Critical Context
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Critical Context Stage 01
People evoke different emotions in their daily life, and happiness is one of the positive emotions which reflects satisfaction with life (Argyle, 2001). However, on the flipside, the issue of depression is getting more and more prevalent in modern society. According to an investigation from 29 Asian countries, only about 2% of the participants responded being extremely happy, while 18.7% responded being extremely unhappy (Inoguchi, 2017). Therefore, it’s worth investigating design's role in bringing happiness and joy to the audiences through the practice. This paper looks into the idea of facilitating happiness and joy through visual communication and storytelling. How can one’s design practice make people happier by looking at her designs? In order to better implement this intent, this paper discusses five key elements which are helpful in this.
Happiness is a common topic which people can easily find in designs. However, not every design can evoke happiness. “A designer should bring happiness to people but not design happiness”, as mentioned by Stefan Sagmeister. He went to many places and looked for some designs which could make him feel happy. However, he found that there are many designers who just simply design happiness instead of trying to bring happiness to the audiences. In November 2005, there was an exhibition carried out in Tokyo called “Happiness” and it separated the artworks into four categories, which are Arcadia, Nirvana, Desire and Harmony. Stefan Sagmeister found that most of the artworks there were just visualising happiness but not about bringing happiness to people. This shows that it is easy to visualize happiness through the designs, but it is more difficult to evoke happiness. Another example which successfully brings happiness to people is a bubble project which was created by a designer named Ji Lee. This project is about placing speech-bubble stickers on advertising posters around the world and then returning to photograph the comments people have scrawled on them. It brings happiness to people by having interaction with them, and people can also feel happy when looking at the posters (TED, 2004).
In addition to using posters, there are many ways to create happiness, such as media, drama, graphic design, filmmaking and so on. All these methods are considered as visual communication. Visual communication is a tool to convey messages and emotions, and it affects one’s emotion, thoughts, and behaviour. It is the fundamental of design, and it helps to express the designers’ intention and catch people’s attention, imagination, and cognitive emotion, because visual images can enhance people's feelings of being psychologically immersed. Not only that, it can also be used to create interaction with people as well. It brings the feeling of belonging by having interaction with people. Besides physical interaction, mental interaction is also important because visual communication cannot be separated from mental interaction, such as digital designs and web designs. The interaction of design with interface focuses on mental rather than physical. The computer acts as the processing machine, and the graphics presented on the screen will reflect into people’s eyes and interact directly with their mind. People will not feel happy when they just use their hands to click on the mouse and control the computer (Nielsen, n.d). Therefore, designers can use visual communication to make people feel mentally and physically happy.
Besides, visual storytelling is another technique to bring happiness as it can relate one person to another through stories. It conveys information and emotion more effectively and uniquely because every story has its own storyline and underlying meaning. It can evoke emotion if the designer includes emotional connection in communication while creating the story. Visual storytelling can be widely implemented, such as branding design, advertisement designs, and so on (Wright, 2018). For example, Digi Telecommunication had published an advertisement video about the “I will Follow You” story. In the video, the “yellow man” will keep following the users everywhere to imply that DiGi has the widest coverage in Malaysia. This advertisement helped to strengthen the brand’s position, and it had imprinted in consumers’ minds (Johan, 2007). According to a journal article from Liberty University MFA, there are four elements that should be applied when creating a story which are — the message that you want to convey; the conflict where the audiences may be concerned; the characters; and the plot which can help to move the story forward (Wright, 2018). In order to bring happiness to people through visual storytelling, designers can add a sense of humour in it. A Hong Kong illustrator, Venus has done a project which named “大大与小妹” with series of short stories. Every short story consists of its own storyline, and it is designed in a humorous and exaggerated way. The facial expressions of the characters are exaggerated, and people feel happy while reading her designs.
Additionally, colour is one major component of visual communication and storytelling. It is a useful and valuable tool in design, and it affects one’s perception, preferences and psychology. It is a powerful medium when people view the world. Hue colour is the one which affects one’s emotion and behaviours. It is separated into two classes, cool hues and warm hues. Cool hues bring a feeling of relaxing, and warm hues may raise one’s heart rate and increase hunger. Many designers often use warm hues while doing designs as it is eye-catching and easily evokes emotion. For instance, yellow is a happy hue due to its connection to sun brightness and warmth. Orange is another happy but unpopular warm hue as it looks bright and warm, and it can help to draw attention as well (Rider, 2009). There are many designs and projects about creating happiness by using warm hues, such as a hospital which was painted in red and yellow. This project was done by a Danish artist Poul Gernes. After the hospital is painted with these colours, people feel happier when they visit there because it looks more energetic and warmer (TED, 2018). Therefore, the designers are encouraged to include warm hues in their designs in order to bring happiness to people.
