21/04/2025- 21/07/2025 (Week 1-Week 14)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Minor Project | BDCM | Taylor's University
Minor Project
PROCESS
Fig 1.1 MIB
Since this project is tied to an NDA, the following e-portfolio will only be a recap of the group’s progress and final reflection.
This project is a collaborative project, combining groups from The Design School with School of Engineering. As design students, our group was a multidisciplinary group with members from different specializations. We were to pick 1 group out of 4 engineering groups to work with. Our brief and main goal was to visually translate the engineering team's technical side to be more easily understood and visually appealing to mass public.
Research
In the first few weeks, we solely worked on the research phase based on the design thinking process such as contextual research and then worked on crafting user personas and finally conducting primary research. Our group decided to do a mix of surveys and interviews. After this phase, we could finally determine the main problem and pain points based on the primary research. Based on this discovery, we did the insights discovery and crafted our problem statements & our HMW (How Might We) questions. Afterward, we proceeded to find a solution in which our group decided to create an online campaign with the objective of raising awareness to the engineering team's project and also align it to an event where they would display the project in an interactive booth.
Throughout these weeks, it wasn’t quite as smooth as I had expected. There were some gaps we missed from the SOE team, especially the more technical side. As a group, we didn't fully understood their project as it was honestly sometimes too technical for us and it took a while for us to fully grasp it. They were also busy with refining their model so the communication between the two teams was actually quite rare. There were also a lot of back and forth based on the feedback given.
Execution
However, after everything was settled, following our solution, we start the main execution of the main online campaign and assigned tasks based on the specialization of the members.
- Main Collaterals & Brand Identity: Graphic Design (2)
LED Screen, Website, Skin: UI/UX (3)
Booth 3D Model: Entertainment Design (1)
I was in graphic design and I personally took up the job of crafting the main campaign logo and other collateral. There were quite a lot of collateral to make and there were only 2 people in graphic design (including me). Other than the main campaign logo, I was also in charge of making 4 merchandise mockups, voucher design, landscape billboard, a trifold brochure, and three social media posts. Alongside these, I also volunteered to do all the mockups needed for posters, billboards, and social media posts.
While the collateral was quite smoothly flowing, the logo, on the other hand, went through quite a few tweaks. The first logo I digitized was actually approved by Mr. Mike. However, friends from other groups told me the logomark did not read like how it was intended to. For me, this was a big issue because the logomark should be clear and it should not be misread. Following this, the editing process started and with constant feedback from my team members, we finally finished the logo.
We started the collateral quite late so there was a lot of rushing on the graphic design’s side, not to mention the clashing deadlines. However, thankfully we pulled through, albeit somewhat very near to the deadline.
Final Presentation
We compiled our designs into a final presentation deck alongside our research results as we didn’t have to do the mid-semester presentation to propose our idea. We had practiced as well as a group prior to the presentation. Fortunately, it went well and the feedback we got from our client was helpful and realistic in the industry.
Final Reflection
This was my first time working with a team from a whole other field and a very technical one too, at that. It was quite unique seeing how they seem to pay way more attention to functionality and the more technical side to it but somewhat didn’t really care about how it looked visually. This opened my eyes and added new perspectives. Honestly, communicating between two teams from different schools that have different briefs and goals was quite hard. Sometimes there was stuff we didn’t consider to ask before and it’ll leave us confused. Plus, it doesn't help that understanding the technical things was also a bit difficult for some of us.
Nonetheless, this entire process definitely taught me a more research-based method to graphic design. One where it involves research and finding out users’ actual real-world problems, instead of us assuming. While it did make the process longer, it also ensured our final design decision and solution was not pointless as it focused on the target audience’s issue and we could use our skills to solve a real-world issue.
This experience is very valuable to me as I learned a lot about teamwork, communication between different disciplines and within the group, utilising feedback given to us, and a lot more. This project also allowed me to explore a different, more corporate, formal design style. Truthfully, it was quite hard at first to ensure our design stays consistent with Continental’s since theirs are quite corporate and I wasn’t used to it. However, as I kept going, I adapted slowly.
Overall, I’d say that this collaborative project is a very helpful project to me and has helped me grow into a better designer that not only focuses on visuals, but also the problem-solving aspects of it, it also taught me how to use design thinking effectively. Despite the hurdles we faced, I’m also thankful that our group is cooperative and can work together, making this project easier to handle.
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