This survey mainly target female of age between 13-30 years old who had been in a relationship before. This survey is handed out to both genders who may or may not have been involved in dating violence.
This survey aims to collect data on generally whether people are aware of the causes and effects of dating violence and where to seek help when needed. It is also to see how common it is for people to experience dating violence. It is also to gather the perspective of people who have never dated before and how would they react or help others when encountering such situations.
Survey Findings
Respondents’ gender: 43 females 17 males
Respondents’ age: Mainly 21-24 years old
Most of the respondent started dating at the age of 14-16 years old which is around the age of teenagers when we are studying in secondary schools.
A mixture of ideas regarding dating violence. Both emotional and physical level is mentioned.
Most respondent roughly knows the effect of dating violence.
There is a mixed opinion regarding how common is an abusive relationship.
80% of the respondent thinks that dating violence is a serious issue.
Top 3 situation that respondent strongly agreed and considered as dating violence are: Physical, Forcing, Threatening
Nearing half of the respondents have experienced dating violence before.
Most respondent experiences more verbal, emotional and manipulative abuse rather than physical abuse in dating violence.
Many of the respondents are emotionally affected.
The main reason for respondents in this survey still choose to stay in an abusive relationship is out of forgiveness.
Respondent’s reaction( including both those has been and those hasn’t been in an abusive relationship before): As a whole, some respondent felt that is easy and some felt it is difficult to identify whether if they are in an abusive relationship. While 16 out of 28 of those who have been in an abusive relationship before finds it not easy.
However, when it comes to leaving 43% of the respondents felt that it’s difficult.
Most respondents would give advice to break up but it is up to the person to do it or not. While others would just support them by listening.
Most respondents would rather prefer to resolve the issue of being in an abusive relationship by themselves.
69% of the respondents don’t know whether their close ones are involved in dating violence while 31% of them do know someone that is involved.
Top 3 suggested solution for raising awareness: Online platform, Video, Toolkit and interactive poster
73% of the respondents as a whole does not know of any helplines or specialist centers.
Final Key Conclusion
Approximately half of the 60 respondent had experienced an abusive relationship before and are mainly females that started dating during at age 14-16 years old.
Approximately 1 in 3 would rather prefer to solve the issues by themselves instead of seeking help.
23 out of 28 respondent who has experienced an abusive relationship before are unaware of any helplines.
People who had experienced an abusive relationship before find it not easy to identify that they are in one and it is difficult for them to get out of it.
CONTEXT: There is an increasing trend of dating violence. Many were unaware that unmarried woman faces the same violence as domestic violence. It is dangerous as they are not protected by Singapore law.
OBJECTIVES: The infographic aims to inform and gain more awareness so as to improve the situation and help the people around us that encounter dating violence.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Unmarried woman of age between 13 – 30 years old and the general public.
Landing PageHome page with daily emotion threadsStatistics of mood and life trackingInformation about healthy relationshipInformation for support and helplinesCreate new entry for “life assessment”, “mood rating” and “checklist”
Checklist for checking if one is in an abusive relationship
Daily mood rating pageDiary writing – Noting down events that happened with further feeling expressionsLife assessment – to assess satisfactory regarding various area in life so as to reflect and improve for the better.
Selflov is an app designed for women targeted between age 13-30 years old who may or are experiencing dating violence. It serves as a self-assessment and emotion tracking app that functions as a daily diary with a checklist that allows one to gains awareness. Secondly, the app also provides helpline and information resources to protect them from further being a victim.
This app aims to solve some of the common issues that most women who are in dating violence experiences. That is, to most women who are experiencing dating violence, they are unaware that they are in an abusive relationship or are unsure of where and how to seek help.
An MRT poster by the door that informs the general public regarding dating violence and serves as a platform that reaches out and direct women who may or are experiencing dating violence to download an app, Selflov(2nd deliverable). The app act as a self-assessment app that allows one to gains awareness, provides help and resources to protect them from further being a victim.