Other than just using colors to create happiness, designers can also include round objects, symmetrical shapes, a sense of abundance and multiplicity, and a feeling of lightness or elevation that makes people feel happy. The reason why round shape can make people feel happy is because in nature, angles are often associated with objects that may be dangerous to people. Therefore, people may have a sense of caution about these shapes unconsciously, and curves or round shapes can relax them. For example, architects Svigals + Partners redesigned the new Sandy Hook Elementary School by filling it with curves. After the mass shooting in 2012, the students felt scared and insecure. Therefore, the architects intended to create a building that would make people feel safe and happy. They proposed an idea to design the side of the building with waves and set up a curved canopy at the entrance to make the whole building bend towards the entrance in a welcoming gesture. Another example of using symmetrical shapes to create happiness is the school transformed by the non-profit Publicolor. After painting the school with symmetrical shapes, the school administrator said that the attendance rate of students has increased because they feel safer and happier in these painted schools (TED, 2018).
In a nutshell, designers can bring happiness to people through visual communication and storytelling. They are also encouraged to include colourful design, sense of humor and round shapes while doing designs as these can help to create happiness easily. To further look into this intent, there were two design projects which are going to be developed based on the key elements. The topic for the independent project is Asian mothers’ advice, which is about Asian mothers that always give advice to children for certain purposes. Humorous storytelling and character designs will be used in this project in order to create happiness to the audiences. For the external project, the topic is about Asian parents' education method and mindset. Asian parents always have high expectations on their children, and they often force their children to change. In fact, parents should avoid doing that because every child is unique and special. This project will focus more on colourful colour scheme and character development, especially facial expression so that the designs can be funnier. The designer hopes the audiences can be attracted and feel happy when they first look at the designs, and at the same time reflect on their Asian parenting mindset. The change of mood will make them further impressed by the works, and this design practice can help experiment how happiness design can be integrated into serious topics.
Reference List
Argyle, M. (2001). The psychology of happiness. Routledge.
Fairs. M. (2007, September 9). The Bubble Project [Photograph]. Retrieved from
https://www.dezeen.com/2007/09/09/the-bubble-project-by-ji-lee/
Inoguchi, T & Tokuda, Y. (2017, March 15). Trust with Asian Characteristics. Springer,
Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2305-7
Johan.K.K. (2007, October 22). The heart and soul of effective branding. The Star. Retrieved from
Lee.I.F. (2016, October 24). A Danish Hospital that Heals with Colours [Photograph]. Retrieved
from https://aestheticsofjoy.com/2016/10/14/danish-hospital-heals-color/
Nielson, J. (n.d). THE IMAGINATIVE POWERS OF THE USERS’ MIND- from Visual
Communication to Visual Interaction. Copenhagen Business School, 2-2.1.
https://core.ac.uk/reader/17276939
Rider, R. (2009). Color Psychology and Graphic Design Applications. Honors Program Liberty
University. Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=honors
TED. (2004, February). Happiness by Design [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_happiness_by_design#t-631378
TED. (2018, April). Where joy hides and how to find it [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/ingrid_fetell_lee_where_joy_hides_and_how_to_find_it
Venus. (n.d). Lenus_ig. Instagram [Drawing]. Retrieved from
https://www.instagram.com/lenus_ig/
Wright, J. (2018). Application of Narrative Principles to Effectively Communicate Through
Graphic Design. Liberty University MFA. Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1496&context=masters
Critical Context Stage 02
Contexts
Asian parents have different mindset and education methods from Western parents. Chinese culture is largely influenced by Confusion philosophy, which mainly emphasizes respect, emotional restraint, the importance of parents and education. The majority of chinese parenting practices today are based on the concept of chiao shun (to train) and guan (to govern and to love). Besides, Asian parents are highly involved in children’s lives, and they show a high level of concern when educating children (FMI, n.d). According to an article, “My strict Asian parents made me awkward and lonely,” which was written by a girl who has strict Asian parents, her parents would send her tons of texts and emails when it got close to her curfew even though she was not staying with her parents. Her parents made her stay with family friends, who monitored her comings and goings (BBC, 2019). This parenting culture may affect the growth and development of children. The children may become introverted and shy. Moreover, the majority of the Asian parents have high expectations for their children (FMI, n.d). They will put their children’s education in a critically important position. They expect their children to have a high level education, and they will heavily invest in their children’s extra curricular training lessons. In Mainland China, parents spend more than 10,000 RMB yearly on their children's courses. They aim to improve their children’s academic performance through these lessons (Zou. W, Anderson. N & Tsey.K, 2019) . Amy Chua, a Yale law professor, has published a book named “ Hymn of the Tiger Mother'', which talks about how she educates her children as “Tiger Mother ''. She will push her child to play piano and violin, the grade that was lesser than A was unacceptable and sleepovers or play dates were not allowed (Xuyang & Jingjing, 2013).
