There are two reasons for studying abroad in Japan.

Before I came to Japan, there was an international workshop at the university in Taiwan. That was the first time I had a class of professor from Japan. Although the class was only for one hour, but it impressed me. ‘You must not look only at the surface of things. Of course design is the same. We should think deeply how to solve problems from our point of view ’ the professor said. This way of thinking has been remembered until now, and since then I had wanted to go to Japan.

My research is about Chinese font. Before the research starts, it is important that we should read lots of literatures. The areas of using Chinese characters are China, Taiwan, and Japan. However, there are few literature about Chinese font in Taiwan, but lots in Japan. I thought if I was in Japan, I could read more literatures about font.

Therefore, I wanted to study abroad in Japan.

During this study abroad, I was impressed by the way of teaching in the courses in Japan. Although I am originally specialized in visual design, there were different ways to teach even in the same course. it is a course of typography.

For example, in the Typography class, a teacher explains today's title for 3 minutes, and then students do the individual practice for 2 hours. Within 2 hours, the teacher give hints to each one and let us think in other way to make the work better. At the last, put students’ work together and exchange ideas each other with the same title.

Compared the original work with the work that be guided from the teacher, it was completely different. Thinking for 2 hours and following lot of advices from teachers, which is the most important ‘process of thinking’ in design. After doing these kind of trainings every week, I unconsciously accumulated various experiences. Even now, when I do design, I remember my teacher’s advices all the time. It was a good experience for me to study design in Japan.

After Study abroad in Japan, the way of thinking for design has gradually changed.

Firstly, What is a good design? I used to think that making beautiful image is a good design. However, now I think design concepts are more important than aesthetics.
After deep understanding, we can create right designs. This thought coincides with Japanese teacher who said ‘You must not look only at the surface of things’. In other words, design should look more deeply at things.

Secondly, as time goes by, the goal for future career has been gradually clearer than before. There are variety of professions in visual design. My research is about Font design, but I had not considered whether to involve Font design as my job in the future. However, during this year, in the process of studying Font design, self-confidence was come up when it was finally completed. Even if I don’t have any work experiences, I still want to challenge to work in Font design field. Maybe it’s exactly what I want.