Intercultural Design | Everyday Design
Haley Alexandra Gray | 0369029
Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Intercultural Design GCD61304
Projects 1, 2, 3, & Reflection | Everyday design
Table of Content :
Lecture Material
Intercultural Design GCD61304
1. Culture & Design
Introduction
- We live in a visual information culture, where in no other time in history has there been so many
visual images.
- Visuals are powerful mediums that provide most of our information about the world.
- 40% of people respond more to visual than text / 90% of information transmitted to the brain is
visual / visuals are processed 60,000x faster in the brain than text
Visual Graphics
- Visuals are everything that can be seen; wide, all-inclusive including nature
- Nature is not culture, unless there is meaning / representation attached to it.
- Everything produced or created by humans that can be seen are visuals
- Proposes that visual is everything that can be seen produced, or for the purpose of visual
representation that has functions and communicative purposes.
- Designers need to be aware of cultural nuances, symbolism, and context to create inclusive designs
Design Significance
- Able to identify the social, cultural, and political sphere where
- Artefacts and Products : Implementations / Use
- Tools
- Technology
- Norms and Values : Design language / Aesthetics
- Look & feel
- Design elements
- Design functions
- Basic Assumptions : Cultural function / Purpose
- Values
- Principles
- Practices
- Artefacts & Products -> Norms & Values -> Basic Assumptions = Breakdown
- Basic Assumptions -> Norms & Values -> Artefacts & Products = Explanation
Design Sensitivity
Cultural Sensitivity Awareness -
- Symbolism and Imagery : Certain symbols and images may carry different meanings in different
cultures.
- Designers must be mindful of cultural interpretations to avoid
misunderstandings and offence.
- Colour Considerations : Colours have cultural significance, and meanings vary across different
societies.
- Typography and Language : Choosing fonts / text styles that are culturally appropriate is important
- Considering language variations and ensuring accurate translations is
crucial for diverse audiences.
Addressing Cultural Sensitivity -
- Inclusive design : Strive to create products / experiences that are accessible / inclusive for people from
various backgrounds.
- User research : Conducting user research helps designers gain insights into cultural preferences /
behaviours.
- Localisation : Adapting deigns to specific cultural contexts through localisation, which can enhance
relevance and acceptance of product.
- Cultural Awareness training : Design teams benefit from training to develop deeper understanding of
diverse perspectives.
- End of Lecture Notes -
Instructions
MIB for Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media | Intercultural Design | The Design School at Taylor's University 2025
Task 1
Proposal
For the first task of this semester, we were assigned to study Everyday Design, being the theme for our tasks this semester, and to ideate and create a proposal revolving around certain everyday designs in a specific culture.
Part I : Research & Ideation
Starting this task, we had to form a group and start researching about everyday designs and cultures. For our group, we had trouble deciding on a specific culture and everyday design to research about, however landed on the research of the everyday designs in Malaysian cultural practices, revolving around the 3 main cultures of Malaysia; Indian, Malay, and Chinese, where we decided on the theme of unity in Malaysia.
Our idea was to utilise the similarities we share as individual cultures to create a design that will bridge the conflict shared by using the similarities identified in not just physical qualities but values and meanings as well.
Part II : Research / Presentation of ideas
To present our concept, we started with an introductory page on the current situation Malaysia is in regarding unity between the cultures. After stating the introduction, we made our proposal where our objective was to try and bring unity to the people of Malaysia, by identifying - in terms of the everyday designs of cultural practices in Malaysia - the similarities we share in various festive objects and designs seen in these traditions, to show that even though we share differences between us, we are more similar than we think.
 |
| Fig. 2 One part of the Introduction content & Proposal Slide |
After establishing the preliminary goals and information, we started research and analysis on various aspects of everyday cultural designs present in Malaysia, such as festive decorations and object designs, dining-wear / food presentation designs and patterns, as well as the design of traditional clothing and the details.
 |
| Fig. 3 A collection of research topics from each culture |
To conclude the ideation process, we came up with a few designs of jeans to express our cause and represent our project goals. We chose jeans because we were thinking of ways to spread unity in an everyday-sense, where it could be available and used inn society on a daily basis, by anyone.
