Culture, Identity and Independence

Independence and Onward: 1957 – present day

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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)

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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.

Mon Oncle by Jacques Tati

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.

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More about Jacques Tati

Information technology has been added to the world; it has not made it lighter.

A Brand is a name, a visual image in peoples mind. Some people said brand is a myth. Or perhaps it is not a myth, it is real..if it’s in our everyday life, if it is in our culture.

Or can we say the brand world is a world that is full with the theory of dematerialization and materialistic. The mission is to make profit and create empire. Regarding to Al and Laura Ries in their book called “The 22 Imutable Laws of Branding” brand name is nothing than a word in mind.

But yet is it brand is the one who makes the customer choose when they decide to buy any product? Or the product itself?

Al and Laura Ries says there is always a preference brand in customers mind when they choose a product. Why people dont trust the product it self? Why do we have to trust the brand to choose a product?

H2O for example is a only a water but in branding they were called commodity category. Almost every person in America has access to good, clean water out of the tap, there is no need to buy water from the store, but many people do.

Why? May be because the water that been sold in the store contains mineral? Make its different from the ‘tap water’.
Product such as Spring Water and others sells this h2o other wise known as water to people and make people believe that these water is better that the other water. How and why?

How powerful is that? If is only a name how can it be so strong? What else in brand that make the brand famous and known? What about the product and the designer?

Brand, it is only a name.
What make brand different is the product, the values and the qualities of the product, the acceptance of the community of the new creation in the market and the experiences of the people when they use the product.

Questions:

Can brand survive without design and culture?
In John Thackara book, he talks about how industrial society and information society evolve. How information society suppose to replace or to make the industrial society lighter but at the end, its actually just adding into the society. It bring more pollution and problems.

“A few years ago we hope that digital communication networks would lead to a lighter economy and a cleaner environment. But unfortunately it does not happen. Global temperatures are rising faster than ever before recorded, bringing increased instability to weather systems across the world.”

How the waste of computers, microchips, manufactures of eletronic devices and old-media matters has impacted the world and us.

Information technology has been added to the world; it has not made it lighter.

Questions:

How can designer help to save the world? What can we do to sustain the world?
Are we creating design that help the world to survive or we actually participate in killing it?

What is Brand?

A Brand is a name, a visual image in peoples mind. Some people said brand is a myth. Or perhaps it is not a myth, it is real..if it’s in our everyday life, if it is in our culture.

Or can we say the brand world is a world that is full with the theory of dematerialization and materialistic. The mission is to make profit and create empire. Regarding to Al and Laura Ries in their book called “The 22 Imutable Laws of Branding” brand name is nothing than a word in mind.

But yet is it brand is the one who makes the customer choose when they decide to buy any product? Or the product itself?

Al and Laura Ries says there is always a preference brand in customers mind when they choose a product. Why people dont trust the product it self? Why do we have to trust the brand to choose a product?

H2O for example is a only a water but in branding they were called commodity category. Almost every person in America has access to good, clean water out of the tap, there is no need to buy water from the store, but many people do.

Why? May be because the water that been sold in the store contains mineral? Make its different from the ‘tap water’.
Product such as Spring Water and others sells this h2o other wise known as water to people and make people believe that these water is better that the other water. How and why?

How powerful is that? If is only a name how can it be so strong? What else in brand that make the brand famous and known? What about the product and the designer?

Brand, it is only a name.
What make brand different is the product, the values and the qualities of the product, the acceptance of the community of the new creation in the market and the experiences of the people when they use the product.

Questions:

Can brand survive without design and culture?

Design and everydays life

The definations and understanding.

If we can design our way out into difficulty, we can design our way out says John Thackara.
“Everyone designs” wrote scientist Herbet Simon, ‘who devices courses of action aimed at changing existing situations, into preferred ones.”

“Design is basic to all human activities, placing and patterning of any act towards a desired goal constitutes a design process.”wrote Victor Papanek.

Designing is what human beings do.

Questions:

Where do we want to be as a designer? What exactly our ‘preferred situations’ or ‘desired goals’?

How do we get there? What course of action will take us from here to there?

Design + Brand = Culture

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by Nurul Rahman

Cultures are constantly changing in response to the arts, knowledge and globalization. Mass media and international trades have increased inter-cultural and cross-cultural awareness. Therefore, the need for design to translate efficiently into different cultures has greatened. As the developed world has moved from smokestack to information-based societies, the role of design has moved rapidly into the forefront of market economies.

Developing countries are invaded by foreign cultures, whether they reject the invention or blend the ˜new style as their own.

What are the implications of branding and global versus local brands in this process?

Culture is by nature complex. Some parts are subject to fashions and trends; the rest the core part is less flexible.This is however refers to the myths, hopes and beliefs, defines and differentiates from other cultures.

How can the understanding of a specific culture help communication designers to anticipate its needs, to improve the creation of products and services or to strengthen communication strategies?

How can communication designers make use of cultural iconography to create a sense of national identity and community? And how does this relate to national branding and subsequent product promotion?

Designer’s Roles

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What is it really about culture that interest people? Culture evolve, sometimes it stays and sometimes it goes. Most interesting part about culture is, it relates to our daily life and it relates to our past, our history, our generation. Culture is everywhere, like it or not.

I saw a Jacques Tati movie last week, called ‘mon oncle’ and this movie is made in 1958. It is amazing to see how culture is changing in ‘mon oncle’. It is about the evolution of non-materialistic to materialistic world. In some scene from this movie there are an images of designers product, new creation. Only people in upper class can afford to have this product. It shows wealthy and powerful status. And it is part of the culture. People tried to accept this culture, materialistic culture and new era of technologies.

Questions:
What is the designers role in this? Is the design follows functions? or only follow profit and status?