COP Final Essay

Should graphic designers have a cultural awareness and how does this impact the design process?

Introduction:

Due to technological advances which allow for more international clients and audiences designers now more than ever need to have a culture awareness. This essay will explore the extent to which culture has impacted and will continue to impact design in the future. The case studies and key arguments highlighted throughout this essay focus on specific topics within culture and design, with a specific focus on branding, along with the importance of designers needing to consider and research into culture when targeting design for the anticipated audience. As graphic designers we have a responsibility to be aware of our client’s culture in order to create work that is both culturally sensitive and of high design standard. 

Culture plays an important role in shaping our personal and societal outlook on life and design; ‘Culture creates the world we live in’ (Kidd, 2001, p10). This implies that it is vital for designers to keep up with designs trends, theories and strategies in order to create work that is both suitable for our clients’ cultures and relevant towards the present. The designers’ own culture will evidently influence the designs that they create and represent themselves through, meaning that the design will be an integration of both who they are, what appeals to them and what they think will appeal to the targeted audience. 

In order for the designer to create work that is both appropriate for the client and/or studio, the designer must always have knowledge on that specific culture ‘Understanding culture is essential to the process of design. Culture is a lens through which we view what is happening in our world’ (Barnwell, 2011, p.153). This is because every successful designer will undeniably experience creating work for a different culture at some point within their career; working in a studio may require designers to relocate, or on the other hand working freelance will mean that often clients will be international through recommendations from previous clients, reviews and/or a following.

The case studies and arguments throughout the essay focus on culture and identity, cross cultural psychology and sociology, which involves comparing the differences and similarities of Eastern vs Western design. Cultural stereotypes will be discussed and the effects this has on consumerism, society, and the effects that globalisation has on culture and design. These topics have been researched through a cross-section of books, websites, articles, visuals and a practical application of my subject matter. This question was also explored through an interview with Claudia Chanhoi, a freelance designer. Claudia Chanhoi comes from an Eastern background, has regular international clients, displays her work in exhibitions worldwide and has a large global following which made her appropriate for research.

This essay topic relates to me on a personal and professional level as a designer, having grown up as a British-Pakistani, born in an Eastern household in a Western society. I will piece together the differences and cross-cultural similarities I’ve noticed personally within both Eastern and Western cultures and how I believe this has had an impact on design and branding today.

International clients

As graphic designers, we may have international clientele that require us to relocate out of practicality, particularly if working in a studio abroad. This is when the differences between the design in our culture will be noticeably different to how we design for a different culture: 

‘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…If you are a designer who does designs for international clients you first really need to understand a few things.’ (Batagoda, 2019). 

Such as, religion, beliefs, history, cultural appropriation and how to be sensitive about it and political views; these will be explored in more detail throughout the essay.

It is important to understand the clients’ culture in terms of trends and common design preferences, as well as stereotypical cultural design choices to avoid in creating cliché or offensive work ‘A truly successful graphic designer develops an innate ability to continually grow and adapt to their ever-changing environment’ (May, 2018). Society is always changing, so it’s important to keep up with these changes and trends; this applies any type of artist or person that work internationally, not just graphic designers.

A designer should strive to create work that is well researched and culturally sensitive and therefore more professional; 

‘By adopting interdisciplinary research approaches, graphic designers can both question and affirm their intuitive inclinations, and place this process in conversation with peers and even the lay public’ (Bennett, 2006). 

Here Bennett is stating that with strong research a designer can communicate and convince not only their peers, but also a new audience/outsider. This would mean that designers have an increased chance of sales and will be more likely to get recommended to new clients by previous clients.

Cross-cultural psychology and sociology- Eastern vs Western

The importance of cultural research leads to a discussion about the actual differences between Eastern and Western design and why the contrasts exist, linking to culture and identity. 

Of course, the dissimilarities between Eastern and Western design are clear to see and acknowledge from a designer’s point of view, but also a consumer’s point of view:

‘A problem facing international marketers is whether or not to use the same marketing mix for the same product in Eastern and Western markets where social and economic systems differ.’ (Anderson P.M., He X, 2015) 

Eastern and Western design differences visibly relate back to the holistic identity of a culture and the individuals from that culture; this brings us to cultural psychology and sociology.

