Culture driven design.
In my final year of VisCom, I took part in a section of design that was as informing as it was interesting—cross-cultural design. The class entailed coordinating with a buddy class based in Tianjin, China to discuss issues that were plaguing each respective nation. What resulted was an eye-opening experience on designing with other cultures in mind.
“Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future”
— Robert L. Peters
Using ancient lettering to obscure the messsage.
My aim was to show the viewer that to know the authentic truth of media is to read the between the lines investigate to make a decision for yourself. We are entering a time where misinformation spreads faster and easier than the truth, simply because the truth takes longer. It is up to us to remain critical of
the information we ingest.
The idea was simple: use the beautiful Hanzi typography to create a message to the people that slips beneath the active censoring and bogging down of the air waves with state-sponsored misinformation. To do this, I could not be direct in my messaging, as a simple test run on WhatsApp revealed that most messages regarding non-state-approved topics—like climate change—simply would not send, in addition to any messages criticizing the CCP’s active misinformation mill.
To get around this, I weaved symbols representing honesty and subterfuges in a way that, at first glance, creates a disorienting visual. This causes the viewer to come closer to investigate where the strokes lead.