MOCKUPS
Mockup 1 – Final MRT Poster by the MRT doorMockup 1 – Final MRT Poster by the MRT door with human scaleMockup 2– Final MRT Poster at MRT environmentMockup 3– Poster on female toilet cubicle door (outside)Mockup 3 – Poster on female toilet cubicle door (inside)
Event Concept: For the camouflage event, I have gone with a more playful concept. It is an event for all ages to have fun with camouflaging themselves and also to find this character that is hiding around all sorts of different types of disguise.
Items: Invitation cards Mystery gift bag Tote bag Ticket Gift wrapper
Sketch: I have come up with a character and 5 different thumbnail sketches of various patterns that camouflage the character in various ways.
[Superstition Event]
Event Concept: The event aims to challenge visitors with their beliefs in Chinese superstitions. There will be games, installations and free goodie bags that stores inauspicious gifts such as pear juice, umbrella, and a handkerchief to play out the contradiction of the concept of giving the visitors gifts that shouldn’t be given.
Items: Invitation cards Tickets Tote bag (As the event goodie bag that stores all in inauspicious free goodies to be given out to visitors) Umbrella → Pear Packaging → Pear Juice Label(Inauspicious goodies #1, changes made due to execution and aesthetics reasons) Handkerchief(Inauspicious goodies #2, initial fifth item)
Sketch: I have come up with 4 different thumbnail sketches for superstitions that are mainly from the spirits category as they are more interesting. I have also included one inauspicious gift(pear juice) to play out the idea of challenging people’s beliefs in superstition by giving them the inauspicious gift as a gift for the event itself.
Superstition 1: Don’t sleep facing mirrors Superstition 2: Don’t stick chopsticks in your rice Superstition 3: Don’t open umbrella in the house Superstition 4(inauspicious gift): Don’t give pear(juice) as a gift.
Element: Chinese border with 4 corners of different version of the main key themed item. However later on it was changed to Chinese characters that symbolized the key themed item instead as it brings out the theme better and it is more consistent. Main center superstition accompanied by floating daily item placed randomly that will be seen in such a scene to create a sense of place.
Superstition 1: Don’t sleep facing mirrors I have drawn a person sleeping on a bed facing a huge mirror with ghostly figures that represented as her soul that is going towards into the mirror showing that her soul is being sucked inside.
Superstition 2: Don’t stick chopsticks in your rice I have drawn a comparison by putting a rice bowl with chopsticks sticking inside and a Chinese incense burner to show the similarity of both and how they are being associated. The ghostly figures here represented the incencse is an offering for our ancestors.
Superstition 3: Don’t open umbrella in the house I have drawn a house that is filled with household items with an opened umbrella and a ghostly figure floating out from it to show that opening an umbrella in the house attracts spirits.
Superstition 4(inauspicious gift): Don’t give pear(juice) as a gift. I have drawn a pear and put the two Chinese character of “pear” lí and “separate”lí that sounded similar side by side as a comparison at the bottom shows a broken rope to represent the idea of separation.
After further consultation, I have decided to go with the superstition event concept as it is more interesting and unique. Also, its a concept that not a lot of people have explored it in illustration before, therefore, I would like to give it a try and see how it turns out.
Style
For the style that I’m going with, I have come across this Korean Illustrator Subin Yang. I felt that the way she illustrates is really interesting. It is very stylised in a way that gives this hand-drawn feeling. Her style also closely explores themes such as home, culture, and identity. Basically very daily life illustrations with a sense of playfulness in her illustration. I felt that it would be quite suitable for the theme that I am touching on as well since a superstition is something really cultural and close to our everyday life. Some of her style’s traits -flat vibrant colors -simplistic facial features representation -outline on the inside of the illustrations -simple chunky body shapes
Color Palette
Since I’m doing something traditional, I have chosen to use those vintage Chinese color palette that is slightly desaturated to enhance the whole superstition theme.
