Designing!

After struggling with gathering the materials (still in progress), I get to finally start on the fun part. This is what I've been looking forward to, the designing part of the project. After some research on binding, I've found some alternative ways to put my resource guide together....

Here are some options:

1. Binder (Yikes! The ones I can found out there are hideous.) I did spot one that I like, the menu from Milestones is done in the binder format. I did more research on the production behind that binder, but it's way too expensive to custom made just one...so I quickly brainstormed for other ideas...
2. Chicago screws (yeah! I can do this) Gives me more freedom and room to change my design around. There's one problem though... I want to make my guide in the vertical format for portability, but in the size I'm looking at (5"x8") it's going to be hard to flip the pages.
   
3. Use two posts and make the guide like a calendar! (fun! I'm trying this out and going to track down the posts) *see photos
4. No binding at all! One of the feature of this guide is the versatility of adding the pages and customizing it. Maybe they're organized in an accordion folder-type thing...
   

I'm just getting started. Looking at format and typefaces. Got some tests done for combining typefaces to convey the friendliness of this "book."

My talk with my friend form UCLA

After two weeks of madly conducting my survey and sending out e-mails...I needed some down time for my Thursday night. I started iChatting with my friend who's studying Media Arts as a master student at UCLA. After catching up with each other, I told her about my grad project and we both got excited. It stimulated a whole other conversation.

Ideas sparked. She introduced me to lots of great websites regarding info graphics and her professors' work. I was impressed and kept on writing in my sketchbook on notes and different levels of my grad project. We kept on peeling the project layer by layer and it was fun. I got a different perspective and saw other opportunities I can do for my project. I kept on thanking her for helping me out dissecting the project with me and giving me resources she's got from her end. She was happy to help because she's writing her thesis and it helps her come up with other idea by talking about my project. We both got really nerdy and couldn't stop talking until 4:40am...

It was time well spent though. Here are some sites she's given me. Thought I'd share. Enjoy.

Information Aesthetics
Williem Henri Lucas
UCLA Desig/Media Arts Faculty Gallery

Blog Survey. Please participate!

As what's been said in my previous post, I need to get a variety of fun facts from different cultures. If you haven't received my e-mail with the survey, could you kindly comment on this post and share some fun facts about a culture (or cultures) you're familiar with?

Here are some examples and prompts...
1. Trivial facts about the culture you're familiar with. (ie. Government: The turnout rate for this year's federal election is ____%)
2. Secret places/stores where you can find great stuff! (ie. Food: You can get some exceptionally good cloves to make Chai tea in the store called __________ on Granville Island's Public Market)
3. Etiquette (Culture: ie. In Korean culture, you need to find out the age of the person when you first meet in order to address them appropriately)
4. Informal speech/slang/ common use of words. (ie. Language: "Elevators" in Canada are "Lifts" in England)
5. Shortcut/alternative (ie. Government: For PR Card Applications, you can speed up the process time for renewal if you can provide a flight ticket.)

Here are the Categories
1. Government
2. Career
3. Culture
4. Food/Groceries
5. Transportation
6. Living/Accomodation
7. Medical
8. Language
9. Education

Here's what you do...
List the fun facts you know and write it as a comment of this post. It'd be great if you can categorize it. (ie. 8. Language: Sa Wa Di Ka is hello in Thai.) If you're not sure what category it would fall under, please list it anyways I can then figure it out... :-)

Please e-mail me at chloelan@shaw.ca if you have any quesitons.
Thanks so much for your kind contribution in advance!

Epiphany!

After talking to Don, I was relieved because I now can focus and have a good foundation to work with. I've decided to focus my energy on developing a collective resource guide to help the new immigrants adapt to the new environment. And, essentially use this guide as a tool to create a indirect/less-intimidating communication and interactions between the new immigrants and Canadian locals.

The resource guide will cover 9 categories on daily essentials that new immigrants are likely to face:

1. Government
2. Career
3. Culture
4. Food/Groceries
5. Transportation
6. Living/Accomodation
7. Medical
8. Language
9. Education

And, I want to include fun facts about different cultures that belongs to each of these categories to make it fun and different. The main objective for this is to acknowledge and celebrate the cultural diversity of Greater Vancouver.