Much of what we do is different to how another culture would do the exact same thing; 

‘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?’ (Afzal, 2017). 

These cultural differences have strong links to design, even though they may not be obvious to us all; the Eastern way of eating is messier and more hands on. On the other hand, the Western way of eating is cleaner and neat. This relates back to design as Eastern branding is often very busy, vibrant and heavily image based, whereas Western branding is often more sleek and minimal; branding is catered to the consumer’s needs and habits; all of our daily life differences have strong links back to design, even the least significant things we do. 

Since food is such a significant representation of every culture, it means that as graphic designers it becomes our responsibility to play close attention to the design of the food packaging and brand identity; 

‘Research has shown that it is more effective to adapt the execution of advertising to local preferences as cultural dimensions influence the way in which people perceive (and accept) different advertising forms’ (L van den Berg-Weitzel, 2000). 

This especially applies to packaging design, as it is a form of communication. 

For example, Figure 1 shows packaging design for a KitKat chocolate bar; the first package is designed for a Japanese consumer, whereas the second package is designed for a British consumer. Despite them both communicating the same product, the use of imagery has clear differences in order to be appropriate for that culture. The obvious divergence in typography, illustration, colour and layout is a researched choice that shows strong consideration of cultural awareness between Japanese and English design. One of the important factors behind the success of the branding is due to an understanding of colour psychology. The colours red and yellow have been psychologically proven to be appetite stimulants, which makes them extremely appropriate for food packaging. 

This leads back to the point about designers having to adapt and research into a culture, particularly if having to locate yourself somewhere else in the world and working for international clients.

The Importance of Cultural Research within the Design Process

Research is one of the most important elements within the design process that decides whether the outcome is successful and appropriate: ‘Design has been, is, and will be, a process, a matter of informed choice and knowledgeable selection.’ (Barnwell, 2011, p.21) Not only does this imply that design is never a simple process but also that it’s an informed choice, meaning that design shows what we have learnt throughout the process from start to finish. Almost always, the design process starts with a brief and initial ideas, the next step is to gather thorough and informed research both secondary and primary before moving onto development and refinement stages. It is clear to see from a consumer’s point of view whether the designer has gathered enough cultural and social research which has informed the end design, or in other words; a lack of research can be clear to see.

If culture is not considered well enough during the design process, the project may be more likely to fail or not be as successful as it potentially could be. Bill Moggridge, the co-founder of IDEO mentions that it is extremely important to include the potential consumer at early stages of the design process; ‘remember that they are not designing for themselves and emphasizes how essential it is to fully understand the complete cultural context of the potential design’ (Barnwell, 2011, p.21). This links back to the point made in the introduction about how the designer’s own culture will evidently influence the designs that they create and represent themselves through, this means that the end product will be an interpretation of both who they are, their work aesthetic and what they hope will appear to the target audience.

It is more important to consider the client’s interests and tastes, rather than it being more about the designer trying to represent themselves by focusing on their own interests; ‘the user-focused approach helps develop a product through objective results based on how users would actually use and interact with it’ (Mosiichuk, n.d.). Ideally an divide of both the designer’s interests and the client’s interests would be the most convenient scenario for the designer, but this can be a difficult balance. This relates to the first step of design thinking theory; Empathise ‘empathy allows design thinkers to set aside their assumptions about the world in order to gain insight into users and their needs.’ (Dam and Siang, 2019). This focuses on the need to observe and empathize with the targeted audience of the design so that the designer can understand their experiences and needs, as well as physically putting themselves into that environment which helps to gain a deeper personal understanding of the topic. 

This relates to the fact that in order to be a successful designer/design studio, the designer must be open to working in new and unique ways instead of sticking to what they’re used to and interested in:

‘Doing research demands being comfortable with ambiguity in the early stages of a project in order to attain eventual clarity. This usually occurs through a process of synthesis- cutting the raw data down to size to find patterns and themes.’ (Freach, 2011). 

