Exploring topic for degree essay

Islamic influences on the media of Malaysia

I was fascinated by the Malay culture in the 60s or 70s of Malaysia, when it is the period when Malaysia (or should be called Malaya) is still colonised by the British gorvenment. On that time, the people of Malaysia, as known as rakyat, are often influence by the western culture.

One of the significant evidence can be seen in the P.Ramlee films. The scene of people dancing, Muslim women are not wearing tudung (a veil that covers the head and chest), and a lot of social activities that the common Muslim females are not doing in these days.

Enquiry:
1. Wearing tudung is a must for Muslim female today but not for the past?
2. The teaching of Islam is protecting the Muslim women or restricting them?
3. The influence of Islam is expanded to the media culture, e.g. Muslim female cannot show their hair and armpit on TV ads, kissing scene in movie is censored, etc.

Malaysia new media revolution 
The Malaysia government often control and implies censorship in the public media, such as print and tv, to filter out the "unsuitable" news in order to maintain the public safety and to protect the people from chaos.

As the technology advance, it is very hard for the government to maintain its censorship. Especially, the rise of the social media made the news spread easily and quickly. The best evidence can be seen in the political campaign during the general election in 2013.

Enquiry:
1. Control in the media by the government, is it bad?
2. The freedom given in the social media, is it good?
3. How social media contribute in the political revolution in the Malaysia general election 2013?

How to made crowdsourcing work?

Crowdsourcing nowadays is promoting spec work. AIGA claimed that every designer should get paid if they are offering time and effort, their knowledge to solve the problem. Paying the designer will attract them to come to the crowdsourcing and they will work together to come out the best and effective idea.

Source:

http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/launchsite-adds-a-twist-to-the-traditional-crowdsourced-design-model/30314

One hat doesn’t fit all. Crowdsourcing fail Adam case

Adam tried to get logo design from the crowdsourcing, so he post the task and paid $299 for the 99design to get great artwork design. But, what he saw is just repetition from the other design and lost the originality.

At the end, he didn’t get what he want and waste a lot of time and effort from the designer.

Source:

http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/01/22/wasted-82-working-days-designing-logo-didnt-want/#!wsYSa

Crowdsourcing good or bad?

Clients nowadays need the design work get to be done, no matter who is it (the amateur or professional). They are submitting the task and hope the designer can compete each other and the client can get the most appealing result.

The client may see it as a great deal as offer the ability for clients to get a variety of choices, price transparency, and an easy, streamlined process that requires no paperwork.

Case study: Designer quit doing crowdsourcing job

Grace said that crowdsourcing taks or design contest are addictive as the task feels easy and the reward is appealing. But the truth is there are only few designer could win the contest and other just paid nothing. But there are still many design is signing up, and she list out some of the reason. 

■ Ignorance
Because the education didn’t educate the student about spec work
■ Economics
$200 for a design is a lot of money in some country
■ Poor Communication Skills
Some would rather show their work right off than try to create a decent proposal or job application.
■ No respect
client and designer didn’t respect the design processes and being a professional designer

Source:

http://graceoris.com/2011/03/how-i-quit-working-for-99designs-crowdspring-and-mycroburst/

AIGA Position on spec work

Crowdsourcing is devaluing the design process and often paid nothing for the designer effort which is the AIGA strongly against it.

AIGA point out some form of spca work that every design should take aware: 

1. Speculative or “spec” work: work done for free, in hopes of getting paid for it
2. Competitions: work done in the hopes of winning a prize—in whatever form that might take
3. Volunteer work: work done as a favor or for the experience, without the expectation of being paid
4. Internships: a form of volunteer work that involves educational gain
5. Pro bono work: volunteer work done “for the public good”

AIGA also see the risk of crowdsourcing which client may get compromised quality of work and the benefit of designer might be exploit.

Source:

http://www.aiga.org//position-spec-work/

Crowdsourcing is the future?

Some said that crowdsourcing is the future of the advertising and creative industry. They said that they are building a space where client able to find designer and designer can earn money from the crowdsourcing job. It opens the task to the public and who have the skill can demonstrate on it.

