NEW cultural communication

They may find themselves proposing design solutions that reflect their own culture and exhibit little sensitivity to the nuances of symbols and colors used in other cultures.. The proble

Cultural Dimensions of Visual Communication

We live and communicate in both global and local contexts, consequently the world in which we live is both large and small

It is peopled with those similar to us and quite different from

us in language, culture and communication habit

Each person is shaped by a unique combination of inheritance and experience.

People in the same community or environment share many experiences and learned patterns of behavior which become

so familiar that they may be unaware that other groups have very different systems

Culture is often thought of and composed of the products of a civilization: Art, music, dance, literature, architecture, clothes, foods, and festivals These are the aspects of culture which can be discovered through the senses and are obvious

sources of discussions, delight and comparison

Designers can communicate much more effectively if they learn about the culture they wish to communicate with

An example:

http://designforum.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentAlias=

%5Fgetfullarticle&aid=2334150

By learning about a culture a designer can begin to know what is significant to that culture

The Aborigines who live in the Western Desert of

Australia make wonderful paintings These paintings, filled with wavy lines, circles, and curves, are

decorated with hundreds of small dots

To outsiders, the pictures are beautiful patterns filled with color But to the Aborigines, these patterns tell stories The stories are about their ancestors from long ago The stories are called Dreamings

Dreamings are an important part of the values and beliefs of the Aborigines

Some of the stories are sacred and can only be shared with Aborigines Other stories can be told to everyone When an artist paints one of these stories, he will tell

us what the painting is about One design that we start

to recognize is the large circle with smaller circles

inside

This pattern usually stands for a camp site Another design looks like a squiggly wave It usually means water or rain The land on which Aborigines live is very important to them Their designs often stand for things about nature and the earth

Social Symbolism

In many traditional societies,

marriages were arranged by parents

or other elders Sometimes the young

people involved could turn down a

marriage they did not want, but other

times the couple had no choice at all

Most, if not all, cultures have kind of symbol

system to show whether a person is married

or single

In Canada and the USA, most common

is the use of wedding and engagement

rings

Among traditional Mennonites, if a

door is painted green, it means there

is a daughter eligible for marriage

The Zulu people of Southern Africa

developed a complex code using

colored beads

In Zulu tradition adulthood comes with marriage, and married people have advantages over those who are not This created a major incentive for young men to gather enough wealth to purchase what was required as marriage goods Traditional wealth was measured in cattle, and only a man with enough cattle could afford to marry

Young girls learned bead work and the meaning of the symbols and colors used from their older sisters The bead work was usually worn as a head or neck band Men depended on female relatives to explain the code They can see whether a woman is engaged, married, unmarried, has children or unmarried sisters The patterns and

Ways of problem solving, conversing, building relationships, making requests are all learned from childhood and reinforced and adapted through experience

By observing parent, siblings, and peers as they interact we are not only establish patterns of behavior, but sets of values and beliefs

Workplace groups establish their own set of norms influenced by roles, academic field, status, funding tasks etc

Rules of behavior become so well established and internalized that we may never be conscious that our own 'culture' is not universal

These learned rules, values and beliefs become 'the software of the mind' (Hofstede, 1992) or the filter through which we interpret events around us

The proliferation of the media as an environment of information is prompting new questions about the role of visual images in reflecting, creating, and communicating cultural values, history, and national and community

identities.”

B Edwards

Communities are increasingly not only in contact, but are interdependent for communal well being –

from sharing resources and trade to sharing ideas and human values - from sharing aid during disaster to sharing common visions of a future

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3982/is_200301/ai_n9178239

Content

Communication design is central to the global information society and the global economy

What cultural factors are involved in constructing a design strategy that can withstand the demands of global

markets? How does the meaning of an image change according to its cultural context?

