xin tong

This course led me to break away from the fixed perception of objects and users, delving into deeper relationship thinking. It also provided a broader space for creativity and imagination to grow, allowing me to discover that when I think and create with my heart, objects and users can always form a deep emotional connection. 

From time visualization, field research, to magnifying the advantages of objects and exploring the true value of design, these are the core takeaways I gained from the course. Concurrently, different courses further enriched and deepened this understanding: 

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The photography class

 The craft workshop class

These multi-dimensional practices ultimately confirmed the design core that this course has taught me: ideas endow creativity with a soul, imagery conveys the warmth of design, and design is never merely about tangible creation; its essence lies in the empathetic power that enables products to form a deep connection with users. Design master Naoto Fukasawa stated: "Good design blends naturally into daily life and quietly fits people's inner feelings." This learning experience not only made me bolder in design imagination but also made me understand the importance of creating designs that are warm and resonate with people.

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Author: Naoto Fukasawa

This class focuses on postmodern advertisement creation. We learned to break the conventional logic of advertising, create innovative works, and explore new expressive possibilities for daily objects.

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The thinking of this class also reminds me of one of my photography projects. I used a powder compact as my creative subject, carried out multi-angle shooting and post-production effects, and completed a series of visual works. During the creation, I also broke the traditional impression of a powder compact. I imagined it as a flat picnic area with a lawn effect, creating a playful scene where tiny figures could have a picnic on it. I also compared the powder compact to a staircase toward the sky, letting figures walk and jump on it to express freedom and lightness. Combining class learning with photography creation, I deeply understand how to break the original function of objects and redefine them with imagination. What I realize most is that objects are not defined by reality in creative expression, and we can boldly reconstruct and recreate them.

This creation has deepened my understanding of design. As the design master David Carson said, "Good design is communication, not decoration." Postmodern advertising is not only about breaking definitions and bold reconstruction, but also about amplifying the characteristics of objects and exploring their potential value. This unconventional way of thinking deserves my continuous reflection and learning.

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Designer: David Carson

Book: The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson (1995)

The theme of this class was creating advertisements for virtual worlds. The core requirement was that the products or services we designed must align with the technological and cultural realities of their corresponding worlds.

Our group chose the worldview of the film Interstellar. By deeply understanding the setting where interstellar travel has become part of daily life, we identified the pain point: ordinary electronic devices cannot adapt to the extreme space environment, making them unable to support daily communication for astronauts and space settlers. To solve this problem, we designed a special communication device that can work stably under harsh conditions. 



This design thinking also strongly connects to my Studio course this semester. In Studio, I researched a designer’s philosophy and style thoroughly, then created new works based on a full understanding of their creative essence. Similarly, this class taught me to understand the world context first before designing. Both courses made me realize that good design comes from sufficient research and respect for the rules and background, rather than blind imagination.

This experience deepened my understanding of user-centered design. As Kenya Hara said, “Design is not a skill, but the ability to sense and insight into the essence of things.” Only by understanding the world context and capturing the pain point can we create valuable and meaningful designs. I have learned that good design requires sensitivity, careful observation, and thorough research before any creation.

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Kenya Hara

Book: Designing Design（2006）

In the fourth week, we introduced an analytical framework for understanding how design conveys meaning. This framework helped us comprehend design from multiple perspectives, with usefulness and uselessness being just one of the considerations. 

Drawing on materials gathered through field research, I selected a plush toy as my subject of study. Its soft and comfortable material evokes feelings of comfort and security. Moreover, I believe that plush toys can meet people’s emotional needs and are a service-oriented item. Therefore, I categorized this work within the context of the master-servant relationship.

  During the site visits, I also analyzed handcrafted wooden bead bags, hand-painted pet bowls, and illustrated postcards. The wooden bead bags are made from wood and possess a strong sense of physicality and artisanal warmth.

The pet bowls are crafted from ceramic combined with hand-painted patterns, embodying a sense of spiritual care and serving as a means of emotional connection between humans and their pets. Postcards serve as a medium for conveying memories and emotions.

  As Donald Norman put it, “Objects are not just functional; they also carry emotions and memories, making them meaningful aspects of people’s lives.” These items strike a balance between utility and uselessness, allowing me to feel that design can form deep connections with people in various ways.

Through lectures, site visits, and a series of analyses, I gained a more comprehensive understanding of the ways in which design is expressed. As Anne-Marie Willis notes in “Design as Politics and the Politics of Design”: “The utility of an object is fundamentally a manifestation of the power relationship between humans and objects.”   

Design goes beyond mere aesthetics; it encompasses emotional and cultural dimensions, possesses depth and a sense of humanism, and can establish a more authentic and profound inner connection with users.

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Reference

1. Donald A. Norman : Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (2004)

During our aesthetics class today, we walked out of the classroom to observe shop signs. I chose the logo of the technology brand Cloud9 as my study subject. This logo, which consists of letters and cloud-like shapes, is simple yet futuristic, making me think of its primary target audience: professionals. This experience made me realize that design is not just a solitary visual symbol, but rather a bridge connecting a brand with the lives of its users.

