Day: 19 April 2006

I always love visual. I guess just by looking at an image, our imagination just fly free. Many stories we can tell just from an image. So I try to relates or shows my research through other media such as movie snap shot, cartoons and images. It might help, I guess. I honestly don’t know where is this going. Let’s move to Lat’s story.
I think Lat’s cartoons provides an invaluable guide to Malaysian culture, expressed in a way mere words never could. I still remember that I always looking forward to read Lat’s Cartoon Strip in Malaysian Newspaper called Mingguan Malaysia when I was 14 years old. It’s been recommended to me by my ‘Pak Long’ my uncle. Since then I become Lat’s Fan. It’s only publish once a week, but I always waited for it.

His cartoons depicts everyday scenes of Malaysia. From the bus driver to the Prime Minister. Everybody is included. He also include every race from Malaysia’s multicultural society: the Chinese, the Indians, the Malays to the “Orang Putih” the Europeans. His cartoons are funny and witty, Lat enjoys poking fun at everyday situation and reading them brings back my own memories of growing up in Malaysia. Most of them still makes me laugh out loud! Lat’s cartoon can also be serious with a political or environmental message.

Lat’s early life taken from Lat Cartoon Website
http://www.geocities.com/woo_ben/lat/lat.htm

Lat was born Mohammad Nor bin Khalid in March 1951, in a kampung (village) house in Kota Bahru, Perak, Malaysia. He grew into a chubby little fellow and got a nickname as Bulat, or Lat.

Words from Lat about his life in the kampung (extract from “Lat 30 Years Later”):

“To say my family was a crazy would be an understatement. Growing up in the kampung, I remember being surrounded by family members who seem to have nothing else to do except joke and be merry.

My father was like most fathers in that he would scold us and get angry but he was never all that serious. He was a joker and we learned, from very young, never to take what he said for granted. Even when he sounded serious, he was probably making fun on things.

My mum was the more serious one but even then she had her moments – once she actually went to a photo studio to pose in a saree (Indian dress) with her sister.

Ours was a closely-knit community and the kampung folks were similarly jovial. The way they spoke and ask questions hinted of mischief. I think it was because we were so close that we could have such a relationship. After all, you don’t speak to strangers this way.

Without the distractions of modern living, we had to find out own diversions. One of the first thing we did was to mimic others. I still remember the Chinese grocer name See Han who would speak in a very slow melodious voice. We had a lot of fun mimicking that.

I also remember the ‘Mak ciks’ and ‘Pak ciks’ who would, just by their appearance, make you roll over with laughter. In the 1950s, for instance, when it was fashionable to have rambut karan (saloon perm), watching the kampung women on parade with their hair done up was really hilarious.”

Some of Lat’s cartoon that relates to Malaysian cultures.

More about Lat

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

DESIGNING A RESEARCH REPORT (2007)

End of last year I was asked to design a research report for School of Applied Communication by the Director of Research, Dr. Vaughan. The whole point is to presented the research activities that the school have done in 2007. Also if it’s possible to put some images from the researcher. The task sounds easy and I agree to take. The whole design process included collections of information from all the researcher, collections of images and the design process. We decided to make a from so it will be easier for us to have the information instead of keeping the emails that contained the details. But because the researches life is pretty busy, we need to keep reminding them to fill in the form. And yes, when it comes to the very end, we still receives some changes and new forms. Then we have to fit in all the information in one document and categorize the topics. Later when its ready, Angelo (the administration person who handle the emails and enquires) sent the whole document to me. I then have to transfer the words file to indesign. That’s for the collections process.

Now it comes to design process. I started with a concept and did some brain storming. I discussed with Dr. Vaughan about it and added some other information that they want to be in. We try to standardize the design to RMIT design layout. I make few design mock-up and showed to the member to get some feed back. Came back with pretty much changes. I did few rounds in that steps. Then finally managed to get the final design look that please everybody. The whole project took nearly three weeks time to finish. Here are some of the samples and the full version in PDF.

REDESIGNING SBS ANNUAL REPORT (2005)

There are few design job that I did last year for my Masters in Design by project. The last one is a case study project on SBS annual report. It is more about designing an annual report as a Information Design System.

I’m researching about what people call ’emotional design’ which is from my opinion is not much different than branding (I figure this after the research). Then I tried to find a way of putting ’emotional design’ together with ‘information design’.

