In order to better understand how culture and national identities can be represented in design and craft, I carried out the interventions below.

First of all, I conducted a survey and asked Pakistani individuals of different ages regarding what connects them to culture. As you would expect, many people said food helps them connect to culture. People also mentioned other things like music, film, and cultural products. Within products, items ranging from clothes, scarves, shawls, to decoration pieces, coasters, crockery, souvenirs, etc. Some people also mentioned that packaging and presentation plays a huge role for them in intriguing them towards something cultural. For instance, one of my respondents mentioned that she ordered cultural food from a place that had really good packaging, although the food did not taste good. However, she still got some satisfaction from this purchase because the packaging was “Instagram worthy”. Often, cultural or non-cultural commodities get fame and attention if they are Instagram-trendy. This was an important take away for my research because it brings to light an important point that in order to give cultural products a contemporary touch, the products should ideally hold the potential to be Instagram trendy. 

For my second intervention, I went to different handicraft stores and spoke to customers there who were comfortable in answering my questions. I asked them how the cultural products that they are buying help them connect to culture and how this relates to their identity. I carried out this intervention over a few days in two cities, Lahore and Islamabad. I did this to increase my sample size and number of responses. To my surprise, people were open to engaging in this conversation when I told them about my MA project. I got a number of responses, which included (anonymous) sentences like:

“Buying cultural products strengthens my identity by giving me a way to constantly remember my identity. I have a table in my room where I place all the cultural things I buy, looking at it makes me proud of being a Pakistani.” 

“I like to buy Pakistani-made cultural products as it not only allows me to support my home country’s economy but also allows me to connect with my culture in a tangible way. When I was in undergraduate in the U.S. and my friends would see cultural products in my room, they always got intrigued and asked me where these things are from. They always got pleasantly surprised when I said Pakistan. It gives me joy to see others appreciate my culture as it increases my own appreciation for it. What intrigues me the most is seeing people try to read Urdu if it is written on a product.”

Another respondent held a particular souvenir in her hand and said, “I do not know when I will visit Lahore again. These khussay (type of shoes) represent Lahore so well. I want to buy them because I want to keep a part of Lahore with me, and because the shoes has “Lahore” written in Urdu on them. I am excited to wear these with a traditional outfit.”

These are some of the main responses I received which lead to an important learning for me which will shape my research question. For my most recent intervention, I iterated and designed a couple of cultural products and showed them to my target audience to see their response. For designing these products, I worked with the graphic designer of Lumhay, the start-up company in Islamabad, Pakistan with which I am currently working for creating cultural products. 

I showed these designs to different people and got a great response. I was told that my designs for cultural products (namely a mirror and a photo frame) struck a fine balance between being contemporary as well as uniquely cultural as they incorporated the Urdu language. I got positive feedback on having included Urdu language, something I plan to now focus on further. As for the design for the mirror, I got some feedback which will help me finalise the poetry lines for the product. These conversations were held in Urdu and thus, are not recorded. The respondents were not comfortable being photographer.

This is a niche yet very exciting space to work in. I am excited to see where my project goes from here!