MFA Journey: 2011-2014 by Gladys Chow

MFA JOURNEY BY GLADYS CHOW

ÂŠ2011-2014 Gladys Chow. Designs and processes created for research projects presented in this publication are creative works of Gladys Chow.

MFA Journey: Documenting the experiences of obtaining the Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication MFA Thesis Exhibition + Written Component Designer: Gladys Chow cover: HELLO (2014) insider cover: All Seasons (2012) back cover: Chrysanthemum (2012) blog entries from: http://mfajourney.com Contact: Gladys Chow email: chow@uta.edu web: gladyschow.com

MFA JOURNEY MFA Thesis Exhibition + Written Component

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foreword

personal design manifesto

thank you

much luck and much prosperity

who

interactive design projects

how

arlington transit

why

what

design process

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table of

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seasons

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mfa thesis

sound art

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missing mooncakes

using digital media to foster cultural interaction of Canadian-Born Chinese

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mfa thesis exhibition

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research summary

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where

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references

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contents

foreword by faculty mentor

has been a privilege to be part of Gladys Chow’s graduate committee over the last three years. Gladys has professionally carried out a series of research projects that were personal and yet addressed contemporary issues in visual communication and design. During that time she explored creative activities that included interactive applications, identity/branding, research blogs, illustrations, posters, sound, and environmental design. Her exceptional MFA exhibition included the use of environmental display, app design and use of light and sound.

of ideas that focused on a sound methodology provided a solid foundation for enhanced project planning, design research, and testing delivery materials. Ms. Chow’s ability to choose the best solution demonstrates a high level of professionalism. Gladys has studied various and unique manifestos and multicultural design philosophies which informed her visual communication research.

She has made the transition from primarily looking at design with traditional client based objective outcomes, to developing thoughtful design problems that address specific user/audience educational opportunities. Her exploration provides a foundation to understand designs inherent ability to influence perception and convey information meaningfully.

We look forward to Gladys’ continued development and growth as a designer and design educator.

Gladys’ work ethic is unmatched. In my over thirty years of working with students Gladys Chow is in the top 2%. Her pursuit

I would like to thank members of her graduate advisory *committee for their commitment, insight and feedback.

Robert Hower Professor and Chair Department of Art and Art History The University of Texas at Arlington *Professors Seiji Ikeda, Lisa Graham, and George Gintole

非常感謝

There have been so many people that have continually encouraged and supported me not only through my academic journey but also my professional and personal experiences. Thank you to all whom I’ve had the privilege of knowing and working with.

I will always be grateful to my faculty mentor, Professor and Art+Art History Department Chair Robert Hower for constantly providing opportunities, encouragement, and advice to help me improve as a designer and educator. Thank you Robert.

Thank you, Kris; for your continual support and sacrifices to help me reach some of my dreams.

Since starting as an undergraduate in the visual communication program and then continuing as a graduate student, I have learned much from the faculty at UT Arlington. Thank you to Professors Lisa Graham, Seiji Ikeda, George Gintole, Pauline Hudel-Smith, Robert Grame, Melia Belli, Stephen Lapthisophon, Ben Dolezal, Andrew Ortiz, Benito Huerto, and Nancy Palmeri. Thank you to all the faculty and staff in the Art + Art History Department.

Thank you Mom and Dad; my brothers and sisterin-laws; and my nephews and niece all back home. Thank you to all my family relatives and friends back in Vancouver and around the world. Thank you to the Wright, Cooper-Ballard, and Woodson families that have provided much support and advice.

I would like to acknowledge the University of Texas at Arlington, the College of Liberal Arts, the Festival of Ideas Global Research Fellowship, the James S. Barnett Jr. Ideas in Art Foundation, and the Art + Art History Department for providing many valuable opportunities and generous support that assisted in my research projects.

It’s been a privilege to have worked with and learn from my fellow vc grad studio mates. Thank you Shaban, Maryam, Josh, Ginnie, Kevin, Shuhong, Chang, Matt and Collin for all your help, feedback, and advice. I’ll reflect fondly on our collaborations, discussions, and long hours in 295A. Hope we will have future opportunities to work together again.

Special thanks to participants in the Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook app. Thank you dear friends and family for your kindness and help to improve the Missing Mooncakes storybook app interactivity and educational potential.

Thank you to current and past UTA MFA graduates, it was a valuable experience sharing some of our first graduate presentations and discussions together— thanks for sharing your expertise and thoughts.

It has been a very challenging and rewarding experience in obtaining the Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington. Thank you everyone for being a part of this journey.

Artist Statement Having the privilege of growing up in a western environment while concurrently exposed to eastern culture has propelled my continual exploration of cross-cultural designs. Constantly striving to create memorable experiences, the functionality of my designs can range from creating work that is more playful and fun, to work that visually communicates a more simplistic and clean aesthetic.

am I?Hi there! I’m Gladys and I’m a graphic designer and educator. I have a passion for communicating

ideas visually in creative, unique and fun designs. Analyzing the cultural influences on design has been an integral part of my work. I am a first generation Canadian-born Chinese from Vancouver, Canada whose past work experiences included being a cashier, restaurant hostess, tutor, special event ticket supervisor, customer service representative, graphic designer, information technology analyst, quality assurance analyst, and instructor for desktop publishing programs. I also have been fortunate to live and work in Osaka, Japan as an English instructor before pursuing my fine arts academic career at the Univeristy of Texas at Arlington. Even though I enjoyed the different experiences, I found that my enthusiasm showed through most in the art, design, and educational areas. Being a graphic designer involved research into different topics, learning, and developing a concept that would have the potential to effectively communicate the intended message to an audience. I feel that designs affect people in different ways. Perhaps one of the my first graphic design projects (before any formal training in the field) was designing a series of t-shirts for my family and friends. I found it fascinating that designs and illustrations can be worn, and was curious to this process and created each design to be personable to the individual. Seeing their delighted faces wearing the t-shirts sparked a motivation that I can continue to create designs that can be fun and enjoyed by others. Since the t-shirt designs, I’ve acquired and tried a variety of valuable techniques to how design can be delivered—such as creating publications, packaging, online and interactive media,, posters, flyers—and new methods are continually being experimented on. I am a contemporary designer with a vision to create design solutions that can help and inspire others. From my design portfolio there tends to be an aesthetic towards clean and simple designs, and also a tendency of drawing influences from asian cultures. I enjoy researching methods and analyzing details of design and assess what improvements or alternative solutions can be presented. I rejoice in creating an understanding or sharing knowledge with others that can help them progress in their works. One of my goals is to become an educator in the field of design, whether it be instructing technical knowledge of software or conveying information on design concepts. I continue challenging myself to improve my designs and experiment with developing ideas with imagination and insight.

did the journey start? I think my

motivation for design derives from my interest in art from a young age--when I was introduced to crayons, markers, pencil crayons, pastels, paint, pens--anything that would produce color or markings on paper. I loved coloring in coloring books. I always looked forward to back to school shopping when school supplies were on sale, as my two older brothers took me to the local store where I could pick out a set of pencil crayons, markers, and new crayons. The variety of markers and the number of colors available to draw and color with was always fascinating and something I wanted to try experimenting with. Every year I tried to make cards for my familyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;mostly out of construction paperâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and yet again using every color of paper in the package.

It was not until I took a high school graphic design course that there was the opportunity to study art and design again. Since the tenth grade to twelfth, I took graphic design classes with my teacher Mr. Bassani. It was my first exposure to the Apple Macintosh computer and using design software to create a layout and design for a client. One of the flyers I did was for a hair salon, to promote their store and current promotions. That was my first design project for a client.

plates for the press, creating negatives, thinning out the ink—I learned a lot about beginning and completing jobs using the printing press. I also interned at a few places for the graphic design class. One such place was at an envelope factory—it was a valuable experience indeed but one thing that I remember the representative saying was that sometimes flies and other insects landed in the ‘glue’ that is used on envelopes. So to this day, I really do try to avoid licking the back of envelopes.

I also practiced using the printing press in completing projects for local clients. I thought it was an eye-opening experience to be involved in the printing process. It was a detailed process in applying ink to the rollers, adjusting the prints to match the registration marks, creating the

an MFA? From my undergraduate studies in visual communication I have learned important skills related to my field of study and gained valuable insight and advice from the teaching faculty at The University of Texas at Arlington. I wish to pursue an M.F.A. in visual communication because I would like to develop a deeper understanding and critical thinking process involved in exploring design ideas.

My interest in art and design developed during my first graphic design class in high school. Since then, I have continually studied how elements of design can affect the communication of ideas even though my journey towards pursuing my passion for designing and layout has not been conventional but a journey of my owning. After my first bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in Business Administration and working abroad in Japan for over a year, I had the opportunity to return to university to study design. Returning to university as a mature, non-traditional student has been challenging but I am thankful of the valuable experience of interacting with and learning from fellow classmates, instructors and professors. Through my academic studies, I was able to exhibit my voice on design and express my ideas through various design mediums. Every project required substantial research, and I learned it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just about the design aesthetics, but how to effectively communicate an idea that would be memorable to the audience. Initially I was uncertain about my abilities as a designer, but from my design work experience and guidance from professors, I was surprised to discover that I may have potential to further explore the vast knowledge and skills in the design field. I believe that studying in the M.F.A. program will further encourage opportunities to develop my potential in the graphic design field. I hope to accomplish greater knowledge and skills for improvement and practice, seek advice and learn from the faculty, and develop creative projects that can benefit the community. Furthermore, I would like to study pedagogical theories in hopes that in the future I would have the honor to teach students interested in learning about art and design. Perhaps I can help someone find voice through design. 16

is graphic design? From its broad range of

areas related to art, materials, typography, products and techniques, it is difficult to isolate the exact time when the graphic design field began. International inventions and products such as papermaking and woodblock printing from China, the Greek alphabet, and illuminated manuscripts from Europe can be seen as contributors to the development of graphic design. One of the major components to graphic design is typographyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;how letterforms are arranged on an area to communicate a message. Manuscripts, documents, books, and other written media were created individually by hand. A significant contribution to the growth of graphic design was the invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany in the early fifteenth century (Lupton, 13). Movable type refers to letterforms that have been cast into lead blocks and can be rearranged on an area for printing on a printing press; this increased the speed and quantities of reproductions of printed materials and allowed information to be more accessible. Graphic design continues to be an evolving area that considers a variety of visual elements, such as color, typography, layout, symbols, and the utilization of different techniques to communicate an idea or message. Designers may use a variety of artistic and technological tools to visually convey an intended message to an audience. Graphic designers provide visual solutions to communicate ideas to an audience. This may involve the use of creative, problem-solving, and technological skills in determining the arrangement or placement of visual and typographic elements on various media that may include posters, advertisements, packaging, books, digital media and other promotional items.

Reference: Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with type: a critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students (second, revised and expanded edition). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010.

thought process concept 20

This book introduces my journey, research, projects, activities, and experiences of obtaining the Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington. Creating and understanding the process has been an important component in my design projects.

solutions. Concept is derived from going through the thought and process steps, and the initial idea is tested to determine its success in visually presenting an uncomplicated and distinctive solution. This is a continuous cycle, if the concept is not successful, begin at the thought process again.

Design should resonate a memorable experience for the designer and the audience. Attempting to create this experience, I go through a challenging and thought-provoking process of exploring ideas and researching relationships of design. To create uncomplicated and distinctive solutions, I analyze three areas: thought, process and concept. Thought is exploring the initial thought or idea and how the thought can be developed from different relationships. Process involves an extensive research on the idea and brainstorming of trial

My studio process has involved experimenting with different techniques and technologies. Since the start of my MFA program Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been documenting my design process on a blog: mfajourney.com. The blog format provided an opportunity to reflect on my design concepts, ongoing activities, resources encountered, and to provide some insight to the audience on my current research and design processes. This book showcases some of my thoughts and experiences throughout my design endeavors.

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Year 1: Fall 2011 Art 5000: Supervised Teaching in Studio Art Art 5320: Art Criticism and Theory/MFA Seminar/Creative Strategies Research Presentation: The Growth of Graphic Design in China: Influence of East and West Art 5655: Research in Visual Communication Research Project: Much Luck and Much Prosperity

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The first semester involved extensive research and experimentations from the influence of Eastern and Western design. I focused specifically on my cultural upbringings. My first research project, Much Luck and Much Prosperity, is a design promotional system that encourages Canadians of Chinese ethnicity to understand their heritage culture and language.I found that being away from home and the environment I grew up in, there was less opportunity to practice and learn about traditional events and cultural influences. I felt it was important to design something that can be informative and brought more awareness to the younger generation of Canadian-Born Chinese (CBC). There were many design experimentations involving the combination of Chinese and Canadian symbolism, as well as how Chinese symbols can be transformed utilizing Western design techniques. The development of Chinese graphic design and influential cross-cultural designers were also researched and presented. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve documented many of the design experimentations, readings, and research on mfajourney.com. Some of these posts are presented in the following pages.

“ Massive Change is not about the world of design; it’s about the design of the world.

”

- Bruce Mau

At the start of the MFA program, my professors suggested that I create a blog to document my work, research, and activities. The blog has been really handy during MFA committee meetings to quickly reference my current and past work, as well as introducing a small part of my design process to the audience. Blog titles with ‘book talk’ briefly discuss the publications I’m currently reviewing. Other titles include topics related to my research, inspirational designers, project process updates and images, design thoughts, exhibitions, or current activities and presentations.

Chinese Calligraphy

Designer Bruce Mau

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011

Researched further into Chinese calligraphy with this book: Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society by Yuehping Yen. I’m trying to determine if there are any social/ cultural/traditional impacts on the Chinese writing system of traditional characters versus simplified characters, and learning more about the history of Chinese calligraphy to figure out some of these relationships. Still need a lot of work.

In researching more about my topic related to the Chinese language and design, one of my professors recommended that I research designer Bruce Mau. I started reading Bruce Mau’s book, Massive Change, which discusses international topics on sustainable design, history of design, design of transportation, market economies (are just a few of the topics), and to quote Bruce Mau, “Massive Change is not about the world of design; it’s about the design of the world.”

Chinese characters – simplified or traditional?

Character amnesia? Monday, September 19, 2011

September 21, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011

I’ve been reading more regarding the usage of simplified and traditional Chinese characters. There have been issues arising of the use of simplified characters in mainland China and Singapore versus the use of traditional characters usage in other areas such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. The simplified forms were developed in early 1960s to increase literacy in mainland China, although with simplified characters, some of the meaning of the symbols/compilation of chinese characters to construct the character is lost. One such example is the character for love. In its traditional form, “愛” (love) contains the character “心” meaning “heart”. In its simplified form, “爱” is without the character for heart. This is just a very brief overview, more research needs to be done in regards to how the simplified forms derived.

Ethnography Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Ethnography integrates into the design process and the research gathered reflects on how design messages are conveyed. It relates to gaining a better understanding of cultural norms and also how design is communicated in different environments. Detailed observations are necessary in regards to the environment, culture, and behaviors on how things are done/completed/perceived.

“

book talk: 3030 New Graphic Design In China

“Character amnesia” is a term that has been used to describe the inability to recall how to write Chinese characters. This has been experienced by speakers of asian languages, where they have encountered times when they forget how to write a Chinese character. With the rapid improvements in technology, using computers and cell phones to input Chinese characters by romanization/phoentic transcription, this offers a convenience for users to not have to remember the exact number of strokes or formation of a character. Some comment that not remembering how to write the language has a serious impact on the culture and understanding of the language/ writing system. Others side with having technology as a means of helping them remember the less frequently used characters–and having the convenience of just checking on their cell phone for quick recall. There are also other devices that offer character input via means of writing the strokes/radicals of the character, not just relying on the pinyin input method. Is “character amnesia” a growing problem to forgetting chinese characters? It could be, writing and communication skills may be affected if individuals rely heavily on the romanization input of characters instead of learning how the character is formed traditionally.

A charismatic brand can be defined as any product, service, or company for which people believe there’s no substitute.

”

3030 New Graphic Design In China edited by Javin Mo offers a vast collection of works by Chinese artists/designers. In researching the topic of graphic design in China, it was a little challenging trying to find examples online–but this book really helped me gain some insight to how graphic design has developed in China and also the differences/changes in more present times. Looking through the examples in this book, the work seemed to incorporate western influences, such as the collaboration/fusion/ juxtaposition of English and Chinese lettering; there were examples of layering of images/ vectors/graphics — where a graphic specifically covered a person’s face; some works contained more traditional Chinese elements that were altered to form a more shocking/unique image. It was great that the book was in English and Chinese, and reading about the profiles of the designers, many were multidisciplinary designers. Not only were they graphic designers, but sculptors, art directors, illustrators, music producers, curators, educators…just to name a few.

book talk: SustainAble Wednesday, September 21, 2011

SustainAble: a handbook of materials and applications for graphic designers and their clients, by Aaris Sherin is a great resource for individuals wanting to incorporate sustainable elements in their design projects. Definitions are analyzed, guest authors, such as Eric Benson (founder of re-nourish.com) provides an excerpt on “Best Practices to Design Sustainably”, certifications and environmental labeling are described, paper production, types of paper for sustainable printing or packaging, case studies/examples of sustainable design in practice; it is a valuable resource in learning more about sustainable design and how it affects our design process and practices.