In “Design Psychology,” Donald Norman posits the core of “emotional design”: products must not only fulfill functional requirements but also resonate with users’ emotions and everyday scenarios.  The mood boards I created are a practical manifestation of this idea: from the habits of wearing crisp shirts and workwear pants, to dietary choices such as coffee and sandwiches, to the daily use of office software like Google Docs and Gmail. These details collectively reveal the authentic state of users in fast-paced work environments.

Through this lesson, I have come to deeply understand that good design must not only be aesthetically pleasing but also deeply rooted in the real lives of users, capable of resonating with them. Cloud9’s logo is not just a visual representation of the brand; it should also serve as an entry point for understanding its user ecosystem. As designers, our work must not only fulfill functional requirements but also acknowledge the needs behind the users.

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Reference

In this "Time Visualization" course, my core takeaway is that the visualization of time essentially involves transforming the abstract passage of time into a perceivable visual narrative through the comparison and sequencing of everyday objects. This approach also resonates with relevant theories in the field of design.

From the 30-minute on-site exploration of the course, the contrast I made between the yellow leaves and the green ones, as well as the unlit part of a cigarette and the part that has turned to ash, precisely employs the principle of "visual tension" in design.(refer to image for description)The withered yellow leaves and the fresh green ones, the ash of the cigarette tip and the intact body of the cigarette, all through the visual contrast, transform the abstract concept of "the irreversibility of time" into concrete visual symbols.

Referring to the growth sequence diagram from childhood to adulthood further validates the two core aspects of time visualization (paths: the instantaneous changes of light and shadow and the long-term iterations of life). （refer to image for description) In my design training, I have also attempted to represent changes through continuous images, but this course has made me more clearly realize that the key to time visualization lies not only in capturing the "results of change", but also in enabling the audience to understand the traces of time in familiar scenes through design techniques such as contrast and sequence.

This approach of integrating theory with practice has also provided me with a clear direction for my future design projects: to carry abstract concepts with everyday objects and to enhance narrative logic through visual contrast.

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Reference

1. Rudolf Arnheim : Art and Visual Perception

For my collaborative project, I plan to carry out an activity on the topic of global warming with students majoring in animation across different disciplines.

Increasingly, human demand for natural resources has sharply increased, and hidden environmental changes are eroding the Earth. This collaborative project will highlight the urgency of environmental protection and preservation through life-like and intuitive animated short films and thematic spatial installations. Displays will be embedded to continuously play the short films to evoke the audience’s emotional resonance and deepen their awareness of environmental protection.

For my final year project, I plan to create and design a brand campaign for a non-profit organization to bring awareness to the dangers of global warming and its impact on society. Through the range of design solutions from my branding campaign, I hope to drive visible responses from the society to help stop global warming.

If there is a choice to collaborate with community services, I would prefer to partner with volunteer-based community services to work on climate change. This is because I believe that volunteers form a team capable of mobilizing a significant amount of manpower, and they have a distinct advantage in terms of publicity. I plan to design materials similar to promotional brochures and distribute them to various volunteers for dissemination and promotion. For instance, regarding the topic of climate change, I will create relevant promotional materials and leverage the vast network of volunteers to carry out the publicity efforts.

Finally, I believe that critical thinking is crucial for my professional career development. It can constantly help me to analyze my own strengths and interests and act as a guide to help me decide if a position as a brand designer is suitable for me. As a brand designer, I will need to consider opinions and feedback from different target audiences and that requires growth mindset which is an essential component of CTS.

Our group's mind map uses nature as the main framework to present the practical scenarios of CTS and to discuss and understand CTS in a concrete way. In the mind map, we compare facts, reliable sources and filing them to water, the most indispensable element in nature, and critical thinking to a big tree.

In my understanding, water is an important resource for the survival of living things. Learning from online documentaries, books in the library, and the experience passed on by teachers are all indispensable things in critical thinking, which is also the foundation and core of critical thinking. It avoids false cognition and accumulates true judgment. The tree is nourished by water to grow its roots and stems, just as we grow new ideas when we independently think and absorb knowledge. We take in water through digestion and absorption and integrate the essence into our bodies, just as we accumulate and screen knowledge to obtain the best answers.

Different species of small animals are "individuals with independent thinking": they depend on the big tree to survive and thus have their own forms. We come together with our own critical thinking, helping each other to learn (such as learning Illustrator and Photoshop together), so there will inevitably be differences and conflicts in cooperation, which correspond to the volcanic eruptions attacking the creatures in our mind map. We compare verbal attacks to fireballs. The "tree" will be damaged by the impact - these elements are interrelated. Without any one of them, the growth of the big tree will be unbalanced and the system will collapse. High mountains represent "growing out of the comfort zone", and tracks represent "the path of rational choice": without the challenge of high mountains, the form of the big tree will be trapped in the comfort zone and stagnate; without the guidance of tracks, we will not be able to explore different forms of big trees.

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References：

Jamie Carlin Watson, in "Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Sound Reasoning"

Looking back on this semester's studies and the mind map we made in this class, the courses we learned through CTSA were not isolated and distant statements, but rather connected every course, every thought, every moment.