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| Fig. 4 Jeans Design collection |
Part III : Final Outcome
The final outcome of this project was to submit the PDF of our Powerpoint Presentation regarding the content above, and to present our proposal in a video format. We had organised our slides to contain an introduction to our idea and everyday designs, our proposal, research, and finally our ideas.
Task 1 Powerpoint Presentation PDF
Task 2
Research
The second task was dedicated solely to Research, where we were tasked with collecting various types of data and information from all sorts of sources for a week to enhance our knowledge and immerse ourselves in the culture in our society. The various types of data collection we committed to included :
Secondary Research
To begin with the most accessible research method, we decided to split ourselves into pairs of 2 to research general and global topics and information, such as Cultural Textile Research (Jinji & Me), Global fashion trends that blend cultural heritage into modern clothing (Gwen & Tulip), and Local brands that do similar design which includes cultural design (Sean & Jensen)- questions / topics which will help us develop more background knowledge on what we are dealing with.
We have also studied the influence jeans have on society, past and present, to make a more compelling case for why our jeans idea would work, as well as how to do patchwork, for our tangible research part.
Field Research
Field research is a research collection method using the surrounding environment; primary research. This part was just as important as secondary research, if not more important as we could allow ourselves to surround ourselves with the very cultures we were studying, as well as utilising the public resources to gain more information. The types of field research we did were :
1. Interviews
Interviews were a crucial part of research, to find out what the general public of Malaysia thinks about our topic, and if unity exists / is possible between these cultures. We targeted multiple audiences; students, locals, lecturers, and even foreigners, to gain diverse and in-depth insight on their respective views.
2. Site Visits
The sites we decided to visit were the National Textile Museum, Pasar Seni / Petaling Street, SOGO, and Masjid India, as we believe those places are a popular spot where people of all cultures and ethnicities can get together, especially our target cultures (SOGO was to get fabric), as well as for us to immerse ourselves and learn more about Malaysian culture + the cultures that make it up.
- National Textile Museum
That site visit introduced us to Malaysian cultural textiles, its history, as well as an informative display of the process of creation. This helped us understand more about the objects we were about to use / implement in our final project.
- SOGO Area / Masjid India
Not specifically in SOGO or Masjid India, but around that area to go fabric hunting to find culturally appropriate fabrics and materials, where locals often go to get fabric for their clothes (saris, baju kurung, cheongsam, etc).
Tangible Research
For our tangible research we created jeans that included the cultural features we wished to include, to emphasise our objective to create unity.
Process -
Final Outcome -
Outcome
There were multiple outcomes in terms of research, however we submitted a compilation of our data through a powerpoint presentation.
Task 2 Powerpoint Presentation PDF
Task 3
Final Project - TikTok Assignment & Portfolio
Coming to the last assignment for this module, we were tasked with creating a TikTok page and videos, to spread knowledge and information on our cause to the general public, as well as a reflection on our whole journey.
Part I : Ideation / Making of videos
The first part of this task was to start on our videos, and create our TikTok page. The name we decided on for our TikTok page was 'Unijeanz' where it combines unity and jeans, as well as another interpretation, combining university and jeans, since we're university students; I think its pretty funny. We came up with several video ideas to do in order to get our message across to the public, which would be :
- Introductory Video
- Explanatory Videos
- Vlog-type Video
- Interview-based Videos
- Trending Video
- Process/Documentation Videos
- Reflection-style Video
We started filming during the second task, where we documented our journey, so that our audience could follow along our process, to understand better, as well as receive more content.
Part II : Editing & Compiling
For the second part of the task, after finishing creating the content we had to edit the videos to suit the timeframe between 15 to 60 seconds, and add features that'd make the content more appealing and better to understand.
Part III : Final Outcome
In the final outcome, we produced a TikTok page with 10 videos, some videos being split into parts, as well as a final presentation to compile a summary of the previous tasks, and our journey during Task 3.
