Intercultural Design
10.1.2023 - 1.3.2023 / Week 1 - Week 8
Sylvia Lau (0356130)
Bachelor
of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Intercultural Design
INSTRUCTION
Project 1: Research and Proposal
Week 1
Mr. Asrizal and Miss Anis briefed us about the task we needed to do and how to do research for this project. Since my team members and I will be going to Japan, so we will be doing some research about Japanese Culture.
We had our very first meeting to discuss what kind of topic we needed to do
research on. Our group leader opened a word document to let us throw any ideas
into it. The idea that I provided was daruma, as they were planning about
creating an application or website, so I thought of adding daruma jumping
animation as a loading page. Besides, I also wrote kimono because the Japanese
wore different kinds of clothing on different occasions, and I thought it
would be interesting to do an introduction or animation on Japanese
clothing.
Brainstorming Section
After some discussions, we came out with three ideations:
- The first ideation was to build up a physical gashapon machine with a Maneki Neko design and consist of contents including the elements that symbolize Japanese Luck and an Omikuji (fortune slip).
- The second ideation will be a digitalization Maneki Neko gashapon machine on a website, the contents include elements that symbolize luck and an Omikuji (fortune slip).
- The third ideation will be creating a dress-up paper doll in japan traditional clothing that is able to promote Japanese culture or festival. To make it more interesting, we enhanced it by combining it with a paper puppet show to introduce the festival.
Week 2
We divided our work and began our research and sketches. The part that I
would be doing research on was Japanese summer festival clothing with my two
other team members. Besides yukata or kimono, I also did some research on
people who dressed differently during the festival, for example, people that
opened food stalls during the festival will wear Happi coats, the performers
will wear Bon Odori costumes and etc.
We then prepared a presentation slide for the lecturers to look through.
Week 3
We started to write up a 200-word introduction for the theme and rationales
for our three ideations. We also had another meeting to discuss the suggestion
that was provided by Miss Anis.
We did some changes to ideation 2, which we decided to create the gashapon
content that indicates student life. So, I came up with an idea of gashapon
content about a small randoseru schoolbag that has Omikuji in it.
Week 4
Proposal Slides
Project 2: Data Collection
Week 5
Before heading to Japan, we created a travel plan to collect visual, oral,
textual, and tactile artefacts that were part of our research materials for
the ideation in Project 1. We listed out the locations that we wanted to
visit in Tokyo.
Tokyo Trip
Day-2:
We visited Sensoji Temple at Asakusa, there was a street that had a
lot of shops that sold ornaments, souvenirs, and food. The data we collected
on the street were daruma and maneki neko. At the temple, we experienced
drawing an omikuji and bought omamori. We then headed to Akihabara,
which was a place that was populated with anime and manga. We found a lot of
gashapon machines in shops and even in the alley. We looked through those
gashapon machines and try to dispense it if we saw some content that was
interesting. After that, we headed to Ikebukuro, where the largest
gashapon store in the world is located.
Day-3:
After visiting TeamLab, we went to Gotokuji Temple. It's a temple
that has a lot of maneki neko. Unfortunately, the shop closed at 4.30pm, and
we missed the opening time, so we didn't have that chance to visit the store
but only walked around the temple. We went back to Asakusa to have dinner at
Kura Sushi. After our meal, we have to insert the plates into the
plate pocket to play Bikkurapon, which was a mini-game in that we could win
a gashapon when we inserted five plates.
Day-4:
We visited different cities, like Roppongi and Shibuya. During
our visit to the mall or streets, we could also see different designs of
daruma and maneki neko.
Day-5:
Yanling and I two of us decided to visit Sensoji again, as I need to buy
some souvenirs. And we also drew an omikuji again. Since we had finished our
data collection, we just spent our time visiting Shinjuku and
Harajuku.
Day-6:
It was the third time we visited Sensoji Temple, but we explored more
streets around that place. We also drew another omikuji, so in total both of
us had drew 3 omikuji. After that, we went to Akihabara to spend our very
last time in Japan. We bought a lot of action figures and blind boxes.
Below is the file where we uploaded the photos that we took in Japan:
Week 6
We did an observational studies write-up on the artefacts that we collected
in Tokyo. I wrote about my experience of dispensing a gashapon and drawing
an omikuji, my observation on gashapon machines in Japan, and my findings on
how we implement the following observations into our design.