I never knew conducting an effective survey is such a huge undertaking. I just finished sending 70+ surveys out to people via e-mail since I know it might generate a greater return rate than just the blog. I'm trying to get as many people involved as possible as a test to see if this idea would fly.

Please see my next post for a blog survey...and kindly participate if you haven't already. :o)

Flags of the World by Color Usage

I found this by accident and thought would be a great resource for me to look at for visual exploration...These are pie charts on colours that are used on national flags.

Lots of great things about colours on this site. I love it!

From Chip Kidd at Cooper Hewitt

You get one life to design. Strive to design with care, with kindness, with compassion, intelligence, honesty, and love.–Chip Kidd

I thought I'd share.

Presentation Feedback.

The generous comments and suggestions after my already over-timed presentation are all really helpful for me to go into the next steps.

After given some thoughts to the reality of pulling new immigrants out of their comfort zone, I've decided to focus my direction on the Cultural Meet-up Event.

Here's why...

1. People interactions encourage positive learning. New information tends to be easier to absorb and more memorable especially for new immigrants between the age of 45 to 55.

• I remember when my dad enrolled in adult school 6 years ago, he had a hard time learning all the high school materials in English (except for Math). It's been more than four years since he has graduated now, and he still can't stop talking about (and I stress, talk about) how he learned the secret of making mash potato from his Canadian teacher...

• Theresa Wong at 4:49pm September 24 (Research from Facebook)
  Hi Chloe, I don't know if a kit is what immigrants need when they arrive. My brother was a volunteer immigrant buddy at a local community center when he was younger. "Recent arrivals who make a positive connection with their peers often adjust to their new community more readily." Human interaction is important to getting adjusted in a new life... Perhaps you could look into immigrant buddy programs. There are immigrant buddy programs for all ages.

2. Avoid the awkward blind date anxiety/experience for new immigrants by using the Events to introduce Canadian local volunteers to new immigrants.

• Use the events to bring more awareness to the program as not enough people (both the immigrants and Canadian locals). The new immigrants tends to jump right to the little circle of friends and relatives not knowing about this program... (yes, we're back into discussing the "comfort zone" topic. Don't worry, I'm not ignoring the issue. But I'm thinking this event can be something that compliments the "comfort zone." Like what Don said about how the Neighbourhood Houses becomes this one connection between the diverse age, gender, ethnic groups and bring them together...)

• Customized Buddy Program: use the event as an opportunity to get people who share similar interests together. Allowing people who speak different languages to be connected (help each other to share their resources) with something that they have common with (ie. music, crafts, food, profession, movies, etc...). This could be the fuel to help immigrants adapt better and quicker by already having something in common with the Canadian local. Similarly, the Canadian locals would gain more knowledge at an international level about what they're interested in–so helping doesn't become a task and time out of their schedule because they're likely to gain something back as well through this cultural exchange...

Like what Don and Tak mentioned, my role in project is a designer. Before I get started and get myself overwhelmed with the actual execution of the event, I need to keep in mind that my role is a designer, not a PR representative. So the focus should be devoted to developing the visuals pieces to promote this event and the visual components that will go into the event.

This week, I will be developing a moodboard for visuals. The look and feel of this project will be locked down this week.

Stay tuned... Thanks again for everyone's feedback yesterday. It helpe a lot.

Dear ANHGV,

I'm writing to the Association of Neighbouhood Houses of Greater Vancouver to introduce my project and to book a meeting with them next Friday. I'm hoping to take this project into the real world and see how it works with the help of an organization. Hopefuly, they can be my base (or, better yet, a sponsor) in order for me to take the project to its next level?! I've attached my proposal and link to my blog for them to find out more about me and how the project was born....

Oh, here's a bit about them if you're interested.

Mission

• We are a volunteer driven, community service agency.
• Our mission is to make neighbourhoods better places to live.
• Our goal is to enable people to embrace their lives and strengthen their communities.
• Our challenge is to work with communities to develop innovative programs and services that meet the changing needs of a diverse population.

