NEWS ANALYSIS
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IN DEPTH
When cultures collide
When a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad there was a worldwide public outcry. We find out
what the wider creative community can learn from the aftermath of these unfortunate events WORDS BY JOE RUSS
In the modern era of globally geometric shapes and plants as much as sensitive regarding their figureheads, but
social mores are just a small part of the
distributed media, our creative output I can, says Ahmad Adel Eldardiry of
can be viewed by a hugely diverse audience Egyptian design fi rm newhive, whose issue. Understanding particular cultural
that reaches across each nationality, race business is built upon Islamic teachings. sensitivities will help you avoid the pitfalls,
and religion. As a result, creatives risk The Jyllands-Posten cartoonist s satirical but there are other ways to communicate
miscommunicating and, at worse, work carried a clear political message, but more effectively with your audience.
offending a portion of the their audience is it possible for creative design to create When working with specific nationalities
with poorly targeted design. similar controversy? and ethnicities it pays to do your
The recent Jyllands-Posten cartoon homework, says Ronnie Lipton, author of
incident is a clear example of cultural Culture clash Designing Across Cultures.  Try to avoid
insensitivity. Muslims felt that the cartoons There are many examples of no-go areas design clichés and curb knee-jerk reactions,
depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad unique to certain cultures. Middle Eastern such as:  Oh, a Chinese audience. Let s use
went beyond justifiable satire and were countries have more conservative attitudes a dragon and red and gold colours . And
designed to cause offence. Clearly mocking towards nudity than the West. Artwork although you might be satisfied with a
a religious icon is bound to promote a containing even the smallest amount of photograph of a person who s Asian, the
reaction, but because the Islamic faith exposed female flesh is regularly censored audience can often easily identify the
prohibits any depiction of Muhammad, the in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab person s specific native country.
images proved doubly offensive. In fact, Emirates  even Computer Arts has fallen FORUMS Design draws on a set of signs and
strict interpretations of Islam prohibit the foul of the censors with one of its more signifiers, which vary dependent on
Visit http://forum.
illustration of any living thing. suggestive front covers. culture. Colours, for example, can have
computerarts.co.uk
 I decided to stop putting any picture of Germany and Japan, for example, are very different meanings in different
to share your views on
humans or animals in my design works as both particularly sensitive regarding cultures. In the West, black is the colour
this topic and more
they contain souls. Instead I decided to references to their World War II history, most commonly associated with death,
with other CA readers
work with colour spaces, abstract lines, while monarchies such as Thailand are while in Asia it is white. Green and yellow
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NEWS ANALYSIS
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also have particular associations in Islam separate languages, but there are numerous
and among Buddhist demographics. anecdotal instances of bad translations.
VOX POP
While European Roman languages are When Coca-Cola first shipped to China,
read from left to right, both Hebrew and the company named the product with a
READERS SHARE EXPERIENCES
Arabic are written from right to left, and word that when pronounced sounded like OF WORKING ACROSS CULTURES
many Asian languages are written top to Coca-Cola. The problem? The characters
"  Over here in Ireland, all the taboo areas
bottom. The obstacles these differences used actually meant Bite The Wax Tadpole.
are becoming fair game. From a design
could potentially present are clear. perspective, I suppose the floodgates
have been opened content-wise. Most
The Arabic language in particular Connect with your audience
educated people find it quite easy to laugh
presents problems on the web.  Arabic is a Lipton says the best way to get around
at themselves and understand satire. It s
right to left language like Hebrew, but it s problems of this kind is to use a native
frightening to see such violent responses
much more complicated because it has speaker and professional translator of the
to imagery.
destination language to translate, and use a
odog
native to  transliterate .  This way you go
Getting there with an unfamiliar

"  Here in the UAE you need to worry about
beyond the language to ensure that
photographs more than colours. No nudity
appropriate tone, colours, symbols and type
global audience is scarier than with
is allowed whatsoever and all imported
are used for your target audience.
mags get censored with a big fat pen.
If you re still nervous about creating
a familiar one, but the process and
web-kitten
designs for a global market, Lipton has
the need are the same
 RONNIE LIPTON
some final advice.  Your job as a designer
"  A client of mine sent some stuff to China
for print, and her logo used a script font.
is to create designs that connect with your
They didn t have it on their system and
connected characters, says Adel Eldardiry, audience, whether global or domestic, she
supplied her a proof of something they
who developed Flaraby  an application says.  Designs that connect won t offend.
considered to be a close match. It was
that enables designers to combine Arabic Getting there with an unfamiliar global
nothing like it, so I had to knock together a
text with English in both Flash and HTML. audience is scarier than with a familiar
quick tag and send it over. On reflection, I
But even when a design features no domestic one, but the process and the need
wonder if there are different styles of their
written elements, the way your intended are just the same. written language and how easy it is to
identify the differences.
audience scans a page or screen will affect
thatblokemike
the arrangement and design of icons and INFO
elements marketed to those countries. www.global-reach.com
Read more about this topic, and more, on
Clearly creating a design that works www.newhive.com
the Computer Arts forum: http://forum.
universally is going to be difficult, which Designing Across Cultures is published
computerarts.co.uk
is why websites are often localised for by How Design Books
April 2006
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ILLUSTRATION: UNIT www.weareunit.com