Intercultural Design Final Project

Week 6 - Week 9
Chan Meiling / 0337771
Intercultural Design/  Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University / Final Project 

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Project 3

After some discussions with our group, we've decided to make a zine about Lefkaritika and teaching our audience some simple techniques to embroider. Our group first discussed the distribution of tasks in the group. We divided our task into three sections for the first progression: layout design, illustrations, and zine content.

Firstly, we decided to come up with the content of the zine before we started planning the visuals of it. Miwi and Jon worked on content on the zine after our discussions.

Zine Content

Tze Earn and Aisyah worked together on the mood, style and colour schemes of our zine, They suggested to create a risograph zine which is a printing method that prints colour by colour, overlapping each print.  

Moodboard Created

Meanwhile, Fazal and I worked together on the layouts. Since I have not learned about advanced typography, Fazal showed me some examples and explained to me how to make the layout to look balanced.

Layout created

After the feedback, we decided to create an Instagram page to use an aesthetic feed to catch the attention of younger generations and attach our zine link so that people will be able to discover and read about our zine. 

Since creating an Instagram account about Lefkaritika was my idea and I've always been interested in arranging and planning feed on Instagram, I've decided to try coming up with contents and illustration ideas after deciding on the colour palettes and mood board while the rest are still doing the zine.

Instagram Feed Colour Palette and Moodboard

Then, Miwi and I then started to work on the Instagram posts and the contents for the page. After creating some posts, I used an app called Preview to plan our feed before posting in on Instagram so that our feed will look more organised. 

Planning Instagram feed before posting

Before public our Instagram account, I posted the posts that we have created according to the feed arranged previously and started writing captions for our posts. I tried to make the captions as engaging as possible while taking into account the tone and the contents of the captions.

I used picking up a new hobby as a way to introduce people to start reading our zine and introduce the craft in a more subtle manner. 

This is because as a frequent Instagram user, I observed that there are many shops or accounts that often use methods like this to gain more attention and grow their followers, which could lead to a larger audience knowing and learning more about their products later on.

Writing captions

Moreover, we have also created some Lefkara lace-inspired wallpaper and shared some images about the Lefkara village in our story highlights as well. We also inserted the link to our e-zine so that people can learn more about the craft.

Instagram account created

Besides, I've also came up with an idea to create Instagram filters to reach out to more people as well. Since filters are widely used by the younger generation on their Instagram stories, their followers would be likely to use and share the filter they saw on someone's stories and the cycle will go on to reach a wider audience.

Hence, Tze Earn helped to create an Instagram filter by using the wallpapers and asset we've illustrated.

Instagram Filter Created by Tze Earn

Final E-Zine 

Final Presentation

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FEEDBACKS

Week 7

After showing sir our zine progress, sir asked us about who our target audiences are. Since our target audience is mainly young people he said that he is not sure about how these young people will get access or discover our zine to read or will it attract their attention.

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REFLECTIONS

Experience:

Throughout this whole module, it was such honestly quite a tough process because it is not easy to come up with a decision and just execute our ideas out without thinking in-depth on what we are doing could possibly lead to what outcome we desire to see. 

Observations:

I realised that being observant and the ability to think critically are also some of the most important things in this module. I think that it is crucial to take note of the small little details in one's culture in order to bring out the originality and the feeling of the culture gives off while making sure what we are doing are solving our research problem which wasn't that easy as I thought as well. 

Findings:

In this module, I've really learnt so many things about the Lefkara lace and Leftkara village and it was honestly a meaningful journey for me personally as I was the one who suggested the culture because of the memories I had with my grandmother.

In our zine, there's a saying that goes ''When you hear the stories, you become part of the tradition; the passion for it hasn't gone away. It is contagious, it energises you.'' which I find it true. Seeing how everyone in the group is so happy because what we've done have led more people to get to know about the craft makes our heart full knowing that we are doing something meaningful for our project and playing a part in preserving this beautiful craft. Besides, our interviewee, Madam Julia which is the Leftkaritika adviser also followed us on Instagram as well!! After doing this module and learning so much about the culture, I would really want to visit the Leftkara village in Cyprus and see the lefkaritika pieces in real life someday.

Lastly, I am also grateful for all my group mates. Everyone in the group is willing to contribute, supportive and responsible and we worked well together which makes things go much smoother and I am thankful and had fun working with them!

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FURTHER READING

The 21 Best Instagram Marketing Tips for 2021 (Cheat Sheet)

22 Ways to Get More Instagram Followers Right Now

Why Instagram Filter Marketing Is Ever More Important For Your Brand Now