汉字
Timo Wang
GR620 Visual Thinking Xiaoran Wang
Book design and original photography by Xiaoran Wang Email: timowangcn@gmail.com Manual printing and binding by Timo Wang in 2015 Typeface: Gotham rounded & Wawati SC All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright holder.
Straw Buildings
TABLE OF CONTENTS IDEATION
Initial Concepts • •
Inspiration Brainstorming Wall
Creative Brief • • • • • • •
Background SWOT Analysis Messages Tone & Keywords Competitors Audience Stakeholders
IDENTITY
Mood Board Logo Explorations Posters
EXECUTION
App Events Parents Teaching Video
CONCLUSION
IDEATION 构思过程
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Initial Concepts
Inspiration My inspiration is based on the successful model used by the makers of Sesame Street who made captivating and educationally effective programming for children, also entertaining for the parents. “Straw Buildings� should have a whimsical feeling, attracting the attention of the children and parents to feel excited about childhood discovery and learning. The idea of the Swallow Bird is connected to an old Chinese character for bird and just like a swallow, we want to help children gather the pieces to help them build their Chinese characters. The design will be colourful and use references that speak to child development and stories that speak to adults memories.
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Brainstorming Wall The brainstorming session began as a list on a piece of paper. The important and applicable words were then transfered to post it notes and displayed on a board for further viewing. This helped me to organize which words were most important and relevant to the development process.
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Physical
Juvenile
pictures calligraphy strokes paper ink pencil workbook hands flashcards
confidence Imagination skills understanding connection heritage language modern traditional
building games puzzle paintbrush water rice paper colored paper
Virtual ipad APP iphone QR code scanning games scan Images 3D glasses website video interactive learning computer projector PC game Wii social media
evolution Stroke order colors brainstorming drawing produce
Adult teach Improve foster creativity community implement encouragement produce Illustrate guide symbols question out of the box thinking facilitate organize apply logic
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Three Points of Interest The result of my brainstorming session highlighted three important concepts that are simple but ultimately relevant to the development process.
Interactive Learning:
The most basic principal that is central to the program is interactive learning. We want the children to be able to understand concepts through making connections. An interdisciplinary approach will strengthen the students’ ability to see beyond the character itself, allowing the child to use logic, imagery, creativity and reason to understand Chinese characters.
Evolution:
When considering an interactive learning style, the next line of focus is on the evolution of the characters. The evolution is the way students will be able to see an image they recognize, then find the similarities through the various stages of Chinese character modernization. This is the process that will activate students thinking about identifiable and recognizable parts, making the strokes into pictures, the pictures into characters, and the characters into concepts.
Encouragement:
Encouragement is the element that is most important for parents. The parents will be a huge influence on the educational goals of their children, and it is important that they are helping to build the confidence and imagination of the students. Parents will help ease children into the seemingly difficult task of learning characters by encouraging playfulness, imagination, and creativity.
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Creative Brief
History Straw Buildings is a program that emphasizes the playful aspect of writing Chinese characters. Chinese characters are a pictographic representation of a word or concept. The program is inspired by examining the parts that add up to the sum; in the way that a swallow builds a nest from small pieces, Straw Buildings uses pictures to build an understanding of Chinese characters. Many American-born Chinese are able to speak Chinese but they are intimidated by writing characters; it is often viewed as daunting and boring. Straw Buildings is a playful and effective way to visualize, build and understand the pictorial elements of Chinese.
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SWOT analysis Weakness
Strengths
This approach may plateau after beginning levels of writing characters have been achieved; the program may not suit the needs of advanced students.
The primary strength of this program is its use of an interdisciplinary approach to foster imagination and
Opportunities
Threats
Chinese is the most spoken language in the world; our global market is relying on strong Sino-American relationships, including a demand for Chinese Language speakers.
San Francisco hosts many accredited language learning programs such as Confucius Institute and Chineasy; competition for high quality language programs is fierce.
build skills in writing characters.
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Main Message Learning characters is an important foundation to truly understanding Chinese language and culture.