TikTok Page Link :
Task 3 Powerpoint Presentation PDF
Reflection
Overall, my experience during this project was really interesting - definitely challenging, but mostly enjoyable. The whole process of doing everything in this project was new to me, since this is my first semester, in a class with people I just met and being introduced to a subject I have not heard of, it was tough but we managed. Starting off the project, it was a bit rocky working with people I didn't know, which made overall communication and actually starting difficult and time-consuming, as well as not fully understanding the first task and brief, however as time progressed we managed to get more comfortable with each other and receive help and feedback from our lecturers which helped the process go smoother. Later on, things got easier to discuss, and I enjoyed researching about the various cultures in Malaysia, which included secondary research and physical research, where we got to visit and immerse ourselves in the Malaysian culture, regarding heritage, local textiles, and the people. Lastly, in the end my experience in this project grew to be a bit more tedious yet still fun, having to record videos for our TikTok account to spread awareness of our cause. It felt tedious having to repeatedly think of content, record the videos, and edit them, however in the process of coming up with content and engaging with the audience during filming was interesting, where we got to hear different outlooks on this project, and filming the content together with my group members was pretty fun.
While conducting this project, I have learned more about the cultures I grew up around but have not immersed myself in. Growing up in Malaysia I have been exposed to the various cultures and had seen the respective celebrations during their festivals, and learnt about them in school, but I have never explored and indulged further - unfortunately - until now. The topic we decided to focus on was based on unifying Malaysia through the various cultures, where we started off with Task 1, by researching the everyday designs of the cultural practices in Malaysia's main cultures, and analysing the similarities they have with each other, to first prove that we are more similar than we think. I believed that even though we share different cultures and traditions, we might have the same values and meanings, hidden within everyday cultural objects and their designs. Throughout this process I have learned more than what I had previously known about Malay, Indian, and Chinese cultural practices, and have cultivated a better understanding of and appreciation for them and the objects they use to express their traditions and values. Along with gaining more cultural knowledge from the research performed in Task 1, Task 2 exposed me to learning more about the use and significance of textiles, as well as providing me with a first-hand experience on using them on our own design. Previously, I understood that textiles were an important part of a lot of cultures, however after secondary and primary research, it became more apparent how these textiles shaped, influence, and represent different cultures, and more specifically the Malaysian culture, where some textiles and motifs were made for royalty, and some styles of batik and other textiles were influenced by the cultures that arrived in Malaysia, adding to the depth and diversity of the history and symbolism. Additionally I also got to know more about fashion and how culture plays a role in the fashion industry and personal choices, furthermore delving into the topic of jeans and where they came from.
In the final stretch of the project, I feel as though my knowledge and exposure to these cultures has developed greatly, from knowing basic information taught at school and family/friends, to not only knowing but understanding and appreciating the physical designs of what we researched, as well as the cultural significance of it all, and branching out from the general everyday design topic and learning more about fashion, and how it can influence people/our future as a nation. During the learning journey, I feel as though I have also gained more confidence as a leader, communicating with my team members, and gaining strength in researching abilities, designing, and critical thinking capacities where my group and I were able to create/adapt important and relevant topics and ideas into our project to emphasise and give out the intended effect we planned our project to have, bringing unity to Malaysia.
Feedback
Week 1 (7/2/25)
General Feedback : An introduction to our module and task, where we were introduced to our lecturers
and everyday designs, and had form a group with peers to start researching and
ideating for Task 1.
and everyday designs, and had form a group with peers to start researching and
ideating for Task 1.
________
Week 2 (13/2/25)
General Feedback : To continue researching and ideating, and to create our powerpoint presentations for
submission on week 3.
Specific Feedback : Idea to focus on the 3 cultures of Malaysia and to unite them was accepted, however
being advised to try not be stereotypical.
________
Week 3 (21/2/25)
General Feedback : Finish research and slides to move on to recording a presentation on zoom for
submission, where we must compile the slides and presentation in a google file.
Specific Feedback : Instead on focusing on 3 different objects, focus on 1 and create 3 designs from there
(jeans), as well as make their designs stand out to emphasis your point; focus on the
meaning and way we design to emphasis unity.
________
Week 4 (27/2/25)
General Feedback : No lecture / consultation to focus on Task 2 data collection, however we discussed
with Dr Charles over teams to get reassurance / directions for questions / topics we
were going to research about to start task 2.
________
Week 5 (5/3/25)
General Feedback : Complete Task 2 research / presentation.
________
Week 6 (12/3/25) & Week 7 (19/3/25)
General Feedback : No classes for Week 6 & 7 - Time taken to complete Task 3 & presentation.
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