-Marty Neumeier

book talk: Green Design Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Green Design, edited by Buzz Poole, offers readers a vast collection of designs created with sustainability and recycling of materials in mind. Some projects featured in the book included toys and games, clothing items (eg. socks made into figurines), jewelry made of rubber bands, use of bicycle gears for picture frames and clocks, bags made from recycled magazines and newspaper, recycled boat sails made into bags, computer parts made into coasters. Companies practicing sustainability are also described (eg. The LEGO Company). One of the main ideas I got from reading this book is that sustainability is not always obvious. The feature on The Lego Company discusses the longevity of its products and how different parts of LEGO projects can be combined and reused. This book provides many examples of eco-friendly design and also other company/artist websites at the back of the book for further reading on the topic.

book talk: Print and Production Finishes for Sustainable Design Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Print and Production Finishes for Sustainable Design, by Edward Denison, offers numerous examples of sustainable design. Examples include designs that were printed on PCW (Post Consumer Waste) paper, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified paper, examples of innovative folds and cuts on designs that enhanced the sustainable elements (eg. portable biodegradable ashtray had inner tubes in the box produced from 100% PCW), identity systems, corporate labels, posters and invitations, catalogues, edible coffee cup, notebooks, drink cartons, etc. The examples provided re-emphasizes that sustainability does not lower the quality of design, but rather asks the designer to think of sustainable solutions and question his/her process when designing a product with sustainable elements; considering the longevity of a product, different use of materials, encourage further research on sustainable design. I used many of the examples in this book for a brief presentation on sustain-

able design, it helped to illustrate examples of sustainable graphic design and how sustainability can relate to changing or improving a design.

character amnesia and texting: impact on writingskills? Sunday, September 25, 2011

has an impact on the amount of exposure to tradition and culture, and wonder if Chinese Canadian youth are concerned with their heritage culture. Will further generations of Canadian Born Chinese (sometimes referred to as CBCs) practice, or care about, their ethnic culture?

book talk: The Brand Gap

Most of the articles I’ve read about character amnesia talk about the youth and adults across China and Japan that may be forgetting how to write Chinese characters. Although I don’t have a mobile phone that takes the pinyin romanization input of Chinese characters or input Chinese characters frequently on my computer, I think I have been affected by character amnesia. There will always be an occasion when I’m writing a letter in Chinese, that I have to look up the stokes/formations of a character online. Character amnesia occurs for less frequently used characters. However, with typing the pinyin on a keyboard, the expressiveness and culture that is exhibited in writing is lost.

Friday, September 30, 2011

So does typing and texting negatively impact writing skills? If there is too much reliance on the pinyin system it may affect writing… but some students switch between writing styles when texting compared to writing an academic paper. I was curious about the texting phenomenon occurring with American students, and some resources have noted that students have used some of their texting language in their academic writing.

page 11: ”Trust creation is a fundamental goal of brand design”

cultural decline in younger generations? Sunday, September 25, 2011

In researching character amnesia in some of my earlier posts, I reflect back on my cultural experiences and the languages I spoke. I’ve recently been doing some research on Chinese Canadians, specifically, individuals who are born in Canada but have Chinese heritage. I fall into this category, and I think about the traditions and culture I was exposed to when I was growing up. I don’t often practice writing Chinese, speaking Cantonese, or celebrating certain holidays — although I would like to get more opportunities to do so. I think the environment

Some of the topics discussed in The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design by Marty Neumeier, include the differences between a brand and a logo, icons and avatars, how to look at brands, disciplines of branding, testing the effectiveness of your brand, and criteria for successful brands. The author notes the difference between a brand and a logo: logo is short for logotype– ”logo is a symbol for the brand”; and brand is “a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company”. Some other mentionable quotes from the book Marty Neumeier discusses:

page 15: ”Whenever there’s a rift between strategy and creativity-between logic and magic-there’s a brand gap” page 19: ”A charismatic brand can be defined as any product, service, or company for which people believe there’s no substitute” Marty Neumeier also describes the five disciplines of branding: 1. Differentitate; 2. Collaborate; 3. Innovate; 4. Validate; 5. Cultivate. Further on to page 87, he talks about the difference between icons and avatars. I think logo design is increasingly heading towards the direction of avatars, the ability of logo elements that can move, interact, and be dynamic in a variety of environments and conditions–to the conditions where there is interactivity with the user. The Brand Gap is a great resource for designers and businesses that want to learn more about brand strategy and understanding.

book talk: Graphic Design Thinking: BeyondBrainstorming

book talk: Designing Across Cultures Thursday, October 06, 2011

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, Ellen Lupton, editor, goes into detail of exercises in going through the design process. It looks at how to define the problem by going through activities such as brainstorming, mind mapping, interviewing, creative brief; how to generate ideas by going through exercises such as “visual brain dumping”, forcing connection, the creation of the icon and symbol, presentations; and how form is created by looking at mock-ups, brand languages, and reconstruction. Plenty of examples from students and faculty in the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art are used to demonstrate the variety of techniques discussed in this book. A great resource for all designers to experiment with these techniques to help them in the design process.

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book talk: Complete Color Harmony Workbook Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Designing Across Cultures by Ronnie Lipton discusses the cultural differences designers should consider when designing for particular audiences. The audiences mentioned in the book are: Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and European Americans. Details including the meaning of color and numbers for particular groups, icons and symbols to use and avoid, festivals and holidays, and various examples are explained. For example, in Korea, the numbers 3 and 7 have positive connotations because they are associated with “good luck” and the number 9 is negative because its pronunciation sounds like “suffering”. The author explains of great detail of cultural design considerations and this is a great resource for not only for design but for cultural understanding in various disciplines.

Complete Color Harmony Workbook: A Workbook and Guide to Creative Color Combinations, text by Lesa Sawahata and Kiki Eldridge, is a guide for selecting color palettes and combinations that may be successful for creating the desired emotions/moods. The book provides a variety of examples and color schemes to portray certain atmospheres/feelings, such as (to name a few): powerful, rich, romantic, friendly, welcoming, moving, elegant, traditional, calm, regal, magical, and professional. Explanations are provided for color schemes: monochromatic, primary, secondary, complementary, split complementary, tertiary triad, achromatic, analogous, clash, neutral. This is an invaluable resource to understand concepts and terms used to explain color theory and read more about the psychology of color and how certain colors evoke different reactions.

Design is a messy endeavor. Designers generate countless ideas that don’t get used. They often find themselves starting over, going backward, and making mistakes. Successful designers learn to embrace this back-andforth, knowing that the first idea is rarely the last and that the problem itself can change as a project evolves.

”

-Ellen Lupton

Mind mapping Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Chinese character for “luck”, “fortune”, “blessings” Wednesday, October 12, 2011

In working through semester research project of understanding CBCs (Canadian-born Chinese), I completed a few quick mind maps on Canadian-born Chinese characteristics, Chinese culture, and Canadian culture. Perhaps I had more to say on the CBC mind map because I am an individual in that group. Also, as Canada is comprised of many influences from different ethnicities and cultures, it was difficult to narrow down specifics of Canadian culture.

Mind mapping: Canadian-Born Chinese

Continuing with working through my semester project. The Chinese character 福. (pronounced “fook” in Cantonese or “fu” in Mandarin) means “luck”, “fortune”, “blessings”, “happiness”, “prosperity”. It is a character often displayed during Chinese New Year, and thought about different ways to construct this character by using different shapes.

Experimenting with circles to create the Chinese character for “luck”, “fortune”, “blessings”

Chinese design and pattern resources Friday, October 14, 2011

In doing more research on my semester project, I reviewed the following resources on Chinese designs, patterns, and paper cuts: Authentic Chinese Cut-Paper Designs (Dover Design Library), Carol Belanger Grafton (Editor), contains detailed paper-cut designs, including phoenixes, dragons, horses, flowers, scenery, pandas, and vase designs.

Traditional Chinese Designs (Dover Design Library), Stanley Appelbaum (Editor), contains illustrations on geometric and floral borders, cranes, lanterns, dragons, butterflies are a few of the categories. Pattern Sourcebook: Chinese Style: 250 Patterns for Projects and Designs, Shigeki Nakamura (Author), is a great resource to look at Chinese-style patterns. The author describes how the pattern is derived and meanings of symbols and icons used in the patterns.

Chinese Paper-Cut Pictures Old and Modern, Nancy Kuo (Author); published in 1965 provides historical background on paper-cuts, discusses themes, symbolism and usages, colours, and techniques. The paper-cuts provided in this book range from more simplistic to extreme detailing in the cuts.

Mind mapping: Chinese Culture

bless happiness prosperity

恭喜發財恭喜發財發財

HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY NEW YEAR HAPPY HAPPY NEW NEW YEAR YEAR Sprinting Experiments

新 NEW 年新進 YEAR'S 年步進 PROG步 RESS 新年進步

\san\ \nihn\ jeun bouh

“sprinting” technique was suggested to not use the computer, I decided it would be faster for me to generate digitally for this exercise–plus, I wanted to see how color would work into some of the experiments. In the “sprinting” experiments, I experimented with overlapping of characters, how the English and Chinese characters are integrated, repetition, reflection, use of gradients and transparenices to bring a certain lively, energetic quality to the characters.

may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true may your wishes come true

“Sprinting” is a design technique described in Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, Ellen Lupton (Author), Jennifer Cole Phillips (Author). This technique involves working quickly with getting ideas on paper and tries to get the individual to break free from old habits and take risks–try out something new–in the designs within a set amount of param-

NEW YEAR'S PROGRESS

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

eters. In continuing my design process for my semester project, my professor suggested that I experiment with the display of the English and Chinese languages, so I tried some “sprinting.” My parameters were: 30 minutes, use of the Quicksand typeface (designed by Andrew Paglinawan) for the English words, and the default typeface (Minion Pro) for the Chinese characters pasted from the web into Adobe Illustrator. I placed Chinese New Year greetings and their meanings on a page. Although the

NEW YEAR'S PROGRESS

design technique: sprinting

MAY

YOUR

WISHES

COME

TRUE

MUCH

LUCK

PROSPERITY

WISHING YOU P

WISHING YOU PROSPE koi fish design experiments part 2

to refocus and think about Canadian culture. koi fish design experiments part 4 WISHING YOU PROSPERITY

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I was experimenting with creating pixel art, and looked at resources on how to create pixel art in Adobe Illustrator. Creating the grid and using live paint to fill in the pixels–this was the result of some simple koi fish pixel art:

After looking at some of my design progress, one of my professors mentioned perhaps I’m forgetting who my target audience is for my semester project because my designs seem to lean towards more asian-stylized than Canadian-stylized. My target audience is Chinese Canadians, or sometimes referred to as CBCs (Canadian-Born Chinese) and I was trying to determine if this group would notice or be drawn to a design more western/Canadian first, or a design more eastern/Asian first. I’m still not sure about the answer, but I thought that I do need

One of the most prominent icons of Canada is the maple leaf. My professor suggested I experiment with substituting the circles (from one of my previous designs) to the maple leaf, and a little over 2.5 hours later, the result (bottom).

EVER

WISHING YO WISHING

The tips PROSPERITY of the leaf posed the challenge of EVERY Y WISHING YOU which direction the leaf should be, and some of the smaller leaves are difficult to see. Not sure if there seems to be an overcrowding of leaves, whereas the circles (koi fish design experiments part 2) seemed to fit better together…yet using the maple leaf may provide a stronger connection and experience to CBCs.

WISHING

WISHING YOU PRO

WISHING YOU

WISHING YOU PR WISHING YOU

creating koi fish pixel art

WISHING Y I then experimented with converting the pixels to circles. In Illustrator, first expand the pixel art, then go to Effect>Convert to Shape>Ellipse. Select Absolute and set to 1px (that is the original size of my pixels) for the Width and Height, here is my result (right): If you only get a single circle as a result of the steps above, you may have to go back and direct select a few pixels of your illustration and then reset your absolute pixel sizes, and repeat the steps until all your pixels are converted to ellipses (not sure why it doesn’t convert all the pixels at once). The circle is an important symbol in Chinese culture as it represents “satisfaction, harmony, the balance of yin and yang.”

WISHING YOU PR

WISHING Y

WISHING YOU PRO

WISHING Y converting koi fish pixel art to circular art

WISHING YOU

WISHING YOU PR

koi fish design experiments part 3

WISHING YOU PROSP

Monday, October 24, 2011

Adding text to my koi fish “circle-pixel” illustration. The Chinese characters in the text translates to: “Wishing you prosperity every year.” The character for prosperity is pronounced like the character for fish, and during Chinese New Year images of fish is used often in greeting cards, red envelopes, and posters to wish the recipient or audience prosperity in the new year (see poster design on right page).

WISHING YOU PRO

WISHING YOU PR

WISHING YO

WISHING YOU PROSP using maple leaf shapes to construct the koi fish

WISHING

WISHING YOU PRO

PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WIS

ERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING

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YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YE

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YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEA

OSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISH

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ROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISH

PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR W

YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEA

ROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISH

YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEA

OSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISH

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YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEA

OSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHIN

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ROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WIS

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ROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISHING YOU PROSPERITY EVERY YEAR WISH

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maple leaf design experiments Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Chinese zodiac design experiments part 1

Graphic Design in China Monday, October 31, 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

In continuing the maple leaf brainstorming activity, I’m continuing with my circle pixel experimentation (below).

I thought back to some other circle pixel illustrations and how to relate the circles together, perhaps a colored circle from the maple leaf is carried over to the illustrations as a connection of being Canadian? ...still need to think more deeply about this relationship. I continued on to change the Chinese character for good luck/good fortune/blessings to be formed with maple leaves (below).

The Chinese zodiac has a significant relation to its culture. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac and the year you were born determines which animal sign you are. Each animal has certain personalities and characteristics that can have an influence on attitudes and relationships with others. For my semester project, I started building Chinese zodiac boxes and finding ways to make the interior of the box more intriguing...still experimenting with this. The exterior of the box includes the animal face, the Chinese character for that animal, the years for the animal sign, and the tail of the animal (if any) is included at the back of the box. I tried to put in as much of the features of the animal on the boxes for recognition.

Chinese zodiac design experiments part 2 Wednesday, October 26, 2011

After talking about my zodiac animals with my professors, they had mentioned that maybe I should think about incorporating more Canadian style to them…perhaps adding another box to hold the boxes, or how the exterior of the box can be more ‘western-style’ and the interior of the box to be more ‘eastern-style’. After thinking about these suggestions, an idea came to mind this morning–include an additional exterior transparent box that displays the animal wearing Canadian clothing–such as a toque (knit-winter-hat), scarf, mittens as some examples. I was anxious to try out this idea.

lion dance with beaver Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I was experimenting with combining Chinese and Canadian cultures into my designs, and thought about how it would look if a beaver (another iconic symbol of Canada) was watching a lion dance, my first attempt: beaver watching a lion dance (right).

For my Art Criticism and Theory class, I decided to research and talk about the development of graphic design in China, particularly the influence of eastern and western artistic styles and traditions on design. I have always had trouble defining what graphic design is, whether it be describing it in Cantonese or in English. From my research, graphic design is still a fairly new term that is being defined in China. Designers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai, and other areas of China are still trying to identify their own styles with international and local influences. I gave a presentation on my research of the development of graphic design across China from the 1930s to present time, focusing on the design work of influential graphic designers during these periods. I have to mention that I had trouble finding information regarding Chinese graphic design until I came across a few articles written by Dr. Wendy Siuyi Wong. Her articles contains valuable and informative information regarding influential Chinese graphic designers, the atmosphere of the population across different periods, Chinese design and Western design, integration of Eastern and Western influences, and so many useful additional resources and information to investigate from her bibliographies. These two articles were particularly inspiring when working through my research:

Design Identity of Hong Kong: Colonization, de-colonization, and re-colonization, by Wendy Siuyi Wong and In Search of a New Graphic Design Frontier in China: Establishing the ‚“Chinese-ness” of International Style, by Wendy Siuyi Wong I went through my presentation briefly going through the periods of graphic design development: 1930s-1949: Beginnings and development of Chinese graphic design--Shanghai style 1960s: Exposure of Hong Kong design to China; Cross-cultural designers: Henry Steiner, Kan Tai-keung, Alan Chan, Wang Xu

Chinese zodiac experiment set 01

1970s: Flourish of Hong Kong design and education 1980s: Design exploration of local Hong Kong designers 1990s: Increase in design competitions (thematic poster design competitions) promote graphic design across China; Designers Wang Yuefei, Chen Shaohua 2000s: Influence of local and international design styles

Chinese zodiac experiment set 02

I found the different design styles of integrating the Eastern and Western design elements fascinating. I’m currently working on my own research project where I’m integrating different cultural designs together. The designers mentioned above are just a few of the many inspiring designers that seek to fuse Eastern and Western design, and these designers continue to educate, inform, and advocate the design movement not only in areas of China but internationally. Other resources I looked at for graphic design in China: China Design Now Edited by Zhang Hongxing and Lauren Parker 3030 New Graphic Design In China Edited by Javin Mo Design Identity of Hong Kong: Colonization, de-colonization, and re-colonization, by Wendy Siuyi Wong In Search of a New Graphic Design Frontier in China: Establishing the “Chinese-ness” of International Style, by Wendy Siuyi Wong Losing In Translation 2: Graphic Design in Hong Kong and the Peoples Republic of China, by Catherine Jo Ishino New Graphic Design in China, by Verena of PingMag

Chinese zodiac experiment set 02 (side and back views)

Sheep design template unfolded

Assembling the templates to create a mock-up of a sheep wearig Canadian accessories

