Major Project
30.8.2022 - 29.11.2022/ Week 1 - Week 14
Lee Sean / 0337001
Major Project / Bachelor of Design(Hons) in Creative Media
Instruction
Introduction
The little essence of a sundry storeLong before the existence of convenient store, there was the kedai runcit (sundry store), it was the place where people would get all their daily necessity from. It was a place of community and trust for the people. With the rises of convenient stores and supermarkets, more and more kedai runcit is slowly getting eliminated. Although this was a huge part of our culture, it seems that sometimes we don't really talk much about it. That is why this project was created as a way to document the beautiful culture of kedai runcit in Malaysia. The design was inspired by the stores and designed in a way that resonates with the younger culture, while still remaining that sense of nostalgia for the older audience.
The little essence of a sundry store
Long before the existence of convenient store, there was the kedai runcit (sundry store), it was the place where people would get all their daily necessity from. It was a place of community and trust for the people. With the rises of convenient stores and supermarkets, more and more kedai runcit is slowly getting eliminated. Although this was a huge part of our culture, it seems that sometimes we don't really talk much about it. That is why this project was created as a way to document the beautiful culture of kedai runcit in Malaysia. The design was inspired by the stores and designed in a way that resonates with the younger culture, while still remaining that sense of nostalgia for the older audience.
Proposal
Week 1-6
For the first 6 week I spent all of my time just trying to find a proper topic and solution. I spent too much time going back and forth on it and ended up falling quite behind on the timeline and was only able to start designing after week 6.
Weekly Progress
Posters
Finished at week 9
These posters serves as the art direction of the posters, during the process I've took a lot of time observing all the items in the kedai runcit and also the nostalgic snack packaging. Studying the shapes, colors and graphics on them, then I took these existing elements and modernize them.
24 Page Zine
Finished at week 12
A 24 Page zine that acts as a sharing session to introduce the culture of kedai runcit to the younger audience. The title "The little essence" expresses that instead of trying to be educational and telling the history, it just focuses on the little significant items, memories, stories that means something to the kedai runcit. Hopefully through these small little moments the audience is able to feel that sense of excitement and was able to imagine how the experience would be when kids visits these stores.
Calendar
Finished at week 14
Tikam Tikam calendar is inspired by an old toy that Malaysian kids used to play back in the days. It is a traditional guessing game for little children where they get to choose to tear off a section of paper with hidden prizes in them. Kids stand a chance to win plastic toys, snacks, sodas etc.
Img reference
source: https://tigerlim.blogspot.com/2014/12/tikam-is-back.html
Front cover
Months pages
Each month shows the same picture but with different color scheme. Once you tear off the front part of the pages you will get to see the dates inside and use it.
Pages design inspired by nostalgic snack
postcards
Finished at week 14
Website
Finished at week 15
The website serves as an archive for the kedai runcit in Malaysia. Documenting all the memories and nostalgic photos relating to this specific culture. It also serves as a place where both the young and old generation can connect together and have conversation base on this culture. Some other pages include "Collaboration" where people get to see some of the collaborated projects such as articles, exhibitions with other brand. And also a "Shop" page where people get to buy these collaterals.
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Prototype: https://www.figma.com/file/nXZfExChLklAoDN5x6eu5t/Zhabu-Website?t=XkORMropx2UtNB0A-1
Feedback
Week 1
The abandoned building topic is too broad, try to narrow it and understand what are you trying to say and how can you fix it. As for now it is quite complicated as you are touching on subjects such as politics. As for the other idea which is the bookstore, there is a direction in this theme. But same as the previous topic, you have to be much more specific in terms of the shop. Maybe like a few specific local book store and what do they have in common. So it have much more defined problem and much more meaningful and cultural
Week 2
The newly proposed idea is interesting, preserving culture and finding that essence through the sundry shop and the objects they sell. But the pictogram execution may not really be the right choice to execute the project. It may not be able to give people that sense of nostalgia feeling when they look at this project. First find out who are your target audience and what are they interested in. Then through that you can find an interesting way to execute it. (For example if you are targeting young people, what people do sometimes is they combine cultural elements with trendy items like sneakers.)
