Exploring the visual ingredients of a multi-cultural Malaysia

This project will define and document the visual ingredients of multi-cultural Malaysia. These ingredients will then be used to create a visual design language for modern Malaysia. It is typical for emerging national economies to copy the behaviour of contemporary capitalist cultures when addressing their visual communication needs. The usual impact of such a strategy is to homogenise outputs and detract from unique national identity. Contemporarily, most national cultures are diverse and dynamic hybrid systems that are in a constant state of flux, primarily influenced by; environmental, technological, ethical, and historical contexts that are geo-specific. However, the tendency to borrow cultural sources of convention and practice to produce visual graphics that are instantly recognisable and accepted by a global audience potentially diminishes the artistic value of design originating from that region and country. This is a first opportunity to attempt to define visual graphic design traits and qualities that are geo-specific in the context of global economic and commercial interactions. The longer term goal of this research initiative is to experiment with the inter-weaving of strands on visual communication and celebrate new forms and fresh discoveries as a means of building confidence in the dynamic currency of cultural communities without resorting to standard practices. Phase 1: The first part of the project seeks to accumulate a bank of resources collected from a series of workshops that will stimulate design thinking. There is a proposed creative brief that asks designers from Middlesex and Malaysia to explore and exchange visual ideas. To achieve this will involve: a limited survey of practice examples, creative speculation, a collaborative design brief carried out by the research practitioners, a structured workshop and a presentation of findings