MFA midterm critique Thursday, November 03, 2011

Chinese lattice design experiments: Part 1 Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Today was my first MFA midterm critique. In this critique, we are to show the progress in our work, completed pieces of work, and talk about our research and reasons to our thought processes, decision-making, and solutions. Questions are asked from faculty as well as fellow peers. I enjoyed this critique session because I got to see what my fellow colleagues are doing in their particular areas (eg. film/ video, printmaking, glass), and also students in different years of the program (there were seven of us presenting today). I was nervous at presenting my project; I had my presentation written out and thought about how to present the work and what to say, but when it came to my turn to present, I didn’t use the prepared materials and went straight into describing the work, instead of the background on my process and development of ideas (I was thinking that I would run out of time, we only had 20 minutes in total to present). I don’t think I did a good job at presenting my work or speaking about it, stumbled on a few questions that were asked, and I think I rambled on some (if not all) of my answers and explanations. I think it was a good experience for me to present more of my work and try to improve my vocabulary and technique to presenting my work more clearly and more ‘uncomplicatedly’ (I felt that I got some blank stares at times, probably because of my rambling). Sometimes I tend to over-complicate situations, when I should just focus on the specifics and go from there. I got a lot of good feedback from this session. People were asking why I used the circle in the illustrations, where the posters and media would be hung, and also commented on the use of more Canadian icons. Still a work in progress, and more refinements need to be put in place to continue the concept of integrating Chinese and Canadian cultures.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I went through some of my research again and came across Pattern Sourcebook: Chinese Style: 250 Patterns for Projects and Designs, by Shigeki Nakamura, and looked through some Chinese lattice design patterns. I decided to just free form and attempt to create a lattice-like pattern. My results are not equally geometric on all sides, as I decided to experiment with added English text in the pattern. Below are my results:

lattice design experiment: ‘happy new year’

lattice design experiment using dotted lines

lattice design experiment using solid fills

book talk: Cross-Cultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace Cross-Cultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace, by Henry Steiner and Ken Haas, provide inspiring examples of cultural design projects. Henry Steiner mentions (from page 2 and page 10) that cross-cultural design requires an image to be “transformed” and “redefined”; taking cultural imagery and icons and transforming them to be something personal

(Resource: Steiner, Henry, and Ken Haas. CrossCultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1995. Print.) I think a lot of Henry Steiner’s design work reflect a clever interplay of imagery, typography, and ideas of different cultures.

book talk: Chinese contemporary art Monday, November 28, 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Chinese contemporary art has expanded into various forms and media—work that has integrated its traditional arts and some works are completely different and drawing influences from other cultures. Below are some books that display a wide range of Chinese contemporary art:

MAPLE LEAVES

After comments that my initial posters seem to be missing a Canadian side, I went through a few more experiments with trying to make a connection with Canadian and Chinese楓葉梅花 cultures. I thought about maple leaf trees, types of birds in Canada, and made a few drafts: PLUM BLOSSOMS

There are also a variety of other cross-cultural design work featured by other designers from different countries, such as, Helmut Schmid (Japan), Michael Peters (England), Pentagram (London), Bruno Oldani (Norway), Clement Mok (United States), Eiko Ishioka (Japan), Milton Glaser (United States), and Saul Bass (United States) are just a few of the designers from the list. This is a great book for those who are interested in learning more about cross-cultural design or how design is approached when designing across cultures.

Chinese cultural icons: Plum blossoms part 2

China Onward: The Estella Collection: Chinese Contemporary Art, 1966-2006, Britta Erickson (Author), Michael Juul Holm (Editor), Christine Barberi (Editor), Anders Kold (Editor), Poul Erik Tøjner (Foreword), Hou Hanru (Contributor) is a vast collection of artists that are influenced from traditional forms to more experimental installations. Gu Gan’s calligraphic works focus on how aesthetics is connected with an idea rather than large amounts of text. Huang Yan works with a variety of media, some of his notable works include Chinese Landscapes, where traditional Chinese landscapes are painted using the human body as a canvas.

Chinese cultural icons series: Dragon Thursday, November 10, 2011 Integrating maple leaves with plum blossoms LUCKY POSTER SERIES

It seems slightly awkward of the composition of the maple leaves with the plum blossoms. Perhaps just a few maple leaves will help to clean up the negative space and have the same impact. CANADIAN BLUE JAYS ON PLUM BLOSSOMS

Continuing on the series of pixel-circle illustrations. There are auspicious powers represented by the Chinese dragon, and it symbolizes luck, power, and strength. During Chinese New Year, the Chinese dragon dance is performed to bring good luck and fortune. A few more notes on Chinese dragons: they have 117 scales (81 yang essence represent positive and 36 yin essence represent negative); 5 toes/claws; blue/green/azure (blue-cyan color, RBG: (0, 127, 255)) dragons represent sign of Spring—different colored dragons have different meanings.

Steller’s Jay birds relaxing on plum blossom branches

Maybe there is too much contrast with the silhouette blue jays on the circle-pixel plum blossom illustration. The blue jays are also wearing scarves, which can contradict the meaning portrayed by the plum blossoms–beginning of Spring when the weather gets warmer. The Stellar’s Jay is said to be British Columbia’s official bird. Should try just an outline of the bird or place on separate transparency layer sheet.

New China, New Art, by Richard Vine details Chinese contemporary art in areas of painting, sculpture, installation, performance, photography, and video. Huang Yan is also featured in this book, along with others including Xu Bing, Ai Weiwei, Miao Xiaochun (just to name a few). Many of the art pieces featured have a “shock” value and a quite a radical change from the traditional arts; a great resource for learning more about the artists and their experiences as well. Avatars and Antiheroes: A Guide to Contemporary Chinese Artists, by Claudia Albertini features a variety of Chinese artists and their art forms. The book features some work that is experimental, and uses a variety of media and settings. Some are of works of art that are set in public places and many are of installations, and it didn’t seem that any of the art featured had the ‘traditional’ arts. It is an insightful look at Chinese contemporary art and enlightening information regarding the artists’ works and influences.

Personal Starting the

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

F.T. Marinetti’s The Futurist Manifesto has initiated and influenced many to think about their own ideals. In the AIGA article Manifesto Mania, authors Ellen Lupton and Julia Lupton state a manifesto “communicates directly, it is broken into functional parts, and it has elements of poetry and surprise.” Designer Bruce Mau has written an Incomplete Manifesto for Growth that is followed by his design team. Inspired by Bruce Mau’s manifesto style format, I’ve attempted to start my personal design manifesto. The writing seems inconsistent in that I’ve written some content in the first person and some more similar to directives, but it’s a start and it will be continually revisited and revised.

// look at everything Design is everywhere! Whether it’s the tea bag sweltering in a cup or the gum wrapper just unraveled, there are inspiring, and perhaps some not so inspiring, examples to learn from.

// over-analyze Anaylze, and then re-analyze. The details of the design project need to be analyzed in order to understand the issues and dissect the elements that can contribute to potential solutions.

Design // ask questions

// brainstorm

It may seem intimating to ask questions that may have obvious answers—but most of the time people welcome questions (I think). Asking questions helps to clarify the thought process and hearing responses contributes to the organization of ideas. Not only ask others, but also ask yourself questions to investigate the reasons to why something is the way it is. Be enlightened and be curious.

The first step I go through in starting a design project. This involves different brainstorming techniques, such as mind mapping and sprinting. Relations and ideas evolve during brainstorming exercises.

// give and welcome critique It is always appreciated to receive feedback on work, but also welcome the opportunity to provide critique to others. It’s harder to give feedback than to receive, as the vocabulary needs to be carefully selected to express the intention and the response formulated in a manner that can be understood.

// revise, experiment, test and repeat It’s all part of the design process. Revise sketches, roughs, and concepts. Experiment with potential solutions in varying environments and associated elements. Test all viable solutions. Repeat all above steps until satisfied.

// never-ending research There is constant research involved in working on a design project. The more information acquired, the greater the number of potential methods and solutions that could be created.

// take breaks My mind can be stuck on a particular idea that can isolate other ideas from developing. Or, it could be that my mind is just exhausted. Taking breaks (usually involves a cup of hot green tea) helps me to re-energize and focus on the issues.

// have fun If I’m not having fun and enjoy creating the design solutions, I probably won’t produce a memorable experience.

Manifesto // continuous learning

// use geometric shapes

Can never finish learning with the infinite amount of design resources, articles, techniques, skills, software tips, advice, critique…and the more knowledge gained, the greater the improvement and concept development. The knowledge acquired doesn’t have to be design-related, often times it’s not—it’s how the information contributes to the on-going design process.

I enjoy designing with geometric shapes and discovering their relationships with other shapes and graphical elements. Sometimes starting to sketch with different shapes can help initiate logo or symbolic concepts.

// keep design to simple forms Less is more. Some of the most influential and engaging designs are those that express a message without overcrowding information on a page. It is often challenging to take away competing graphical elements and still maintain the intended message. Don’t be afraid to love negative space.

// try a different style Sometimes I try to adapt a design style or aesthetic that I don’t commonly use—and often come up with surprising results. There’s numerous ways to lay out and arrange text and graphical elements on a page, sometimes I just have to execute the plan quickly and forget about my design tendencies.

// stay organized Throughout the numerous activities involved a design project, keeping related materials, research and sketches together in a common place can prove valuable when you need to refer back to them for ideas and inspiration.

// typographic follower It’s sometimes difficult to select a typeface for a project. Continually observing and exploring a variety of typefaces will gradually make it easier to select an appropriate typeface for a design project.

version 1.0

// color user Having an understanding of color theory and color psychology contributes to the expression and emotions evoked in a design project. Colors have diverse meanings in different cultures that can affect how your message is communicated.

// paper enthusiast I enjoy looking at and investigating the varied qualities of paper stock. The texture, color, shine, transparency, appearance and weight characteristics of paper can contribute positively to the final product design.

// cultural seeker Looking at design from different cultures is inspiring and contribute to different techniques of approaching design. My design inspirations are drawn heavily from typography, illustrations, packaging and product designs from Chinese, Japanese, and European cultures.

luck prosperity

much

and much

MARKETING GOALS • • •

Increase participation and interest of the Chinese New Year festival. Motivate further research on Chinese culture, festivals, and traditions. Obtain general understanding of common Chinese New Year symbols and language.

To create a design promotional system that encourages Canadians of Chinese ethnicity to understand their heritage culture and language. Chinese New Year, one of the most celebrated Chinese holidays, will be the focus on conveying ideas and concepts related to Chinese tradition and culture.

BACKGROUND Canada contains the second largest population of Chinese people outside of Asia. Canadians of Chinese descent, known as Chinese Canadians, total approximately four percent of the Canadian population and reside mostly in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Canadian). Although Chinese traditions and culture are still practiced and studied richly by Chinese Canadians, there is concern for the younger generations. There is a decline in understanding and practice of Chinese traditions, culture, and language for individuals born in Canadian and is of Chinese ethnicityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;this group is sometimes referred to as CBCs (Canadian-Born Chinese). While fully immersed in Canadian culture and language, is there a need for CBCs to learn and carry on their heritage traditions?

Some older generations will encourage youth to learn more about their ethnic roots because of their concern for communication. Some Canadian-born individuals are not able to communicate with their family members or relatives in the Chinese language. Some of these individuals may be able to understand Chinese but have trouble speaking and communicating the language because of limited usage and practice in their environment.

TARGET AUDIENCE The target audience includes second generation individuals born in Canada and of Chinese ethnicity, aged 13 to 30, mostly students, who want to gain more knowledge in Chinese culture. The promotional material is intended for individuals who are Canadian and of Chinese descent residing in Canada who want to learn more about Chinese New Year.

OBJECTIVES The design deliverables will promote awareness of the decline of Chinese culture and traditions, aspire to improve the opportunities to practice their ethnic culture, and encourage greater understanding of the Chinese language.

DELIVERABLES Deliverables will mostly be placed in highly populated areas of public areas, such as the city center, public transportation areas, shopping areas, public libraries, and educational institutions. The following deliverable includes a book that discusses the promotional display: lattice design architecture, Chinese dragon illustration with Chinese New Year icons, and other related Canadian and Chinese cultural symbols

TIMELINE This project is expected to be completed by December 12th, 2011.

concept proposal for lattice architecture display

DESCENT OF THE CANADIAN-CHINESE DRAGON

FRONT VIEW

metallic gold background (not visible on straight-on side view)

front lattice design architecture (not visible on straight-on side view)

metallic gold background (not visible on straight-on side view)

Chinese dragon glass structure

metallic gold background

lattice design architecture (3 sides) SIDE1 FRONTAL VIEW: Maple leaf entry way (side view of Chinese dragon glass structure visible)

SIDE2 FRONTAL VIEW: Maple leaf entry way (side view of Chinese dragon glass structure visible)

TOP VIEW: Top views of promotional display

Lucky bamboo (also called Fortune bamboo) represents prosperity, fortune and happiness, and also used for fengshui purposes. Bamboo also symbolizes love and abundance, and is considered lucky as it is a strong plant that can grow in many conditions, and is often planted in rocks and water.

The Chinese red lantern, a symbol of brightness, happiness, and reunion, is often seen hung during festivals and celebrations. Its red glow presence arouses good luck in the atmosphere, family reunion, and the spreading of hope and happiness for the new year.

The research and design concepts were compiled into a publication. The cover displays the proposed latticed design architecture with the Canadian maple leaf integrated into the design. Chinese characters on the cover translates to â&#x20AC;&#x153;Much Luck and Much Prosperity,â&#x20AC;? a common greeting to wish family and friends. Common Chinese New Year symbols are presented in their circle-pixel format along with their descriptions. Details and plans of the proposed promotional structure of the illuminated Chinese dragon and lattice design architecture are presented. Much Luck and Much Prosperity publication

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 project brief 大吉大利

MUCH LUCK AND MUCH PROSPERITY

1.1 Background 1.2 Target Audience 1.3 Objectives 1.4 Deliverables 1.5 Marketing Goals 1.6 Timeline

2.0 promotional display 2.1 Overview of Display 2.2 Lattice Design Architecture 2.3 Illuminated Chinese Dragon 2.4 Metallic Gold Backdrop

3.0 resources 3.1 recommended books 3.2 recommended materials 3.3 additional resources

Much Luck and Much Prosperity publication: Table of Contents

much luck and much prosperity

1.5

Year 1: Spring 2012 Art 5000 – Supervised Teaching in Studio Art Art 5320 – Chinese Art & Architecture Research Paper: The development of Chinese graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s: Inspiration from European art and design Art 5355 – Research in Visual Communication Research Project: Arlington Transit (at) Identity System Art 5355 – Research in Visual Communication: Interactive Design

2.0

2.5

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3.0

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The second semester involved more in-depth research into learning about the history of Chinese graphic design and their influence from European art and design. Chinese graphic design progressed into a blend of traditional and foreign influences. Pioneer Chinese graphic designers were inspired by European artâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;specifically the use of geometric shapes, patterns, strong colors and styles from the areas of Art Nouveau, Cubism, Futurism, and Art Deco. A new branding identity system was developed for a potential transporation system in Arlington, Texas. This research project allowed the opportunity to discuss with other members of the University of Texas at Arlington to gather feedback on the potential demand for user ridership and current statistics regarding the current UT Arlington Mavs shuttle bus on campus. The development process for the logo and name of the transit project went through a series of revisions and details of the identity components are described in the Arlington Transit (at) identity style guide. The interactive design projects involved learning how to use Adobe Flash and ActionScript to create interactive elements and website of our choice of topic. Research regarding current interactive websites provided much inspiration to learning how to develop components such as user functionality, page layout and interface design, integration of audio, design principles, menu systems, wireframes, and website architecture. 47

one of our first assignments were to create a face using a circle as the boundary (left to right): Gladys, Kris, Beijing opera mask

Spring 2012: first week of classes and ID faces

ART 5355 – Research in VC: Interactive Design, and ART 5320 – Chinese Art & Architecture. I’ve just learned that my “assignment” in VC will be to research and brand the new Arlington Texas Transportation System. I’ve grown up most of my life relying on public transportation, and since moving to Arlington, TX it was a surprise to find out there wasn’t any–so I’m looking forward to further research into this subject. For Interactive Design (will be referred to occasionally as ‘ID’ in this blog), we’ll be focusing on

Adobe Flash and creating interactive websites. I haven’t used Adobe Flash for a while now–and found there to be quite a lot of new features and tools to be learned in Adobe Flash CS 5.5. As for the Chinese Art & Architecture class, I’ll be researching on Chinese graphic design– how eastern and western influences have affected the development of graphic design in China. Started this week re-learning Adobe Flash tools, our first assignment was to draw our faces, contained in a circle (see above).

