How it began 🎬
About Act of Translation
Act of Translation (AOT) Reaches was a project that gave international students a voice. The projects included consultations after the student performances to discuss the issues affecting international students. The aim of the project was to raise awareness about international students’ issues in Australia, giving a platform for international students’ voice and to create a community of students.
How I got involved in the project
I got involved in the project as an AFIS volunteer. At that time, I was volunteering in AFIS as a creative designer and was asked to work on the design of some of the promotional materials of the final performance “She’ll be right”. I designed the posters, flyers, visual social media materials. I used Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to design them.
The design process ⏳
Designing the performances posters and posts were quite challenging in terms of time constraint. There was not much time to do a lot of brainstorming and creating different concepts. Once I have received the design brief which included a selection of photos that I could use, I decided to do a quick mood board and getting inspired by existing poster design. For this project, I opted to have a theatrical feeling, with dark backgrounds. For the Instagram posts, I decided to add a simple frame to the image with the aim of having an “emerging effect” (For e.g. people stepping out of the frame).
The Outcome 📸
Personal learnings 🌱
Act of Translation Reaches Out was the first big project I was involved as a creative designer volunteer. Unlike the other previous projects, this one I was in contact with more people within the project, especially those not within AFIS. It gave me the opportunity to meet new people and later on continue helping in the following project Be You Be Scene.
I attended the final performance as a member of the audience and I was touched by stories the student performers were telling us. This is also what made me want to continue to help in Be You – Be Scene and later on Story IS Connection.
Acknowledgement 🎊
Thank you to Study Melbourne, AFIS and all the supporters of this project. Thank you to the volunteer team led by Feifei Liao (project manager) and Catherine Simmonds (Artistic director). I also would like to acknowledge the team behind the Act of Translation documentary, Irene Metter and her team and Andrew Coutler who was the photographer of the project. Finally a huge clap for all the students who participated in this project! As an international student (at that time), I was deeply moved and inspired by each of your stories.