This suggests that the research that is gathered at the early stages of the design process should start off broad and open minded, then towards the development and finalisation stages the designer must narrow it down to what is most relevant and meaningful towards the targeted audience in terms of the details that communicate the aims of the project clearly. In order to gather appropriate research for the target audience, the designer should always aim to gather first-hand research as well as secondary, one way of doing this when designing for a specific culture would be through directly communicating their ideas with people of that culture (target audience).

Even though thorough and relevant research plays a huge part in the design process and end product success, design will always change and develop with time, potentially with the negative effect of becoming less unique. 

‘if marketers present a creative offering to a group, people will inevitably have different reactions…by keeping design homogenous, marketers don’t have the ability to learn from that distribution of responses.’ (Ross, 2017). 

With the increase of globalisation, design will potentially become more homogenous which could mean the loss of cultural identity, particularly for smaller and more local cultures that may become underrepresented by the increased standardization of global design. 

Culture and Identity- cultural psychology and beliefs

There is a need to consider how visual language changes from country to country and how we apply that to the designs we create; ‘The most important thing is that we do a design which is relevant and talk to the people we are designing for.’ (Batagoda, 2019). As humans, we like to feel understood and included, this applies when creating work for clients and making new connections through appropriate visual language. An example of how visual language is different across borders is through semiotics; the way in which symbolisation and signs create meaning, an obvious example being the alphabet. ‘Usually there are good reasons if someone doesn’t understand the real intention of a message and semiotics can help unravel that confusion’ (SignSalad, 2019). This proves that semiotics are a way in which we see the world and understand culture, they are a form of communication; a designers role is to successfully communicate.

Visual language and symbolisation are influenced by the differences between religion and traditions across cultures, in the same way that beliefs and religion influence how people from different cultures represent themselves. ‘Symbols allow ownership, uniqueness, represent a nation and its people and helps to identify different groups of people.’ (Batagoda, 2019). Symbology and language are a form of self-expression. Figure 2 shows the most popular cultural symbols across the globe. For example, the Om symbol (top row, third along), it is one of the most sacred sound symbols in Hinduism, known as the sound of the universe: ‘Om is one of the most important spiritual symbols and is found throughout many ancient Hindu texts, prayers and ceremonies.’ (Apparel, 2018) This is important as it shows that it carries high value in Hinduism since it has been carried throughout history through written text as well as religious rituals. 

Symbols and visual language are a reflection of a particular society, they communicate the deep history as well as the cultural beliefs 

‘symbols effect reality because their elements, their specific codes, placement in the plane of the world that they or their ancestors have outlined and the symbols established allow them to guide their actions in that world.’ (Rodríguez Sala-Gómezgil M.L. 1983). 

This implies that symbols have are meaningful within every culture as they come from our ancestors, they hold deep value as they have been carried throughout history until now. This means designers have a role to maintain symbolic meanings and continue to carry them through the work they create. Failure to do this it would result in loss of cultural identity, this is why it is important to be aware of symbols and their cultural meanings.

Colour also carries deep meaning within every culture as it also has strong links to religion and beliefs, in the same way that symbolisation does. Colour psychology plays a huge part in the design process and what a colour communicates to the consumer, in terms of how it attracts them and the emotions it provokes ‘consumers make a subconscious judgement about a product in less than 90 seconds of viewing it, and 62-90% of them base that assessment solely on colour’ This relates back to the case study about the KitKat designs which focus on the colours red and yellow, the colour red is proven to make you feel hungry, whereas studies show that colour yellow has been scientifically proven to make the brain release serotonin ‘Like red, yellow is also an appetite stimulant and tends to make people feel cheerful and optimistic’ (Packaging News, 2016). Another example of a food brand identity that also uses the colours red and yellow is McDonalds (Figure 3), one of the largest food companies globally.

