Design Malaysia vs. Australia

Back to our discussion on graphic design, in Australia, there are lots of design movement and some are well known not only to graphic designers but also to others from different discipline backgrounds. I would say that designers can be considered to have 'a strong and loud voice' here. Although we designers in Melbourne are fighting to establish our roles in the society, especially in communication/graphic design areas but I would say it's moving... slowly. We try to collaborate with others in different background (e.g. industrial, product, interior, interaction, branding, culture studies, education etc.). We hope by doing this we could define our roles in the communities.

I think would be good to start communication design/graphic design association in Malaysia and try to do some project that involved communities. What I can see here in Melbourne, most graphic designers are playing their roles to collaborate projects with others and get involved with society. Not all but some are active. Get involved! After all who are we designing for? Ourself or society? Are we designer 'syok sendiri'? We sometimes think that our design is great that we tend to ignore others opinion and what our contribution to others.

I guess old time school in graphic design college or intuition would educate the designers to think about the client, mainly corporates or company. Like 'client always right' term always been applied. But now days, we designers have to be strong in opinion, not just a plain opinion but we need to educate ourselves about other things around us. Research and update ourselves with what's happening in the world, etc. Then we can be confident and strong when we consult our client and also start to think about our roles and what can WE, graphic designers offer to the society. - - Nurul Rahman

Readers, care to comment? - - K

small talk - News

+ + upcoming events + +
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{small talk 2.0} -- 21 Nov 2007 -- WED
7:21pm at the Annexe Gallery, Central Market

"Convergence of Art & Design in the New Age"
by Izu from Galleriiizu. Shaping identity through art & design. Case studies from European art nouveau to the manga/anime culture of the new Japan...

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{small talk 3.0} -- 7 Dec 2007 -- FRI
7:21pm at Ole Cafe, 48 Changkat Bukit Bintang, K.L.

"Nike: Jangan Togel"
Compass Interactive's creative team, fresh from their Golden Kancil 2007 award win in Nov, will showcase their ground-breaking work for Nike Malaysia and various other works. (40mins)

And a practising Malaysian lawyer will speak about your rights as a designer and how to legally chase a client for payment overdue or in dispute. (20mins) We know you may have many legal questions. Come prepared or send us your questions beforehand so we can do a FAQ list and make sure Qs are covered.

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{small talk 4.0} -- 21 Dec 2007 -- FRI
Time: 7:21pm Venue: TBC

Speaker: none. 'cos this will be a kakireka end-year PARTY occasion! Designers can have fun too, y'know. Details & invites coming soon.

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{small talk 5.0} -- 7 Jan 2008 -- MON
7:21pm at Ole Cafe, 48 Changkat Bukit Bintang, K.L.

'Acting Skills for Designers' - "How to Sell an Idea"
by Jo Kukathas, Artistic Director of Instant Cafe Theatre. (60mins) The topic is at proposal stage, let us know what u think.


Note: All talks are FREE to all designers & open to the public unless specified otherwise.

Design in Malaysia 1957-2007?

Nice work! Am happy to see such effort related to design in Malaysia. Good start. Unfortunately I'm can't contribute much but would love to hear more about it. I think it is important to start a discourse about design and see what other designer been up too with their practices. Did it went well? How was it?

Regarding to the issues of design history in Malaysia, I think the evidence is there, just that it's not been valued enough. We just need to start valuing it and do some design exploration with it. Not to mention we need to publish or exhibit it in order to make it important and to get some value out of it. I'm a graphic / communication designer, related to my areas of practice, what I'm saying here are related more to printed material, promotional items, advertisement, corporate logos etc. I know that in architecture, there are lots of archived and collected information related to the history of architecture design in Malaysia. Note that graphic design / communication design can be considered as new field in Malaysia, therefore its understandable that it's is not much been appreciated. But I believe, we designers can make some changes in this. We need to start thinking what's our roles in design and how can we contribute to the society. - - Nurul

Note: Nurul Rahman currently is doing her PhD practice based research in Communication Design, School of Applied Communication, RMIT University Melbourne. She’s a communication and graphic designer who has been working long enough until she realized that she needed more that practice in design and decided to continue her postgraduate studies. Her interest is in communication design, identity, branding practices, culture and heritage. Her research investigates the participation of Graphic Designers in crafting cultural and national identity. Find out more about her here.

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Nurul, I think you made some interesting points esp. on valuing our design heritage and it would be interesting to see what our readers think. Right now, in Malaysia, the architects have PIAM taking care of them. But who takes care of graphic designers in Malaysia? Am curious - what is the situation in Australia? Are designers also left to fend for themselves? - - K

Review: David Pledger's talk on Project Eavesdrop

Project Eavesdrop is one weird show I wish I could have experienced in person. 10 characters, interconnected by stories and doomed to repeat a certain 9 mins of their lives in a perpetual loop. All delivered in surround screen & sound as an immersive interactive multimedia drama presented in a custom-made cinematic space. There's unrequited love, song & dance, suicide, a high body count plus a certain inflatable doll. Very drama-one. Download a clip of the show here.


David Pledger from Not Yet It's Difficult (NYID) talked about the vision and shared some secrets behind this interactive installation by himself and Jeffrey Shaw in 2004, and I was mesmerised. The creativity of the script and high production values. The cool star-trekie rotating platform user interface with zoom & pan navigation to hide/reveal layers of narrative in each character's "interior landscape". And his enthusiastic fascination with TV soap operas both as message & medium.



