Intercultural Design

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Name: Liong Xenyi 
ID Number: 0383125
Module: Intercultural Design (GCD61304)
Date: 6/2/2025 - 23/2/2025 (Week 1- Week 3)
Degree: Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media 
University: Taylor's University 

Intercultural Design 



Table of Contents

Lecturer's Notes

Fig 1.1 Understanding Visuals by Comet creative


Visuals are:
  1. Everything that can be seen: This definition is wide, all-inclusive including nature - but nature is not culture - unless there's meaning and representation attached to it.
  2. Everything produced or created by humans that can be seen: This proposes that the visual is everything that can be seen and which is produced or created by humans for the purpose of visual representations that has functions, content and communicative purpose.

Fig 1.2 Tree Example by Taylor's Design School


For example, picture #1 is a visual of a normal tree, of which can be seen, but nature is not culture, so there is no meaning or representation behind this visual. However picture #2 contains visuals created by humans to create a visual representation that communicates purpose, functions or content. Such as in religious symbols, the tree visual signifies growth and life. Or in the Origins Icon, the tree portrays the cream to be organic and natural. Humans can create different visuals with a different meaning depending on the context or culture.


Another example is a tattoo, where different cultures and time period held different meaning and served different purposes. For the sailor tattoo, it tells the stories of the sailor's journeys, showing proof of his voyages. However, for Japanese tattoos, it began as a means of showing one's social status, as spiritual symbols which are charms of protection while also symbolising devotion.


Designers need to be aware of cultural nuances, symbolism, and context to create design that are inclusive and resonate with diverse audiences.

Fig 1.3 Design System by Taylor's Design School


To identify the social, cultural, history, and political sphere of the design elements and understand the significance of the graphics, the design system is used to help breakdown from the products to the norms and values to the basic assumptions, with vice versa using expansion. With the more detailed design system below, the breakdown starts from bottom (technology) to the top (values), while the expansion starts from the top to bottom.

Fig 1.4 Design System Triangle by Taylor's Design School

Cultural sensitivity in design goes beyond aesthetics - it also encompasses functionality, usability, and the overall user experience.

Fig 1.5 Cultural Sensitivity Awareness by Taylor's Design School


Fig 1.6 Addressing Cultural Sensitivity by Taylor's Design School




Module Information Booklet 




Project - Proposal 1 

Week: Week 1 - Week 3

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 “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 Japanese 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. (Reference link)

Presentation:
My team is Group 10 and our chosen everyday design is a Chinese teacup.

We made our presentation slide on Canva, as we included information about teacups, defining and interpreting the theme in relation to teacup and tea culture, while coming up with 3 different ideas on how we could interpret the teacup design in a different way. I mostly helped on idea 2, an interactive invite, where users can find nearby tea events that are ongoing, expressing the social value behind tea culture. I also helped design the presentation, making sure the typography is fitting and bolding important words, while also fitting attractive images with the right proportions. 

This is the Canva link to Group 10's Presentation about Teacups.

And here is the Pdf version, for a quick look:

As finished making our presentation, we had to record a 10 minute video presenting about our topic on teacups. We recorded together on Zoom, and since there were a lot of pauses and redoing of lines, I had to edit the video to fit to 10 minutes.

Fig 2.1 Editing the Presentation Video


Finally, we are done with this task, and we uploaded our group presentation.




Field Study - Project 2

Week: Week 4- Week 5

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 area (the people/arts/symbols/architecture/text/calligraphy etc.)

Finding Information:
I was in charge of finding primary information, where we get firsthand information about teacups and tea culture from tea shops from interviews and pictures and videos directly from the shop. I researched on places we can visit in Malaysia as such: 

Places that we can visit or interview:

Far places that we can video call:

Others:
Lots of tea plantations in Cameron Highlands


However, I only managed to contact places we can visit for an interview, as there wasn't much time for the far places to hold a video call. I emailed or messaged the shops with the following message:

Fig 3.1 Message for Tea Shops


Only two shops came back to me, Legend of Tea and Hi Tea  Malaysia, enthusiastic that they can help us on expanding our knowledge on tea and teacup culture, and so we set up a time and date. Our group separated to two groups and went to the shops - Legend of Tea in Sunway Pyramid, and Hi Tea Malaysia in Jalan Sultan City Center. 

I was in the group that went to Legend of Tea, where we were allowed to take a video of the interview and of the place as well. Even though there is a language barrier between us, we still managed to make it work. The tea master firstly showed us on how the tea ceremony worked between three different types of material: glass, porcelain and pottery. We recorded this here:

Later, we conducted the interview. Sadly, we don't have the right equipment, so it is hard to hear, but I made a transcript of the interview so that the information is preserved well.


