Japan Summer 2023
Right after my freshman year of college ended (and I mean RIGHT after: I left the Saturday after my last final on Friday) I went to Japan for 5 weeks! It was 3 weeks alone and in the last 2 weeks my family came and we traveled around Japan. I came to Japan to learn more Japanese and also to reconnect with my Japanese side and my Japanese relatives.
A goal I set for myself this summer (besides improving my Japanese) was to improve my design skills. I told myself to learn more about design and try new things — techniques, softwares, etc. So, here is what I created and learned during this Japan trip!
Before Japan
prior to my trip to japan, I wanted to make myself a mood board. both because it looks cute and also to center my overwhelmed self down and remember what I want to achieve in Japan!
The Journey
self-explanatory! in Japan, we visited so many design museums and I became very inspired.
A Kyoto/Phoebe Bridgers poster featuring my brother!
Homecoming
When I returned from Japan, I started helping out at Problem Library, a space for artists to create and learn in SF. My role was to help out at the high school program, Problem Children, but my position grew and changed throughout time. I had many weekly meetings with the head of Problem Children, Daniel Lucas and we talked a lot about what my role should be at PC. Daniel decided to put me onto one of Problem Library’s upcoming project as a web designer / concept creator.
To get started with web design, I learned HTML and CSS in series of self-guided websites, like FreeCodeCamp and W3schools. To practice with HTML and CSS, I decided to use content from my Japan trip, with it so fresh in my mind! I created a little website about my experiences and recommendations:
Learning HTML and CSS was definitely challenging — especially getting used to the hierarchy of it all and understanding why I have to do certain things. I think my experience in learning Python helped my learning HTML, but the two are very different. For me, the most difficult part was that, as a designer, I’m used to seeing what I designed immediately. I’m also used to just moving things around simply and creating whatever shapes, layouts, etc., that I wanted. But trying to code what I had envisioned in my designs was MUCH harder. I totally gained a newfound respect in website developers because it was very hard to stay exactly true to my vision. A lot of the time, I had to compromise what I originally wanted because the layout was just too difficult for my current skills. Learning HTML was an important step for me in becoming a web designer because I was able to understand the other side of websites and appreciate the effort it takes to code the sites.
Also — learning to use github was also a challenge :’)
Reflection
All in all, my time in Japan was very beautiful and transformative. Not only did I feel like I grew as a person, but also as a designer in the world. Going to Japan allowed me to gain new perspectives and really influenced the way I think about design. I loved experiencing artists like Kengo Kuma and Yoshitomo Nara. And I loved that when I cam back, I was overfilled with new possibilities.