Crowdsourcing might see a great tool for the business and company, but the high competitive environment of the crowdsourcing is pressing the price and values of the design down. The is why there are many professional designer try to step away for it.

Source:
Winsor, 2009. Crowdsourcing: What It Means for Innovation Available at http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2009/id20090615_946326.htm

Fast food company, design template and crowdsourcing site. How similar are they?

After the end of the war, capitalism rises and our society shift from the production to consumption. Same as the creative industry, the design have been commercialise and people tents to treat it as commodity. 

The template design site is selling the design like a product. Providing different of variety and tone of option to let the buy to select. For example, they can sales something small like logo, business card and flyer template, to something big like magazine template, website template and etc. Same like the McDolnalds, these design are sold cheaply, everything is ready made and can get it easily.

It also shows that the template design are meaningless. It is because a true design should consist the process of concepting, research, sketching, problem solving, evaluating and etc between the client and designer. These zero human interaction product are like the French fried or burger in the McDonalds, which is ready made and nothing is prepare by the human delicately.

Reference:

Ritzer, G. (1997) "The McDonaldizaton thesis," Sage Publications Ltd, pg. 118-113

Brainstorming

Introduction

1. Subject matter:The rise of fast food culture emphasis on time efficiency and instant gratification is influencing the creative industry.
2. Research outcome: To investigate what is the impact of fast food culture on the creative industry
3. Reseach question: The cultural of consumption is changing the value of design. How the people differentiate good and bad design? Why the people today are largely stimulated by the effects of a design, instead of its idea and the concept of the design? 
4. Relevance research: template design, crowdsourcing, design contest, design process, the value of design

Argument:

1. The crowdsourcing site is blurring the line between amateur and professional designer.
2. Crowdsourcing is encouraging unpaid work and design, is it good or bad?
3. Will crowdsourcing benefit the creative industry but setting up a working platform? Or they are exploiting the designer?

Reflect design industry in the context of fast food culture

McDonalds, is a famous icon or consequence of the fast food culture. Same as the design industry, 99design and Graphicriver share the similar characteristics with the McDonalds, which they are same in providing easy and fast solution for different people and meeting up the demand.

Ritzer (1998) pointed out the characteristics of the fast food restaurant which we can imply it in the design industry. For examples, their is no "real" human interaction with the servers in fast-food restaurants. In reflection, there is also no real human interaction in the design crowdsourcing site and design template seller. For example, the client gave a design brief in the 99design site and wait for the crowd to submit their works. Only with a design brief, designers are very hard to come out a effective solution. Especially the tone of your message, it requires face to face discussion in order to let the designer full understands the problems and then come out an effective way to solve it. 

A very good example is the logo design of a company. A client can just buy the logo template, then add the company name on it. It feels awkward and unfinished. The template may fulfil some people's need, but it is not effective and fades in the world of thousands of logos. 

So, logo design or branding, should be done by the professional and should undergo the traditional design process, such as building concept, sketches, visualise and other. It need time and real communication to come out an effective design solution which the crowdsourcing site or design template site cannot achieve.

George Ritzer, 1998. McDonaldization thesis: explorations and extensions. University of Maryland. 

The derive of fast food culture and it's derivates

It is interesting to study what made our culture and why are this or that phenomena occurs around us? 

I came across with a research report which said about the fast food culture. The title said that you are how you eat, fast food impatience. This research paper obviously point out behaviour of the people nowadays, which emphasis on pursuing instant gratification, speed and time efficiency.

Our creative industry also influenced by the fast food culture. Many clients are focusing on delivering the final design work, and neglect the value of the design process. This is why design template selling sites and crowdsourcing sites are so popular right now. These sites able the clients to get what they want instantly, what is appealing to them and some time they didn’t value the effectiveness of the design.

Bo Zhong, Chen. (2010). “You Are How You Eat : Fast Food and Impatience” Available at http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/5/619 [Accessed: 21 January 2014]