In the CTSA course, many of the courses we have learned have the most representative features, namely collaborative skills, emotional intelligence, and assertiveness & conflict resolution. In this module, the most indispensable part is the group assignment, which involves academic communication and interaction among people. During the communication and adjustment between individuals, we need to learn to cultivate mutual understanding. What I learned the most from this is how to tolerate others' ideas and understand them, to put oneself in their shoes, and then balance everyone's ideas to achieve equality, mutual benefit, and win-win results within the group, rather than triggering conflicts.

The topics of "what is critical thinking" and "growth mindset" are interconnected with the courses in the studio and craft workshop. In these two modules, I believe that I have made significant progress in the area of Growth Mindset and thinking within this course. In the craft workshop courses, we have been constantly exploring new design ideas and innovating. It is no longer "what I think is beautiful" but "this is also a kind of beauty." In the studio, we are constantly making mistakes and no longer fear them. The benefits of this are that it has enhanced our ability to judge errors and learn from them.

This is the most essential meaning of critical thinking: To question our own and others' viewpoints again and make rational judgments and accept diverse ideas. In the courses "Digital Media Documentary for Art Practice" and "Reliable Sources and File Management", photography and digital skills stand out as core modules. We gained exposure to professional equipment (e.g., cameras) and design software like Photoshop and Illustrator, while teachers supplemented lectures with documentaries to enhance our aesthetic literacy. Beyond in-class learning, we also sought online tutorials to deepen our grasp of these tools.

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References:

Everyone should have critical thinking, and I think this is important, If a person has no own stance and thinking. He will look at all problems very one-sidedly and cannot grow. When everyone has the ability of critical thinking, they will have many different.,viewpoints and ideas in terms of innovation, allowing everyone to gain ideas from different perspectives.This diversity of thought is the driving force behind progress, pushing societies and individuals alike to evolve and adapt.

In my opinion, in life, the way to improve innovative practice is to discover art in life, integrate art in life, integrate art into life, collect inspiration in life and apply it to design.

In the study of the second week, what impressed my deeply and made me gain a lot was letting us use lines to design installations in space. While thinking during creation, when cooperating with classmates, we are also learning how to become a qualified collaborator in the process. We learn to respect diver opinions, combine strengths, and tackle challenges as a team, which hones our communication and teamwork skills.

Stay focused in study, concentrate on the classroom to better absorb and understand knowledge, in life go out more to observe and experience the present moment and the beauty of the present. We can visit museums to appreciate artistic masterpieces, I believe this is also beneficial to our thinking in study.

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The photo documents the classroom experiment scene in spatial design. During the process of making the installation with my collaborators, we had a lot of diverse communications, which allowed me to gain numerous ideas and methods and helped us create this installation successfully. This is what I consider the importance of one aspect of critical thinking.

References：

As a collaborator in cooperation. I think my advantage is that I have a certain sense of responsibility. When faced with the takes assigned to me, I will still do my best to complete them well and not hold back the team.

When facing common difficulties, I will try my best to think about and solve problems. When there are many different opinions ,I stay open minded ,I don’t hold on to my own views stubbornly, instead, I accept other ideas and make adjustments.

I think, my weaknesses is overthinking worry about some details and the direction of choice and will overfocus on details, which affects the whole. So there may be some resistance in choosing ideas and directions In short, I think my disadvantage is that I am not decisive enough.

If I have more time and unlimited budget to design the moment.

First of all, I will conduct in-depth research and think about what to use to better connect people the memorial. How can we design this memorial to ensure it takes deep root in people's hearts?

In terms of budget use: choose materials or props that better fit the theme and make the installation just right.

Finally, pay close attention to every detail in the creation. From the layout to the wording of any inscriptions, each element will be carefully curated to evoke the intended emotions and memories, ensuring the memorial is not just a structure but a meaningful imprint.

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The mind map created by our group through collaboration.
The small building made by the group through collaboration using the leftover materials from class.

References：

In this week’s class, the teacher had us act out a specific criticism scenario. From doing this, we gained a profound understanding of interpersonal dynamics in conflict situations.

We picked up skills like managing our own handing relationships. We figured out how to keep relationships on track and analyze them in that scenario, plus how to look at everyone’s actions with logical, critical thinking to help mediate. What’s more, we learned to identify the root causes of conflicts and develop targeted solutions.

Our scenario was pretty straight for ward: When two people clashed, someone else stepped into work things out, We used“one person accidentally breaking the other’s phone” as the main conflict for the mediation practice. By watching how the two people in the argument talked and acted, we got to reflect on how well we can keep our emotions in check when things get tense. We also discussed different conflict resolution strategies and evaluated their effectiveness in real time. As the mediator in the role-play I had to really think about what happened and also see more clearly how well each person was controlling their emotions.I learned to remain neutral and guide the conversation constructively.

This class was a great chance for me to improve, too. It let me practice holding back impulsive reactions, use my good communication skills, and fix the part where I struggle when dealing with conflicts.

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Figure 1 shows the scenario simulation topic I drew.

The second picture is a live scene of our classroom scenario simulation activity.

References：