How can we design books that bridge cultural boundaries? Counterpoint challenges students to reinterpret books from one cultural identity through another’s lens. Through hands-on workshops and book-making, students will craft publications that resonate across cultures. Selected student projects to be featured at 2025 NGV Art Book Fair.

This studio engages with discourse on cultural identity, global design practices, and book-making traditions. Students will explore the intersection of communication design and cultural context, analysing historical and contemporary book design methodologies across different societies. By studying global printing, binding, and layout techniques, students will gain a deeper understanding of how design reflects and shapes cultural narratives.

Through practical engagement with traditional and experimental book-making methods, students will critically examine how cultural hybridity influences contemporary publication design. The course encourages a research-driven approach, equipping students with the knowledge to create meaningful and contextually aware design outcomes.

Students will demonstrate their learning through hands-on experiments, research, written reflections, and a cross-cultural book design project. They will produce a research report analysing a chosen culture identity’s book design traditions, document their design process in a reflective Studio Knowledge Object (SKO), and create a professionally crafted book that reinterprets an existing text from a cross-cultural perspective. Verbal and visual presentations, alongside peer critiques and lecturer’s feedback, will help refine their work throughout the semester.

Students will engage in multiple hands-on workshops, peer critiques, and industry excursions. Workshops will cover Chinese movable type printing, Risograph printing, cyanotype and hand-thread binding. Research presentations will explore publication designs, history and traditions from diverse cultures. 

Regular group critiques and one-on-one consultations will provide iterative feedback on research findings and design execution. The studio also includes an excursion to the NGV Art Book Fair, offering students exposure to contemporary publication practices. Selected student works may be showcased at the fair through the Sandwich Press or RMIT stalls.

B1. Studio Knowledge Object (SKO) – 25%
Students will document their semester’s learning by creating a physical print piece (e.g., a book, zine, or experimental print) that reflects their cultural background and utilizes traditional design methods. 

B2. Cultural Research Journal – 35%
Students will explore an unfamiliar cultural background, conducting research and collecting inspiration from workshops and independent study. They will present their findings in a journal designed using the visual language and book-making techniques of the researched culture. 

B3. Counterpoint Press: Cross-cultural Book Reinterpretation & Publication Design – 40%
Students will select a literary work from their own familiar cultural background and redesign it using visuals, traditions, philosophy and methodologies learned from their research into a different culture, creating a new meaningful edition that merges both traditions.

A Guide To Cross-Cultural Design — By Senongo Akpem

Beyond Western Design: What is Cross-Cultural Design and Why Does It Matter?

Cultural appropriation: can designers ever responsibly “borrow” from other cultures?

Understanding the Criticality of Differences in Cross-Cultural Design 

Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation in Art

Cross-Cultural Design

What does it mean to Decolonize design?

This course will involve different workshops which may require you to prepare your own papers, knifes, tools, glues and binding materials, etc.