Ideate || Design Thinking

For our ideation, we separated the ideas into two:

  1. Environmentally Packaging
  2. A fun experience

After presentation, we have decided to put our focus more on environmentally friendly packaging as a way of empowerment. We will also try to keep creating a fun experience, because things have to be fun in order for people to want them!

 

below is the video 🙂

 

 

Define || Design Thinking

How might we..:

  • How might we create a social experience while keeping convenience in mind?
  • How might we make packaging important?
  • How might we redefine the time they don’t have?
  • How do we empower individuals to care about the environment?

 

Here, we also had new insights:

  • Not just throwing away food, but a whole new expeiurence
  • Ordering food & environment, empowering people
  • Not giving them a choice to recycle, making people think it was as if they made the environmentally conscious decision to recycle

Empathy 2 || Design Thinking

Here, we re-did the interviews and asked better questions, and really tried to immerse ourselves by interviewing people during lunchtime. From here, we also tried doing the empathy map and characterisation, which helped us get better insights and create a proper POV.

Empathy 1 || Design Thinking

After our first presentation, we realised that we were taking a very business approach to this because we skipped the empathy aspect of the interviews, and started to go straight into the issue and suggested solutions. So, we redid another round of interviews in the next class.

 

Group Members:

  • Nurjannah Suhaimi
  • Dhruv
  • Ellie
  • Eduardo

Trip to da National Design Centre || Visual Communication 1

National Design Centre:

At the surprise visit to the National Design Centre, these are some of the different design practices that I managed to document:

Visual Communication
Architecture
Fashion

 

There are definitely a lot more design practices in the museum and around Singapore, i just haven’t been able to photograph them. From my observation, I find that design is important when trying to stay relevant and keeping up with the rest of the world. Some people would say that “money makes the world go round“, but so does design. If my experience in Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) has taught me anything, is that the creative industry plays an important role in the country’s branding and putting it on the map:

 

Singapore Changi Airport and the upcoming Project Jewel
Merlion, a narrative created by STB, and the Esplanade

 

My Observation

Oh how times have changed

In the mid 1980s, the NDC tells us that design has become a sort of a business tool to create market competitiveness. This tells me that in this period in Singapore’s history, we are only starting to follow trends brought onto us by new technologies, trying to modernise ourselves and follow the design trends of what i can only assume from the west (because they have a very established creative cluster). With this, we welcomed foreign artists and architects to help us as a country in our creative endeavours. But that period was before I was born (1996), so I didn’t really have the chance to experience this shift in Singapore’s creative industry. Also, Singapore has already moved past this stage. For me, I was able to experience art from year 2000 onwards, when I became a more conscious human being:

 

In 2005, the NDC tells us that design has now flourished and is now a more serious profession. During this period, there is also the rise of independent creators. For me, i’ve observed this through the rise of online shops, blogs and Youtubers. With such a rise, this also became a time of reminiscing the past, digging deep into what makes Singapore unique in it’s own little way. It was “anti-trend” in a way; not trying to follow trends of the west anymore, but build our own voice and identity as a country.

 

After visiting NDC, I also observed that we are now really living in exponential times. My dad, a creative entrepreneur, has always told me that it’s only a matter of time before jobs get taken over by automation. However, he also told me that being a creative professional is something that cannot be replaced by robots: and Singapore is at an advantage where our natural resource are human beings.

 

 

“How much do you want to contribute to Singapore’s creative industry?”

– Quote from my papa which kind of stuck to my brain because Yes! I want to contribute, but am I going to play it safe by doing what people want me to do or level up and take a risk by doing something out of what i’m expected of?

 

 

To be honest, Singaporeans are champions of complaining; often times I hear that you can’t survive with a creative profession in Singapore, you have to go to other countries. I may not be fully working in the creative field, but even I can observe that Singapore is a melting pot of culture and we have such a great location, being the, idk, HUB of Southeast Asia and all. We might not have an established creative cluster like in the west, but 2020 predictions say that Asia will be the next dominant global economic power, and Singapore has the potential to be the base for strategic design research. So, don’t be passive aggressive and do somethin’ bout it, kids. I don’t think i’ve reached a level of creative genius yet, but I feel like in order to do so, i’m going to have to find inspirations from both the west and from my own asian experiences to really contribute to the southeast asian creative industry. 

 

 

Future Goals

While I learned this in HTM, I think that this is still important to take note of the stakeholders who are affected by design choices we make. I also then further elaborated my points after having read the Design Masterplan and Blue Print:

 

Stakeholder 1: The Government

  • What are the goals of the Singapore government?
  • “Developing a biodiversity of a vibrant culture for the purpose of nation building” is what I can summarise it as.

 

Stakeholder 2: Local Businesses

  • How can it aid local companies?
  • “As cost and quality are no longer barriers of entry, companies now have to compete on innovation and design, with creative propositions based on new value and new user experience.”

For me, what this means is that it is no longer about value adding and designing to make things pretty, but it’s also about designing with a purpose. This brings me back to my Design Thinking module. While Design Thinking can get a bad reputation, it is only because people have been using the process wrongly. During the class, I actually had a chance to see the deign thinking process being used by a design firm that was working for an international beverage client.

To me, it really showed how both companies didn’t really use design thinking to the full extent as they skipped the Empathy aspect; instead, they designed with a focus on the problem that they observed, instead of the problem that is actually happening. So yeah, design helps to sharpen the competitive edge for businesses, but we really need to design with the right purpose. 

 

Stakeholder 3: Tourists

  • What kind of image do we want to put out for our guests?
  • Okay, maybe the name “Tourists” is very HTM, but it still boils down to the effect of our design choices on the world.

“By leading with design and design thinking, leaders acquire multi-dimensional perspectives generated from the disciplined field of design to propel organisations, enterprises, and nations beyond the realm of competition, bringing about a new revolutionary transformation” – Design Masterplan and Blue Print.

At NDC, I saw the exhibition where the theme was making the world a better place through design. The exhibition featured architecture and products that were environmentally conscious and sustainable.

 

Stakeholder 4: Locals

  • Will we like what we create?
  • Of course we would have to like what we create, or else we wouldn’t be creating it!

For me, design isn’t about making things pretty; that’s just decoration. Through design, it helps to develop individuals who can think creative. This also means that we need to let go of the fear of failing; instead, empowering the society and individuals.

 

How is this going to help me in my project?

With all of this research I’ve done, I’m going to set a list of things to consider when designing my poster for Design Week 2019. Nothing’s set in stone though:

 

Designing with the right purpose in mind:

  • What local stories and experiences do all of us share? (building our identity and voice, nation building)
  • What are we proud of as a Singaporean Society? (Uniqueness, in order to empower)
  • What are the underlying issues/goals for design in Singapore? (The hidden big picture; practical function, limited resources, cultural symbolism, human relations, effective communication, timeless beauty)
  • What does being a gateway to the future mean to you? (anti-trend, integration?)
  • How do I incorporate the message of sustainability? (environment stuff)

 

Some technical things:

  • Will it be pandering or subtly risky?
  • What are my limitations of a 2D print poster?

 

These are a lot of things to consider, but i’ll define what my main objective of the poster is going to be. After this, I think I will be paying a visit to the Arts and Heritage district again to observe for real real. yehhahhahhehh