MONOTYPE EVALUATION -The Beauty of a Minority Project Evaluation

This project has developed and translated an understand of a community. This understanding comes from both within and outside of it. This understanding has come from a range innovative sources, both primary and secondary and has led to having a rounded comment on this community.

 This project operated within a community and culture.  It was important for audiences to understand that the artworks are abstract for a reason. The intention was not to expand the culture nor was it communicate its beliefs. Although initial interest in this culture steamed from my heritage, my role as the designer was to visualize the beauty of this culture from an outsider’s perspective. The abstract designs embody the perception outsiders tend to have towards smaller, separated communities. From basing the designs from an outsiders perceptive, whilst also considering the point of view from those within it, this helped avoid making assumptions and constructing incorrect stereotypes.

The outcomes of this project include a publication, poster series and jewellery collection. All of these outcomes reflect the beauty of this minority. Although the publication and poster series use a shape arrangement approach new to my practice, transferring these designs onto jewellery was whole new process. Although this part of the project was done in a collaboration, the process was still tested and learnt by myself.

  

The publication is a successful outcome in articulating the project and making sure the purpose of the designs is understood, whereas the posters and jewellery are outcomes that leave more room for the audience to make sense of what they see.

Although the initial design ideas were used within the final publication, all designs were revisited and refined to give a consistent finish to the project as a whole.

Although the final publication was not as clean as I had hoped, it was understood through discussions that if this book were to be made in a professional printers and book binding studio, these design problems would not occur. Despite this, it was still taken on board to find a design solution as discussed on the production design board.

The designs were all shown to the Tamil speaker to gain a judgement on whether the designs were successful and pleasing to a member of this chosen community. Feedback from Tamil speaker was positive and although the designs were not intended to be legible to a Tamil speaker, many were, while others simply looked interesting. It was commented from the Tamil speaker that these designs were engaging and interesting to understand how they developed from using the shapes of the Tamil alphabet.

Moving forward, working with shapes in this way is an approach I look to use again as the aesthetic is one, from feedback that has been popular and successful in catching attention from an audience.