This is the interview:


And this is the transcript of the interview:


The tea master did not know how to answer some of the interview questions, so he said Head Quarters of Legend of Tea will get back to me in more detail. The document they sent was filled with a lot of good information in detail, but sadly, was sent a bit late to include in our data collection. 

Here is the more detailed answered interview questions from Legend of Tea.

We also took pictures and videos of the teacups from Legend of Tea.

   
Fig 3.2 Ceramic and Pottery Tea sets             Fig 3.3 Glass Tea set with Green tea


All of the videos and pictures taken can be found in this google drive.


Later, I reached out to another tea shop called Hojo Tea in The Gardens, a Japanese Tea shop mostly selling Japanese tea sets, but they also sell some Chinese tea sets and a variety of tea from different Asian cultures. I managed to take pictures and videos of the teapots and teacups, however, the person was not comfortable for an interview, and instead asked me to refer to their website. 

This is a Pdf of information about their teapots and teacups I have gathered from their website. They made their own tea sets, with a history of how they gathered the material and who the artist is.


These are some of the pictures and this the google drive with all the resources.

Fig 3.4 Chinese Teacups                                          Fig 3.5 Japanese Tea set


Since we chose to develop the social game idea, we wanted to collect primary information about people's gaming habits, and to see if they are open to our idea for a teacup game. I made the survey before asking my teammates to send it to others. Since we are focusing on a social game, we mainly asked questions based on their opinion on playing multiplayer games. We collected 53 responses before closing the survey. 

Fig 3.6 Making the Game Survey


This is the Pdf of the Game Survey responses.

And with these information I collected, I put them all in the google drive resource page and in the Data Collection presentation. I wrote down what main information we gathered at Legend of Tea, the information I found on Hojo Tea website and the important responses from the Game Survey. I designed the style and typography to fit to the presentation's theme. I also helped made the presentation stay in style, highlighting keywords, aligning images and words, and putting in citations and links for references.

Fig 3.7 Summarised Information from Legend of Tea


Fig 3.8 Conclusion from the Tea shops we visited

Fig 3.9 Survey Response #1

Fig 3.10 Survey Response #2

Fig 3.11 Survey Response #3

Fig 3.12 Hojo Tea Secondary Information


This is the Canva link to our Data Collection Presentation.

This is the Pdf version for a quick look.



Additionally, this is our google drive where we keep all of our resources and information we have found, both primary and secondary information.


Tik-Tok - Project 3

Week: Week 5- Week 7

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 will explore various aspects of everyday design. As creative media students, your task is to document and communicate your experiences through a TikTok page. This page should serve as a cultural journal, where you record, reflect, and creatively present your interactions, observations, and insights about everyday design. The goal is to communicate your chosen cultural topics to a broader audience, fostering understanding and appreciation of everyday design through engaging short-form videos.

Requirements:

Making of our TikTok page (Teacup Haven):
We discussed on how we should make our TikTok page, with various ideas on how to make it entertaining and engaging to a wide range of audiences while informing them with our goal on interpreting the teacup everyday design into a social game idea. As we need about 5-10 videos plus the introduction and reflection videos, we split the roles on who should do which video. I was in charge of making the introduction and reflection videos, while helping out on one infographic video and with the sound effects for two animatics. 


Introduction Video
For the introduction video, I tried to engage the audience in an entertaining way, while explaining who we are, elaborate on our theme of an everyday design, what our topic and goal is (Chinese teacups) and how we want to interpret that design in a different way, which is called Teacup Haven, a social adventure game where you are a teacup. I mainly used Canva to design and edit the video, as I recorded all my lines to use in the video, including pictures and videos we recorded from the tea shops we visited (while referencing them). I used CapCut to make the subtitles. 

Fig 4.1 Making of the Introduction Video

This is the Introduction Video:


Infographic Tea Video
I helped my teammate to make one infographic video on a Chinese teacup, using the same template with a different colour scheme so that it matches. This infographic is to inform the audience more about some Chinese teacups of the past, in a fun way. I chose to work on the Chenghua Chicken Cup and gave it a red colour template, representing chickens and of prosperity and honour. I voiced over again for this video, to keep it as engaging and informative as possible. I used only Canva to make this video.

Fig 4.2 Making of an Infographic Video

This is the Infographic Video:


Editing Animatics
I helped with adding the sound effects for two animatics that demonstrates our idea for the social adventure game, and how it displays the culture found in the design of teacups, while reflecting the values and meaning with fun mechanics like going on adventures and meeting new people who are also teacups. As the animatics is cute, I tried to add in the background music and sounds that fits the best. For this video, I used HitFilm to edit it, as I find it easier to use for the more specific placement of sounds and to edit in general, compared to CapCut.