Furthermore, Asian parents will also use psychological controlling practices while educating. They conduct emotional punishment, such as acting less friendly when the child did something they did not like or telling the child that he/she should feel guilty for that (Xuyang & Jingjing, 2013). “Saving face” is a common mindset and culture among Asian parents. They feel bad and ashamed when their children fail, which is also called “lost face”. Asian parents will also plan for their children’s future and force them to change (FMI, n.d). They often ask their children to pursue a career that they think is beneficial, such as doctor, banker, even though they know that their children are not interested in it (TellyPress, 2016). Giving advice and white lies is another method in Asian parenting practices as parents think this method helps to make their children better. According to the International Journal of Psychology, 98% of Asian parents in China lie to their children for certain purposes. One Chinese parent from the study justified lying by saying, "When educating children, it is okay to use well-intentioned lies. It can promote positive development and prevent your child from going astray," (Heyman.G.D, Hsu.A, Fu.G and Lee.K, 2021). Asian parents consider giving advice and white lies is more effective and it saves time. Some Asian parents use this parenting practice when they want their children to achieve their ends, such as Asian mothers often ask their children to consume green onions in order to become smarter (Yard.L, 2020). Although all these parenting methods are strict and contain lies, most Asians are already getting used to it. Therefore, it is important to understand why such culture is commonly practiced among Asian parents.
Projects
The designer came out with two design projects to communicate and comment about these topics. One of the projects regarding Asian parents educate their children as “Tiger Parents”, aiming to allow Asian parents to reflect on Asian parenting mindset and culture. Generation X is the target audience of this project, and it will be submitted to Taiwan International Student Design Competition. Regenerate is the theme of this competition, which means building upon the foundation of the past and adopting a new perspective to forge a path into the future and give rise to a new paradigm. A negative perspective of regeneration is shown in this project through designing a series of projects about how Asian parents regenerate their children to become a perfect child. The majority of Asian parents expect their children to have high achievements, and they will force their children to change in order to become a perfect child. Being strict and forcing the children to change may make children feel a lack of care and love. Children’s feelings are neglected when their parents try to regenerate and force them to change. Hence, the designer came out with three posters with the topic regarding how Asian parents plan for their children's future, how they reshape and regenerate their children into a perfect child, and how they push their children to attend extracurricular tutorial lessons. All these situations are experienced by most Asians when they were young.
Another project focused on the parent’s practice of telling white lies. The deliverables of this project are a series of stories about Asian mothers' advice through white lies. Most Asians get a variety of advice and white lies from their mother, and it is considered part of Asian parenting culture. Hence, it would be interesting to explore Asian mothers’ white lies. This project aims to help the audiences to have a better understanding about the culture of Asian mothers’ advice and white lies. Generation Y and Z are the target audiences of this project, and digital platforms, such as Instagram and Webtoon will be the main media to post these designs. An account on Instagram is used to upload a series of short stories about Asian mothers’ advice and white lies. Interaction is included via Instagram Story, such as requesting the audiences to fill in the speech bubble and repost the design. Webtoon is used to upload a comic which is related to Asian mothers’ advice and white lies. The designer will highlight and make fun of the stories and facts about Asian mothers’ advice and white lies. This can help the audiences understand that white lies are just parenting strategies of Asian parents, and they will not take these white lies seriously but look at them humorously. It can also help to bring back the audiences’ childhood memories since many Asians experienced these situations when they were young. The audiences are able to feel entertained and have a better understanding about Asian parenting culture through these two projects due to the designer applying a sense of humour and colourful scheme in her design approach. Happiness can be evoked when the audiences read the designs while reflecting on Asian parenting at the same time.