Poster display at ACES 2012

Close-up of poster display

I got to my board display the specifications was the size of the entire board, but the board had about 2” border over the cork area, so my form board background overhung a little bit. After quite a few thumb tacks and T-pins, with some rearranging, it was up. I realized that I really need long nails in order for the transparencies to have enough space between them. I think because there was not enough space between the layers, the portrayal and effect of these two components were lost. Below is the abstract and some photos from the event. — Abstract Title: Inspiring Cultural Awareness in Canadian-Born Chinese

Chinese New Year icons shown on poster display

Red envelopes and promotional display details

I was selected for an opportunity, among many other students in different disciplines, to present current research at the Annual Celebration of Excellence by Students (ACES) symposium at UT Arlington. This initial process involved writing an abstract of no more than 150 words describing the purpose, significance, and results of your research. If accepted, there is a option of

presenting a poster of your research, or preparing an oral presentation of your research to a committee of judges. I chose the poster option, because I envisioned more of an interactive experience with the promotional display I’ve been working on since the Fall semester. Judging of the posters was from 1:00pm – 2:30pm. I cut my boards to the size specified, but once

Friday, January 20, 2012

IIt’s back to classes after the winter break, and I’m excited to start the new semester. It’s going to be another challenging semester, with classes, research, papers, assisting in classes, and client projects. The first week went off to a quick start. This semester, I’m taking ART 5355 – Research in VC: Visual Communication,

Poster presentation at 2012 ACES Friday, March 30, 2012

Although surrounded by influences from both the Canadian and Chinese cultures, individuals that are born in Canada and are of Chinese ethnicity, referred to as CBCs (Canadian-Born Chinese), show a decline in the understanding and practice of Chinese traditions, culture, and language. The purpose of this study is to create design deliverables to promote awareness of the decline of Chinese culture and traditions, as well as to inspire the CBC youth to practice

their heritage language and deepen their heritage cultural understanding. Initial research related to the characteristics and upbringings of CBC youth were investigated to determine potential design aesthetics and considerations for the design deliverables in this study. To encourage involvement of CBC youth with Chinese culture, a promotional display that integrates the use of Chinese and Canadian aesthetics and iconography will be placed in a large indoor, high-traffic environment in Canada. The display focuses on the celebration of Chinese New Year, and consists of a lattice design architecture where the audience can view engraved Chinese New Year greetings in Chinese and English, and a glass Chinese dragon structure that is illuminated when the audience interacts with the Chinese New Year icons designed on the maple-leaf shaped dragon scales.

experimenting with the arrow directions to create the letterforms

ARLINGTON

Logo concepts for a potential COMMUNITY transit system: car,arc, at? RIDE

ARLINGTON RIDE ARLINGTON COMMUNITY RIDE

COMMUNITY

ARLINGTON

While the results of this study are unknown, the significance of this display provides an educational and cultural opportunity for CBC youth to interact with their heritage culture and promote understanding of language and traditions to overcome potential communication and situational challenges they may encounter in a culturally diverse environment. It was a valuable experience to talk with visitors, other presenters, and judges. Their comments and questions were insightful on how improvements can be made and how the research can be expanded.

logo experimentations

RIDE ARLINGTON

COMMUNITY

RIDE COMMUNITY

ARLINGTON TRANSIT

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

COMMUN

SCHOOL

HOME

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

logo experimentations

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

COMMU

COMMUNITY ARLINGTON RIDE

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

I’ve been developing the branding for a ARLINGTON potential transit system for the UT Arlington RIDE population as part of my researchCOMMUNITY project. Been exploring with three names: arc (Arlington Ride Community); car (Community Arlington Ride); and at (Arlington Transit).

ARLINGT

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

ARLINGTO

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

ARLINGTON

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

RIDE

ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY

ARLINGTON

ARLING

ARLINGTON TRANSIT

RIDE

logo experimentations with potential transit names

COMMUNITY

visual experiment with logo on dark background ARLINGTON RIDE COMMUNITY

experimenting with the name ‘car’

Taking the interactive design class as a component in visual communication research has been challenging and has forced me to utilize not only design principles but also understand the process of creating interactive components, interface functionality, and user experience. The projects created required utilizing the functionality of Adobe Flash, ActionScript, as well as other design software and technologies. Faculty mentor: Professor Seiji Ikeda

Right: a short interactive piece created using Adobe Flash and ActionScript; when the weather icons on the left are clicked, the face changes color and moves up the thermometer to the estimated temperature

Left: an interactive component created to introduce a designer’s website; the red bars with cropped Chinese characters initially drop down to the stems of the roman letters, then the red bars merge closer together to the right to form the Chinese characters meaning ‘design’ Left: some of the ActionScript 3.0 code for moving the elements on the interactive piece below

import flash.events.MouseEvent; //Stop the movie stop(); //Add Listeners for each button cloud_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_snow_cloud); sun_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_snow_sun); //Function for button clicks //snow-cloud function moveFace_snow_cloud(e:MouseEvent):void { gotoAndPlay(“snow-cloud”); } //snow-sun function moveFace_snow_sun(e:MouseEvent):void { gotoAndPlay(“snow-sun”); } //cloud-snow function moveFace_cloud_snow(e:MouseEvent):void { gotoAndPlay(“cloud-snow”); } //cloud-sun function moveFace_cloud_sun(e:MouseEvent):void { gotoAndPlay(“cloud-sun”); } //sun-snow function moveFace_sun_snow(e:MouseEvent):void { gotoAndPlay(“sun-snow”); } //sun-cloud function moveFace_sun_cloud(e:MouseEvent):void { gotoAndPlay(“sun-cloud”); } function removeAllListeners():void { snow_btn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_cloud_snow); snow_btn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_sun_snow); cloud_btn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_snow_cloud); cloud_btn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_sun_cloud); sun_btn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_snow_sun); sun_btn.removeEventListener(MouseEvent. CLICK, moveFace_cloud_sun); }

interactive design

Sketch diagram for exhibition display Thursday, May 03, 2012

Currently preparing work for the MFA summer exhibition. Below is a sketch diagram for sizing of materials for my Fall 2012 project, “Inspiring cultural awareness in Canadian-Born Chinese.” I realized that the diagram is missing the Chinese dragon structure in the middle of the diagram. The size of this structure will be 29.W x 11.H (size of actual artwork will be 21.W x 8.H), need to account for walking space beside the side lattice designs. intial sketch diagram for Summer 2012 MFA Exhibition piece

bus design rough drafts Sunday, May 06, 2012

Continuing with my Spring 2012 research project, and was figuring out how the exterior of the bus would look like, some examples on right: I experimented with bright shades of blue and orange for visibility and sense of playfulness, with the exception of design that uses the UT Arlington primary color palette. A good site to look at sample bus exterior and interior components is on the UK’s leading coach and bus manufacturer, Alexander Dennis Ltd. The specifications of the Alexander Dennis Ltd. model Enviro200 was helpful in its details and diagrams of the exterior and interior of the bus.

summer 2012 exhibition: prototype promotional display Monday, May 14, 2012

Last week I was putting together the prototype display for a project I was focused on during the 2011 Fall semester. It’s my first time working with large sizes of plexiglass, fortunately I had help cutting the plexiglass pieces. Did some experimentations on methods to place the transparency behind the plexiglass, such as double-sided tape, transparent glue, but it seemed that either method still left a small opaque area between the transparency and the glass. So, I’ve decided that maybe sandwiching the transparency between two pieces of plexiglass may work.

summer 2012 exhibition: prototype promotional display May 14, 2012

Last week I was putting together the prototype display for a project I was focused on during the 2011 Fall semester. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my first time working with large sizes of plexiglass, fortunately I had help cutting the plexiglass pieces. Did some experimentations on methods to place the transparency behind the plexiglass, such as double-sided tape, transparent glue, but it seemed that either method still left a small opaque area between the transparency and the glass. So, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve decided that maybe sandwiching the transparency between two pieces of plexiglass may work.

starting to cut the transparency

testing the transparency against the plexiglass

sides are glued on and using drafting tape to hold the pieces together in the drying process

all pieces glued on so far; structure to dry overnight left: resource credit to Alexander Dennis Limited, the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading bus and coach manufacturer for reference on bus models and exterior and interior bus templates http://www.alexander-dennis.com/

2012 summer exhibition: logo exploration Monday, May 21, 2012

One of the pieces for the 2012 summer exhibition is a poster that documented 115 logo explorations for a potential transportation system for Arlington, Texas. The poster size is 24â&#x20AC;?x56â&#x20AC;?, with the order of logos flowing from the top left and downwards on each column. logo exploration for a potential transit system

2012 summer exhibition: prototype display Monday, May 21, 2012

Finished the last touches on my prototype display for Inspiring cultural awareness in Canadian-Born Chinese. Display includes a book that describes in detail the components of the display, and also common Chinese New Year icons on a 3x3 grid with a diagram of the proposed display. I think I should have placed the transparency icons out further, because looking straight on the reflection builds a sort of repeated pattern/double image that may cause some eye strain. It was my first time installing my work, so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned a lot of tips to improve for the next opportunity. prototype display for Inspiring cultural awareness in Canadian-Born Chinese

looking slightly from the top of display

closer look at the transparency icons

close up of person model next to dragon display

The influence of European art movements in the early 20th century had an impact on the development of Chinese graphic design. During this period, the occupation of graphic designer was not clearly defined, as Chinese designers usually encompassed a variety of artistic skills that drew from traditional arts such as calligraphy, ink paintings, folk art, woodblock prints, pottery and sculpture. Professor, author and scholar on Chinese visual culture, Wendy Wong, notes the development of modern design in China started in the 1920s and 1930s in Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan city in China during this time. Shanghai, a popular destination for foreign businesses and settlements, had developed a particular artistic style, referred to as the “Shanghai Style”, that integrated design elements from Chinese and European influences. Pioneer Chinese graphic designers were inspired by European art – specifically the use of geometric shapes, patterns, strong colors and styles from the areas of Art Nouveau, Cubism, Futurism, and Art Deco. Prominent Chinese graphic designers in the 20th century emphasized the integration of traditional art forms with foreign influences to convey the features of modern design. This paper investigates European influences on the development of Chinese graphic design, particularly design related to publication covers, posters, and advertisements in the 1920s and 1930s.

Abstract written for research paper: The development of Chinese graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s: Inspiration from European art and design Paper by Gladys Chow Faculty mentor: Dr. Melia Belli

Hollis, Richard. Graphic Design: A Concise History. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Bibliography for research paper: The development of Chinese graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s: Inspiration from European art and design

Minick, Scott, and Jiao Ping. Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Pan, Lynn. Shanghai Style: Art and Design Between the Wars. San Francisco: Long River Press, 2008. Wang, Shou Zhi. “Chinese Modern Design: A Retrospective,” Design Issues 6 (1989): 49-78. Wong, Wendy S. “Detachment and Unification: A Chinese Graphic Design History in Greater China Since 1979,” Design Issues 17 (2001): 51-71.

Graphic design involves the creation and composition of imagery, illustrations, graphic elements and/or typography to visually communicate an idea or message. Designers often consider a variety of design principles when creating a design. One of these design principles is balance, which involves analyzing various relationships of graphical and typographic elements on a specific medium. For example, when looking at a publication page spread, the integration of color, space, typographic treatment, and contrast, are some elements designers utilize carefully to create a sense of balance on the page. Balance also has an integral role in Chinese art and design. The fundamentals of Chinese art relates to the balance, completeness, and ‘qi’ (spirit) that is conveyed in the work. Attaining harmony and balancing opposing complementary forces as in the yin and yang principle, are fundamental concepts in the ‘discipline of Chinese design’ (Minick and Ping, 11).

Excerpt taken from research paper: The development of Chinese graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s: Inspiration from European art and design Paper by Gladys Chow

Attaining harmony and balancing opposing complementary forces as in the yin and yang principle, are fundamental concepts in the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;discipline of Chinese designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. -Scott Minick and Jiao Ping

Excerpt (conclusion) taken from research paper: The development of Chinese graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s: Inspiration from European art and design Paper by Gladys Chow

Chinese graphic design in the 1920s and 1930s was transformed due to the European influences. Pioneer Chinese graphic designers included Lu Xun, Tao Yuanqing, Qian Juntao and Chen Zhifo encouraged the development of modern design by emphasizing the integration of Chinese cultural motifs with western aesthetics. The works of these graphic designers, along with other examples described in this paper, largely drew inspiration from the Art Deco stylization. During the 1920s and 1930s, publication covers, advertisements and Chinese typography experienced dramatic stylistic changes that further confirm the significant impact of European influences on the development of Chinese graphic design.

identity

system MARKETING GOALS â&#x20AC;˘

â&#x20AC;˘

Increase participation and interest of implementing a public transportation system for the UT Arlington population. Encourage ridership and communicate the advantages of a public transportation system for the UT Arlington population.

To propose, create, and brand a new transportation identity system for UT Arlington population to travel to and outside of the UT Arlington campus.

BACKGROUND

TARGET AUDIENCE

DELIVERABLES

While neighboring cities such as Fort Worth and Dallas have transit systems in operation, Arlington residents have relied on their vehicles to get around town; this has been especially difficult and inconvenient for residents who do not have their own vehicles or cannot drive. With the rising UT Arlington student population and development in the city of Arlington, the UT Arlington population would benefit from a transportation system that would provide a convenient and economical method for people to travel around the UT Arlington community and to popular areas in the city.

The target audience for this project brief is the UT Arlington population, specifically students, faculty and staff. A transportation system for the UT Arlington population would provide an alternative method to go to travel to campus and around the city of Arlington, contribute to environmental sustainability measures, aid in potential reduction in stress or frustration levels from high-traffic congestion and parking, connect to and explore popular entertainment venues, as well as potentially serving as a connection to nearby cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.

The following deliverables include:

OBJECTIVES

TIMELINE

Develop design deliverables to encourage and promote ridership in the UT Arlington Transportation System. The design of the new identity system will integrate graphic and typographic elements that will be noticeable and eye-catching to UT Arlington’s population.

This project is expected to be completed by May 11, 2012.

two color: PMS 137C and PMS 144C vertical display

• • •

• •

A logo for the transit system. The exterior and interior design of the bus identity system. The design of the bus station seating and signage. Graphic components will have a unified style and consistency. Design of promotional items to encourage transit ridership (eg. lanyard, t-shirt). A branding style guide the outlines the details of the design deliverables.

two color: PMS 137C and PMS 144C horizontal display

ARLINGTON TRANSIT two color: pms 1325C and pms 1335c horizontal display two color: PMS 3125C and PMS 3135C vertical display Details of the Arlington Transit identity mark. It can be used in vertical or horizontal display, with mark only, logotype only, or mark and logoype together. Since the UT Arlington population is also identified by a blue color, a secondary color of the display of the logo is available in the PMS 3125C and PMS 3135C

Concept design for bus station signage. The at bus waiting station applies the ‘t’ from the at logo as a bench. The lower part of the ‘t’ is used as a storage area for backpacks, books, or other items. The glass exterior is of alternating color pattern to replicate the pattern of the at logo mark. The ‘a’ functions as a bike rack where users are welcome to lock their bikes.

TISNART N OTGNILRA

ARLING TON TR ANSIT

Bus stop design for potential transit system, at (Arlington Transit). Each glass panel is of a different color shade.

Concept design for bus station signage. The alternating color structure of the at bus station stop corresponds to the same color palette as the logo mark. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;atâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; logo is placed on the top of the structure, in front of a white opague glass board to prevent seeing the reversal shape of the logo mark from the other side. Below the at logo mark is the station name. Directions to nearby facilities and areas are below. There is also a touch screen display where the user can view the bus schedules, routes, and current location of the bus.

at identity system

SIT

TRAN

GTON

ARLIN

ARLINGTON TRANSIT

To promote Arlington Transit and encourage ridership of the transit system, initial t-shirt design concepts were developed. Designs take elements similar to those of the initial bus exterior designs.

ARLINGTON TRANSIT

SIT

AR LI

To promote Arlington Transit and encourage ridership of the transit system, initial lanyard design concepts with a 1GB USB flash drive were designed. Designs take elements similar to those of the initial bus exterior designs. The USB flash drive is in the shape of a bus, with the cap as the head of the bus and a small hook at the back to attach it to the lanyard.

N G TO N TR A NS IT

N TO G N

N RA

side view

side view with open cap ARLINGTON TRANSIT

ARLINGTON TRANSIT

be where it’s

The design of this lanyard correlates to the alternating pattern of the at logo mark. The USB flash drive is has a similiar pattern and is available in the blue or orange identity group color palettes.

top view bottom view

OR W

AR LIN G TO N

HO SC

SIT

TR AN

HOME

SCHOOL

WORK

HOME

SCHOOL

WORK

HOME

SCHOOL

WORK

HOME

SCHOOL

WORK

ARLINGTON TRANSIT

side view

side view with open cap top view bottom view

at identity system

H M O E SCH OOL WO RK

1.5

Year 2: Fall 2012 Art 5000: Supervised Teaching in Studio Art Art 5320: Art Criticism and Theory, History of Graphic Design Research Paper: The influence of modernism on Japanese graphic design in the early 20th century Research Paper: Analyzing the cross-cultural design methodology of Henry Steiner: Integration of eastern and western aesthetics Art 5655: Research in Visual Communication Research Project: Cultural Infusion

2.0

2.5

2.75

3.0

3.5

The second year of the MFA program I continued to research further into the analysis of cross-cultural designs. There were many questions that I wanted to discover, such as: How are designs influenced by culture? How does culture affect design? What is cross-cultural design? How are eastern and western aesthetics integrated into a design? I went through a series of experimentations involving Chinese traditional practices with western aesthetics and techniquesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;such as using a Chinese calligraphy brush to write roman characters. I also experimented with typography, combining Chinese characters with roman letterforms. I continued on with researching Chinese symbols and their cultural significance. From these explorations, a poster series was created using modern design software to depict traditional Chinese symbols and their meanings. Henry Steiner, an influential cross-cultural designer and referred to as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Father of Hong Kong Designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, has had an invaluable impact on how I viewed cross-cultural designs. I have not seen his work since my studies at the MFA program, and his designs and processes had widened my approach to creating designs that combined eastern and western design principles and aesthetics.

