Culture and Cross-Cultural Psychology Research

When writing my proposal for my COP question, I was really interested in looking into how psychology ties into culture influences on design, particularly cross-cultural psychology as this is extremely relevant to what I am looking into.

It is important to research into different cultures and the differences between them, but also cross-cultural similarities and how this relates back to design. This links back to globalisation which I have also been researching on over summer which was advised by Pete when receiving initial feedback on my proposal (see blog post 'Article Research 2')

Below shows the research and quotes I have gathered from 2 books that I found most interesting out of the ones I have read.

Book: Design, Creativity & Culture, an orientation to design
Authors: Maurice Barnwell

Page 15:

• “His award winning Skycap, the first helmet designed for snowboarders, sold well in North America but not in Japan…This was more than a matter of price or aesthetic; it was a matter of size- the helmets did not fit.” – this is relevant as it is a literal biological difference between the cultures, a western designer wouldn’t have even thought about it. 

^ From that project came SizeChina, which is a organisation tries to make things for accessible and workable to Chinese people in the way that its designed…
This could relate to how western and eastern design has become more similar and adaptable to more cultures through time…a positive way of  making design and function work across different cultures. (page 16 and 17)

Page 153:

Cultural Ideology of design:

• “Understanding culture is essential to the process of design. Culture is a lens through which we view what is happening in our world” – this could be used around the intro section, when talking about how important culture is towards design and how much impact it has had on the development of design through history.

• “Design gives identifiable form to the iconic beliefs and values of a culture"

• “When we eat we have to ‘interpret’ the designed environment” as in how do we eat when were there, how do we greet, how do we buy a bus ticket- each culture has a differently designed way of behaving…this ties into social cultural psychology?

• “When I was a student at Birmingham College of Art in England, it was fashionable to consider ourselves as Buddhist…we were fascinated by Zen but our ‘understanding’ was very superficial” this could relate to a case study about design and cultural appropriation…how you have to be careful when adapting a different cultures design/fashion/trends into your culture…is it culturally appropriate? 

Page 156:

• “In western clothing the fabric is cut precisely to the body shape and then sewn” Whereas in Eastern clothing (Pakistan/Arab countries etc, my nan even) the clothes are cut more loosely to the body, less tight…in order to look more modest and minimal, this plays on how religion and beliefs play such a huge part in the differences in design across cultures. Fashion/clothing differences and comparisons could be one of my case studies?

Book: Cross- Cultural Psychology 
Authors: John W.Berry, Ype H.Poortinga, Marshall H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen

Page 73 (Gender behaviour):

Gender and culture could be one of the case studies/theories discussed in my essay- as gender obviously plays a big part in design…

• ‘girls are generally are socialised more towards compliance (nurturance, responsibility, and obedience), while boys are raised more for assertation (independence, self-reliance, and achievement)"

^ – In different cultures this will be true to certain extents, and obviously this will have an impact on design of certain products- i.e. in Asian culture, the design of a women’s shalwar kameez is to be modest and cover most areas of the body whereas there isn’t as much emphasis on men looking modest in Asian culture. But whereas in western culture, women can often dress more freely and revealing if they like and they can even wear the same clothes as men and often do e.g. a shirt and jeans.

Could this point above relate to how often Asian/eastern design (clothing, accessories, house decorations, pillows and blankets, cutlery) are very detailed, feminine, patterned, experimental as they’ve been designed by mostly women, as jobs like these are associated with and given to women in eastern culture, whereas typically men are expected to do more hands on jobs which require bringing most of the money in for the family.

Cohorted Placement Update

During my time at Cohorted, I feel like I have gotten a real taste of what working in a studio is like (even though every studio will be different) I feel like I have really enjoyed working in a studio environment and it is very suited to me. 

As my time at Cohorted has begun to come to and end as my original plan was to leave in September before university starts again (before my actual contract with them ends in November), I felt like it was important to let my manager know now and have a quick chat with him.

The chat with Anthony was very quick and brief as it was quite a busy day but the main things that he mentioned was that it would be a shame for them to lose me as one of their designers completely and that the company can work around my uni schedule and do half days for example.

This chat got me thinking about several different things, which is why I felt like I needed a follow up phone call and chat with Anthony in order to get some answers.

Things to mention and ask:

• Would I be able to do a couple hours a week even? What would be the minimum per week...Since I’ll have uni deadlines some weeks etc
• Need to mention to him that I’ll be in uni at least 3/4 days a week and at least 4 close to deadline
• Would this just be until November when my contact ends?...If he says I could carry on afterwards then ask whether it will still be an unpaid internship or will it be a paid job properly working for them from then onwards 

UPDATE

This morning I arranged a phone call with Anthony to go over some questions and thoughts that I had.Notes made from phone call:

• Anthony said the opportunity is there to start working full time and paid for them after university

• They can work around my uni schedule and be as flexible as needed- I told him Wednesdays would be the only definite day off weekly and he said I can do half days etc

• He also mentioned that they need me as much as I need them, as the company is growing bigger

• They wouldn’t wanna lose me completely and said he wants to introduce me to more of the design content for the brand moving further, as the quality of my work is good.