Research
Investigating and understanding about Asian parenting culture are the main purpose of doing research. Through the secondary research, the designer can further understand the culture of Asian parenting and collect more examples of Asian parents’ white lies. These two design projects adopt a mixed method of quantitative questionnaire survey and qualitative in-depth interviews. Questionnaires survey in these projects serve as a main resource of data, aiming to collect information in a border range. Whereas the interviews aim to collect some information, and have a better understanding on Asian parenting culture.
According to the survey about Asian mothers’ advice and white lies, 100% of the respondents have experienced this situation when they were young, 50% of them lose trust in their mother when their mother lies to them, 59.1% of them believe this parenting culture will be passed on to the next generation. As a parent, the interviewees think that this education method helps them to educate and control their children effectively. They believe that this parenting culture will not bring any bad consequences to their children because all of them experienced this as well. They get used to it, and think that it is common to have this parenting practice while educating children. However, a younger mother mentions that she does not prefer to use white lies when educating her children as it may affect children's growth and development. She believes that this culture will become lesser in the future as most Asians experienced it and they will avoid doing so.
On the other hand, according to the survey about strict Asian parenting culture, 50% of the respondents’ parents are strict, 77.3% of them believe this culture may bring bad effects to children, and 77.2% of them will not educate their children as “Tiger Parents”. Through the interviews, the designer found out that Asian parents, especially Chinese, consider education as extremely important. Some of them try to compare their children with others as they hope their children can improve themselves after hearing about others’ achievements. They believe that parents should plan for their children's future, such as which school they should attend, and so on. However, they will not push their children to extracurricular tutorial lessons. They prefer to let the children choose and learn the lesson which they are interested in. The interviewees agree that strict parenting affects the relationship between children and parents, and causes children to not share their daily lives with parents. Children will lie to their parents in order to do something they are interested in. Even though the interviewees know that strict parenting may bring negative effects, some of them still apply this parenting practice while educating. They believe that educating children is parents’ responsibility, and strict parenting enables them to educate their children effectively.
Instead of just conducting surveys and interviews, secondary research is also one of the research methods in this project, such as reading journal articles and news about Asian parenting. Through the secondary research, the designer is able to further understand the culture of Asian parenting and collect more examples of Asian parents’ white lies. The research show that Asain parent have high expectation on their children. They will educate their children as “Tiger Parents”, and be highly involved in children's lives (FMI, n.d). Besides, parents will also force their children to change (TellyPress, 2016). Meanwhile, Asian parents will use the same white lies while educating children. For instance, they disallow their children to open their umbrellas indoors. They believe the ghost that hides inside the umbrella will be unleashed if people open the umbrellas indoors (Yard.L, 2020). All this information and research gathered help the designer in developing the designs. The stories which are shared by the respondents and interviewees are the main content of design. For instance, the stories about Asian mothers’ white lies which are shared by the respondents and interviewees have become the main content of Webtoon and Instagram posts.
Design
The purpose of the independent project is to understand the culture of Asian mothers’ white lies. Digital platforms, like WebToon and Instagram are used to share stories about Asian mothers’ advice and white lies. These two platforms help to communicate and connect with Generation X and Y easily as they were born at the height of technological innovation. Hence, they are satisfied with the digital world and rely on using digital platforms (Kim.A, McInerney.P, Smith.T.R, and Yamakawa.N, 2020). Majority of them prefer to use smartphones as communication tools and they like to use social media, such as YouTube and Instagram to obtain information and knowledge (Kittelson. A, 2015). The stories are created based on the research findings, and the designer has made fun of these white lies. The WebToon consists of five long stories with an unexpected and funny ending. For instance, the mother disallows her son to point at the moon with his finger, because she thinks that pointing at the moon with fingers will cause his ears to be cut off. After listening to this white lie, the child starts to imagine that there is a monster on the moon, and he wants to protect human ears. Therefore, he flies there and blows up the moon as he grows up. Venus, a Hong Kong illustrator, has done a project which named “大大与小妹” with series of short stories. Exaggeration technique is widely implemented in her character design and storyline (Venus, n.d). Besides, ShaoGao, a Taiwan illustrator is also good at using exaggeration skills while illustrating. Both of them make the characters look funnier, and people feel happy while reading their designs (ShaoGao, n.d). Hence, the designer has also applied this technique while doing this project in order to evoke happiness, such as drawing where the mother looks extremely angry when she realizes her children did not finish the meal. Instead of just making the character look funnier, the designer has also made fun of the storyline. She applied a sense of humour while creating the storyline, and some of it may be unrealistic. It is a big challenge when creating a humorous story as the designer has to think out of the box based on limited information. Doing visual reference, like looking at the others’ artworks, helps to get inspiration while doing design as well as thinking about the storyline. Warm hues, especially orange and yellow, is the main colour scheme in this project as they can bring happiness to people. These colours represent bright and warmth (Rider, 2009). Therefore, the designer has applied these colours in designs in order to bring happiness to the audiences.