Referred to as the ‘Father of Hong Kong Design’, Henry Steiner is one of the most influential designers that arrived in Hong Kong during the 1960s. He was born in Vienna, raised in New York, and educated at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) and Yale, where he studied under Paul Rand. Henry Steiner follows one significant principle that he learned from designer Paul Rand—that designs need to have contrast (Steiner & Haas, 2). Quoted from an interview (AIGA XCD), Steiner notes contrast could be:

Excerpt taken from research paper: Analyzing the cross-cultural design methodology of Henry Steiner: Integration of eastern and western aesthetics Paper by Gladys Chow Faculty mentor: Professor Lisa Graham

of ideas, contrast of visual “ contrast elements, obviously contrast of color, contrast of typography, style, size, et cetera… putting in things you know and you don’t know, that gives life to a design.

”

- Henry Steiner

Henry Steiner outlines three stages to the cross-cultural design process: quotation, mimicry and transformation (Steiner & Haas, 2). Quotation refers to analyzing foreign icons and visuals, and how they can be utilized in design. Mimicry looks at the influence of a particular style of an artist or school, trying to understand the process and methodology of certain influences. In transformation, the ‘influence’ is integrated into transforming something that is foreign to something that is personal and natural (Steiner & Haas, 2). Steiner also emphasizes that cross-cultural design should provide opportunities for the audience to develop connections, that “humor is welcome but wit is essential,” (Steiner & Haas, 5) and that a design is cross-cultural dependant on the context of the design and the designer’s attitude (Steiner & Haas, 7). In addition to following these stages, Steiner explains and applies the techniques of iconography, typography, symbolism, split imagery, and ideography in creating cross-cultural designs (Steiner & Haas, 6).

Excerpt taken from research paper: Analyzing the cross-cultural design methodology of Henry Steiner: Integration of eastern and western aesthetics Paper by Gladys Chow

References used for research paper: Analyzing the cross-cultural design methodology of Henry Steiner: Integration of eastern and western aesthetics

AIGA. “Henry Steiner: AIGA Fellow: Named by AIGA Cross-Cultural Design, 2007.” Accessed October 5, 2012. <http://www.aiga.org/fellow-henry-steiner/>. AIGA XCD. “Henry Steiner: AIGA Fellow’s Award Presentation,” YouTube video, 4:38. May 8, 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsoCpnoyEpU&feature=relmfu>. AIGA XCD. “Henry Steiner, A Leader in Cross Cultural Design: Part 2” YouTube video, 9:24. May 8, 2008. <http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=E00BeZukVcs&feature=relmfu>. AIGA XCD. “Henry Steiner, A Leader in Cross Cultural Design: Part 3.” YouTube video, 9:48. May 8, 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRmwqbhCyLw&feature=relmfu>. Steiner, Henry, and Ken Haas. Cross-Cultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1995. Steiner&Co. “Brand creation and strategy, Steiner&Co.” Accessed October 5, 2012. <http://www.steiner.hk>.

“

Turner, Matthew. “Early Modern Design in Hong Kong.” Design Issues 6 (1989): 79-91. Turner, Matthew. “Erastz Design: Interactions between Chinese and Western design in Hong Kong, 1950s-1960s.” PhD diss., Royal College of Art, London, 1993. Wang, Shou Zhi. “Chinese Modern Design: A Retrospective.” Design Issues, 6 (1989): 49-78. Wong, Wendy S. “Design Identity of Hong Kong: Colonization, De-colonization, and Re-colonization.” Paper presented at The 6th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, University of the Arts, Bremen, Germany, 2005. Wong, Wendy S. “In Search of a New Graphic Design Frontier in China: Establishing the Chinese-ness of International Style.” CDROM from the Journal of the Asian Design International Conference, Vol. 1: The 6th Asian Design International Conference Proceedings, Tsukuba: Asian Design International Conference, 2003.

When designing across cultures, it is important to keep in mind that it is not a question of right or wrong, better or worse. Chamelons reflect local color but retain their form. Ideally, designers are representative of their own culture yet adaptive to new surroundings. The goal is to achieve a harmonious juxtaposition; more of an interaction than a synthesis. The individual character of elements should be retained, each maintaining its own identity while also commenting on and enriching the other, like the balance of Yin and Yang.

”

- Henry Steiner 67

Design experimentations: Cultural infusion? Saturday, September 22, 2012

Started thinking about my 2012 fall research project, regarding cross-cultural designs. I was thinking about designs that influence audiences from various cultures. As I delve into understanding cross-cultural design, a series of questions come to mind:

What is cross-cultural design? How is design communicated effectively across multicultural audiences? How can the aesthetics of two cultures be brought together to create a cohesive design and strong message that can be understood by the audience? What is considered a cross-cultural design? How to approach creating a cross-cultural design? Who are cross-cultural designers? How can we improve cultural understanding?

Below: taking apart the strokes of the Chinese character for ‘joy’ and rearranging the strokes to spell out the English word; also altered the strokes of the Chinese character to represent a smile to visualize the meaning

Top: experimenting with Chinese and roman characters; replaced a letter in the English word with the respective Chinese character for the meaning of the English word Below: taking apart the strokes from the Chinese character for ‘design’ and using the strokes to form roman letterforms

Top: experimenting with lattice design lines to create roman letterforms Right: Chinese character for ‘joy’, experimenting with background patterns to represent the feeling of happiness and joy

Design agencies in China Sunday, September 23, 2012

My professor suggested that I look at current advertisements in Beijing to compare with advertisements here. I researched some of the design agencies in China and noticed that a lot of their work tailors to international clients, and many of the materials are bilingual. Some brochures although designed for a Chinese language audience, some of the headings/titles are in English followed with paragraphs of Chinese text. The design teams consisted of individuals of different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. Below are some design agencies in China with portfolios that showcase multi-cultural work: http://www.standards-group.com/ http://www.pekingdesign.com/en/about.html http://www.lemonademedia.com/ http://www.lanterndesign.com/index.php http://www.blank.sh/work/ http://www.chocolate-agency.com/

Chinese symbols: chrysanthemum illustration Tuesday, October 09, 2012

I’m continuing my research on symbols in Chinese culture, and experimented further with the blend tool in Adobe Illustrator. Chrysanthemum is a symbol of the autumn season, intellectual accomplishments, and when paired together with pine, represent longevity (reference: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, author: Patricia Bjaaland Welch). I‘ve experimented with different line qualities and point sizes.

Chinese calligraphy experiments Saturday, September 29, 2012

Chinese calligraphy takes several years, even decades to master. It has been a long time since I was instructed with some of the basics of Chinese calligraphy. I don’t know what the proper procedures and techniques are, but I decided to give it a try. I wanted to see how English typography looked written with a Chinese calligraphic brush. Trying to see if there were some discoveries or connections I could find towards cultural infusion...here are some experiments:

experimenting with the brush; Chinese character for eternity/forever

Top: chrysanthemum illustration, using the blend tool in Adobe Illustrator Below: close-up of lines

experimenting with using a calligraphic brush to write design

Top-01: chrysanthemum illustration with dashed lines Top-02: close-up of dashed lines Top-03: chrysanthemum illustration with dotted lines Top-04: close-up of dotted lines

Chinese symbols: bamboo illustration

Chinese symbols: mandarin duck illustration

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Friday, October 12, 2012

A popular symbol in China, bamboo represents strength, endurance, humility, and a pure heart; other representations from resource: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, author: Patricia Bjaaland Welch: bamboo + prunus (plum, apricot, other fruit tree blossom) = married couple and ‘double happiness of bamboo and plum’ bamboo + orchids = common artistic pairing bamboo + orchids + plum + chrysanthemum flowers = four seasons of the year bamboo has a homophone that means ‘wish, or to convey a wish, congratulate’ pairing bamboo with other flowers = ‘wishing you... (+ meaning of flowers)‘

Continuing with blending techniques in Adobe Illustrator. The mandarin duck is a symbol of romantic love in Chinese culture, and always come in a pair to represent dedication, fondness, marital faithfulness and endless romance.

using the blend tool in Adobe Illustrator to create an illustration of a pair of mandarin ducks

book talk: Chinese symbols Friday, October 12, 2012

Continuing my research on Chinese symbols, and looked through the resources below. Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch, provides extensive details and information regarding the meanings, pairings, and uses of Chinese symbols. The book contains 17 chapters on Chinese symbols along with numerous visuals. In A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought, by Wolfram Eberhard, symbols are explained and organized in alphabetical order. Explanation of symbols express history and origin, and also contain information on symbols that are less well known and also symbols that may not be commonly recognized as symbols (eg. copper, hair, games). In Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: A Comprehensive Handbook on Symbolism in Chinese Art Through the Ages by C.A.S. Williams, symbols are organized in alphabetical order and are explained with significance to history, folklore and culture. butterfly line experiment #1

experimenting with changing the strokes to dotted lines

applying the ‘multiply’ effect with opacity of 100% on certain lines in Adobe Illustrator

Chinese symbols: butterfly illustration Thursday, October 18, 2012

In Chinese culture, butterflies represent summer beauty, romance, and dreams. When accompanied by chrysanthemums, it represents a change in seasons; with bamboo it represents “wish” or “long life” to viewer to the viewer; 100 butterflies signify “100 blessings” (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch). butterfly line experiment #2

butterfly line experiment #3

Chinese symbols: lily illustration Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The lily means “adds up to 100” and its appearance enriches the blessing/wish to “100-fold”. Lilies symbolize life-long happy marriage, and also repel against evil spirits (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch).

Chinese symbols: crane illustration Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Cranes represent status and longevity, and often depicted in pairs and amidst pine. When a pine tree and crane are shown together in the spring, it implies the meaning ‚“grow old together remaining as young as spring“ this is commonly used in wedding designs as a wish for newlyweds (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch).

Chinese symbols: fish Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Fish is a homophone for ‘surplus, abundant’; carp has thesame sounds as ‘profit’ and also ‘power, strength, ability’ (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch). initial process of using the pen tool and blending options in Adobe Illustrator

winter (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch). When all flowers are on a vase, it represents ‘year-round peace’ as the homophone for ‘vase’ sounds the same as ‘peace’ in Chinese.

City of Arlington branding Sunday, November 11, 2012

At the beginning of the semester, the UT Arlington visual communication graduates were given a unique opportunity to develop potential taglines/slogans, and provide branding solutions, to the City of Arlington. Guided by our faculty mentor, Professor Robert Hower, we worked hard as a group, researching, taking, gathering photographs that represent Arlington, and also coming up with potential slogans as well as other branding solutions related to identity, way-finding signage, advertising, interactive/online solutions, t-shirts, and preparing all the research and materials to present to city representatives. We narrowed our slogans to the top three: Arlington (with ‘in’ highlighted); Something for everyone; Uncover the Culture.

Chinese symbols: lotus flower Thursday, November 01, 2012

The lotus symbolizes the summer season, as well as longevity, nobility, elegance, and the union of marriage (source:Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch). Below I’ve marked down my process for creating a lotus flower illustration in Adobe Illustrator using the blend tools.

Chinese symbols: the lotus flower, representingthe summer season

the Visual Communication grads at UT Arlington (left to right): Matt, Kevin, Maryam, Shaban, Josh, Gladys

City of Arlington Branding ConCepts

Tuesday, November 06, 2012 expanding the blended lines, experimenting with live paint in Adobe Illustrator

Thinking about how to integrate the existing Chinese symbol illustrations together, my professor suggested works that could be placed during the day and night, and then I thought the four seasons may be one method to portray the meaning of the illustrations. The four seasons is commonly depicted in Chinese art, and there are certain symbols to represent each season. The peony represents the spring; the lotus or iris represents summer; the chrysanthemum represents autumn; an the plum blossom represents

Presented by the visual communication graduate students, Art + Art History, The University of Texas at Arlington

first page of our presentation slide

ARL I NG TON ARLINGTON

TEXAS

ARLINGTON

TEXAS

identity

ARLINGTON

TEXAS

City of Arlington branding: design process withidentity Creating a new logomark

Sunday, November 11, 2012

POTENTIAL COLOR SCHEMES

The city of Arlington contains multiple signage and branding elements. As part of our presentation, I’ve experimented with some potential logomarks-looking at shapes, frames, the star, and typographic elements.

identity

LOgOMARk ExPERIMENTATIONS

relationship wit

ARLINGTON

TEXAS

in identity

arlington

Creating a new logomark

LOgOMARk ExPERIMENTATIONS

ARL I NG TON ARLINGTON

TEXAS

ARLINGTON

TEXAS

ARLINGTON

TEXAS

ARLINGTON

TEXAS

identity

logomarks deConstruCted

UT ARLINgTON

arlington

COwbOyS STAdIUM ARLINGTON

TEXAS

dOwNTOwN ARLINgTON

PARkS ANd RECREATION

ARLINgTON HIgHLANdS ARLINGTON

dOwNTOwN ARLINgTON

TEXAS

ARLINgTON HIgHLANdS

SHOPPINg ENTERTAINMENT

Chinese symbols: peony flowers Monday, November 12, 2012

Peonies represent royalty, rank, wealth, honor, and also the Spring season in Chinese culture. Also a symbol of female beauty, peonies are often depicted in large pink and red blossoms as motifs on pottery, scrolls, and in other decor (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch). Below are additional representations and combinations with the peony (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch): peonies + peacocks + lions = all represent status and nobility peonies + lotus flowers = glory and rank, power, wealth peonies + crab apple blossoms = expresses wish of one’s home be honored peony or tree peony (+ orchid) = spring, third month in Chinese lunar calendar

Chinese symbols: the four seasons Monday, November 12, 2012

The four seasons is a common theme depicted in Chinese art. I’ve started to put together my illustrations on Chinese symbols to represent a scene of a particular season. As noted in a previous post, there are certain flowers to represent a specific season: spring (peony); lotus (summer); chrysanthemum (autumn); and plum blossoms (winter).

MFA committee meeting Monday, November 12, 2012

Just finished a semester MFA committee meeting (this is the meeting before the MFA mid-program review in February, mid-program review meeting determines whether one can continue in the program or needs further work to continue in the program). For this meeting, I presented my research on cultural symbols and their influence on design. I received several suggestions and guidance continuing on with my research and developing potential thesis projects. Comments/questions: thinking about the target audience (broader audience, not just CBCs), elements of culture, cultural sustainability, have the symbols been lost? what have the symbols been lost? should people care about the symbols? how does this lead to interpretations of the symbols? need to have a more obvi74

ous statement of what the research is about, what is the problem/message?, present solutions, stronger narrative/statement, is culture more on sustainability or preservation? what do you want to say? broaden scope?, seek out areas/habitat, exploration, animation, sound, identity peaks of decline in culture, identify dying arts, where are you headed? contemporary designer‚Äìhow is it presented? need to be more in control of the presentation, work on projection of voice, work on the end of program statement, what is your product as an individual when you leave?, how do you resonate as a person? what do you want that to be? beginning point-discovery, what are you comfortable, interested to pursue?, final discovery for oneself, solid idea express what you are doing, work on statement/expression, innovated/ elevated experiences, write about the journey, think about 10 potential thesis projects... Books to consider: Lost Japan, by Alex Kerr Dogs and Demons, by Alex Kerr

semiotics: definition? Thursday, November 15, 2012

Today’s vc grad meeting was a discussion on semiotics, and how it relates to design, visual communication, what we do in our areas of expertise. We discussed words that relate to defining semiotics, such as globalization, communication, ethnography, linguistics, pragmatics, visualization, symbols, synthesis, creation, organization...to name a few. Near the end of our discussion, we tried to combine our thoughts together to form a cohesive definition. Some of the definitions of semiotics: “broad form of communication that is highly visual and engages a universal audience‚“ (Mattman); “creating a universal language effectively mind controlling” (Kevin); “effectively communicating an idea equally to everyone‚“ (Josh); “effectively universally communicating”, “effectively communicating universally”, “universally communicating effectively” (Shaban/Josh); “utilizing a variety of communication methods to convey an intended message to connect to an audience” (Gladys).

