Presenting my Ideas

Katakana Presentation

Today I presented my progress into the A-Z type in context brief to a group of peers in order to get some feedback. I found the presentation most useful for the fact that it not only sparked ideas from the audience but also made me think about my work differently as I was explaining things.

The idea I put forward is to produce a tourism book to help with the language and alphabet of Japan. this is one of my ideas that I will be pursuing to a further stage.

Another idea that formulated during my presentation is the idea to concentrate on the physical and aesthetic form of each character as apposed to the translation or meaning. This idea is a more creative and design based one that would be aimed more at designers and other creatives. This also made me think about the tourism book I was given by my cousin about Japan. This book was a very practical tourism book that focused on Japan's design culture. As well as this, the book itself is designed in such a way that it appeals to creatives through its layout and aesthetics. 

This has given me an idea for a second option to take forward. This idea would be less about the practicality side of things and concentrate more on the design and content to be aimed at creatives and other people with interest in design.

The Japanese characters I have photographed all  vary hugely in shape and form, this creates a potential platform to explore similar forms in Japanese culture.

A third idea would be to cleverly combine the two, the publication would be a design based book that also had a practical use for tourists. 

The next stage for me is to take these three options forward and explore them a little more until I have three distinct directions to follow in time for our next critique session on Monday.

Idea 1.

tourist reference book

a small pocket guide designed for tourists to carry with them as they explore Japan that will help them to recognise and pronounce Japanese characters in order to form a bridge between the two alien cultures. The book will allow for western tourists to find familiarities and feel more comfortable within such a contrasting world to their own.

Idea 2.

design based publication

a book that explored the physical shape and form of the Japanese alphabet. As apposed to giving each character it's translation, the book would instead combine the form and shape with other aspects of their culture. With such a strong, rich and interesting culture, there is plenty of opportunity to cleverly combine this with the design of the alphabet. It wouldn't have any practical use, purely aesthetics.

Idea 3.

combine ideas 1 & 2

this book would combine the practicality of idea 1 with the design and concept of idea 2. Without making the book too complicated, it would aim to be an interesting and engaging book about Japanese forms within their culture together with the visuals of the katakana alphabet.