Intercultural Design Final Project: Research & Reflect
07.02.22 - 25.02.22 (Week 6 - Week 8)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B'
Creative Media
Intercultural Design
Task 3 / Research & Reflect
INSTRUCTIONS
To-Do List:
As proposed in our data collection slides, we have three ideas for our design: designing a cosplay costume, creating a digital portrait, and creating a doll cosplay. Majority of us voted to design a cosplay for our final project.
We received feedback from Mr Asrizal, which was that our approach in designing a cosplay is straightforward, and encouraged us to look into alternative ideas. Taking note of his feedback, we decided to settle for the digital portrait.
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| Figure 1.1: Sketch of digital portrait idea |
I pitched the idea of a digital portrait with multiple looks. The subject will have a true look, which will be shown in the rectangular section. Then in the rest of the polygons will be various cosplays the subject is wearing.
Emma added on to the idea by suggesting that we use a base portrait so the subject's general shape will stay consistent. She found us a base portrait to work with and split the parts according to the idea I pitched earlier. |
| Figure 1.2: Base portrait, a photograph of Laura Gywneth Butler taken by @anyaholdstock |
Each of us picked a part of the portrait to work with. Since there is only 6 section that needed redesigning, I settled on the role to combine everyone parts and make adjustments if need be.
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| Figure 1.3: Mending the white spaces in between the parts |
I decided to add a frame around the 'true look' of the subject to emphasize her look.
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| Figure 1.4: Drawing the frame around the base portrait |
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| Figure 1.5: Adding light and shade to refine the frame |
Final Outcome:
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| Figure 1.6: Finalised digital portrait |
"The message behind the portrait is to bring awareness about the real reason why people enjoy cosplaying. Through our research and exploration, people view cosplay as a unique hobby or a declaration of love for their favourite characters. However, cosplaying goes beyond than just fun and games. For some, it is the freedom to escape from reality of who they are and be another person from a fictional world. It also brings a sense of belonging when cosplayers gather together and cosplay. Cosplayers get to feel special and appreciated when others recognise the characters they are cosplaying as and ask for a photo. Furthermore, some cosplayers enjoy the process of planning and creating a costume, so getting recognised for their efforts make the hobby much more rewarding."
We made a presentation slide and recorded ourselves explaining our ideas, choices and message behind the design we created.
Figure 1.7: Final project presentation slides
REFLECTIONS
The assignment has challenged me to reflect on my findings and how to best show it through a design. With the help of a deliberate discussion and Mr Asrizal's feedback, my group had chosen a less straightforward method of design. Nonetheless, I found it to be very fitting to the theme. It is through the digital portrait that we managed to get our message across— whereas the other ideas might just seem more of a mimicry of our topic, and does not show what we have learned from studying cosplay culture. Overall, I found the outcome to be satisfactory and have learned a bit about reflecting on a design to best represent a message.
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