A diploma in Visual Communication was the beginning of Ili Nur Asiyah’s journey in visual language. Interested in how it can influence different components of design, when she found out about the Design for Art Direction course at London College of Communication (LCC) , she saw it as a calling.

“I wanted to learn more about the pieces of everything and learn how to manage and collaborate with other people. I feel that collaboration with other people is the key to successful design.”

Ili has found that her studies prompt her to mix with a variety of creatives, from photographers and illustrators to tech specialists such as coders. Though for her final year project, she worked with a fashion illustrator, jewellery textile designer and a photographer. As a designer for art direction student, Ili set the creative brief that the team then tackled together.

The focus of her final year project is about collaborating with Southeast Asian creatives with an aim to learn how their culture and tradition influence their design work. As Ili is located in London and the creatives, she worked with were all over the world, they communicated through video call. They spoke about what and how their work is influenced.

Ili noticed that culture plays a very important role in the design process and outcome, even if it’s subconscious. Learning about these experiences form other creatives in Southeast Asia she also found that although everyone has a unique identity, they are all inspired by similar elements of design. Her own experience is no different.

“I’m from Singapore, I’m Malay Singaporean. My people have a strong tradition of taking inspiration from natural resources around us. I also get inspired by my grandmothers’ archives. She keeps a lot of recipes, photographs, fabrics and fashion. I look at these and get inspired by how technical they can get. It influences my journey into finding inspiration. I realised that most of my projects are inspired archives which are from my grandma and mu culture.”

Besides her heritage, Ili is also inspired by design philosophers. She is currently looking at the works of Neri Oxman and Kenya Hara. Oxman uses technology and science along with philosophy, whereas Kenya Hara established the Japanese aesthetic in a globalised context. “I’m very interested in his design system of producing localism into globalisation,” says Ili. “It is something I think Southeast Asia has the potential to achieve as well.”

Now that Ili has finished her studies, she would like to work within a big organisation or institution. Somewhere she can work with function and aesthetic together with an ambition to change the design systems or be part of a new one. The development of technology is a major potential to see this through.

”Creativity means to quieten the noise of the society or the voice of what people are telling you and listen to your instinct and intuition and just do it and make something, create something. To imagine a new world or reimagine the world, listen to your gut feeling. Make sure you see it until you finish it, try to see the entire process. The outcome is not the final destination it’s also about the process.”