Intercultural Design Workshop 2022

Idea

The assignment sets the main focus on orientation signs and in particular WC pictograms. Pictograms should be self-explanatory and understandable in any context and occasion especially in an international context such as an airport.

In the workshop, our main goal was to create WC signs for women and men that incorporate Indonesian and German culture. In our group, we concentrated on how to visualize both cultures in a unified set of pictograms and decided to focus on Javanese and Bavarian culture.

Research

An essential part of our research was about the particularities of the Javanese and Bavarian cultures. We observed the Javanese culture that contains Wayang puppets. It is a traditional form of a puppet theater originated on the Indonesian island of Java. It has many different forms such as wayang kulit (a flat leather shadow puppet), wayang wong (human wayang), wayang golek (three dimensional wooden puppet), wayang beber (scroll painted presentations of stories) and more. The dramatic stories depict mythologies, such as episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, as well as local adaptations of cultural legends. Wayang is one of the peaks of Indonesian culture, which is the most prominent among many other cultures. The traditions, which have continued to develop over more than a thousand years, are also a medium for information, preaching, education, philosophical understanding, and entertainment. UNESCO designated wayang kulit, wayang klitik, and wayang golek, as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity on November 7, 2003.

Bavarian clothing contains Lederhosen for men and a dress called Dirndl for women. These pieces were traditionally worn in the south of Germany and also across the border in Austria where they are regarded as a folk costume. These originated as clothing for Alpine peasants between the 16th and 18th centuries. Dirndls and Lederhosen are also worn as party clothing at Oktoberfest celebrations around the world.

Intercultural Perspective

In the course of the workshop and by working in our group, we were capable of finding small differences in the approach of operating on tasks of the Indonesian and German students. The Indonesian students started to work on their sketches by collecting ideas and inspiration in the form of a moodboard first. Later, the moodboard helped them to create scribbles mostly focusing on the semantics. In contrast, the German students got inspired by looking at designs and pictograms and tried to put their ideas straight on to paper while keeping the syntax mainly in mind.
We discovered that this also applies to the general differences of the western and eastern design culture. While the western countries use a more simple and minimalistic look, the eastern countries tend to incorporate more traditional values in their designs.

Work Approach

On the tool figma, we were able to work together and started with assembling a collection of pictograms from different parts of the world. As we talked about this collection, we detected that the pictograms we see in our day to day life are quite similar. By collecting ideas and thoughts, we approached this challenge and learned more about each other and our cultures.

In the beginning of our design process, we used typical or traditional clothing. We wanted to visualize the cultural differences in our scribbles and worked on two variations of possible styles. One style included geometric shapes which resembled body shapes of both men and women. The design for the final elaboration was the silhouette of a wayang kulit puppet dressed in typical Bavarian clothing.

Message

The main function of a pictogram is to lead a person in the right direction, that is why the WC sign should be clear and easy to understand. By creating a set of pictograms that includes and portrays both cultures, we wanted to mix up the known aesthetics so its usability is not limited. The WC signs are meant to raise awareness for the differences in beliefs and values and should be inclusive for every person, regardless of their origin. Therefore, we focused on the Javanese and Bavarian culture and included traditional highlights, like the Wayang puppets, to our ideas and designs. In this way, we constructed a playful and humoristic fusion of the two cultures.

Concept

The pictogram we created would be used in a cultural center in a big city. That is why we designed pictograms for young adults and people above the age of sixteen and for persons on a higher level of education, especially for those who are interested in culture. Our goal was to make the pictograms look modern, clear, and experimental by mixing the Bavarian and Indonesian culture. To accomplish that goal we tried to incorporate traditional clothing in our designs. We mixed cultural indicators such as the world wide known Pretzel. In this way, we made use of stereotypes and designed a small collection of unique pictograms.

Design

The focus in the design process of Pictograms is to make sure that the final product fulfills its purpose, which is to lead the observer to their desired destination.

Wayang is one of the peaks of Indonesian culture, which is the most prominent among many other cultures. Bavarian clothing displays a contrast to the Wayang puppets. We incorporated both the Javanese and the Bavarian culture in the set of pictograms. By using only one color and keeping only the essential lines, we developed a design that is simple but still special.

Conclusion

The focus in the design process of Pictograms is to make sure that the final product fulfills its purpose, which is to lead the observer to their desired destination.
Wayang is one of the peaks of Indonesian culture, which is the most prominent among many other cultures. Bavarian clothing displays a contrast to the Wayang puppets. We incorporated both the Javanese and the Bavarian culture in the set of pictograms. By using only one color and keeping only the essential lines, we developed a design that is simple but still special.

Presentation