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Compulsory Question 2

For my own artistic vision statement, I would still want to be a freelance designer specializing in illustrating and doing UI/UX for others. I want to bring a warmth and joy to people's lives through illustration, so that my illustrations are not only decorative, but also a source of companionship and inspiration. At the same time, I want to make the UI/UX design integrated into people's daily lives, creating a more convenient and enjoyable digital experience for them. The reason why I want to become a freelance designer is because I think to be a better designer, we can't just sit in the office and watch the screen, we need to go into the society to understand the real social issues and collect more design inspirations.

The one work of design under the theme of social engagement I will choose is this solar powered water filter by designer Gabriele Diamanti. The reason why I chosen this is because this design helping the poor people to solve the problem of lack of access to healthy water and the design is using traditional technologies, the system has no negative environmental impact and will create positive outcomes for the local economies because it’s to be produced by local craftsmen. This design perfectly demonstrates the topics of “Creative practice & Critical Thinking” and “Connecting Practice with Society”, to create such design, designer not only need to have critical thinking and creative practices, but most importantly, designer need to go into the society to understand the problems of the poor's water sources, explore them more deeply, and then come up with the solutions.

The design works that resonate with me are these two illustrations, why I chose these two works is because the designers use illustration to make people pay attention to the current social problems and remind people to pay attention to these problems, like the first illustration "blinkers" This illustration is a metaphor for people, the cell phone or other electronic products replace the eyes of the donkey, making the donkey unable to see the world, which reminds us not to be blinded by electronic products like the stupid donkey and not to look into the future. The second illustration, "control", is more about the current social problems, people only focus on their cell phones when walking and forget the dangers of the road around them. The original purpose of designing the game "Pokemon Go" was to let people get out of their homes and not stay at home addicted to electronic products, but the 148 days since the game was launched have resulted in nearly 150,000 people getting lost in the world. days, it led to nearly 150,000 traffic accidents and about 250 people were killed in the accidents. 

Word Count: 457 words

Artlex. “Pawel Kuczynski – Artwork, Bio and Analysis of the Polish Artist and Philosopher.” Artlex, www.artlex.com/artists/pawel-kuczynski.

Diamanti, Gabriele. “Solar Powered Water Filter by Gabriele Diamanti.” Designboom | Architecture & Design Magazine, 29 July 2014, www.designboom.com/design/solar-powered-water-filter-by-gabriele-diamanti.

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Compulsory Question 1

This is our group’s manifesto. In this manifesto, it can tell that different people will have their own manifesto. One of my group members believe that less is more in design, and feel that by removing unnecessary elements, the design should be made clearer and easier for people to understand. Another group members thinks that design not decoration, the main goal of design is to solve problems and fulfill specific needs, rather than focusing only on aesthetics. Just like our studio project, we need to design the posters for the festival, and we should not blindly go for aesthetics, we should focus on communicating the message so that the poster can communicate all the information about this festival to the people.

For my own design manifesto, I feel that good design costs more, good design usually requires more investment because good designers have the experience and professional knowledge to deliver unique and creative designs. Designs require in-depth research, attention to detail, and may involve customization and high-quality materials, all of which can add to the cost. Like wat Dr.Ralf Speth said “If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.” For example, like this class activity work, when you pay a little bit of money, you only get a simple sketch of Hatsune Miku, this bad design may cost you more money when you put it on the market, if you pay more, you get a complete and colorful Pikachu, but this good design can help you make more money than the costs you spend on the design. If I can make changes to the group outcome, I will make it I would make the outcome neater and better arranged so that others can view it more comfortably, because just like what we learned from studio, good design is all about the small details, the content should grade well, and you should make good use of visual hierarchy, so that others will know which are the most important, and at the same time, it will also make the design clean and full of aesthetics, however, if you design the content into a pile of chaos, it will make people lose their interest in wanting to view him at the first glance, and thus, your design will lose its purpose. I think critical self-reflection is important to me because I feel that to be a good designer, i must learn to self-reflect, and by looking at my past work, i can learn from my mistakes and continue to improve my abilities. Just like studio, when we help design posters for festivals, we need to constantly reflect on ourselves and ask ourselves why we are doing this, is this really the best solution, or is there a better one? We also need to look back at what we designed before, maybe we can find better design inspiration. Only after constantly reflecting on ourselves, then we can become a better designer.