On the other hand, the idea concept of the external project is about Asian Tiger Parenting. The deliverables of this project are three poster designs about how the parent would like to have a perfect child and how they try to regenerate the children while educating them. Instead of using a dark and serious way to convey the message, the designer chose a humorous way to convey the message. Most of the people relate humour with positive emotion, things and topics. Hence, it is difficult to develop it into a negative topic, which is Asian parenting culture. The designer has designed the character in a funny way, such as drawing the facial expression and body language of the character exaggeratedly. Besides, warm hues, especially orange and yellow, is the main colour scheme in this project as they help to create happiness for people (Rider, 2009). The purpose of applying humour in the design is to grab the audiences’ attention when they first look at the poster, and this helps to leave a deeper impression for the audiences. However, they will also reflect on Asain parenting culture at the same time. The first poster is about reshaping and regenerating the child. The parents roll and rub the child in order to have them shaped perfectly. The second poster is about the arcade crane claw machine. There are plenty of children in the machine, and each of them represents a different career. The parents are trying to claw the child they like, which represents that Asian parents always force their children to pursue a career that they think is beneficial. The last poster is about a game controller. The child becomes a game character, Monkey King. This represents that the children nowadays need to attend a variety of extracurricular training lessons as their parents have high expectations for them to become as skillful as Monkey King. The game controller concept shows how the parents control their children and help them to choose what they need to learn.The designer added some details while doing design in order to increase the completeness of the artworks. For instance, adding shadow on illustration and making the object more realistic help increase the completeness of the posters. The China illustrator, Uncle Cat, is a designer who is good at applying texture while doing illustrations as he believes that the poster can stand out when there is some texture added in it. Hence, this technique is applied into the poster designs as well. Most of the illustrations from Uncle Cat do not have an outline which will make it easier for designers to add texture on these designs (UncleCat, n.d). However, the illustrations in this project mainly focus on facial expression and outline plays an important role in it. Therefore, the designer had explored and experimented on using different brush strokes as well as adding texture while doing designs.
Reference
BBC. (2019, July 6). My strict Asian parents made me awkward and lonely. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48762891
FMI. (n.d). Culture Differences in Parenting Practices: What Asian American Families Can
Teach Us. Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families. Retrieved from
https://u/sites/mcclellandinstitute.arizona.edu/files/ResearchLink_2.1_Russell_AsianFam.pdf
Heyman.G.D, Hsu.A, Fu.G and Lee.K. (2021). Instrumental lying by parents in the US and
China.
Kim.A, McInerney.P, Smith.T.R, and Yamakawa.N. (2020, June 29). What makes Asian-Pacific’s
Generation different? McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from
Kittelson. A. (2015, November 20). Generational Differences in Technology Usage. Midwest
Medical Edition. Retrieved from
https://www.midwestmedicaledition.com/2015/11/20/93515/generational-differences-in-technology-usage
Rider, R. (2009). Color Psychology and Graphic Design Applications. Honors Program Liberty
University . Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=honors
ShaoGao. (n.d). Instagram. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/shaogao/
TallyPress. (2016, June 22). 9 Typical Mindsets Of Asain Parents. Retrieved from
https://tallypress.com/fun/typical-mindsets-of-asian-parents/
Uncle Cat. (n.d). WeiBo. Retrieved from https://weibo.com/p/1005051975765773/home?from=page_100505&mod=TAB#place
Venus. (n.d). Lenus_ig. Instagram. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/lenus_ig/
Xuyang & Jingjing. (2013, June 5). Chinese, Western parenting methods compared in new study. Global Times. Retrieved from https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/786990.shtml
Yard, L. (2020, June 11). 小时候被家长骗过的那些事 .KKNews. Retrieved from
https://kknews.cc/zh-cn/news/g4ra5j8.html
Zou. W, Anderson. N & Tsey.K. (2019, December). Middle Class Chinese Parental Expectations or their Children’s Education. ScienceDirect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.209
Critical Context Stage 03
Research is an important process while doing design as it helps the designer to gain more ideas and information. Primary and secondary research plays an important role in both independent and external projects. Primary research, especially interviews with different generations, could help the designer to gain some information which cannot be found on the internet. For instance, a designer can ask some questions which are related to personal opinion through the interview. The designer could get inspiration from the interview as well. Besides that, conducting interviews with people from different generations helps to collect different opinions and perspectives because different generations may have different mindset. For instance, the older generation thinks that strict education will not bring any bad effects to the children, while the younger generation believes that strict education may affect children's growth and development. Hence, the designer believes that primary research is extremely important while doing design. Moreover, secondary research helps the designer to have a better understanding of the topic. The designer can research the background, study some articles and read about some related news. In these projects, the designer finds out that culture has a strong influence within people, such as American Chinese parents having the same education mindset as Asian parents. By doing research, a designer is able to showcase his/her artwork with strong evidence and information. Visual references are also one of the research parts while doing design. It helps designers to gain inspiration by reading other beautiful and meaningful artworks. Therefore, secondary research is a process that can not be skipped, and designers should do adequate research before starting a project.
