I have just been added on as one of the two moderators for this forum. My counterpart is in the US and I am in Hong Kong.
We both want to make sure this forum hears from both sides of any issue and that is does not turn into a cultural flame session. The hope is that by discussion everyone can understand each other better, as in our profession we must work together on a daily basis.
I hopewe can all work together to make this an educational forum.
Tim Fletcher
Thats nice tim. It was starting to get annoying some of the comments made.
Lmr.
First, I think we need to get over the “us versus them” tone that I see a lot of these forums. There is no us and there is no them, at least when it comes to economies. We are living in a global economy where products and services are spreading to all reaches of the globe no matter where they originate.
I saw something intersting last month. It was a Businessweek cover that said “Is China taking over the US?”. I remembered the same magazines cover from the late 80’s/early 90’s where if you replaced the word “China” for “Japan” it was exactly the same. Didn’t happen with Japan and won’t happen with China. It is also important to note that the US and Europe never took over the world either. Each great economy has an effect on other economies but the world is too big for it to take over.
So that said, all we are really talking about is “our culture versus their culture”. Now that we have taken this down to a smaller level to deal with I think we can look at history and find that when cultures mix there is a short period of clumsiness but in the end cultural mixing makes everyone stronger.
Lets work together through the clumsy period and make everyone stronger.
Timf: I think we are the only two people that remember those magazines with “Is Japan taking over?” on them. Thank you!
I remember and have even used the same generic example on this forum… somewhere. It’s a good one.
Same here.
Its not about competition. But about different perspectives. Designers from countries they belong to, say china or europe, still have a role to play in identifying unique aspects of their culture that design solutions can arise from.
I’m a student in the UK, studying industrial design and am doing a research project at the moment into; 'The aesthetic/design qualities of consumer products and how they appeal across different cultures.’ I am looking in particular at mobile phones.
I have devised an online survey and would appreciate it if people interested would complete it for me. I will post the results for all to see after the project is complete.
Link to survey;
http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=168695
Thanks