Statement of Diversity

• We are children, youth, adults and seniors of all races, all religions, all cultures, all abilities and all economic levels.
• We speak many languages.
• We are men and women of all sexual orientations.
• We value diversity.
• We endeavour to reflect the diversity of our neighbourhoods in our membership, our Boards of Management, our volunteers and our staff.
• We respect all neighbours.
• We expect that all who come to our Houses, all those who provide or receive services, will extend the same respect to all those they meet here.
• Therefore, we will act to promote the inclusion of all in our Association and in our community.

I think their mission is very fitting to the theme/concept of my project. I hope it works out. Crossing my fingers...

Meeting with Richard

My meeting with Richard today went really well. Being a knowledgeable and resourceful librarian as Richard is, he was able to give me some constructive feedback and suggestions about my project. After loosely running though my presentation through him and bounce off ideas from one another. I've gotten more constructive directions and resources that I can research from Richard which will help me get supports and data.

CommunityWebPages is one of them. In there, I can find data on languages that are spoken in different communities in the City of Vancouver.

With an ambition of proposing my grad project into the real world, Richard suggested me to talk to The Association of Neighbourhood Houses of Greater Vancouver. It's a non-profit organization that "work with communities to develop innovative programs and services that meet the changing needs of a diverse population."

Tomorrow is the presentation! AHHH....my teeth itches...

Anxiety is getting to me...

UGH... this is probably the toughest presentation I've ever tried to prepare for. After watching the presenters from TED, it gets tougher to structure a presentation expecting it to be as thorough, engaging, and humourous as theirs... I need to just shake it all off and try my best. I need to cover the basics first, then work on building on top of it. I'm taking a deeeep breath.

Good luck, everyone!

Questionnaires...

Questionnaires

I've collected questionnaires from immigrants from different countries. I've gotten Turkish, Russian, Taiwanese, British. People have been really helpful in being willing to answer my questions. I've done some telephone interviews too. It's really interesting to talk to people!! It not only gets my mind to switch modes, it freshens my thoughts on the project by looking at it through others' POV.

I'm off to have my first chat with Richard Matiachuk tomorrow. He's a really nice librarian who's been very helpful and resourceful for my project. He's one of the key organizers for the Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre at the VPL right now. I can't wait to speak to him and find out more!

Meeting with Don

After talking to Don, I needed to talk to other people about my project and flush out some of my ideas. I've been locking my self at home and stew in the project for way too long. Craig, Connie, and Nina helped me out a lot by allowing me to bounce off ideas from them. It's like ripping off a BandAid and expose the wound. Some key problems I've missed all surfaced after talking to them... Problem vs. Solution

1. This project shouldn't "victimize" the new immigrants and make them feel like they're receiving charity from the Canadians. Instead of making a system where it's a one way street (Canadians helping out the new immigrants), it should be about and exchange of cultures. We should take advantage of the cultural diversity in British Columbia and have the new immigrants share their culture with the Canadians while receiving practical help to adapt in British Columbia.
   
2. Audience should be narrowed down even more (originally my target audience for this project are new immigrants from age 45 and up). It is now narrowed down to new immigrants who came to Canada with their child(ren) from age 45 to 55.
3. Simply produce something to boost awareness isn't going to help. I need to make people to actually DO something to help within that awareness campaign to make it effective. Pair the awareness campaign with a prompt for people to follow up and participate in the program.

After talking and writing notes like crazy, I decided to help out Bonne to set up for the Alcuin Awards since I'm going to the talk and knew I was going to work some more on my grad project after. I thought the break would help clear my mind a bit, and it did!

Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre Official Site

I got in contact with Richard Matiachuk, the chief organizer for the Skilled Immigrant Info Centre and got some background on the project they're running.

"As a bit more background to the InfoCentre - The Skilled Immigrant InfoCentre is a pilot project, funded by the Canadian government and their financial support comes to us through the BC Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development. The pilot project runs until November 30, 2008 but we anticipate the program will be extended until the end of March
2009."

I've looked through the site and found out that it's not only extremely helpful for new skilled immigrants, but also for people like me who is preparing to get into the work field and find out more facts about different industries. You should take a look.

Best of all of this, Richard agreed to help me out on my project!