animated artwork was exported into a GIF and put in the final poster.

Fig 3.5 Final Poster and Final Artwork in GIF

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❥FEEDBACK 

Week 4 — Consider adding more input from the aspect of why Day of the Dead is celebrated rather than being feared for the basic assumptions of your topic. 

Week 5 — Consider looking at another different culture of the afterlife that has similar aspects to Day of the Dead and compare the two of them. Consider the final outcome to have a collaboration of 2 cultures on the afterlife. 

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❥REFLECTION 

The majority of the group were cooperative and responsive and throughout more meetings and working together as a group to do the artwork, we bonded and had fun together while discussing our ideas on topics that we were all intrigued in. Each of us were specialized in different skills such as researching, sketching, colouring, animating, thus all our skills complemented each other and we were able to work as a group to assist each other on each others' tasks. There were obviously times where all of us as a group were a bit concerned on the final outcome of the project and how it were to be executed since our ideas seemed too time consuming but in the end we made it work by making it into a digital outcome instead of a physical outcome, but I genuinely think if we were given more time we could have put more effort into making it a physical artwork, though I am pretty satisfied with how our final outcome came out. 

Throughout the making of the final project, I observed that design principles were crucial to emphasize the message we were aiming for with our final project. Since we focused on more of our visual elements as our main focal points, we needed to contrast the colour palettes of the background and the main visual elements thus making them emphasized. Visual hierarchy was also crucial in our artwork thus the lotus flowers being spread out throughout the river to balance out the big marigold flower and the overall composition.