Communal Cola
| Case Study |

This expansive body of work serves as a cultural commentary on the Western globalization tactics of Coca-Cola and its effects on Ugandan culture. These interventions were birthed in Kampala, Uganda during field research and iteratively evolved in Los Angeles, California as an investigation around the cultural definitions of the West’s desire for individualism and the East’s desire for collectivism.

  • CATEGORIES

    + Ethnography
    + Human Centered Design
    + Cross Cultural Research
    + Cultural Agility
    + International Context

  • EXHIBITIONS

    2017 West Coast Biennial
    2016 March Studio

  • METHODS

    + Rapid Prototyping
    + User Testing
    + Field Studies
    + Participatory Action Research
    + Co-Design

  • TIMELINE

    2016

Research Objectives + Context

Ethnography meets Design through observations and explorations in the impacts of globalization on local tradition and cultural heritage. Using co-design and participatory research to engage community members and retain resiliency in the midst of brand’s homogenizing their ways of life. High-level themes explored in the low-fidelity to low-fidelity propositions as applied in Eastern and Western contexts:

  • Brands as modern day colonizer of culture

  • Satire as a means of commentary of globalism

  • Repositioning brand’s intent of use via community culture

  • Agency back in the hands of community and consumers

Kampala, Uganda

  • western cuture : communality

  • cultural hegemony

  • tradition/heritage

Los Angeles, California

  • western culture : individualism

  • cultural shaping

  • brand outside of intended use

Field Research | Kampala

Eastern Context
lo-fi design explorations

Through design and ethnographic research, I discovered that many local aspects of Ugandan culture had been affected by the influx of globalization through American brands and culture. What were once two native, commonly accessible beverages had nearly become extinct due the influx of globalization of Coca-Cola. I specifically looked at two regionally specific facets of Ugandan beverage culture:

  • Amuwala – local brew or beer

  • Omubisi – fermented banana juice

Communal Coke Vessel

Calling on locally sourced juice and ways of consumption, Communal Coke Vessel serves as a rebuttal to Coca-Cola, an imported American brand. It is a satirical stab at the brand’s ethics and globalization tactics and their effects on local culture and traditions.

Media Design | Los Angeles

Western Context
high-fi design explorations

Collective Six Pack

Exploring themes of individualism and collectivism through several rounds of material explorations. I interrogated Coca-Cola's bottle design of intended individualism through hacked collectivism by morphing and manipulating existing Coke bottles and the inherit functions of drinking from the bottles. I pushed what this type of collectivism and communality would look like by hacking the American, globalized brand Coca-Cola.

Exhibitions


Cola Intimacy
West Coast Biennial, 2017

Communal Cola
March Studio, 2016

Diving deeper into the closeness of proximity and the intimacy that it evokes, I explored how manipulating the literal glass of the Coke bottles could create a heightened intimate experience.

The glass pieces were co-created with Ed Gibson of Ci Hot Glass Los Angeles. A piece of the Cola Intimacy series was exhibited in the West Coast Biennial Exhibition at Turtle Bay Museum.