Design Exploration /

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20.04.2026 - 22.7.2026 / Week 1 - Week 7
GAN YI KIAN / 0374572
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Design Exploration


LECTURES

Week 2
Design & Playful Experiences / Visual Communication as persuasive playful medium
  • Visual are powerful persuasive medium to provide most of our information about the world.
Visual are

Everything that can be seen 
- Wide, all-inclusive including nature
Everything produced or created by humans that can be seen 
- Producrd or created by humans for the purpose of visual representations.

Design as persuasive provocative visuals
  • to disrupt the usual unconscious thought process
  • Shock, Shame, Fear and Anger are four emotions that often portrayed in provocative visuals.
Design sensitivity
  • Cultural sensitivity
  • Economic Instability
  • Polarization and Divison
  • Social Justice Movements
Playful design
  • Playfulness is often the result of increasing both engagement and fun by guiding asprects taht lead to desired actions and behaviors.
Week 4
Visual communication as persuasive medium
- No need to establish a personal relationship with viewers.
- Distributed by using legal and nonlegal methods
- Exert a disproportionate influence on the population by propagating their beliefs.

- Force the viewers to be outside of the comfort zone.
- Audience are forced to take a second look at the advertisement





INSTRUCTIONS


Portfolio Blog Entry 1 - Potential ideas so far (Week 3)

Six realms of existence in Buddhism
At first, I didn't know what I could do, especially on topics related to mental health and psychology. So I asked Ms. Anis and Ms Eunice if topics about the six realms of existence in Buddhism would be acceptable.


Then they told me that this direction was a bit complicated because it involved religion, and that there are indeed different interpretations of this topic in different places, so I needed to switch to a simpler topic.

Perfectionism
We need to choose a topic related to mental health to expand upon, so I've chosen perfectionism as my theme. I will gather more information about perfectionism on Canva.

These are some outcomes I initially envisioned that I could actually create.

  • Gallery of not-perfect artwork website

  • A series of artworks with a completion rate of 90%

  • Website drawing platform - user draw 50%, 50% beauty by AI

  • Website drawing platform - can see people drawing work

  • Website drawing platform - people can see your work and improve it

  • Online digital collage - imperfect creator


After that, I decided to create a platform that allows users to create their own artwork. However, the more you edit or modify, the different warning messages the system will display to remind you that you're being too "perfectionist."

My theme will be created using the Wabi-Sabi style.

I named this platform "Imperfect Vessel." 

Why this name? Because I used the wabi-sabi concept of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
My main goal is to encourage people to create their own artwork boldly, while adhering to the principle of "less revision is better".

IF user edit these shape
>25, "Not everything needs to be fixed."
>15, "You tried to hold everything together."
>5, ""You tried, and that is enough."
>0, "You knew when to stop." / "Sometimes, it's best to just watch."

First, on the onboarding page, the platform name "Imperfect Vessel" will be displayed.


These ceramic shards will float on the window, and users can click on them to edit.


These color palettes and patterns are based on the wabi-sabi style, and users can edit the ceramic fragments they select here.


Eventually, all the fragments will combine to form a heart, but I don't think it's very meaningful, and users won't be very interested in such a monotonous final artwork.



Portfolio Blog Entry 2 - My final, confirmed idea (Week 5)

After determining the overall direction of the platform, I felt that the final product could be more interesting and meaningful, so I started researching abstract facial art online. Why the face? Because I think the face is a vibrant part of the body, always the first thing that catches the eye, and we can judge a person's mental state by their face.


I found some artists and keywords related to face art, and I decided to use Pablo Picasso's work to showcase the artwork that users can create on this platform. I felt that abstract faces offered great creative potential; users could edit the color and texture of each fragment, and then randomly generate different abstract face artworks.

Wabi-Sabi = Kintsugi = Pablo Picasso

Final outcome
Wabi-Sabi : Overall concept
Kintsugi: Gold behind the face, can see from crack
Pablo Picasso: Final outcome 



Portfolio Blog Entry 3 - Project planning over 7 weeks (Week 7)

Research:
Proposal slides:
Project Development:
MVP:

After the presentation (May 25, 2026), I realized there were still some shortcomings, such as:

- There is insufficient research on Perfectionism; currently, most studies indicate..., just surface now
- There has been progress in expression, but it still needs improvement.
- Not link back Wabi-Sabi =?, Kintsugi =? ,Pablo Picasso in my website/platform


These are more timeline layouts that follow.

My next steps:

- Further research into Perfectionism
- Ensure consistent performance across all browser platforms
- Fix some lag bugs
- Develop my platform into an app; currently, it's only available as a web version
- Expand the current MVP, making the user flow more interactive, fun, and unique.



Portfolio Blog Entry 4 - Deliverable status so far (Week 10)
Portfolio Blog Entry 5 - Final output status (Week 12)




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