Some of the reference I got are from Marc Gobe with his book called Emotional Branding.

“In many, many more words than needed, Marc Gobe makes an argument for using the corporate and product attributes to build a brand. For example, the name. “Lexus” sounds like luxury. “Viagra” suggests vigor and virility.

The Ford Expedition, the Ford Excursion and the Ford Escape are all named with less than subtle ulterior motives.

Use of color may also assist in conveying a desired brand image. Red conveys one thing; blue another. Blue, pink, orange, black – each color is stereotyped with certain personality traits. The shape of the bottle that holds your soft drink; the texture of the paper that brochure is printed on; the font used for the corporate logo; all these things add up to build a brand image.”

Taken from link to reviews of Emotional Branding Book – http://www.v7n.com/emotional-branding.php.
Belows are the brief page:

From this I thought may be I can suggest SBS to come out with a new promotion kit, just for certain season. My idea is for SBS to have a new look, not to replace the look that they are now but just to make a little bit different for a period of time.
So I came out with the theme ‘Turn ON SBS’, this idea came from a discussion with Keith, SBS Promotion Manager in Sydney. He wanted to have something different but still he wanted to use the same content as the old brochure SBS have.

DESIGN AS A SERVICE

In one of my Masters Class we did this exercise to understand the the concepts then visualized it through different layout. We’re designing an event. Under the event umbrella we have to provide the corporate logo, stationary set, brochures and other printed material that we can think of. I choose rock climbing event in Melbourne CBD. I got inspired by the architecture of the Federation Square, modern and challenging structure. I thought it would be a good if we could climb the fed Square.

Independence and Onward: 1957 – present day

With 1957’s independence, a new series of difficult decisions lay ahead of Malaya, the first of which was to determine exactly what territories would be included in the new state. In 1961, the term “Malaysia” came into being after Tunku convinced Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak to join Malaya in a federal union (Singapore later opted out of the union, peacefully, in 1965). Afraid that the union would interfere with his expansionistic plans, Indonesia’s president Sukharno launched attacks against Malaysia in Borneo and on the peninsula, all of which were unsuccessful.

Another immediate problem was the determination of a national identity. Malaysia was a mix of people from many races and cultures, and uniting them under a common flag was not an easy enterprise. Because Malays represented the majority, the constitution gave them permanent spots in the government, made Islam the national religion, and made Malay the national language; but the Chinese firmly dominated business and trade, and most Malay were suffering economic hardships. The government, controlled by the United Malay National Organization, passed the New Economic Policy, which attempted to increase economic opportunity for the Malay by establishing various quotas in their favor. Unsurprisingly, many Chinese opposed the new arrangement and formed a significant opposition party. In 1969, after the opposition party won a significant seats, riots swepts through Kuala Lumpur and the country was placed in a state of emergency for two years. It was a painful moment in the young nation’s history that most Malaysians prefer to forget.

In the last two decades, Malaysia has undergone tremendous growth and prosperity, and has arguably made significant progress in race relations. Many attribute the country’s success to the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohammed, who has led the country since 1981.

(source from Malaysian Forum website)

Malaysia’s flag is based on that of the United States, a country whose democratic ideals the young nation sought to emulate upon gaining independence from Great Britain in 1957. The 14 stripes represent Malaysia’s states, while the square in the upper left contains the moon and sun of Islam.

Jacques Tati is a man of contradictions: He claimed not to have read much of anything, but his films were nevertheless embraced by France’s intellectual elite as vanguard Modernist works. He is praised in equal measure for reviving the silent comedy and revolutionizing the sound film. In his films he used state-of-the-art technology to critique a society being smothered by automation and gadgetry.

Tati is perhaps best known as and inseparable from his iconic creation M. Hulôt, who wanders silently through his four most famous features, attired in a rumpled trench coat and slouch hat, observing or (more often) inadvertently instigating comic catastrophes. Like Chaplin’s Little Tramp, Hulôt is baffled by technology and has bad luck with jobs.

In Mon Oncle he manages to nearly destroy an entire factory on his first day of work, though in all fairness the factory, which seems to be engaged in making one infinitely long hose, isn’t the most efficient operation to begin with. Infected with a clumsiness that marks his encounters with mechanical devices and people alike, Hulôt endures these humiliations with a Buster Keaton-like stone face.

More about Jacques Tati