We then continued with our final sketch. One of our team members created a
mood board on Pinterest where we can throw any references for our
sketch.
Mood Board: https://pin.it/4YmYdPp
I had been assigned to do an Omikuji sketch and a combination of daruma and
maneki neko. Since the main theme was about the lucky cat, I decided to
design the omikuji with a cat face and with some Japanese elements.
References for Omikuji
Omikuji outcome
The artboard on the left side was my first attempt, after receiving some
feedback from my group members, they said the nose of the cat is a bit
weird. So, I made some changes to the nose and added some whiskers to make
it look more like a cat.
Reference for Daruma
Maneki Neko + Daruma = Darumiao
Data Collection & Final Sketch
Project 3: Final Prototype
Week 7
Our final prototype was to create a Maneki Neko gashapon machine on a
website page. The gashapon machine consists of 7 gasha with different japan
lucky elements, other than lucky objects, we also have a button that can
draw an omikuji (fortune slip).
My part of the job in this project was to create 4 different Omikuji, which
were best fortune, regular fortune, better fortune, and bad fortune. Since
we drew a lot of Omikujis during our trip, it was easier for me to write up
the description of the Omikujis. I also combined some Omikujis that I drew
from my previous Japan trip.
Omikujis
Omikuji ( Our Version )
Description Text Font: Arial Rounded MT Bold Regular, 34 pt
Title Font: Arial Rounded MT Bold Regular, 45pt & 39 pt
Title Font: Arial Rounded MT Bold Regular, 45pt & 39 pt
The Kanji in the middle, Font: 王漢宗中行書繁 ( I chose this font as
it looks more like Japanese kanji calligraphy )
4 Omikujis Outcome
Besides, I also helped with the background colour for the website page. I
needed to look for a colour scheme that can fit as a background and text
for the 7 gasha elements.
First Attempt
Second Attempt
They suggested that the background colour can refer to the main page
colour scheme. As they already animated one of the gasha elements, it was
better for choosing a plain colour background. They also recommend having
7 different colour backgrounds.
Colour Codes
I tried out different colour and this was the final colour code.
Week 8
After some effort, we finally created our gashapon website.
Website Link: https://luckymiaofinalcheck.netlify.app/
We were concerned that the website couldn't work during the presentation,
so we recorded an overview video on how the website works.
Overview Video:
Poster
After some consideration, we decided to do the landing page that the
lecturers wanted. There were a few parts that we needed to do, which were
an infographic on how to use the gashapon machine, website landing page
design, website description, and carousel png.
Infrographic
I did a small infographic on how to use the machine. To let people know
where to click, I added an arrow to show that paw. In step two, after
clicking the paw, the paw would go down and the gasha would appear at the
hole. Lastly, they would get a lucky object and an omikuji.
My group member helped me with the background design and descriptions.
Final Outcome
Final Submission:
Website Link: https://luckymiao.netlify.app/
Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/_EwYLa2iOog
Poster:
.jpg)
Feedbacks
Week 2
Explore the value of gashapon for anticipation with the practice of
dispensing fortune and luck. Start figuring out ways to gather data and
which info would best help you create your project to be more interesting.
How about focussing on life as a student? What kind of fortune and luck do
you guys think would help you feel better in your studies?
Week 4
Concerns with the physical gashapon prototype due to time constraint
suggests more focus on digital approaches. Suggest mechanisms like shaking
in apps or games. Can focus on translating the thrill of drawing a gashapon
on screen. Suggest documenting our feelings and experiences of drawing
gashapon during data collection in Japan.
Week 6
Think hard about the rationale when writing descriptions for data
collection. Translate the experience, thrill, and excitement into the
prototype. Think about the feelings you want your prototype to evoke in
others.
Week 8
The website is very good, if can add a landing page with our concept
description will be better. The poster needs to put bigger pictures of the
website.
Reflection
It was a fun and interesting project to do and a great opportunity for me to gain more knowledge about Japanese culture while doing research. I also had a great time working and traveling to Japan with my group members.
Throughout this project, I got to learn some new techniques in Illustrator and After Effects from my seniors. They are friendly and kind to provide help when we had any problems doing the project. Our group leader always organizes our meetings well and makes sure that we kept on track every time, which is truly a dream team for me.
Since this is a short semester, the time provided to finish the project was quite rushed. So, time management was important to organize everything well and not drag down the progression of the project.
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