Week 3
The newspaper zine itself is fine, but try to experiment more with what you can do. Sundry shop itself emphasize on the experience, just a zine alone would not be able to do enough for people who have not experience this. For example you can try to create a platform that allows everyone to share their stories and experience with the sundry shop. You can still work on the zine if you want, but try to add more to it so it allows other people to experience the essence of these sundry shop.
Week 4
The proposed solution is okay now, but you have to start planning more properly for this campaign. What specific type of content are you going to post? How do people send you their content? How will people find out about this campaign, there must be a before and after for this. How will this project continue to develop in the future? Also what are the output you are going to produce? Either merch, video content, leaflet / zine to introduce the project etc. Start brainstorming for the name as well.
Week 5
The documentation objective is your objective, but not your project objective. What does it do for the audience. The direction of the project need to be clear, it needs to be more than just a novelty item. (things that is just nice to have, but doesn’t have any benefit). This project is similar to some art movement revival project. So now why do you want to highlight this? Sure because of your grand grand parents shop but most importantly you want to showcase this heritage, you want to make your target audience young people to understand the beauty of these things. And that is done thru the people, items sold and the shop. Think of how can you expand this project, you can expand it to make it like a user generated content. You have to build a microsite where people can submit their stories and that offers much more flexibility than social media software offers. Try to look for those hipster art bazaar/flea market like Rio and see how can you expand your project to be in touch with these events, maybe create some merch and open a booth. The project itself it fine but you need to expand it beyond than just social media. You gotta be able to explain this project subjectively. You wanting to create a platform is your objective, that is not an objective you expect out of a target audience. For next week just show what is the whole plan for this project.
Week 6
The ideas are good now, you have to look at how you want to decorate the booth as well. Try to make it look like a sundry/provision shop. Start designing so you'll have some progress to show for next week presentation.
Week 7
The meaning of the name is fine, can still keep with the same thing. But try to make it a more Malaysian thing because kedai runcit is more of a Malaysian thing and not just a Chinese thing. So you can remember the same pronunciation of the english name but might have to change the chinese name, for example the event "Makanlah Buah Buah Han."
Find novelty item that are also relatable to young kids, for example iconic malaysian toys/snacks. Those will be much more relatable than the household supplies. For the posters try to use more of the images, try to add more colours because that is how a sundry store looks. As of now the plain white background is too modern and does not translate that childhood excitement. For the posters all the one with the imgs are fine except the last one. The third poster layout is good but might be too simple. Make sure the poster of the content directs the viewers to somewhere, either it's the social media or any other stuff, the poster will be pasted on the streets so it have to have the content, for the texture testing try it with the photography object as well.
The toys should be childhood famous toys or snacks because that is much more relatable and the audience are able to feel the excitements. Do more research on that and you'll be able to use the graphics and elements from the iconic snack packaging itself.
Week 9
The design direction is much more appropriate now for the project. Now you have the visuals, you need a solid content. Start researching what type of contents do you want to work on for the zine, social media and also the posters. There should be a next step on what do you want to viewer to do after consuming all the content from the social media, zine and the event.
Posters: make sure the contents of the posters you’re displaying are diverse and helpful.
Zine: Try not to include too much text, maybe use shapes and create some infographic. For the sharing stories section, you can include the main quote or things they say in a bigger size. So the viewer will know the most important points. Instead of doing it in A2 do it in A3思源宋体, it's not very practical.
Posters: make sure the contents of the posters you’re displaying are diverse and helpful.
Zine: Try not to include too much text, maybe use shapes and create some infographic. For the sharing stories section, you can include the main quote or things they say in a bigger size. So the viewer will know the most important points. Instead of doing it in A2 do it in A3思源宋体, it's not very practical.
Week 10
The idea of tikam is good but you can try to make it more fun abit. Maybe combine the photo, freebies such as snack, and chance to win the zine together. Gamify it abit. Or you can try to include little fun information or quotes in it.
Try to look at the Cult creative app. Just focus on making a mobile blog app kind of like Facebook. Where people can post, comment, save post and also have a shop to buy the zine.
Try to include infographics for the zine, there is too much text for now.
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