• Anthony mentioned that I have the opportunity to start adding more of my own creativity into the design content for Cohorted- as I now know all the basics, rules, and aesthetics that Cohorted use for their branding. Moving forward I will be focusing more on design for print (booklets and packaging) as most of the work I've done so far is design for screen.

I was really happy to hear that they want me to continue working for them as a paid job after graduation as I feel that my biggest worry for after graduation was struggling to find a design related job in a studio, so its a massive relief that I have something secured. But I will of course still keep my options open for other jobs and freelance work.

I spoke to family and friends about this and they all agreed that I should keep this placement throughout university where I can if it means I have secured a job for straight after graduation. Also, third year of university is still my biggest priority so it is convenient that they can be flexible with my uni timetable.


Furthermore, the contract for my unpaid internship is till November, so at some point when I have my next chat with Anthony and ask whether I would start getting paid after that as I think that is fair.

A selection of the work I have done over the past month:

Some examples of my work used across socials over the past month:

Creating a Website

I've spent the past 2 days creating my website using Adobe Portfolio. I was wanting to create a website for a while as it's definitely needed as a creative when promoting yourself, contacting creatives and to have links to on social media platforms as well as physical material when appropriate. I used Adobe Portfolio to create it as it was recommended to me by other creatives and it's also free with Adobe Creative Cloud which is great.

I chose my top 8 projects that I've done over the past couple of years. Each project link has a small description about it at the top and a selective of the best images that represent that brief. Each project page also includes links to my design Instagram account (@laveeza.zdesign), my Linkedin account and my email.

The homepage also includes this information, as well as a separate contact link if people wish to contact me through my website instead.

The 8 projects that I included on my website so far:

• Durex campaign
• Celebrating Urdu publication
• Barcelona collages
• How social media affects you campaign
• End of year show branding (The Whole Package)
• Quiet Storm (project based on a music genre)
• Wet n Wild rebrand
• Crep Check app

I chose these projects as I feel they best represent my style of work and what I'm interested in. I also felt that it was important to show a wide range of different design outcomes to show what I'm capable of creating.

My website: https://laveezaz.myportfolio.com/

Home page

A few of the project pages (top of each page showing the description):

Contact page

My website included on my design Instagram bio

Article Research- Impact of Culture on design/Differences Between Cultures

Articles focused on:

1: https://uxplanet.org/impact-of-culture-in-modern-design-techniques-1405d30663e3
2. https://www.designswan.com/archives/difference-between-eastern-and-western-lifestyle.html
3. http://creativeword.uk.com/blog/localization/culture-influences-design/

1: Impact of culture in modern design techniques:

This point could be mentioned near the introduction or when writing about a specific culture/country, at the beginning of the topic:

• ‘The designs are inspired by the culture and religion of a country. The graphic design origin from different countries has different values when presenting information, applying colors, the hierarchy of information and what the designer is going to present. If you are a designer who does designs for international clients you first really need to understand a few things.’ 

– This could be an example/point to mention that it is extremely important for designers that often design for international clients (which a lot of freelance AND studios do), so it is important to have relevant knowledge on the specific culture of where the client is.

More things to consider when designing for international clients would be how the graphic designs in that culture/that country changes, stay up to date with their changing design trends!. Also need to consider how visual language changes from country to country.

Following this…look into Indian graphic design and European graphic design or Swiss design. Compare the differences and state how the specific design they use is appropriate for that culture.

• ‘The most important thing is that we do a design which is relevant and talk to the people we are designing for.’

2. Difference between Eastern and Western Lifestyle

These points could be mentioned late introduction/middle when going deeper into social differences and when discussing social psychology- how the cultural lifestyle has a big role in influencing design in that country:

A) What I can gather/relate to from this is that in western culture explaining your point is a lot simpler and easier, were as in eastern culture its harder and more complicated as if feels like there is a lot more to consider, more people to consider, where you are, what you’re doing etc, in a lot more depth.

B) The image above links to how western design is often more minimal and sleek than eastern design- which is often more busy, but exciting and vibrant- this is clear to see in even social situations in eastern and western culture, the way we line up! Even the way we line up looks and is designed different (without us realising it obviously)

C) The differences in design through each culture is shown even through what we wear and the colour of our skin: white bikini on dark skin makes a tan stand out more which is seen as more attractive. Whereas, in eastern culture (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India) it is seen as more ‘attractive’ the fairer your skin is (this is what I have experienced and seen through my own upbringing) – so wearing darker colour makes you look paler because of the contrasts

3. How culture influences design

• ‘Where do you eat dinner? How do you sit? Do you speak while you eat? Who do you eat with? What do you eat? How do you eat? Do you drink with dinner? Only after? Do you like hot and spicy or sweet?’

-The point is simply that there is design in every single thing that we do- we do things differently through each culture, through the way we speak, eat, think etc. These every day activities impact how we see design (whether we think something is good or bad design, aesthetics, scale etc…

The quote below could be used when discussing how we do everyday activities in a differently designed way, because of our different cultures and what is appropriate to that culture:

• ‘As a result any design around the themes of dinner would be very different for both cultures. Would you use a knife & fork as imagery to sell dinner wares to a Japanese audience? Or would chopsticks be more relevant?’