Initial Rough Sketch/ Color Test
The initial color test was not ideal as all the illustration does not look like they belong to the same family. Therefore, after consultation, Prof Lisa suggested going with the green, red and yellow palette that looks the most harmonious as a whole out of the 4 color test. The rest of it was either too bright or dull. Hence, I went on to look for more similar color palette references to better help me with my illustration.
Process
Border – “Superstition 3: Don’t open umbrella in the house“Border – “Superstition 2: Don’t stick chopsticks in your rice”Border – “Superstition 1: Don’t sleep facing mirrors”Border – “Superstition 4(inauspicious gift): Don’t give pear(juice) as a gift”
During the process of creating the illustration, I have decided to first use Illustrator to create the outer borders for all four superstitions. This is because I felt that Illustrator is better at creating borders and shapes with symmetrical style. The borders were later imported to Photoshop for painting the main elements and center illustrations in as I wanted to give my illustration a more textured hand drawn/painted feel to it.
Final
Challenge Your Superstition Event – Invitation CardChallenge Your Superstition Event – Tote bagChallenge Your Superstition Event – Pear Juice LabelChallenge Your Superstition Event – Ticket
Mock Up
Challenge Your Superstition Event – Invitation Card MockupChallenge Your Superstition Event – Tote bag MockupChallenge Your Superstition Event – Ticket MockupChallenge Your Superstition Event – Pear Juice MockupChallenge Your Superstition Event – Pear Juice+Ticket Print Out
Reflection
Initially, I couldn’t imagine myself doing the superstition event as I find it difficult to convey superstition through illustration. Superstitions are usually an act of displaying a certain action, a belief or the combination of both rather than a scene or situation to be illustrated. Therefore I find it a little challenging at the start and unsure of how to translate it into illustrations. However, as I research more and tried to find references, I had a better idea of how to go about with the illustrations. The second challenge for me was balancing the color for all 4 illustrations to look harmoniously. At the start, looking at vintage Chinese labels was really very colorful and I did not have a focused color palette. After some discussion with Prof Lisa, we manage to narrow down on focusing on just one color palette. Overall, I have sort of stepped out of my comfort zone a little and tried to illustrate something that I’ve not done before and I’m glad that I did!
When I first got the project brief, I was excited to think of the different events that I would like to do. So the following are some of the initial event ideas that I have thought of.
-Sleeping event
-Camouflage event
-Superstition event
-Fortune Telling event
-Turn back time event
-Tears collection event
-OCD event
-Face your fear event
Initially, I have explored more on the first two events which are the sleeping and camouflage one. However, Prof Lisa suggested that superstition seems like a much more interesting idea as the sleeping event for people with sleeping disorder is quite expected. Hence, I further explored my ideas by choosing both the superstition and camouflage event to work on their potential.
[Research]
Before developing any sketches, I did some researched for both concepts.
Camouflage concept research
For camouflage, there are 4 basic types. Concealing coloration, disruptive coloration, disguise, mimicry.
Concealing coloration When an animal hides against a background of the same color. For example, animals such as polar bears and snowy owl in the Arctic have white furs that help them to blend with the snows backgrounds that surrounds them.
Disruptive coloration When an animal has spots, stripes, or patterns to break up their outline so it doesn’t stick out against the background. Animals such as zebras, leopards, and tigers use this type of camouflage.
Disguise When animals blend in with their surroundings by looking like another object. For example, insects such as Walkingstick, Katydid, Dead leaf butterfly and Flower Mantis looks like branches, leaves or flower is using it as a disguise to hide from predators.
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Mimicry
When animal or insects look like other dangerous, bad tasting or poisonous animals or insects. They pretend to be what they are not. Some snakes, butterflies, and moth use this type of camouflage. For example, such as Scarlet king snake, the Hawkmoth, and the Viceroy butterfly.
Superstition concept research
For superstition, there are so many of them all over different countries and religions. I have decided to do something that I felt more relatable to. Which is Singaporean Chinese superstition. There are so many types of superstitions within the Chinese superstition alone. So I decided to gather all of them and categorized them under 3 main categories; Luck superstitions, Spirit superstitions, and Inauspicious gift superstitions.