Some of my notes written down from the discussion: • synthesizing information • concern for meaning • study of signs • language: structure • metaphor, analogy • communication • syntax relationship • summarizing images, relationships • designers control • morphology • mind control • terminology: words to feed into discipline • delivery of media • ethnography, anthropologists • globalization • expectations • delivery • computational syntax • arrangement of symbols • syntax-rules used in signs • pragmatics: context contributes to meaning • visual communication: theory, history, research, presenting information • theoretical vs functional • persuade/convey info • universal language • levels of signs/understanding • international language • primary languages • consumption • designers have influence

Chinese symbols: the plum blossom, part 1 Friday, November 16, 2012

The plum blossom represents the winter season, and also the beginning of spring. Combinations with the plum blossom (source: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch p. 38-39): plum blossom + magpie = joy plum tree + magpie = ‘arrival of happiness’, ‘happiness up to one’s eyebrows’ plum blossoms + peach blossoms = friendship

midterm group critique-fall 2012 Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Just completed a midterm group critique session yesterday. Guided by faculty, the midterm group critique is a discussion of work progress of MFA students from different concentrations in the art department. This midterm group critique was guided by Assistant Professor Tore Terrasi, and students included Elisha Burley, Maryam Rezaei, and myself. Each student discusses their work for about 20-30 minutes and the remainder of the hour is left for comments and questions. I presented my current research on Chinese symbolism and the series of illustrations to date. I’ve received some valuable feedback from Professor Terrasi and my colleagues. They suggested researching further into the significance of the symbols, perhaps how the symbols would be portrayed or conveyed in different context; looking at ‘polyculturalism’ instead of ‘biculturalism’; looking at the misunderstandings of society; merging of potential cultural tensions; seeing the balance between cultures and thoughts; turn misunderstandings/hate to appreciation; explore Chinese Canadian heritage with a wider vision; research at least five symbols that truly represent Canadian culture (mountains?); thinking about illustrations as design pieces compared to art pieces—what if the same illustration was completed traditionally as an art piece and placed next to a more modern method of a digital print?; continue with the concept of traditional contrast with modern; the line between art and design; perhaps illustrations could turn into a series of stamps to commemorate certain cultures, cultural activity; looking at the brand of China; researching the evolution of Canadian symbols; thinking about identity (a ’melting pot’ of cultures); create Canadian symbols using a similar illustration style; how to give a voice/build awareness of culture/cultural groups?; sense of cultural identity; revisit exploration of Canadian and Chinese cultural integration; how to help cultures to interpret the design?; series of illustrations just about the image without type... Thankful for all the valuable feedback...lot to think about!

director and designer Karin Fong Friday, November 30, 2012

For yesterday’s MFA vc meeting we each were to research a designer/illustrator/interactive artist for a 10 minute presentation to the group. There are so many people that are inspirational in the work we create... after some searching, I’ve decided to research a little more on director and designer Karin Fong. Karin Fong is a founding member of Imaginary Forces, a creative studio and production company. A lot of her work involves the direction, production, design of film sequences for film and tv series. She has designed/directed film sequences for films such as Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation, Charlotte’s Web, Clockstoppers, The Pink Panther 2, just to name a few. She has also directed commercial campaigns for Herman Miller, Target, and Honda. She has been involved in large-scale video installations at Lincoln Center, Las Vegas, Times Square, and her work as appeared in numerous publications on design and film. Karin Fong’s work involves the element of surprise, is full of cleverness, and resonates with the audience, taking the viewer on a journey.

Chinese symbols: meanings and combinations Sunday, December 09, 2012 the meanings of symbols can vary when combined with other symbols

Continued to organize some of the information on my Chinese symbol illustrations to place into an accordion style booklet in InDesign. Information regarding Chinese symbols and meanings found in resource: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch. Below are some rough drafts of laying out the information related to the symbol illustrations. 75

Chinese symbols: combining symbols into one scene, part 5 Monday, December 10, 2012

Experimenting with adding a solid color, with a multiple effect to sections of the illustrations. The scene could quickly change from day to night, and the original mood changes with the color choice... some seemed more cheerful and some more gloomy. Color experimentations on left.

Chinese symbols composition: including a poem? Monday, December 10, 2012 original illustration

My professor suggested that I try to include some writing with the illustrations, perhaps a narrative, story, or poem. I do remember that some Chinese paintings do include poetry on the composition‚Äìand usually written in Chinese calligraphy. I am not a professional writer and also not an expert in calligraphy... there’s a lot to learn in these areas. I started reading some Chinese poems to find some key words to begin with. It seems that Chinese poems are commonly 4 lines or 8 lines. After making some revisions and going through a few drafts, here is what I’ve come up with to relate to my illustration scene: The changing of seasons The winter coldness slowly fades as plum blossoms bloom at the dawn of spring. Peonies luminously overflow the ambiance as lotus flowers sway gently in the summer breeze.

adding an orange color overlay

Chrysanthemums breathe a renewed fragrance from the autumn dew and the bamboo resiliently faces the wind. Inhabitants harmoniously experience the serenity of the landscape, celebrating their home. -GC

Research on Japanese Modern Graphic Design,early 20th century Wednesday, December 12, 2012

adding a dark blue color overlay

For my ART 5320: Art Criticism and Theory (History of Graphic Design) class, I decided to research on the influence of modernism on Japanese graphic design in the early 20th century. The paper outline included research on pioneer graphic designer Sugiura Hisui, a major influence to the contribution of modern graphic design development in Japan, and the influence of modernism on postcard design, matchbox cover design, and typography. Japanese artists and designers were inspired by European art movements such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Bauhaus during the early 20th century. Valuable references used in my paper were: Brown, K. H., Morse, A. N., & Rimer, J.T., Art of the Japanese Postcard: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (pp. 183-184). Boston, MA: MFA Publications. Fraser, James, Heller, S., & Chwast, S. (1996). Japanese modern: Graphic design between the wars. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

adding a red overlay

symbol addition? Saturday,December 15, 2012

I’ve been trying to put together some of the meanings of Chinese symbol combinations into an accordion fold pamphlet. There are a variety of meanings depending on particular symbols seen on the page. Information regarding Chinese symbols and meanings found in resource: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, by Patricia Bjaaland Welch. I‘ve come up with the term ‘symbol addition’ to describe the information I’m trying to communicate through this piece. Also in looking at accordion folds, foldfactory.com had plenty of inspiration. I saw the demonstration on folding a “meandering accordion” by Trish Witkowski and have attempted to create the same fold. I’ve started with laying out my illustrations in accordance to an 8x4 panel sheet. The guidelines on the screenshots below display where the folds would be. Below are some of my screenshots of the process of creating the ‘symbol addition’ meandering accordion:

lay out of symbols and their meanings

symbol addition: sleeve cover Sunday, December 16, 2012

Continued on with the design for a sleeve cover for the accordion fold pamphlet for my illustration symbol combinations. Used the bamboo illustration as an idea for the sleeve cover.

putting the pamphlet in a bamboo designed sleeve

CULTURE

digital experiment with creating a symbol to represent culture

seasons

This project involved researching and developing an understanding of cultural symbols and analyzing their influence on design methodology. The deliverables included a series of posters that integrated eastern and western design characteristics. Research was conductd on the relationship of cultural symbols with design elements such as typography, color, symbols, traditions, events, people, experiences, and language. Additional research included analyzing Chinese traditions, aesthetics, and arts; Chinese modern design and western influences; Chinese calligraphy compared with English typography; Chinese symbolism and iconography in combination with western aesthetics; language structures and meanings; communication with multicultural audiences; the influence of beauty and simplicity of Japanese design, and ethnography of Chinese and western audiences.

All Seasons Triptych 01

All Seasons Triptych 02

All Seasons Triptych 03

These illustrations are part of a poster series that explores the meanings of Chinese symbols and their cultural significance. Each poster contains an illustration of a symbol that represents a season in the year. The peony flower represents spring; the lotus blossom represents summer; the chrysanthemum flower represents autumn; and the plum blossoms represent winter.

1.5

2.0

2.5

2.75

3.0

3.5

Year 2: Spring 2013 Art 5000: Supervised Teaching in Studio Art Art 5355: Research in Visual Communication Art 5355: Research in Visual Communication: 2D Animation Art 5391: Independent Study: Sound Art

Participating in the Sound Art class was an invaluable experience where I learned how to create and modify sound elements, and also compelled me to think differently about my current work process. Seeing the work of my colleagues in the Sound Art class also opened up opportunities to learn diverse sound and artistic techniques on how they approached their work. At the beginning of this semester I also had my mid-program review where I introduced my proposed thesis project--to create an interactive eBook on the Apple iPad to further investigate cultural understanding, design and education, and language learning. This thesis project developed into a wide research area to explore, and it was a process that continually questioned the decisions made when designing the story characters and narrative.

video talk: Chuck Jones: Extremes and in Betweens - A Life in Animation Saturday, January 19, 2013

The first assignment in 2D animation was to watch and write a response to the film: Chuck Jones: Extremes and in Betweens - Life in Animation, discussing his work in terms of design principles, story, theme, aesthetics, and concept. The work of Chuck Jones contains surprise, humor, playfulness, uniqueness, and attentiveness to details. I watched many of Chuck Jones’ animations at an earlier age and remember the cleverness of ideas expressed in the characters. Watching some of the same animated stories again I realized there were more details involved in the carefully timed sounds in relation to the actions of the characters. The animation with Daffy Duck interacting with the animator was an unexpected concept that further displayed the attitude and expressiveness of Daffy Duck coming to life. This interaction builds up to the constant theme of his adversarial relationship with Bugs Bunny—showing Bugs Bunny as the animator, erasing Daffy Duck’s character with a pink eraser from the top of pencil. Chuck Jones’ animations contain emphasis on certain parts, and the timing of the sound correlates to those specific parts of emphasis. This can be illustrated in his work involving the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. The attitudes of the characters are showcased carefully by their expressions. In these animations, there is usually a pause when the coyote is about to ‘fail’—such as when he is stuck in mid-air or has just been flattened by an object. The attention and emphasis is directed to the coyote at those times, as well as when the animation zooms in on text when the coyote reads directions or labels. The zooming in on the text displays contrast in the animation, where the focus changes momentarily from the characters. The movement of the animation is fast paced, not only because of the speed of the road runner, but how there seems to be a constant rhythm and pattern of the interaction of the characters and transition to the next scene. The aesthetics of this animation also show balance in the illustrations, where the high cliffs at where the coyote plots his ideas are spread 90

throughout the frame. There is also a similar movement and pattern to depict speed of the characters, as with the speedy rotating circular movement of the legs of the Road Runner (and sometimes Wile E. Coyote).

interacting with each other form other shape designs within the animation. The story of this animation is unpredictable and the characters develop different moods and transformations corresponding to the rhythm of the sounds.

In The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, the music and sounds represented a certain mood in the animation. Cheerful music played when the dot was happy and skipping along the scene. When the line was slightly depressed there was melancholy music and the value of the background changed to a darker shade. The characters of the dot and line came alive; the objects were personified and relatable. The colors used throughout the animation also reflected the mood, such as the display of bright colors in the background as the line was discovering his transformation into angles. The texture and shape of the line character were brought to the forefront with the various transformations it showcased to the circle. Space was used in the composition for emphasis on the particular characters and also to represent certain moods. There was an atmosphere of crowd and perplexity in the scene where the line‚Äôs friends (other lines) filled up most of the scene during their conversations. The forms of the characters were clearly defined, and the story would still be successful in black and white, although there may be some blending of the squiggle character with background branches near the end of the animation. The direction of the design follows a line, or similar horizontal pattern, but also different rhythms and movements are introduced in the scenes— such as when the dot increases incrementally from the edge of the scene. The shape of the dot takes over the scene and the characters

book talk: Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language by R. Klanten, S. Ehmann, and F. Schulze provide numerous examples and explanations on how visuals can be utilized in different media, forms, expressions, and ideas to communicate the message. In the book’s introduction by Andrew Losowsky, “The essence of visual storytelling is this combination of emotional reaction and narrative information. The colors, typography, style, balance, format of an image will generate that first instinctive smile or frown...focusing on the visual stimuli can be more complex, contextual information come into play.” (Andrew Losowsky in Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language, page 4) The examples in this publication included detailed illustrations, infographics, typography, integration of different mediums to express the concept. In an interview with The New York Times Graphics Director Steve Dueres, his response to ‘the definition of a successful infographic’ was: “It should be clear and compelling. It should encourage thought.” (Steve Dueres, in Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language, page 25). This publication is a valuable resource for learning how ideas can be communicated in powerful ways, numerous examples on infographics, and seeing how designers and artists approached their design solutions.

The essence of visual storytelling narrative information. The colors, will generate that first instinctive

thesis thinking: part 1

How did you get into this work? -since high school, learned software, creating designs, always created cards since young; via construction paper for family, handmade every mother’s day card at young age; interest in drawing, painting, arts, crafts, made t-shirts for gifts

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

I’m roughly half way through my studies in the MFA program, and it’s getting closer to selecting a thesis topic. My mid-program review is coming up on February 11 (the day after Chinese New Year), and there are lot of questions I need to answer from the MFA committee meeting in November last year. I met with my major professor regarding the preparation for this meeting, he offered some advice/notes: What about the creations of your own work, what is the problem? What are your sources of inspirations? Develop a comprehensive statement of who you are. Select a topic that is important to you. Reflect on the contemporary, design issues; idea of writing about cultural work; minimum 12 pages. Idea to how it fits with deliverable methods; contemporary designer reflect contemporary tools; everchanging landscape of design; visual storytelling examples; cultural importance vs. education; certain topics to tell people about; globalization of design; investigation of connection; infographics; use of motion, web, interactivity

What are the most important elements of your work? ideas that communicate, resonate with audience, cultural additions, ‘cuteness’, humor, entertaining, pretty, simplicity, clean, fun, different textures of paper, folding, elements of surprise, language, taking away elements for ‘efficient design’, layout, publications, print give-aways List of words/phrases that communicate your thoughts/research about work -simplicity, clean, minimal, cross-cultural, use of soft colors, delicate, fun, cute, beauty, surprise, symbolic, use of typography, print-heavy What patterns emerge in your work? What medium do you use and why? What is relevant to your conceptual development? -patterns emerge from eastern and western cultures, use of geometric shapes, sans serif typefaces, line and dot work, simple designs, minimalism -medium is mostly print, like working with paper, folds, different textures, sizes, materials, assemblage, giving of something permanent (to hold or view), not familiar with interactivity/online features -conceptual developments starts with thought, process, concept; use of cultural elements, learning, viewing the unexpected

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Write five sentences that tell the truth about your connection to your work, art history, popular culture, etc. I seek to understand the integration of eastern and western design elements. My work connects to the understanding and research of modernizing Chinese traditional visuals. My work is inspired by the simplistic and clean design solutions of Japanese culture. My design solutions are dependent on the target audience, solutions have been developed for children, young adults, and adults. Each design solution begins with extensive research.

Still am thinking about a topic to select for my thesis project. I went back and reviewed the materials that our graduate advisor had given to us. The document she had given us had a series questions to ask ourselves when developing an artist statement. Perhaps answering the questions would help in this process of understanding some of my thoughts, goals, and reviewing how to decide on a topic. Some initial notes/responses/brainstorming thoughts:

Goals: • Develop solutions that would resonate, elements of surprise • Create cross-cultural solutions • Increase skills in interactivity, animation • Create educational materials, learning, teaching • Increase skills in software • Become involved in education, design classes • Publication design • Become more familiar with e-learning technologies • Communicate effectively and clearly

thesis thinking: part 2

is this combination of emotional reaction and typography, style, balance, format of an image smile or frown...

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-Andrew Losowsky 91

Initial interactive storyboard concepts for iPad application 1. beginning concept to an interactive storybook 2. finger touches the word ‘bunny’ 3. the word ‘bunny’ changes to the Chinese characters 4. after finger touches ‘toque’ the Chinese characters appear with the sound of the characters 5. finger touches blue hat 6. blue hat changes to Chinese characters 7. drag the Chinese characters to the hat 8. the hat turns blue

The bunny is wearing a toque. Monday, February 11, 2013

Started a quick comp on potential style for sentences in the interactive story. More to continue, below is just a beginning concept of the kind of interactivity that could take place. Toque (or tuque) is a popular term used in Canada and northern areas of the US. A toque is a wool hat, similar to a beanie.

Mid Program Review Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Mid Program Review is conducted halfway through the MFA program. I met with my MFA committee members on 02.11.2013 to review my past research and discussion of my proposed project research. I received feedback what my work has been about, and what improvements and enhancements to think about. I do need to revise the details of my project proposal, some of what was discussed was not included in the proposal. Some of the feedback I received regarded

Layering found files in Audacity

how the process can be adapted to a different culture; could similar results of the process/ project relate to other cultures?; looking at past fairy tales; linguistics; how to further enhance the visual storytelling aspect?; enhancing the bicultural experience; limit ages to 2-5; thinking about the perspectives of the audience‚how do they feel?; is there more link to the future?; learning is not just a solo action; relationship/ learning shared between different generations (grandparents and grandchildren); more to maintain the tie/connection than just linguistics; perhaps words should be in the heritage language learn the English words for them; eBooks interactive pieces; app studio (apply InDesign/PDF files); create a launching campaign‚promotional items, limited iPad covers?; needs to be more than a language learning app; rethink roots; what does it mean to be a CBC?; more of a celebration to be a CBC?; how to enrich the experience of a CBC?; need to rehash the proposal; background and specifics are unclear‚ VISUAL STORYTELLING.

Sound Group Project: The Recording Sessions of Pi Wednesday, February 13, 2013

We were tasked to create a sound piece in one week. Alison, Maryam, Shaban and I went straight to work. Since we all had an interest in languages, we went with a theme of numbers‚ specifically speaking the numbers of Pi in the languages we knew. We recorded in the sound studio saying zero to ten in 10 different languages: Kurdish, Persian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Laotian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and English. We also experimented saying the numbers in different emotive tones and speech‚Äìsuch as anger, joyful, singing, announcing, and animated voices‚ just to name few. Different object sounds were also recorded‚ sounds that related to the application of numbers, such as the dialing of a telephone, ticking of a clock, and the rolling and snapping of a tape measure. We recorded over 50 sound files. We recorded all our sound files in Adobe Audition, but are using Audacity to edit the sounds. We decided to submit one track with all the layers playing simultaneously and also each record our own sound compilation using the data we collected as a group. For my own version, I cut out the sounds of specific numbers of the various languages for the first eleven digits of pi: 3.1415926535. Created three versions of this number section: version 1 sound order: English, Kurdish, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Cantonese, French, Persian, Laotian, Mandarin, and British; version 2 sound order: English (animated voice); Persian, French, Cantonese, Laotian, Spanish, Japanese, English (angry voice), Mandarin, Kurdish, and Arabic; version 3 sound order: Persian (singing), Laotian (singing), English (angry voice), Cantonese (low voice), Spanish, Persian (angry voice), Kurdish (singing), Laotian (singing), French, Cantonese, and English (animated voice). Screenshots of compiling the sound files in Audacity can be seen on the left side of this page.