This relates back to the discussion about religion and beliefs as colour psychology and symbolism of colour often stems from religious, spiritual, historical or social events. e.g. Valentine’s day is associated with the colour red; representing love. Which is similar to Pakistani culture as the bride wears red on her wedding day. However, in Nigerian and African culture, the colour red represents suffering and sacrifice ‘The flag of South Africa has red in it to symbolize the violence that occurred during its fight for freedom’ (Study.com, 2018) an obvious example of how cultures represent themselves through the combination of colour and symbolisation is flags. This proves that one of the details to pay close attention to when researching and designing for a different culture is colour and what it means to the consumer. This relates back to the McDonald’s branding and whether it actually is globally successful or if it is actually only appropriate for certain cultures, this raises the question about whether branding can ever be globally appropriate.

The point being made is that we have to consider design details that may not seem relevant to us but need to be considered for another culture that may have different interpretations and alternative perspectives in order to avoid cultural misappropriation or insensitivity; ‘Cultural competence is about our will and actions to build understanding between people, to be respectful and open to different cultural perspectives.’ (Makeitourbusiness.ca, 2017). This also relates back to the discussion about culture and identity as understanding and taking interest into cultures different other than ours is important as our culture shapes who we are.

Stereotypical design and cultural sensitivity

When designing and working for cultures different to our own, the consideration of being culturally sensitive within our work has extreme significance 'Culture and identity have been key issues in sociology since its inception. They allow sociologists to discuss who we think we are and how we behave as individuals and groups.’ (Kidd, 2001, p.28) this quote communicates the idea that our culture represents us as individuals as well as a whole. So, making sure we don’t create offensive or insensitive work for a different culture to our own is extremely important as it is so easy to make the mistake of cultural misappropriation, which relates back to the chapter about importance of cultural research. 

To be culturally sensitive simply means that we are aware of the differences between our culture and the next 

‘Cultural sensitivity is being aware that cultural differences and similarities between people exist without assigning them a value – positive or negative, better or worse, right or wrong.’ (Dabbah, 2019). 

This relates to graphic designers as they should recognise that their taste in design could influence and manipulate the way another group of people or culture is represented through what they design because they think it is better or more appropriate, which it may not be.

Designers can often get tempted into designing work for somebody similar to themselves in mind as due to their personal preferences, but designers must remember that they aren’t always their own audience 

‘Designers have a position of power because they are (partly) in control of the messages that are sent. Most people are not in that position, and in that we tend to forget our privileges’ (Thepoliticsofdesign.com, 2017).

 As designers we have a responsibility to be sensitive towards the client with the work we create for them since we have more power and the ability to make a difference to society and culture with our work. Graphic designers in this way act as a mediator of the message between sender and receiver.

Furthermore, being culturally sensitive when working for client’s links back to graphic design in many more ways; take the discussion about culture and food packaging for example. Food packaging design often represent a culture through stereotypical imagery. However, this may not always be culturally sensitive and could end up being offensive to that culture. For example, certain audiences may look at a Mexican spice packet which uses an image of cactus and instantly assume that it is ‘authentic’ Mexican food. However, the Mexican culture shouldn’t just be represented through an image of a cactus, in the same way that Indian food packaging shouldn’t be communicated through an image of the Taj Mahal. Instead, if the designer is to design something food related, they should gather deeper research into factors relating to the food or flavour; the history of it, where it was picked, who picked it, what part of that country it comes from, the food process…and then create culturally sensitive work based on the thorough research that they have gathered throughout the design process and carried through to the end outcome. 

Another example of this could be a brief that has been set for the designer to create a set of advertisements for a sports brand located in India; the typical sport that a non-Indians may associate with India is cricket rather than football, swimming, hockey or basketball for example, as India has a history of cricket wins. However, India is famous for more than just cricket as a sport, although it is the most popular. The designer should research into the history of Indian sport and then create their designs based on that; primary research gathered from a person of that culture such as Indian sports teams members and athletes or even the Indian community as a whole would also be beneficial towards how successful the end design is. 