Communication design is a global industry, increasing its power along with the increasing movement towards

global economic integration

With this change, new models of business, professional practice and communication have emerged

But so have new political and ethical dilemmas, particularly in relation to global advertising and the commercial strategies of multi-national corporations

Country-specific symbols include anything that portrays a way of life or culturally specific knowledge.

For example, in Arabic cultures the use of pictures of men, women, and animals is

discouraged, while elaborate text in a

calligraphic style is acceptable and liked

Furthermore, use of visual metaphors (star, crescent, cross), animal figures, religious objects and signs, taboo words, graphics of hand gestures, aesthetic codes, forbidden food (beef in India), may need a detailed inquiry of the specific culture.

Icons can be very country-specific

When analyzing a Website special

attention is needed to know whether the icon is understood in a particular culture

For example, the icons of a yellow school bus, or a red hexagonal sign, and an

American mailbox with a flag may not be well understood outside the U.S Thus, when using icons on the Web, country-specific understanding is needed.

In a cross-cultural

communication situation the

choice of symbols is particularly

complex because the symbols must

be culturally acceptable to the

audience as well as the designer

In other words, designers are sometimes inclined to make decisions based solely

or primarily on their aesthetic judgment They may find themselves proposing design solutions that reflect their own culture and exhibit little sensitivity to the nuances of symbols and colors used in other cultures

In instrumental communication, such as advertising, designers must also be

aware of the appeal of their visual

messages to the targeted audience and also consider the functional

requirements of the message objectives

In cross-cultural communication,

however, the aesthetic and functional decisions are further impacted by the

cultural filters of both the communicator and the audience

http://spot.colorado.edu/~moriarts/cultpalette.html

The Problem

Imagine you are a designer who has been asked by a local

McDonald's owner to develop a poster and other visuals for a

Hispanic Heritage program for that store The store wants to

emphasize its sensitivity to the local Hispanic culture of both

customers and employees who come from the surrounding

neighborhood.

The designer developed a poster proposal featuring

Picasso's Don Quixote and the manager questioned

whether this was an appropriate symbol for the local

Hispanic community, most of whom traced their roots to Mexico rather than Spain.

The problem the designer faced was determining what symbols and colors could be used to communicate

visually in a way that depicted the Hispanic community with sensitivity, at the same time communicated in an

interesting way to non-Hispanic people about the culture.

Cross-cultural communication can be either one-way or two-way

In one-way communication, such as advertising, one culture, usually a dominant or majority one,

communicates to another which is a subculture I

In the McDonald's case a company run largely by white middle-class Anglos was attempting to

develop a message for Hispanics with which it does business.

In two-way cross-cultural communication, the symbols that are appropriate to use in

communication with the subculture have to also communicate effectively about the subculture to the majority culture.

In other words, the colors and symbols are appropriate and deliver meaning for both the subculture

and the majority culture In the McDonald's example, that means that the design package must also

be appealing and communicate just as effectively to the Anglo employees and customers who will also see the poster.

It should also be noted that cross-cultural communication projects are sometimes location specific

A specific Korean-American community, for example, may share a general set of culturally nuanced symbols with other Korean-American communities, but it may also be different in its view of the appropriateness of specific symbols because of its history and traditions

That is particularly true for the tremendous variety of distinctive cultures loosely identified in the

U.S as Hispanic which includes such source cultures as Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican, and

Spanish, among others The confusion also lies in the terms we use for these groups such as

Hispanic, Chicano, Latino, and Mexican American, terms which also carry nuanced meanings.

The Concept of a Cultural Palette

In order to better assess the cultural acceptability of design symbols, the concept of a cultural palette has been developed to assist the designer in the development of culturally

sensitive symbols

A palette is the board on which an artist mixes colors, but the word is also used to refer to the range of colors used in a particular painting

The idea of a cultural palette was developed by the author and a

graduate student who used it as the focus for her master's thesis (Sandra

E Moriarty and Lisa Rohe, "Cultural Palettes: An Exercise in Sensitivity for Designers," Journalism Educator, Winter, 1992, p 32-37.)