Experimenting with sound effects in Audacity

mid-autumn festival Monday, February 18, 2013

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as ‘Reunion Festival’ or ‘Moon Festival’, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. It is a time when the moon is at its brightest and roundest‚ and represents a time for family gatherings and reminiscing of relatives far away, expressing them good wishes. The roundness of the moon cake represents family unity and completeness. During this celebration, family and friends gather together for a good meal or also meet outdoors to watch the moon. Food and moon cake are also offered for moon worship; offerings to the Moon Goddess of Immortality, Chang’e. I am considering writing the narrative to my potential thesis project revolving around the Mid-Autumn Festival, as there are some rich cultural vocabulary to be learned and discussed. I am also reminded of a poem my mom used to read to me when I was young. It is named ‘Night Thoughts’ by Chinese Poet of the Tang Dynasty Li Bai (701-762).

thesis thinking: character development part 1 Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Been thinking about what character would suit the narrative for my thesis proposal. Many stories have involved the giant panda, an animal representative of China. Looked a little further and discovered the South China tiger—critically endangered tiger species located in the southeast China. I started some initial sketches on the South China tiger, I thought this animal would be suitable for the narrative since it is native to Guangdong province, providing a connection to the tiger speaking Cantonese.

illustration inspiration Thursday, February 21, 2013

During a brief critique of my initial sketches, I should look into more illustration styles, think about dimensionality, shading, gradients, textures, what illustrations would capture the audience? What will resonate with the audience? What is the “magic” that you can add to the visual storytelling experience? Some of the “magic” may be in the interactive experience, but I do

think that I need to have more dimensionality to my characters. I am particularly inspired by the illustrative style showcased by DruD StudiO, Squid & Pig and tokidoki by Simone Legno. I also watched Drawing Vector Graphics by Von Glitschka on lynda.com. It was very informative and valuable in learning about the design/creative process of Von Glitschka. In addition to discussing his illustration process, Von Glitschka discusses the creative brief, client questions, and presentation tips. The Timmy Tickle app created by Nimblebean has also been inspiring in terms of illustration and design process.

book talk: character design today Friday, February 22, 2013

Character Design Today, by PIE BOOKS contains numerous examples regarding characters that were created for service, manufacture, recreation, commerce & retail, public institution & organization, and media & creative organizations/associations in Japan. The book is bilingual in both English and Japanese. The beginning of the book contains an interview with art director Kenjiro Sano. Kenjiro Sano has created numerous characters, and states that it is important for a character to be “simple enough so that even children can copy and draw it” for clarity and communication delivery (source: Character Design Today, p. 005). A wide range of character examples from a variety of animate and inanimate objects.

named Composer by Demibooks was used to create the interactivity of the story elements. I also downloaded the MoglueBuilder, another software for creating interactive books to try it the functions. Preview is available when your iPad and computer running the software is on the same network. It allows the user to add instant interactivity, sound, and animations to the story. Still need some time to go through more of the functionality and get used to learning about ‘states’ (triggers/actions). States can be quickly added to the illustrations. As for Composer by Demibooks, all the interactivity is added to the story in the app itself...so there was a lot of opportunity to get used to adding ‘behaviors’ (motions and functions), and audio by finger touch. The ‘physics’ feature was fun to test with illustrations bouncing around the screen. Several features and settings are available for each behavior, but I did have to remember to keep selecting the object to add the motion or function to. I still need to test out the features of both programs to see which one would assist in creating the interactivity for my story, but currently I am trying to be more familiar with Composer by Demibooks. Composer Pro tutorials on YouTube.

Sam and Sophie character sketches Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Experimenting with the details of their tiger stripes and adding some Canadian accessories.

creating app and interactive ebooks for the iPad Thursday, March 21, 2013

Been doing some more research on creating interactive ebooks for the iPad and came across an interview on Stacey Williams-Ng, Interactive Book Designer on lynda.com (interview title: The Creative Spark: Stacey Williams-Ng, Interactive Book Designer). Ms. Williams-Ng is also the founder of publishing company Little Bahalia. From her interview, there was a short segment that showed part of her process of creating interactive ebooks for children. An app

experimented with slight changes in their tiger stripes; adding some Canadian accessories to Sam and Sophie

character development Thursday, April 18, 2013

The characters for Missing Mooncakes went through a series of revisions. Research was conducted on possible animals that would represent Canadian and Chinese cultures, and also accessorizing human characters with cultural iconography. 95

missing mooncakes: initial interactive pages Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I continued with the initial pages of the interactive story Missing Mooncakes for my thesis project. Started to add language to the frame to see how it works in relation to the other elements on the page. Below are some screenshots of the process so far:

scene 01: Sophie hides behind the lantern; lantern and text can be tapped; animations created in Adobe Flash

using Adobe Flash to create Sophie’s eyes blinking in scene 01 when the user touches the lantern

scene 01: when the user touches the lantern, Sophie’s face appears through the lantern, she blinks and waves her hand

using Adobe Flash to animate Sophie’s eyes blinking (second frame)

scene 02: lanterns descend from the top of the page, light up upon touch by reader fruit character sketches (for interactive scene 06): when a user touches a fruit graphic on the screen, the vocabulary sound of the fruit name in English and Cantonese will be played with fruit slices circling the fruit

Continually experimenting with different concepts helps to find relations of what could be successful or enhanced.

sound art: projection and sound test Thursday, May 09, 2013

I continued through the experiments of recording sounds from Google Translate. I recorded the translation of the available 65 languages in alphabetical order, but starting with the English phrase: “I don’t understand, can you speak English?”. Took that English phrase and then translated it to Afrikaans. Then took the output of Afrikaans and translated it to Albanian, then took the output translation of Albanian and translated that to Arabic, and continuing on that pattern until the last language available—Yiddish. Then I copied the translated output in Yiddish and Google translated that to English to result in: “Loud anglorum intellegere Sunday”. I didn’t know it at the time, but my colleague Morgan mentioned that the theme song Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has gone through Google Translate 64 times (Fresh Prince: Google Translated | cdza Opus No. 16). Then my professor asked me what kind of visual would pair with the sound...I wasn’t quite sure how to present it, but since my classmates mentioned that the sound reminded them of being at the airport, I was imagining words on LED screens scrolling horizontally across. I created a Flash file that included the 65 language text outputs from Google Translate. Then added some simple animations such as moving from left to right, top to bottom, fading in and out, opacity transitions, and overlapping of text. There a portion of the animation where the text goes back and forth—representing the continual exchange of communication with language and language learning. Also I wanted

my classmates interacting with the projection of the animation

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to show some of the density of the text overlapping as we sometimes may get frustrated and confused at attempts to understand or speak an unfamiliar language. Also added some slight flickers of black screen and fading to represent the sudden misunderstandings or ‘blank stares’ from miscommunication or misunderstandings of languages. My original intention was to project the animation flat against the wall and have people walk by the animation so that the projection goes across them, to convey the sense that they are immersed or surrounded by the languages. My professor had suggested just projecting the animation on people. I also experimented with moving the stand in 360 degrees, and seeing the projection projected across my classmates seemed to further emphasize the different cultures and languages that an individual may experience—and perhaps experiencing various cultures at the same time. My classmates gave me a lot of suggestions to further experiment with—Shaban suggested I project it somewhere with crowds of people, such as the university central library so see how masses of people would interact with the dynamic text. Jackson recommended projected it in a smaller space, such as an elevator, just to see more detailed projection of text on a smaller group of individuals. Even though the class is over, I would like to go back to this sometime and continue to explore the different options for this presentation.

seeing how the text moves across Ryan’s arm

today, the voice you speak with may not be your own

– Paul D Miller (aka DJ Spooky)

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I originally had the animation projected straight on the wall, but my classmate suggested using the side of the column, seemed to work much better! Also, when taking a photo of the projection, unexpected stripes of color appeared on top of the original white screen.

The Sound Art class involved working on topics of your choice but also involved a lot of research into understanding and being aware of what sound is, or how it can be utilized. Discussing the differences between terms such as sound, noise, sound, audio were researched through a series of readings and presentations. The projects created related to cultural diversity and languages. The Sound of Pi was a group project I was involved with members Shaban Al-Refai, Maryam Rezaei and Alison Starr. Since each of us could speak a different language, we decided to record speaking numerals in our specific language, and overlap and repeat these sounds in a series depending upon the pitches, tone quality, and relationship of sounds next to each other. My second project involved using Google Translate to translate a written phrase in all the available languages. I then compiled and overlapped these sounds with emphasis on certain tones and voices, and presented the piece as a video piece with the languages scrolling across the screen with the audio component. The piece contains black text on a white background, but when photographed by my iPhone there appeared to be a screen of color filtered across the image.

Speaking with Professor Stephen Lapthisophon, a remember this particular set of words he mentioned to direct my current sound project (words may not be exactly as quoted), “maybe you should approach your project in a way that is completely opposite from your usual design process...everything doesn’t have to be perfect...” I decided to take his advice and approached my project with more experimentation and chances of different processes and techniques. And since my project related to a recording of various voices and language translations, I thought this was an opportunity to work away from my usual step-bystep approach and consider how randomness can affect the results. This sound project involved translating the English phase: “Cultural sound infusion. How does sound communicate to a multicultural audience? How are sounds influenced by culture? How does culture affect sound? Is there such a term as cross-cultural sound? Listening to the blending of eastern and western elements in sound.” into the following languages from Google translate: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish,amd Welsh.

missing mooncakes: presentation

Adobe MAX 2013 conference: Day 1

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Monday, May 13, 2013

Last Thursday (May 2) I had the opportunity to present my current research to an outside viewer that is not familiar or has not seen my current project. Patricia Healy, Assistant Gallery Director of The Gallery at UTA has graciously volunteered her time to attend my presentation and provide valuable input. From her comments, I thought about the different games and activities that could be added to the story app (such as math, perhaps with using items from the story, eg. 1 dumpling + 2 dumplings = ? dumplings); and she also mentioned color palettes—researching specific colors suitable for the targeted age group. Below are some images from the presentation (thanks to my colleague Chang for taking the photographs):

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend Adobe MAX: The Creativity Conference in Los Angeles, CA from May 6-8, 2013. It was my first time to attend any conference, and I was ready to take in the information, learn, and see the new technology and opportunities available from Adobe. First lab of the day: Designing for iPad: A Step-by-Step Guide for Print Designers, presented by Keith Gilbert

2013 MFA summer exhibition Saturday, May 18, 2013

I‘ve experimented with some prints of Seasons for the 2013 MFA summer exhibition. This year’s curator for the MFA summer exhibition was visiting artist John Aasp. He selected the booklets of symbol illustrations that I created in Fall 2012. I had some issues with printing the booklets from some of the school printers, but eventually I got some good prints that I could work with.

picked up my pass and lanyard schedule Patricia interacting with the lantern illustrations on the screen

putting together the booklets with their slip covers

seeing the lanterns light up upon user touch

signage of the conference at the Los Angeles convention center (MAX logo designed by Eric Johansson) setting up the display after the presentation, some feedback from my major professor-continue to think about the layout of elements on the page; what the user sees to enrich the experience

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Right: my workstation in the MFA VC grad studio, working on a presentation for Missing Mooncakes

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Year 2: Summer 2013 Art 5355: Research in Visual Communication

The research conducted this summer has been valuable in determining the feedback for Missing Mooncakes. A first draft of the interactive eBook story was created and brought back to Vancouver, Canada for CBC children to read and share with their families.

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Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook story participant Kailer Teng. Photo credit: Teresa Teng.

Using digital media to foster cultural interaction of Canadian-Born Chinese With the support of the Art + Art History Department, the College of Liberal Arts, and the generosity of Mr. Mustaque Ahmed, I was able to travel to Vancouver, Canada in Summer 2013 to gather research regarding the interactivity, functionality, and engagement of Missing Mooncakes. This research project and creative activity is to create an interactive eBook story that introduces Canadian-Born Chinese (CBC) children to cultural experiences. Cultural practices are often passed from older generation family members that have immigrated to Canada. To preserve some of the stories and traditions of their ancestral homeland, this digital storybook provides an opportunity to inspire interaction and exchange of language and culture between generation audiences.

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This digital story will be delivered on the Apple iPad platform and hopes to encourage understanding of Chinese and Canadian culture and traditions, stimulate language practice of Cantonese and English, and potentially bridge the communication gap between younger and older generation audiences. The target audience includes second or greater generation individuals born in Canada and of Chinese ethnicity, age 2 to 5. The Apple iPad platform was selected because of its advanced technological abilities. The readerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to use touch to interact with the story elements, record and hear voice, and the use of the camera functionality are a few of the features that are meaningful components to delivering the story. The story will be written in English with an

emphasis on learning and practice of Cantonese Chinese. As a result of immigration of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong and southern Chinese provinces, Cantonese is a common language spoken by Chinese Canadians. The significance of this research project is to potentially assist in overcoming some of the language barriers between generational audiences, encourage the diffusion and enlightenment of cultural festivities, and create a bonding experience for generation audiences. During my summer travel to Vancouver, Canada, I was able to gather ethnographic research on the CBC audience and have the

opportunity to observe the Vancouver surroundings and residents in determining the language and graphical usage of elements for communication and design. The daily experiences and environment of first and second generation CBCs (of Cantonese speaking parents) were surveyed to assist in determining their connections to their heritage language and culture. A first draft of the interactive eBook story, Missing Mooncakes, was designed for gathering initial research from participants on the story characters, language, and interactivity. The interactive story, Missing Mooncakes, was presented to CBC children (ages 1-7) and their parents on the Apple iPad. Research data was collected from CBC children concerning their responses to typography, color, cultural symbols, graphics, language and content of the bilingual story. While the parents read the story to the child, observations were documented regarding the particular illustrations the child touched on the screen, sounds the child repeated, the level of engagement and perceived enjoyment the child had with the

story, the language learning ability of Cantonese and English vocabulary, the appeal of the characters in the story, recognition of illustrations, language and cultural iconography, and their reactions to interactive components in the story. Missing Mooncakes story synopsis: Sophie visits the Mid-Autumn Festival with her grandmother. After buying a box of mooncakes with Grandma, they return home to prepare the fruit and mooncakes to celebrate the moon. When Sophie opens up the box of mooncakes, the box is empty! Sophie sets out to find the missing mooncakes. In addition to gathering observations from the child and reader participants reading the story in their home surroundings, an online survey was sent to participants to gather feedback on their reading experience of the Missing Mooncakes story. Feedback was also gathered from Canadian-Born Chinese educators and working professionals to determine their engagement in the story and elicit their

Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook story participant Jayden Chow

opinions on some of the learning or language techniques that can be improved. Below are some photos of participants interacting with the Missing Mooncakes eBook story (right): Observing the responses of the CBC participants provided valuable feedback and suggestions for improvements and revisions to the Missing Mooncakes eBook story. The data gathered provide a greater understanding of the visual and language preferences of the CBC audience, and will be analyzed further to develop solutions for an improved interactive, enjoyable, and educational experience. This research opportunity was significant in determining the design components meaningful in communicating the story to a cross-cultural audience. From the research gathered, the Missing Mooncakes eBook story is currently under revisions for design, language, interactivity and user experience functionality. Current progress on this research project and other related research activities can be viewed on: http://mfajourney.com/.

Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook story participant Katie Mah

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Year 3: Fall 2013 Art 5360: Topics in the History of Art and Design Research Paper: The development of cross-cultural design in China from the 1980s to 2000 Art 5655: Research in Visual Communication Research Project: Missing Mooncakes Research Project (Group): (v)ending machine Art 5397: MFA Exhibition/Written Component

The start of the last year proved to challenging and although the time was focused on the thesis project, there were still so many activities and research to continue with during this time. Missing Mooncakes had gone through numerous revisions since the end of the summer, and by the end of the fall semester, it was on its tenth version with changes in illustrations, scenes, graphics, color, language, audio, and user interface functionality. The VC group also created the (v)ending machine, a dimensional structure that described certain foods that contained ingredients that had potential harm to health. An outline of the thesis exhibition was started and methods to presenting the written portion was experimented and tested. 107

There have been leading graphic designers in China since the early twentieth century that have influenced the development of design to the present. During the 1920s and 1930s, European art movements and styles influenced the design scene in China, particularly in Shanghai. Some of the foreign influences still remain after the 1980s, as the numbers of graphic design studios expand across the country. Some of the design media developing in China that seem to integrate eastern and western aesthetics include posters, advertisements, packaging, and book art.

Abstract (draft version 1.0) written for research paper: The development of cross-cultural design in China from the 1980s to 2000 Paper by Gladys Chow Faculty mentor: Dr. Melia Belli

This research paper will examine the foreign influence on the development of graphic design in China from the 1980s, particularly design related to posters, advertisements, packaging, and book design. The developmental history and growth of graphic design in China from the 1980s and examples of cross-cultural design works will be discussed.

