CROSSING WORDS

Design for Transformation 2022

F20DM0044|Nicholas Chai
Conceptialization
Chosen Brief
My chosen design brief is for Google Fonts.
Language is a very important medium for
communication and interaction, something the
recent COVID pandemic has made abundantly
clear. Google has developed a font to that end,
creating a neutral font which can be adapted in
many language types across the world in an effort
to better connect all different language speakers
or writers of the world.

Google’s goals are clear: they aim to spread the

awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) to the world, and there is no better
medium than type, using this font they have

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890

The Noto font family, with the common

english alphabet. Yes, everything in this
presentation uses Noto as well.
UDHR and chosen
It is also my wish to see a world one day where
being bilingual or trilingual is a norm and people
can better connect and communicate, especially

topic when travelling, which brings us back to Google’s

Noto font family and the benefits it will bring to

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

or UDHR is a list of articles decided upon by
representitives all over the world to list and protect
the rights of human beings regardless of race,
religion or nationality.

I have chosen Articles 1 and 26 for my topic. Ar-

ticle 1 states that all human beings are born free
and equal, and Article 26 states that everyone has
a right to education. These two resonate with me
the most because I feel that in order for Article 1 to
best be realised, Article 26 needs to be applied and
used as a means to educate children since young
so that they may understand each other.

As Singapore is a multiracial and multilingual

society, there is great importance in Education not
only to teach children at an early age, but also to
get the children to mingle with all other races and
learn from each other’s cultures.

Research into language
To understand my chosen Article as well as to get more
knowledge on languages in general, I decided to research
into the most spoken languages in the world.
One thing to note regarding these study results
are the amount of Native Speakers vs Non Native
Speakers. English by far outstrips all other
languages spoken at a whopping 753 million. This
may be why most countries choose to educate
their young in English, as it is quite possibly the
most spoken language in the world. Thus with this
analysis, we can conclude that English should be
one of the core languages taught to children at a
young age.

Secondly, each child should stick to their roots, lest

their own culture and language be forgotten. A
child’s second language should be their mother-
tongue. This system has applied to Singaporean
education as long as I can remember, and as early
as 1987. However, I do see that other countries
seem not to hold this in the same regard. Some
countries do teach two or more languages, but the
According to Berlitz which is a language learning children see so little usage of it, they fail to nurture
center, these are some of the most spoken their other language skill.
languages in the world as of 2021:

English Mandarin Hindi

Native speakers: 379 mil Native speakers: 918 mil Native speakers: 341 mil
Non-Native speakers: 753 mil Non-Native speakers: 199 mil Non-Native speakers: 274 mil

Spanish French Arabic

Native speakers: 460 mil Native speakers: 77 mil Native speakers: 245 mil
Non-Native speakers: 74 mil Non-Native speakers: 203 mil Non-Native speakers: 29 mil

Bengali Russian Portugese

Native speakers: 228 mil Native speakers: 154 mil Native speakers: 221 mil
Non-Native speakers: 37 mil Non-Native speakers: 104 mil Non-Native speakers: 13 mil
Research into Racism
The most common infringement of Article 1 is
basically racism in whatever degree which plauges
most countries across the world. I’ve decided to
research a little into Racism as a topic, and see
if I can propose a solution or PSA to help toward
ending racism at a fundamental level.

I’ve approached this by first sourcing articles on

the matter written and published by universities
and other third parties. It is important to get a
broader picture, and what people feel generates
or perpetuates racism. A common feature I
notice is how stereotyping usually comes into
play. “Stereotyping and Racism: Findings from
two attitude surveys” mention that some races
feel that media has typecasted them into certain
stereotypes which already ruined their chances
of getting along from the get go. Another article,
“10 Root Causes of Racism”, mention that Media
representation is also often a factor which
represents races, more often and not wrongly.
It then serves as fuel for racism, eg. A Black man
liking Fried chicken.
Case studies : Media Misrepresentation
Often times, Media is the main culprit when it
comes to molding a stereotype. After years of
misrepresentation, how could the general public
not know better than to believe it true?
Example 1: Nora from Queens by Awkwafina
Nora from Queens is a satirical sitcom created
by Awkwafina for the purpose of entertaining
an audience using the difficulties and cultural
differences between a China Chinese and
American culture/way of life. It’s a hilarious sitcom
series which often uses Stereotypes in order
to setup a joke, which while seems fine in the
context of a sitcom, is actually a form of cultural
misrepresentation. This sort of misrepresentation
is initially harmless and is a good laugh for
all it makes fun of as well as other audiences,
but in the long run, it could unintentionally
create preconceived stereotypes which people
may actually act upon or integrate into their
understanding of another race. This is a very
dangerous mistake which could be rectified if
schools taught the languages of other races as
an option as well as participate in cultural cross
pollination which will help people enjoy media like
this without being
influenced by the
stereotypes to act
differently.
Example 2: The Noose
This Singaporean produced
program was conceived as a
satriacal outlook on Singapore’s
hot topics from the years 2007
- 2013. While it was generally
well received and light hearted
in its humor and stereotypes,
they make heavy use of its racial
humor for comedic effect. There have
been some light pushback in the later
years regarding the stereotypical
portrayal of certain characters in the
show’s lifespan which put some races
or minorities in a bad light, as well as
featuring some cases of casual racism.
The Noose is a great example of a show
created by a multiracial cast aimed at
a multiracial audience, however due
to Singapore’s own history and our
people living together for so many
years together, as well as our youth
being taught the importance of racial
harmony, the show was still enjoyed
by many. It however, does not excuse
the use of its racial jokes and should
be remembered deep down that it isn’t
okay to make such jokes at the expense
of other races in a more public setting.
Solution Development
Poster design research
After understanding the message I wanted
to envision, I researched for Poster designs
which gave off a solemn, yet stylish look
which appeals to my target audience.
Poster design drafts
And with the style of my
choice in mind, I set out to do
some drafts for my poster.

Final Draft
Using the style researched in order
to craft an image of a knight

Typography forms the

blade of the sword

The knight in the

poster is does not
have any romanticized
meaning other than
to show a warrior or a
person convicted to do
battle. As this person is
one counterpart to the
deal, they are the one
who wields their words
with malicious intent
and to harm and hurt
another party.
Digital Media concept
For my Digital Media concept, I decided
to make a .gif which is snappy, fast, and
stylish and make my audience think hard
and deep about their actions thus far.
These can be shared on social medias like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Tiktok.
.gif storyboard concept
Non-Traditional Medium
For my Non-Traditional Medium, I would like to
create stickers which serve as a collection of sorts.
Supporters of the cause can use these stickers to
decorate their personal artifacts. As such, these
stickers must also look stylish and fashionable.