[Luck Superstitions]
-Number 8 Chinese believe that the number 8 is a lucky number because the pronunciation of the number ‘eight’ and the pronunciation of the word for ‘prosperity’ in Chinese is similar. Hence, the number 8 has much value in Chinese superstition.
-Number 4 In another popular Chinese superstition, the number 4 is considered as unlucky. Hence this number is preferably avoided for vehicles plate and houses unit numbers. It is so because the number 4 in Chinese has the pronunciation similar to the word ‘death’.
-Longevity noodles A popular belief is that an uncut noodle in the soup will increase longevity. If the noodle is cut it will cut the longevity.
-Red Red – A color representing happiness, beauty, vitality, good luck, success, and good fortune in Chinese culture.
-Black and White Black and white (bad luck) – associated with death and mourning. In Chinese culture, we wear white during funerals.
[Spirits Superstitions]
-Nails cutting at night The Chinese believe that clipping toe-nails or finger-nails at night would bring ghosts to that place.
–Knock on the door before you enter When traveling, always knock on the door before entering. This alerts any spirits of your presence so they won’t be startled by your presence and it also encourages them to leave.
–Don’t sleep facing mirrors Sleeping while facing a mirror is said to decrease your yang energy. Mirrors are not only full of yin energy but are also considered portals for ghosts all over the world. There is also a saying that mirrors might even be used to steal your soul. This is said to be especially dangerous when you’re tired and only half awake.
-Opening umbrellas is a no-no Spirits are said to take shelter under umbrellas, so unless you want to bring an uninvited guest back, it is advisable not to open an umbrella in the house, or leave it open outside the house.
-Stick chopstick in rice Do not stick your chopsticks into your rice straight down. It resembles the incense that family members burn to mourn a dead relative. It also resembles an offering which is placed on the altar at an ancestral shrine.
-Leave insects alone If there are any creepy crawlies like moths, butterflies, grasshoppers that visit your house during the time of hungry ghost festival, it is best not to kill them. The Chinese believe that bugs are a manifestation of spirits or ancestors
[Inauspicious Gift Superstition]
Shoe The older generation believes that giving shoes is akin sending the receiver away. This is because shoe (鞋 xie) in chinese sounds similar to evil (邪). Giving shoes as a gift is akin to giving the evil spirit to him/her, thus it is believed that the giver and receiver will lose in touch or break their relationship after some time. However, this is not applicable to giving shoes as a gift for your close family members. Also, it is believed that giving shoes among dating couples is a hint of telling him/her to “get lost”. Eventually, either you will initiate the breakup or your partner will run away from you.
Clock Giving a Chinese friend a clock as a present should be avoided because it sounds like “Song Zhong” in Chinese, which means a funeral ritual or a symbol of stealing time from the person and shortening their life.
Umbrella Giving a Chinese an umbrella means you want to end the relationship because umbrella (伞 san) sounds like separation (散) in Chinese, which means to separate. Hence, giving an umbrella as a gift should be avoided (except in the rain).
Pear The word pear (梨 Li) sound like leaving (离 Li) in Chinese, which has the same meaning as separation. Giving pears mean you guys could be separated in future.
Sharp objects Knife and Scissors are used for cutting. They symbolize breaking a relationship. Giving knives and scissors will cause the receiver to feel threatened too.
Handkerchief To give a handkerchief to someone (送巾, sòng jīn) sounds like 斷根 (duàngēn), a farewell greeting. This gift is especially inappropriate for a boyfriend or girlfriend — unless you want to break up. People generally give handkerchiefs at the end of a funeral and are a symbol of saying goodbye forever. Giving someone a gift like this insinuates you are saying goodbye forever, and severing all ties.
Mirror Mirrors are a bad idea for gifts throughout much of Asia, as they are believed to attract malicious ghosts. On top of that, they are easily broken and breaking things is a bad omen in Chinese culture.