Figure 4 shows the personalised advertising imagery that was created to represent India for the ICC Cricket World Cup; the international championship of One Day International cricket which is held every 4 years. Each country which participated in this in 2019 had a personalised poster design created for them using illustration and photographs appropriate to their culture. The brand agency Matta was hired to create these posters, Matta is an ‘Award-winning, independent, creative agency for sport, health, fitness and lifestyle brands’ (Matta, 2019). The imagery created for the India poster is successful as it represents India and cricket in a culturally sensitive and appropriate way through using no stereotypical imagery and focusing more on photographs of current famous Indian cricket players, instead of typical imagery that could have been tempting to use such as the Indian flag, typical Indian colours, cricket bats, India highlighted on the globe etc. It is clear to see that the designers that worked on this project have a strong cultural awareness which clearly impacted the successfulness of designs.

Being culturally sensitive within our work relates to the discussion about how design is one of the key elements that shapes a culture and represents a different way of life. ‘The way of life of a group, its culture, is the product of a massive social undertaking: the result of the collective, combined and interrelated efforts of all its members’ (Kidd, 2001, p.9). This implies that a culture represents the community as a whole, not just singular members.

However, the need to communicate a different culture appropriately through design raises the debate of whether sometimes things are culturally appropriate for one culture but not appropriate for the next culture due to the different audiences. 

Some designers may argue that cultural misappropriation is bound to arise and create conflict when designing for a different cultural audience; 

‘we should carefully listen to both sender (often the client) and the receiver (the audience or target group) and accept that mistakes can, and will be made in the process.’ (Thepoliticsofdesign.com, 2017). 

This implies as being culturally appropriate and sensitive towards other cultures within our designs may come as trial and error, mistakes will be made as we can’t put ourselves in the exact position of someone from a different culture, as we have been raised and brought up in a different culture to them. The design process is a learning process, relating back to the discussion of importance of research as thorough research will be our saviour when designing something as appropriate as we can.

Furthermore, throughout the online interview with Claudia Chanhoi, she mentions that she finds "cultural appropriation" a bit inappropriate within design due to that fact that as individuals we can’t assume what seems more or less culturally appropriate to the majority; 

‘Since we can easily get called out by things that we say and everyone has become overly politically correct, it's safe to think about the objectives of the design when it involves any cultural content but not to let creativity be limited by it.’ (Chanhoi, 2019) 

Here, Claudia argues that designers can try their best to be culturally sensitive, but there will always be the potential of causing offence and we shouldn’t let that fear limit the creativity behind a design. 

Another issue that may cause cultural insensitivity and misappropriation within the designer’s work is the actual client’s requests and needs within the brief that they have sent; 

‘More often than not, a graphic designer receives text and images from a client. If such material is offensive or inappropriate, it might be difficult to confront your client’ (Thepoliticsofdesign.com, 2017). 

This relates to the fact that often it can be difficult to confront clients about changes and different approaches to take than the ones they have sent out, as not every client is open to change, as well as confrontation having the potential to jeopardising the work and its related income. Dealing with clients is about demonstrating an openness to learn about their product and their culture, but especially if your client does not represent the culture they are targeting your work for, it is equally important to communicate your own well researched ideas back to the client. Ethical considerations are extremely important if the client does not represent the culture that they are targeting your work for.

This helps in establishing a good working relationship as well as working in a culturally sensitive way. However, this level of research may become increasingly unnecessary due to the rise of globalisation, as earlier mentioned could mean that being culturally sensitive within design may have less significance due to loss of culture of the gradual merge of different cultures. 

Globalisation- The impacts on the future of design and culturally identity

Globalisation simply means world trade, meaning that globalisation has clear and strong links to cultural and cross-cultural development. Globalisation wouldn’t be possible without technology; graphic design and communication come with technology, meaning graphic design has influenced the rise of globalisation; ‘The key factors moving us toward peak globalization and making it economically viable are new technologies’ (Garrett, 2017). Globalisation is not only an exchange of products, but an exchange of services, knowledge, cultural goods and languages takes place; almost everything is shared. 