It is a method to develop a set of culturally sensitive set of symbols and colors as well as other graphic elements such as layouts and artistic styles which may reflect cultural nuances

The Assessment Process

In general, the procedure involves first compiling an image bank of symbols and colors

These materials can be accumulated from books, magazines, brochures, advertising, packaging or any other source of graphics that are targeted to that group as well as from interviews with cultural representatives Then a panel of experts is identified who will review the image bank and identify the ones that are good (appropriate and inoffensive) and poor (inappropriate and offensive) symbols and colors

The final step is to create the palette of colors and symbols that provides a range of culturally sensitive graphics at the same time identifying the insensitive or inappropriate colors and symbols that need to

be avoided.

Subculture Images

For the local part of the study, the research analyzed the

packaging and merchandising of American products and

products with Spanish language labels in grocery stores in the Hispanic neighborhood Other sources included Spanish

language publications available within the community, interviews with local Hispanic media representatives, Hispanic art in

museums or books, and discussions of the subculture's graphic code in other articles and books

The Spanish labeled products used the same color palette as the American foods-red, green, yellow, and brown Most of the designs were bands of color with type Typically the packages used very little artwork and few symbols One package used a green bowl with flames coming out of it

Interviews were conducted with Hispanic community

representatives, media executives, and university specialists

More specifically, the eight experts consulted for this study included a specialist in Latino culture at the Museum of

Natural History, an advertising executive who owns an agency that specializes in Hispanic advertising, the editor of a

Spanish language newspaper, the owner of a Spanish

language radio station, the research director and a policy analyst for the Latin American Research and Service Agency, the research director at the BuenoCenter for Multicultural Studies on campus, and the director of Chicano Studies.

Image Bank Creation and Evaluation.

These two sets of symbols and colors were compiled and presented visually as an image bank

Most appropriate colors: green, red, and white (the colors of the

Mexican flag), yellow, brown, and orange

Least appropriate colors: black, purple, turquoise, burgundy, gray, sand, mauve, and pastels Blue, the color that dominates most

appeals to Anglos, is rarely appropriate according to these experts (Note that this list includes the Taco Bell color palette.)

Most appropriate symbols: anything that says "familia" such as home and hearth, chili peppers (symbols for traditional cooking but also the red and green relate back to the flag), and circles (hands and arms interlinked reflect back to the family or home motif) Also the historical Aztec and Mayan symbols were identified as appropriate The Spanish language itself was identified as a positive symbol with suggestions that Spanish words can be used as graphic markers

Least appropriate symbols: sombreros, cactus, donkeys, man

sleeping against a cactus, Frito bandito and Juan Valdez (the experts did not approve of any symbol that signified peasants, bandits, or outlaws) Southwest images, such as pueblos, and Southwest colors were declared to be more representative of the American Southwest than Mexico

http://spot.colorado.edu/~moriarts/cultpalette.html

The growth of the Internet as an international communication medium raises new issues and challenges for the standardization or adaptation of international marketing communications

The Web, on one hand, is globally accessible and capable of mass communication (Hassan & Blackwell, 1994)

On the other hand, the Web attracts information savvy 'inter-market' segments, is inherently interactive, and is capable of high levels of customization (Hassan & Blackwell, 1994; Ju-Pak, 1999; Sheth & Sisodia, 1997)

This leads to the questions: 'Are standardized or adapted Web-sites more effective at attracting and keeping global consumers?'

Cultural values have a significant effect on communication

They provide broad guidelines for acceptable ways of behaving and acting in particular situations (Feather, 1995); they influence how we interact and socialize with other members of society (Rokeach, 1973); they affect the valences we attach

to different situations (Feather, 1995); and they are a powerful force shaping our motivations, lifestyles, and product

choices (Tse, et al., 1989)

In essence, cultural values represent the most basic and core beliefs of a society, and these beliefs largely influence our communication patterns