Bibliography Anderson, Chris. “Wang Xu: graphic design’s evangelist in China.” Graphis 316 (1998): 22-31. Arntson, Amy E. Graphic Design Basics, Third Edition. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. Cushing, Lincoln. “Revolutionary Chinese Posters and Their Impact Abroad,” 7-23. Cushing, Lincoln, and Ann Tompkins. Chinese posters: Art from the great proletarian cultural revolution. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2007. Hongxing, Zhang and Lauren Parker, eds. China Design Now. South Kensington: V&A Publishing, 2008. Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with type: a critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students (second, revised and expanded edition). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010. Meggs, Philip B. and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 4th edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. Meggs, Philip B. and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 5th edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011. Minick, Scott, and Jiao Ping. Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Page One Publishing. Inspirations from the East: Modern Chinese Design. Page One Publishing Private, 2010. Resnick, Elizabeth. Design for communication: conceptual graphic design basics. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Steiner, Henry, and Ken Haas. Cross-Cultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1995. Wang, Min, and Xiao Hong Shen. “After Mao: Chinese Graphic Design Today,” Print 48 (1994): 64-71. Welch, Patricia Bjaaland. Chinese art: a guide to motifs and visual imagery. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2008.

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Bibliography for research paper: The development of cross-cultural design in China from the 1980s to 2000

“

Graphic design is a strong weapon to change an image. – Xu Wang

Deng Xiaoping’s ‘Reform and Opening Up’ policies implemented in the early 1980s opened up economic opportunities for international trade and set a new direction for the development of the graphic design field in China. Graphic designers returned to studying works of Western designers to promote their products to the local and international audiences. Modern art such as Cubism, Surrealism, the Bauhaus and the Gestalt principle of design had influenced Chinese graphic designers to not only work on commercial projects but also to experiment with self-initiated projects. With increased availability of foreign publications, education, exhibitions, and resources, some design works were considered cross-cultural—integrating the aesthetics and techniques from Eastern and Western cultures. Cross-cultural designers Bingnan Yu, Henry Steiner, and Xu Wang are distinguished designers in China that have been influencing designers for decades, and will continue to be inspirational to many local and international designers.

”

Excerpt (conclusion) taken from research paper: The development of cross-cultural design in China from the 1980s to 2000 Paper by Gladys Chow

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vc group project: (v)ending machine December 17, 2013

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked the last few long nights/mornings in the grad studio to finish up our vc group project. Although there were some struggles to decide on a project at the beginning, I thought that we came together at the end (even though we stayed at school for 12+ hour days) to complete a structure that was similar to our projected ideas. There are still areas of improvement, as in terms of the typography placement at the top of the structure, how the piece interacts in the environment, and the intended audience. After our group critique today, we still need to work on a two paragraph statement describing the intent of the structure and the audience intended for. We had previously considered printing out some of the products on the floor to lead up to the ending machine; perhaps even a spin-off from a set of posters. My visual contribution included the character designs for the project.

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(v)ending machine is a collaborative project among the visual communication graduate students at the University of Texas at Arlington. We created a promotional display to educate the young audience regarding some of the potential harmful ingredients in foods. Group members: Ginnie Hsu, Kevin Ly, Maryam Rezaei, Shuhong Wang, Joshua Wilson, and Gladys Chow.

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MFA

THESIS

My proposed thesis project will continue the research I have compiled and investigated on the cultural infusion of western and Chinese symbolism, techniques and design aesthetics. Pursuing my constant journey towards cultural understanding, my proposed thesis project is to create an Apple iPad app that teaches Canadian-Born Chinese children Cantonese and English while introducing cultural experiences.

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PROJECT PROPOSAL To create an interactive eBook story on the Apple iPad platform that introduces CanadianBorn Chinese (CBC) children to cultural experiences in the Cantonese Chinese and English languages. Enriching the bicultural experience of being a CBC, the story will be written in English and Chinese characters that when certain vocabulary or illustrations are touched the reader(s) will hear the sounds in both languages. As a potential opportunity to preserve the practice of heritage language and traditions of future generations of CBCs, this interactive story also provides an opportunity for CBC children to learn and connect with an older generation regarding cultural experiences. As CBC children are exposed to English constantly in their environment, they are also learning their heritage language from older generation family members such as their grandparents and parents. A bilingual story could provide the prospect of bonding and learning of traditional customs between younger and older generation family members. The reader(s), if unfamiliar with Cantonese or English, can also learn with the child. The narrative and characters of this particular set of stories would involve learning about traditions, cultures, environment and language. Vocabulary and illustrations related to cultural iconography and knowledge would be introduced to familiarize the reader(s) with the reading and sounds of the Cantonese Chinese and English. The second largest celebrated traditional Chinese festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival, will function as the first narrative to this series of traditional holiday stories.

MARKETING GOALS

BACKGROUND

â&#x20AC;˘

Growing up in a bicultural environment provides one with valuable opportunities to learn the language, traditions, and values of being a Canadian-Born Chinese (CBC). Although Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese may be their first language spoken, CBCs become fluent in English and may become less proficient in their practice of the Chinese languages. As younger generations of CBCs grow, there is a developing concern for the potential decline

â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

Stimulate language practice of Cantonese and English Encourage understanding of Chinese and Canadian culture and traditions Inspire interaction and exchange of language and culture between generation audiences

of heritage language and traditions practiced, leading to potential communication concerns. For bilingual children growing up in an English-speaking environment, they may have less opportunity to learn and practice their heritage language. There are currently a variety of language learning resources for children. The majority of these resources focus on the study of Mandarin Chinese instead of Cantonese. This project will focus on the learning and practice of Cantonese Chinese. Cantonese is a Chinese language mainly spoken by people in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. It is also widely spoken in the areas of Hong Kong and Macau and in some of the southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. As a result of immigration of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong and Guangdong province, Cantonese is a common language spoken by Chinese Canadians and Chinese Americans.

TARGET AUDIENCE The target audience includes second or greater generation individuals born in Canada and of Chinese ethnicity, age 2 to 5. The target audience also includes individuals that want to learn basic Cantonese vocabulary, want to review the Cantonese language, or learn Cantonese and English vocabulary specific to cultural festivities.

OBJECTIVES The design deliverables will provide an opportunity for the target audience to practice and learn Cantonese and English, provide a greater understanding of Chinese and Canadian culture and traditions, and provide an opportunity for cultural interaction between younger and older generation audiences.

DELIVERABLES The final deliverable to be produced will be an app that can be used on the Apple iPad. Other promotional materials may include a hard copy book, t-shirts, toys, iPad covers, trinkets and other accessories related to the app.

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Characters

Sophie Age: 5 Languages: English, Cantonese Favorite color: magenta Favorite foods: blueberries, lychee, avocado, noodles, cupcakes, mango pudding, potstickers Favorite sports: badminton, skating, dancing, swimming Hobbies: playing with toys, watching cartoons, singing, dancing, coloring, baking sweets Sophie wants to be a pastry chef or a toy designer when she grows up.

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Sam Age: 3 Languages: English, Cantonese Favorite color: turquoise Favorite foods: bananas, mangoes, fried tofu, rice, egg tarts, maple syrup pancakes Favorite sports: hockey, soccer, swimming Hobbies: playing games, building train models, racing toy cars Sam wants to be a hockey player or a veterinarian when he grows up.

Muffles Keeping warm by wearing earmuffs, Muffles likes exploring different places and trying new foods.

Grandma

Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa love visiting with their grandchildren. They enjoy cooking, walking, watching tv, reading, learning about technology, and swimming. When there are opportunities, they like to share and introduce Sophie and Sam to Chinese traditions and customs.

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Throughout the revision process, many of the initial scenes of Missing Mooncakes were either removed from the story or redesigned depending on the feedback from participants and research gathered .

There are many lanterns at the mid-autumn festival.

中秋節

燈籠

The lanterns are bright.

lantern scene 04/16/13

lantern scene 04/24/13

Lanterns floated on the lake.

Animal lanterns floated on the lake.

燈籠

lantern scene 07/19/13

lantern scene 09/23/13 help the animals cross the lake

move the animals across the lake

燈籠

Animal lanterns floated on the lake.

lantern scene 11/19/13 118

燈籠

Animal lanterns floated on the lake.

lantern scene 01/28/14

2013-2014

Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook story introductory scene Missing Mooncakes story synopsis Sophie visits the Mid-Autumn Festival with her grandmother. After buying a box of mooncakes with Grandma, they return home to prepare the fruit and mooncakes to celebrate the moon. When Sophie opens up the box of mooncakes, the box is empty! Sophie sets out to find the missing mooncakes.

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Hi! I’m Sophie.

turn on the lanterns

The Mid-Autumn Festival had many bright lanterns. 中秋節

scene 01

move the animals across the lake

燈籠

Animal lanterns floated on the lake.

scene 02 120

what’s your favorite snack?

小吃 to try. There were delicious snacks scene 03

餅 mooncakes

please enjoy

put the mooncakes in the box

月餅 Grandma bought a box of mooncakes. scene 04 121

move the bus

It was time to go home after exploring the festival. 返屋企

scene 05

what’s your favorite fruit?

Grandma sets 生果 fruit on a plate to honour the moon.

scene 06 122

月餅 mooncakes please enjoy

open the mooncake box

Sophie helps Grandma 打開 open the mooncake box.

scene 07

where is the mooncake?

Sophie looks in the living room . 客廳

scene 08 123

where’s the mooncake?

Little brother was flying his toy plane. 弟弟

scene 09

where’s the mooncake?

金魚 tank. There was a splash in the goldfish scene 10 124

where’s the last mooncake?

It was the 雀仔 bird that took the mooncakes!

scene 11

cut the mooncake

The family 家人 shared the last mooncake and celebrated the day.

scene 12 125

In the final semester in the MFA program I continued to add to and refine Missing Mooncakes. There was still a lot of refinements in terms of the consistency of graphics, design of the user interface, and recording of the narrative and language vocabulary. 1.5

Planning the exhibition space for Missing Mooncakes was also challenging as I was not experienced with designing for a space. My professors and colleagues provided some publications and online resources to help with the process. I wanted to create an environment to simulate the Mid-Autumn Festival atmosphere. It was also important to keep in mind the audience to design the space forâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in this case, it would be for children to interact in the space and view with the storybook app.

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Year 3: Spring 2014 Art 5355: Research in Visual Communication Research Project: Missing Mooncakes Art 5697: MFA Exhibition/Written Component

Some of the animations for Missing Mooncakes were created using Adobe Flash 6.0 and then exported as a zip file into the Demibooks Composer Pro app. Short animations were created for character expressions, repetitive movements, and revealing of objects or actions when the user touches the graphic on the tablet.

animation sequence of a squirrel collecting an acorn on a branch

animation sequence of leaves falling from a branch

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animation sequence of Sophieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expressions

animation sequence of Muffles hiding the last mooncake

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I had the opportunity to display the MIssing Mooncakes interactive eBook story during the Ideas in Art exhibition. With the help of the corrugated cardboard cutting machine in the Art and Art History department, I created life-size cardboard cutouts of the characters (Sophie and Sam). The characters were printed on a large format printer, then cut and trimmed to the edge of the cardboard cutout.

the mooncake shapes being cut

cardboard shapes of mooncakes, mooncake characters and lanterns

Sophie and Sam character being printed

testing to see if the cardboard shape matches the printout

trimming the print to the edge of the cardboard shape 130

temporary iPad cardboard holder elevated with mooncake shaped cardboard

Missing Mooncakes

40 inches height of cardboard FRONT

leave 0.5 inch (36pt) bleed for print

lantern made from different materials for actual illumination

失踪的月餅

BACK

cardboard box stand to help hold cutout in place? or maybe standing on a mooncake chair?

SOPHIE: CHARACTER CUTOUT PLAN

initial exhibition concept sketch

plan for character cardboard and print details

initial exhibition concept sketch

completed exhibition display in Gallery West, University of Texas at Arlington below: user testing the Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook story

The Ideas in Art exhibition had inspired other ideas and improvements to displaying the Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook story. My committee suggested working with more iPads and pre-made lanterns. There were challenging times of finding the appropriate electrical cords and lights for the lanterns, as the lanterns needed to be plugged in for the duration of the two-week MFA thesis exhibition. Life-size cardboard characters of Grandma and Grandpa were designed and constructed to accompany Sophie and Sam. A poster series illustrating the Missing Mooncakes characters and mooncake designs served as a backdrop to the tablet area.

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Missing Mooncakes photo-opp. Families and friends can stand behind the cardboard characters to take a picture of their visit.

Left: Documenting some of the setup process. Various resources and materials were used to put together the Missing Mooncakes exhibition display. A mooncake design was ironed on to a white t-shirt that was worn at the reception. 133

Families and friends interacting with the Missing Mooncakes exhibition display. Left: Missing Mooncakes app station

During the MFA Thesis Exhibition reception, a variety of audiences had used and interacted with the Missing Mooncakes app. It was an invaluable experience to notice which scenes were repeatedly touched or read, as well as the graphics and sounds that seemed to attract the most attention. 135

MFA Thesis Exhibition: Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook, poster series, and promotional display

research summary The Missing Mooncakes interactive eBook thesis project involved researching and working on numerous facets of design, technology, and research areas. The concept to create an interactive educational tool was a new and challenging task to undertake. As I was sketching out the initial storyboard, I kept questioning the details of this project, such as the narrative, characters, color palette, and language. The goals of this project hopefully would inspire cultural interaction, encourage language practice in English and Cantonese, and also initiate conversations between generation audiences.

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The research process involved looking at current language learning products on different media, such as interactive eBooks, games, and apps; early childhood development, such as information processing and language learning for bilingual children; methods and resources to creating interactive eBooks and apps; story and character development; cultural awareness and linguistics; and illustration and artistic styles for a young audience. I continued ethnographic research on the Canadian-Born Chinese (CBC) audience and analyzed their language usage and awareness of cultural iconography. Although this project was heavily focused on using technological tools and resources, I also experimented and drew from other fine art disciplines, such

as drawing, painting, sculpture, music, calligraphy, book arts, and art history. I learned new techniques and explored creating work with tools I never used beforeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is what is great about being in the art and design field, there are a variety of areas to explore and also overlapping of disciplines depending on the project. Missing Mooncakes has been an invaluable opportunity to learn, practice, explore, experiment, and research a variety of techniques and disciplines. Learning to record sound and methodologies involved in the process was instrumental in the interactivity of Missing Mooncakes. The chance to observe CBC families interacting with the storybook app provided significant feedback to improvements

on character design, language, color palette, sound, and user functionality. There are still many necessary refinements to Missing Mooncakes, but I hope that it can be a resource utilized by the audience to promote cultural understanding and cultural sustainability. From this project, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve really enjoyed creating design and art for the younger audience, and I think helping them become aware of cultural iconography and language can potentially spark discussions or support their reminiscences of culture and environments. I still plan to continue working on refining the details of Missing Mooncakes and design related promotional items. Missing Mooncakes is the beginning of other stories to come.

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那裡去 ?

to go from here? After three years in the MFA program, it

has definitely been valuable in learning and understanding more about design, research, and pedagogical approaches. During my experience in the MFA program, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had opportunities to analyze further into my interests in cross-cultural design, publication design, design for education, language learning, identity design, design processes, interactive design, and creating design work for various media and technological platforms. Throughout my studies, my research has focused on the design aesthetics, methodology, and influence of various cultures. In particular, exploring how to integrate techniques and modernizing traditional Chinese art into a hybrid design. I have been intrinsically motivated to learn more about my heritage and how design can be used to communicate cultural awareness. I am passionate to explore how design communicates to a multicultural audience and the progression to uncover the cultural influences on design. Cultural knowledge and attentiveness are integral in the development process of design solutions that in turn affect the delivery of the message. This continual investigation on the cultural infusion of western and Chinese symbolism, techniques and design aesthetics has contributed to the development of my thesis projectâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an interactive eBook story on the Apple iPad that teaches Canadian-Born Chinese children Cantonese and English while introducing cultural experiences. The end of the MFA program signifies the beginning to much more creative avenues to explore. Pursing my constant journey towards cultural understanding and how design can influence education, learning, and communication, I hope to continue my research and design processes in these areas to create more work that hopes to be inspirational, educational, and memorable.

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references Chow, Gladys. MFA Journey. 01 Sep. 2011 to 01 May 2014. Web blog. <http://www.mfajourney.com>. Hughes, Philip. Exhibition Design. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2010. Klanten, R., S. Ehmann, and F. Schulze. Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language. Berlin: Gestalten, 2011. Lupton, Ellen, ed. Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with type: a critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students (second, revised and expanded edition). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010. Lupton, Ellen and Julia Lupton. “Manifesto Mania.” AIGA. 19 Aug. 2008. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.aiga.org/manifesto-mania/>. Mau, Bruce. “An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.” Manifesto Project. Web. 16 May 2014. < http://www.manifestoproject.it/bruce-mau/>. Mau, Bruce, Jennifer Leonard, and Institute Without Boundaries. Massive Change. London: Phaidon Press, 2004 Meggs, Philip B. and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 5th edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011. Minick, Scott, and Jiao Ping. Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Neumeier, Marty. The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design. Berkeley: New Riders, 2006. Steiner, Henry, and Ken Haas. Cross-Cultural Design: Communicating in the Global Marketplace. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1995. Welch, Patricia Bjaaland. Chinese art: a guide to motifs and visual imagery. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2008.

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