Sub Message Characters are pictures; they were created from pictorial elements that are still seen in the simplified versions of characters today. With the right tools, writing characters can be quite easy once you understand the visual foundation for the strokes and symbols. Opening the mind to playful aspects while learning enhances the ability to retain and understand information.
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Tone The tone for this project is simplicity and imagination. The visuals, text and design for Straw Buildings will use a clean style that also evokes elements of imagination. The element of simplicity will make it easy to understand and recognize and the element of imagination will remind users how to play while they learn.
Simplicity Imagination Playfulness
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Competitors
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Main Competitors
The Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University is a well-established institute for Chinese learning. They have a strong connection with Beijing Normal University and value education and language exchange. What makes Straw Buildings different is the focus on creative-learning strategies and interdisciplinary approaches, as opposed to the ridged academic model.
The Sunflower Learning Center is a Bay Area Chinese Language School. They focus on teaching young children; however this excludes students who may be older but have an elementary understanding of Chinese characters. Straw Buildings is designed to engage older students who may have elementary understandings of the written language.
Chineasy is a fantastic and creative program to learn the pictographic elements of Chinese characters. Straw Buildings has a similar approach to connecting pictures, characters and words; however, Chineasy only covers the basic simplified Chinese characters. Straw Buildings will make a stronger connection to the traditional Chinese characters, allowing a deeper understanding of Chinese writing.
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Audience
Eric is a stay at home dad and freelance writer. Originally from China, he moved to the US at age 21. His biggest concerns in life are the health and education of his children. He values the education they receive in San Francisco but he also wants to make sure they understand Chinese culture and language.
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Max is an active boy who enjoys playing outside. He is in the second-grade and his favorite class is Science, where they conduct many experiments. Max is Chinese-American; while he speaks Mandarin, he takes a class to learn characters. His notebook is filled with doodles rather than characters.
Lucy is a middle-school student at an international school in San Francisco. She enjoys school and studies hard every day. Just like at home, she speaks Chinese with her friends at school. She is very interested in learning more about characters but she hesitates to ask for help about things she doesn’t understand.
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Stakeholders Liu Na is 28 years old and teaches Chinese at an elementary school in San Francisco. Born and raised in America, Liu Na enjoys teaching Chinese because it keeps her connected to her culture. She is passionate about teaching and is always looking for creative-learning strategies to produce engaging lessons and activities for her students.
John is an events coordinator for Chinese Culture Center, a non-profit organization in San Francisco. He promotes lectures, workshops, exhibitions, performances and cultural exchanges in order to help the Chinese-American community gain a deeper knowledge of Chinese and Chinese-American culture.
Jun Wang is a retired art teacher who teaches private Chinese calligraphy lessons at his home. As a 67 year old man he wants to make sure that future generations of Chinese-American’s do not forget their culture and heritage. Jun Wang believes there is so much beauty and poetry in the art of Chinese calligraphy.
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IDENTITY 特 性
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Mood board
Keywords Visualization:
The main goal of this project is to allow the audience to visualize; visualize words, visualize meaning, visualize concepts. What images come to mind when we are interacting with the text? Since characters are pictures, we want people to visualize the pictorial element of these words.
Building Knowledge:
Imagine a bird building a nest; the bird first needs to set out and gather various elements in order to build the nest. In Straw Buildings we are doing the same; we are allowing the audience to gather small pieces and understand how they are connected to build a new concept.
Playful:
Many feel that work is work and play is play but Straw Buildings wants to eliminate this barrier. Those unfamiliar with Chinese characters may feel hesitant to learn because writing seems so difficult and daunting. Straw Buildings wants you to tap into your playful mind, evoke imagination and learn how to connect playing and learning.
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The logo’s strongest inspiration is from the Chinese stamp, typically used for people who are signing a piece of work. The story behind the symbol of the Straw Buildings logo plays off the story of Swallow Bird; just like the bird must build a nest by finding little pieces, the students of Straw Buildings will need to build characters by discovering the little pieces (the strokes).
