CHRISTMAS CAKE CARD
The Christmas Cake Card was my first project from Tokyo on the Fulbright grant. A multi-part package sent to friends and family back in the US, it captures the transition from my previous research on kawaii / cute-culture, to my new focus on female standards of beauty and social pressures in Japan. For inspiration I began with cultural differences that stood out to me, such as the still-prevalent pressure for women to marry young, and the general emphasis on surface presentation and packaging. As a fun way to approach these topics, I used the recent tradition of couples eating "Christmas Cake" on the holiday as my platform. (Please read the text to the right for further explanation).
This was a springboard for other projects about the importance of "surface" in Japanese culture, which gave me new understanding of the different ways Japanese and Westerners experience and appropriate visual language.
Outer envelope
Folder
Buildable mini cake
Membership Card (front / back)
Patterned Insert / Stickers
Patterned Inserts
Letter to Friends
