ALFA College Visits Thailand’s Silpakorn University
Lecturers and students of ALFA College’s School of Visual Communications recently visited Silpakorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. It was a return trip for many of the visitors who had made an initial visit 12 months earlier. This year’s visit gave students and lecturers the chance to reacquaint themselves with old friends and to build new relationships.
One of Bangkok’s trendiest shopping malls, Siam Discovery Center provides fertile ground for finding fresh ideas from Thailand’s best designers. This slideshow showcases creative works of store displays, signage, typography as well as t-shirts and decorative accessories.
Year of the Dragon Festivities at ALFA College Malaysia
The Year of the Dragon starts off with a bang at ALFA College as a local Chinese Lion Dance troupe visits the College to usher in prosperity and auspiciousness for the entire ALFA Family.
Following the Lion Dance, the three Dragons of ALFA arrive to clamorous cheering as they snake their way through crowd then onto the streets of the neighborhood to visit local shopkeepers. The appearance of the dragon is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring fortune and prosperity to local merchants.
Finally, ALFA students take to the stage in a series of competitions and student entertainment. Student teams are tested on their adhoc creative skills and team work in a festive Fashion Design Face-off. Not to be outdone, the full-time students enrolled in the Early Childhood Education programme display their creative handiwork in the Fashion Design Runway Competition. Entries made use of recycled Men’s dress shirt as part of their design.
ALFA Cultural Study Trips
Over the years, ALFA students have enjoyed study trips organized by faculty members to various local and foreign sites of cultural and design interest. Local destinations have included:
Penang
Melaka
Langkawi
Cameron Highlands
Recent trips overseas have included:
Bangkok, Thailand
Melbourne, Australia
A multidisciplinary approach provides students and lecturers a chance to cross-pollinate their respective fields of study with new design influences and understanding. There are ample opportunities for students to talk with lecturers of other fields outside their primary field. Architecture students discuss design concepts with their multimedia design peers, while students of graphic arts probe their interior architecture class mates for furniture design ideas.
Preparing for upcoming festivities for the Chinese Year of the Dragon, students teams worked together to construct three large dragons from recycled and renewable materials. Under the direction of long-time graphics design lecturer, Mr Koh Sim Hoo who conceived the idea of creating three dragons to properly honor this year’s Chinese New Year theme.
Over the years, Mr Koh has advocated the role of designers in promoting environmental awareness, and this year was no different. Students were given the additional requirement to only use recyclable materials in their construction. Students proposed initial concepts before collecting cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, and egg cartons to build their projects with.
The project was part of their extracurricular activity so students gathered to construct their design only after regularly scheduled classes. Once completed, three ALFA Dragons emerged from deep within the studio lairs then slithered and danced their way through the College halls in a raucous ceremony. All three dragons and their student designers were photographed by the local Chinese newspaper, Sin Chew Daily.
The three Dragons of ALFA will take part in the school’s Chinese New Year Celebration in February.