Word Count: 495 words

“If You Think Good Design Is Expensive, You Should Look at the Cost of Bad Design - UX Design World.” UX Design World - Stories About UX, Usability and Product Design, 2 Nov. 2023, uxdworld.com/2021/09/19/if-you-think-good-design-is-expensive-you-should-look-at-the-cost-of-bad-design.

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Critical Self – Reflectivity

Critical self-reflection is an important thinking and learning tool that helps us to examine our beliefs, behaviors, and decisions in order to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Through continual reflection, we can identify and correct our biases and errors and improve our decision-making skills and judgment. Critical self-reflection also helps us to develop a more open, inclusive and flexible way of thinking, leading to better communication and cooperation with others.

In this week class activity, we need form group of five and went to Sim Lim Square to found out one design problem that we would like to fix, after that present it to whole class. From this class activity, what I learnt was critical self-reflection is an important aid to designers. By continually reviewing their design work and decisions, designers can gain a deeper understanding of their creative process and identify potential problems and points for improvement. This reflection helps to improve design quality for my studio module, it can remind me to keep looking back to the design that I had done and try to think is it a better way to design it, also it can help me to know what my strength is and what is my weakness, so I can work on it. Additionally, critical self-reflection helps me as a designer remain creative and innovative, learning and growing to keep up with changing design trends and technologies.  

In conclusion, critical self-reflection is a key component for me to become a better designer. By regularly reflecting on my work, so I can continue to improve my design skills, enhance the quality of my designs.

Word count: 274 words

Kawamoto, Dawn. “Self-Reflection: Why It’s Important for Your Career.” Built In, 10 Aug. 2022, builtin.com/career-development/self-reflection.

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Field Trip + Analyse Artistic Traditions and Lineages

Critically analyzing artistic traditions and lineages involves a multifaceted approach that delves into the historical, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions of a given tradition or lineage. To do this effectively, one must examine the sociopolitical context in which it emerged, examining power dynamics, colonial influences, and socioeconomic factors that shaped its evolution.

In week 4, we went for a field trip to the National Gallery Singapore, we got the chance to explore different art works and Chua Mia Tee’s painting National Language Class (1959), It gives us a chance to learn the history and the story behind the work. In week 5, we got a lecture talk about analyse artistic traditions and lineages. From that, I have learnt as a designer, analyse artistic traditions and lineages can help me learn about the different artistic styles, techniques and aesthetics of different periods and regions, so that I can take inspiration from different artistic traditions and reinterpret them into my own design language. I also able apply this ability to my module, for example I can Incorporate them into my designs. This can be an element of color, texture, shape, composition, or theme. After that I can reinterpret the traditional elements and adapt them to modern needs and standards of beauty.

In general, as a designer, i can create deep and unique designs by critically analyzing artistic traditions and lineages and applying these elements to their work. However, the key is to remain innovative and flexible, not just limited to tradition, but to use tradition as a valuable reference point, combined with modern design concepts.

Word Count: 262 words

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Creative Practice and Critical Thinking

Creative practice refers to through creative to generate new ideas, concepts, process, products and solutions. Critical thinking is the ability that involves thinking deeply, evaluating information and problems, and making informed, rational decisions. Creative practice and critical thinking both involve processes of thinking, innovation, and problem solving, and although they may differ in their methods and goals, they share many similarities in promoting the depth and breadth of thinking.

In this week class activity, we required to write a short story about a social issue and share it to the classmate, after that we discuss about how critical thinking can be creative and how creativity can be critical. Creative practice and critical thinking play an important role in helping designer, I can apply both abilities in Studio and Materiality & Techniques. During studio, I can apply critical thinking to help us analyze and evaluate different design options to ensure that the design solution meets the project needs and project objectives. And I can use it to Identify and solve potential problems and challenges more effectively, thereby improving the quality of our designs. For materiality & Techniques, I can use creative practice to Inspire innovation and help me think of novel solutions to create interesting designs. It also can help me develop design thinking, making me more creative and flexible, and able to face various design challenges. As designer, I should continuously develop the two kinds of ability, in order to better design results in different projects.

Word counts: 246 words

Doyle, Alison. “Critical Thinking Definition, Skills, and Examples.” ThoughtCo, 15 Mar. 2022, www.thoughtco.com/critical-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063745.