The impacts of globalisation on local culture are both good and bad, the good impacts mean that businesses in less industrialised countries have the opportunity to become part of international production. On the other hand, the rise of globalisation negatively impacts the growing caps between the rich and poor between cultures which leads to cultural deterioration; 

‘it can raise the standard of living in poor and less developed countries by providing job opportunity, modernization, and improved access to goods and services. On the downside, it can destroy job opportunities in more developed and high-wage countries as the production of goods moves across borders.’ (Kolb, 2018). 

This implies that because the rise of globalisation has links to graphic design and technology, designers may be partially responsible for the negative impacts on local culture, which makes designers question whether what they’re doing is ethical.

The growth of globalisation relates to graphic design as every brand should consider globalisation within their branding; ‘Globalisation also confronts companies to decide between ‘global’ or ‘local’ featured design of products.’ (Diehl and Christiaans, 2006).

This means that the design of a product could potentially suffer from losing its cultural aesthetic as it now has to be designed to work globally instead of it being targeted towards a local audience. However, brands can also benefit from using a more global design, a brand that was positively impacted by considering globalisation within their branding and communication skills is Airbnb: 

‘Key to Airbnb’s global strategy is localisation, with a dedicated localisation department for making the site accessible around the globe, as well as local storytelling – essential for developing trust and a sense of community between hosts and travellers.’ (Animucka, 2015) 

The new Airbnb logo (Figure 5) also uses the universal Belo symbol; symbolising ‘belonging’ no matter where you are travelling to.

This shows that if a brand decided to continue catering towards a local culture within their designs, there may be a higher chance of decreased sales; ‘A company’s failure to acknowledged cultural diversity often limits its product’s marketability’ (Diehl and Christiaans, 2006). Implying that globalisation will continue to have a larger negative effect on local cultures. This relates to the argument that men and women of the future need to be prepared for cultural identity loss ‘They must be prepared for multi-cultural interaction, values changes, cosmopolitan way of life, yet struggling to maintain their own ideals and identity’ (Ketudant, 2007). The future generations of graphic designers will struggle to find a balance between adapting to what is changing, whilst trying to maintain local cultural heritage within design.

Globalisation will continue to have both negative and positive impacts on cultures, it’s not something that can be reversed;

‘Globalisation’ is not about what we all, or at least the most resourceful and enterprising among us, wish or hope to do. It is about what is happening to us all.’ (Bauman, 1999, p.60) 

This suggests as designers we must prepare for the inevitable rise of globalisation as this will impact our cultural awareness as societies change and cultures become more homogenised. 

Conclusion

 In conclusion, culture makes us who we are, as individuals and as communities. Not only as designers but as humans it is our role to care about others in terms of their backgrounds, interests, heritage and daily life, as we would want the same. As designers this is important to remember because without a client, a graphic designer basically has little to no purpose, whether that be freelance or studio work; the designer and client need to have a good relationship. Designers will gain more clients through showing their understanding of the audience’s culture and therefore will be more likely to receive further employment as this shows that the designer is determined to keep themselves culturally aware and up to date with culturally changes.

Designing work appropriate for different cultures definitely relies on the amount of research the designer has gathered throughout the design process; however, it sometimes can be quite difficult to cater to a specific target audience when considering needs different to what the designer may be used to. Designers should still have a strong cultural awareness which will of course develop through their career as they begin to work for different audiences. A happy client equals more sales and recommendations, which of course leads to a happy designer. A designer should aim to communicate what they are about, their design aesthetic, the client’s interests and the target audience’s culture all in one. If a designer truly loves and cares about the success of their practice, cultural awareness will always play a significant part in their work. 

Designers must know that there will be barriers in terms of different tastes, what they see as appropriate whereas what is actually appropriate. Designers must be prepared for this and therefore see these barriers as learning processes and be open to working in new and different ways; design is never a smooth process. This relates to the impacts of globalisation as it will definitely be a barrier that graphic designers will face in the future, the rise of globalisation will have a damaging effect on culture in terms of it being lost or cultures gradually merging together, which will therefore impact the design process. The only thing that designers can do is be prepared for the changes to come through keeping themselves up to date with what is happening in the world.