2021

Max Loo

Intuitive reasoning has always been at the forefront of my design process, whether it be in the conception of a typeface or visualising data in a way that encourages critical thought. Design has always been a fundamental tool for me to bridge conversation, especially for topics that are harder to convey in words. I often find that my practice adopts an analytical approach as I have always been enthusiastic to delve into the context of the topic I’m working on and find the nuances behind it.

The process of exploring the topic at hand has led to a plethora of occasions where I am able to apply its principles to my work and produce thought-provoking material. It was only until recently that I started making my journey through the realm of typography. Through that exploration, the dissection of its form allowed me to translate its elements in a way that lets viewers understand the significant multicultural provenance of Malaysia.

Rojak La!

As part of my Self-Initiated Project within the Major Project Unit, I always wanted to do something in relation to my culture, Malaysia. In Malaysia, we are comprised of many different cultures and often times we have a very direct way of speaking by mixing various languages into one which is what we called the “Manglish”. Through this project, I have created a typeface that embodies the essence of Malaysia within the Latin characters.

The Neutral

In this project, I explored the visual and branding identity system of how daily necessity products like shampoo bottles segregate men and women despite the same usage. To be more specific; I dissected the information from the products and find their recurring damaging stereotypical traits. These traits are then split into three graphical components; colour, image and typography found in shampoo bottles.

Through that, I conducted a series of surveys and questions into people's notion of what neutrality is and narrowed it down to find the most neutral form of colour, image and typography found in between men's and women's shampoo bottles.

Colour Illusion: My Colour is What?

This project is a continuation of "The Neutral'' project. In this project, I explored the two opposing points of masculine and feminine. The main premise is to expose societal ways of stereotyping colours with gender traits in a satirical manner, through a series of foods that embody the colour. Through the process of the project, I found out how gender traits and the perception of colours are so intertwined with one another. In order to highlight the satirical element of the project, I decided to extrapolate the data where I posed a series of questions in regards to people's perception of colour through my two main opposing points. The data that I have collated is then substituted with images of food that strongly resembles the colour to exaggerate the notions. Through this, hopefully, I was able to emulate a sense of questioning the thought of how stereotyping colours with gender traits can be damaging.

This data is collated from the surveys that I have conducted to test people's association of colour to the word masculine, feminine and neutral.

Max Loo

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