Fig 4.3 Editing Sound Effects for Animatic #1


Fig 4.4 Editing Sound Effects for Animatic #2

Animatic #1:

Animatic #2:


Reflection Video
After we have done all of our parts, each of us included our short final take on what we have learned and contributed in this project. And we did this in the style of our own personified teacups, drawn by another teammate. Each of us have a 15-20 seconds voiceover and I combined them with the video. I used Canva to edit this video.

Fig 4.5 Making of the Reflection Video


Final Presentation
Finally, we finished making a total of 12 videos, consisting of 10 content videos plus the introduction and reflection videos. For the content videos, we have 2 interview videos, 3 infographic videos, 4 animatic videos, and a teaser animation. We named our TikTok account "Teacup Haven" after our social game idea, and started posting them one by one. 

Afterwards, we created a final presentation to include all that we have done for this project. We recapped what we have done for Project 1 (Proposal) and Project 2 (Field Study), and included Project 3, which is the production of the TikTok videos. We included everyone's E-Portfolio blog link and our TikTok page. 

Click on this teacup to visit our TikTok page!


This is the Canva link for our Final Presentation - Teacup Haven by Group 10!

Fog 4.6 Introduction and Reflection page

Fig 4.7 Software Used for Introduction and Reflection


We also did a recording for our presentation, as I recorded myself explaining on the introduction and reflection videos, and showing the last part of our presentation - the links to our TikTok page and E-Portfolio blog pages. Another teammate edited and put the videos together and we have our final presentation:


Feedback

WEEK 1: Formed a group, pick a topic related to everyday design.

WEEK 2: We proposed three of the topics (teacups, board games, constellations) we had considered and Ms. Anis was interested in the Chinese teacups, which was also the most detailed.

WEEK 3: We showed her the three ideas and she was most interested in the game as the other two were too straight-forward. Revised the website idea to be more interactive.

WEEK 4: We showed her the revised version of the website idea and got approved. She said to either proceed with the game or website (more doable time-wise).

WEEK 5: We consulted Ms. Anis regarding our progress work and whether we were on the right track. She said to highlight what was said during the interview to put in the slide rather than putting the whole transcript. No need interview transcript and presentation video.

WEEK 6: We showed Ms. Anis our video ideas. She recommended and liked the ideas of animatics and told us we should delegate the task to produce quality work. Those who cannot do digital art can do backgrounds on traditional to help along or work on data gathering for infographics.

WEEK 7: Continuation on Final Project (no consultation).




Reflection

  Reflecting back, this has been a long project for me, as I worked with a big group of people while doing different tasks from researching about different teacup culture to editing videos to present our findings.

  At first, I never questioned the culture behind everyday designs I usually see in my life, just accepting whatever they are designed to portray. However, after this module, it made me realise that something as simple as a teacup has so much tradition, history and culture behind it - that each design reflects culture, and that each culture has their own significant designs. These designs hold cultural meaning and values, telling stories that we seek to discover by gaining a deeper understanding in said culture. By focusing on Chinese teacups as our main object, we did a deeper dive to different dynasties from the past, how each era in history had different designs and meanings. From a variety of animal symbols and flower motifs, each design reflects a value such as honesty or wealth.

  Deeping our research with interviews and tea shop visitation, I learned that there is more to a teacup design than just the paintings and colour - the material. The material is the most important part of a teacup design, as it affects the aroma and taste. Even different types of clay used to make the pottery can give distinct taste to the tea! Learning more about Chinese teacups and comparing Chinese tea culture to other tea cultures, I have learned more about Chinese culture, and what virtues they find important reflected by the tea rituals and ceremonies they hold.

  We found a common theme among all tea cultures across the world: the social aspect. Even if it varies in meaning, tea brings people together - whether it be for a nice cup of tea, a tea party or tea ceremony. And with this value shown in the design of teacups, we want to demonstrate it through a different way - a social adventure game. This idea out of the 3 ideas we came up with suit the best, as it has many areas for us to explore and expand on, while allowing us to add as many aspects of different tea culture values as possible. We had fun discussing the possibilities of how we can show teacup design functions as fun game aspects.

  During this project, I personally learned how to communicate better with my teammates and other people in the outside world, contacting others for their help to gain more knowledge about our topic. I participated in discussions and tried to give out ideas and organise them, separating roles so that each of us have something to do. Additionally, I learned how to manage my priorities and delegate time to do my tasks, while pushing myself to take initiatives and learn methods into researching. All in all, I had fun discussing ideas, editing and designing the videos, and learning more about teacups, albeit I am rather not fond of the research part. Culture found in designs are always fascinating to learn, making me more aware of my surroundings than ever.


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