When asked what he would do different if he could do the project over but with no technological limits, David wished that every member of the audience could be tracked within the constructed space and would hear different pieces of the inner thoughts relevant to their proximity to the actors on screen.

I wonder what exciting projects the 5-day workshop participants will conjure up for the Malaysian masses. Can't wait.
This talk was organised by the Instant Cafe Theatre Company.

7:21 {small talk} 1.0 photos

Poster/Banners concept & design by Martin Ng from OgilvyOne KL.
Printing sponsored by Asri Ahmad (left) of muliaevents.
Venue sponsored by galleriiizu and hosted by Izu.
Photos by Black of muliaevents, Indonesia.



Everyone watches a TV docu on selling a made-up brand to children from the UK. The Little Shopping Horrors. Kenneth Lam's talk on 360 branding with a case study on selling to children, Milo anyone? Kay Khoo from figTree Design and his tale of the "Long Tail". Read a transcript of his talk here.


See you on Nov 21 for the next 7:21 {small talk} 2.0, same time & place.
The 15m slots are now open for application.

Do you have a piece of work/ medium or inspiration to showcase? let us know.
kakireka@gmail.com

7:21 small talk 1

Date: 7th Nov 2007 (WED)
Time: 7:21pm - 10:00pm, teh tarik - 11pm
Venue: Gallery, 2nd floor, The Annexe, Central Market, KL.
FREE admission, drinks pay your own.


{ small talk } 1.0
- designers talk design -


Topic/Speaker:
360 Branding Design
Case Studies
by: Kenneth Lam



Using a mix of available TV documented studies on children behaviour and samples of his own work, Kenneth will showcase how selling a brand experience using ambient media is used to great effect on today's youth market that's awash with an unprecedented bewildering assortment of multimedia distractions.
Time: 1.5 hrs

Bonus: Learn a simple group game to improve your public presentation skills infront of a crowd. (if there's time -K)

Kenneth Lam is an Art Director, formerly from OgilvyInteractive Kuala Lumpur, with 15+ years of design/advertising/online design industry experience. Kenneth has picked up numerous local creative awards incl. the first Gold ever awarded for interactive media at the Kancil Awards 2003 for his work on a Nestle Maggi Hotcup campaign. Among others, he has also won multiple awards for online work on Nokia Malaysia & Nestle Milo brands.


{ talk back } 1.1
- designers talk design -

- 4 slots total, 0 still available, 15mins each - apply at the door or email us earlier.
- event to end at 10pm.
- Kay + Izu + Mabel + Asri

Open invite to all designers, design students, come if you can, or help spread the word. 7:21 {small talk}. designers talk design.

See ya all.

7:21 Launch

7 -- 2 -- 1 ...we have lift off!

So we're off and running.
Many thanks to galleriiizu and muliaevents for being the sponsors of 7:21.

There will be a series of designer talks in various venues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over the next 6 months to address the serious lack of graphic designer events and activities. And we are calling it the "721 small talk" series by kakireka.

Why 721?
Becos it will always be held on the 7th and 21st of every month from Nov 2007 - Apr 2008. And it always starts at 7:21pm. Easy to remember what... 7:21 small talk ... so you always know when and what time the next talk will be.

What to expect?
The 7:21 small talks will be informal gatherings to listen to designers from different specialisation share their latest works, inspirations and even divulge some bread&butter know-how on how-to-survive... no, to thrive as a designer of repute in Malaysia or of the world that is getting increasingly borderless. All small talk sessions are informal and meant to stimulate discussion or even debate on any subject in a respectful manner, ...we hope. We are here for you. All are welcome. Even non-designer who wish they are one. Or friends of one. Tell your friends, yo.

7:21 small talk - by designers - for designers.
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The format
- 2 pre-invited guest speakers each time - 2 hrs
- Any designers to speak, just apply-at-the-door & immediate approval by organisers -15m x 4pax = 1hr
- open discussion (any subject related to design)
- ends then adjourn for teh-tarik at mamak.

Topics
Anything that moves Designers today or tomorrow.
Your work as a showcase. Or show stuff to get feedback on a specific piece of design. Or just discuss a pressing issue with design as a hopeful solution. Or redefine what is design? My fav. designer idol and their latest work. The latest award-winning works from Malaysia (Kancil? DMAM? MC2?) and around the world (Cannes Lion, Webby, Art Directors Club, etc). Screen and discuss video docus on best design practices. On design branding. Or design in advertising. Or the best & worst advertisements (your opinion). Caught some good viral ads? DIrect Marketing. Jewellery design? Animations? Website makeovers? Websites desperately in need of a makeover? Grafitti is design? Pimp my old adidas sneakers anyone? RealityTV show format as inspirations for our local cultural muhibbah-ness? What is happening to design standards in Malaysia? What is good design? Your research on history of design in Malaysia? Your experience on how to handle bad clients? Start your own design business? Your own designer blog? How to chase for payment? Income tax 101 for designers?

Get the picture? anything goes really.


If you're a designer of any sort and need inspire or be inspired, come join us.

7th & 21st every month... at 7:21pm

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