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Logo Explorations
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Final logo design based on the Golden ration and triangle
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STRAW BUILDINGS
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Posters Overall, the goal of the poster is to let audiences know what we do in Straw Buildings and also encourage them to join the events. The posters have to be engaging not only to the parents but to the children as well. The posters use bold, primary colors to capture the attention. The style of the Chinese character is easy to read; they are simple and clear for children to understand the shapes and strokes. Also, there are visuals behind the character to unify the image with the character.
Refinement The poster style changed over the course of time. Here you can see the evolution of the poster process.
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Final Posters Posters placed at Market Street, China town bus station, St. Marry School and Chinese Catholic Center, Children Creativity Museum.
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EXECUTION 执行
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App Media Channel: Straw Buildings APP (Bihua APP) The first deliverable will be a virtual extension of the Straw Buildings Playing Pieces game. Using the same concept of identifying specific strokes and how to put them together to make a character, this app will be a fun way to follow a story of earning points by building characters to help Swallow build his nest. The Straw Buildings APP will not only enhance the learning process for children but it will also be a tool for parents. Through the APP parents can view Straw Buildings’ events and make appointments for their children to attend these events. The APP also can be used to interact with the Magic Wall; included is an option to scan the QR codes on the Magic Wall to unlock new lessons for children.
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Join the event, Scan and unlock the game. Program name: Magic Wall address: 1050 pine, San Francisco. time: May,2nd,2015. 10:00am-3:00pm
Even to those who speak Chinese, our first interaction with Chinesecharacters can seem daunting. The characters seem so difficult and there are so many to remember, For a Chinese American who is fluent in speaking Chinese but lacks in the ability to write Chinese, it may be overwhelming to learn the characters. However, learning Chinese characters can be quite easy, and a lot of fun, if you are able to use your imagination and understand the roots and stories that these characters are comprised of. Straw Buildings offers students the opportunity to learn about characters in a creative and playful way, strengthening their understanding of strokes, structure, and the meaning of Chinese characters.
This is the magic wall in which Chinese characters are hidden. When a child uses the app to scan the QR code for a specific place, the mountain, for example, the Chinese Character will emerge.
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This is the magic wall in which Chinese characters are hidden. When a child uses the app to scan the QR code for a specific place, the mountain, for example, the Chinese Character will emerge.
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This is the second deliverable, which include four parts: workshop, magic cards,magic wall and we at Straw Buildings.
Name Tag The name tags have certain colors to signify which role one is playing in Straw Buildings; the yellow name tags are for parents, the red name tags are for instructors and the green name tags are for students. Those who have made appointments for the events will have a bold, color-filled name tag; those who have not made an official appointment will have the white name-tags with a colorful outline.
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Events
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Workshop This deliverable will be a hands-on game that allows students to play and learn, the most important aspect of Straw Buildings. The game will contain various pieces representing the different character strokes; each stroke type will be designated a specific color. The pieces can be mixed and matched to practice understanding the pieces and the stroke order to build characters.
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Magic Cards When a child earns all their stickers then they will receive a Magic Card; these cards are the key to unlock more exciting features, acting much like a prize incentive. When the child receives the Magic Cards they can be scanned with the third-party support APP which will lead students to animated lessons.
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Magic Wall This is the magic wall in which Chinese characters are hidden. When a child uses the app to scan the QR code for a specific place, the mountain, for example, the Chinese Character will emerge.
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As the students build their character knowledge through the program, the APP and events, they will be able to interact with a community of students and teachers. At this center, they will be able to come together with others where they will be encouraged to use their creativity and artistic skills to work with other students. They will be able to take pictures of what they have learned through the Straw Buildings program and share on social media.
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We...@ Straw Buildings
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Parents Teaching Video A huge part of the learning process for children includes parental interaction. The short Straw Buildings instructional video clearly outlines how parents can teach their children this program. It will show parents the very basic premise of how to prompt their children to think about images and their relationships to the characters.
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CONCLUSION Straw Buildings is more than an educational program; the strategies, imagination and skills learned with Straw Buildings are tools students will be able to use throughout their learning careers. We want to solve the problem that Chinese writing is too difficult to learn and we want students to have the confidence and the imagination it takes to truly understand the roots of their heritage and language. What they build in understanding, imagination, and connection can be applied to every part of their lives.