Humor is widely implemented in both independent and external projects. It is a word that often relates to positive emotion, things and topics. However, the designer finds that humour can actually be applied into negative topics as well. For instance, Asian parenting culture and mindset is a serious topic and it is a big problem among society. The visual references which can be found on the internet tend to be dark and serious concepts. However, the designer decides to apply a sense of humor in the artworks by making fun of the topic. The designer believes that humor helps in bringing a deep impression as people’s emotion will be evoked when they look at the designs. Furthermore, humor could be implemented in storytelling. Through the project, the designer finds out that imaginative ideas could bring out happiness in people easily. For instance, the designer has come up with a series of stories with unexpected and imaginative storyline, which some of the scenes are unrealistic. Thinking out of the box is a topic which should be learned by all designers as creativity helps designers to stand out in the industry. The comment and feedback from others could also inspire the designers while doing design. For example, the designer actually came up with a more creative storyline after listening to her lecturer's feedback. Illustration is the main drawing technique used in both independent and external projects. The designer has improved her illustration skills through doing the projects. She learned how to apply the skills of exaggeration while designing the characters’ facial expressions. The facial expressions showing differently from different directions and angles. The designer gained experience in drawing exaggerated facial expressions from these projects. Besides, adding shadows helps to make the illustration look more realistic and nice. The designer realised that adding detail in illustration helps to increase the completeness of illustration. For instance, the designer can add some texture while illustrating, which help the artworks look similar to drawing on paper. Digital illustration is widely used in many designs, while adding texture on it can help to bring different feelings to the audiences.
Through the project, the designer understands that happiness can be evoked through visual communication, and it should not be limited to storytelling. There are many artworks which do not have a storyline but are still able to evoke happiness in people. For instance, a bubble project which was created by a designer named Ji Lee. This project is about placing speech-bubble stickers on advertising posters around the world and then returning to photograph the comments people have scrawled on them. It brings happiness to people by having interaction with them, and people feel happy when they are looking at the
posters (TED, 2004). All these advertising posters do not have a storyline and people still feel happy when they read them. Interaction is the main technique which was implemented in this project, and it helps to evoke happiness as people can resonate on the artworks. Besides, memes are also one of the artwork which can bring happiness to people, and some of them just consist of an image with certain words. Memes are one of the trends in today's society and people can always see them on social media. It can be applied in many topics such as politics, daily life scenes and so on. Hence, happiness can be evoked through visual communication without a storyline. Before doing the project, the designer thought that happiness can only be evoked through daily activities, and she would like to apply the daily scenes in the designs. However, she finds out that an imaginative and unrealistic idea concept helps in creating happiness as a new perspective of thinking is brought out through designs. Hence, it is good to explore new and imaginative ideas. Through the practices, the designer realised that humour plays an important role in bringing happiness. As a designer, spreading happiness through design is quite challenging. Designers should not design happiness but they should bring out happiness in people instead. Therefore, the designer plans to be a humorous designer. She would like to apply a sense of humour in her works in order to bring happiness and joy to people through visual communication.
Reference
TED. (2004, February). Happiness by Design [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_happiness_by_design#t-631378
