I am interested in exploring social issues through my design work, most prominently themes of feminism and equality, in an attempt to raise awareness and inspire change. Hence I have taken it upon myself to do a dual degree with Communication Design and a self-designed Liberal Arts major that would comprise mainly of courses in Global Studies, Psychology, Gender Studies and Sociology.
Looking through my first year courses, a major reoccurring theme is the idea of iteration and making multiple prototypes to improve your idea and find the best way to do it. The most significant skill I learned that translated across to my other courses were techniques in Photoshop and Illustrator which I learned in my Drawing class. Most of my work in my academic studies has been focused on feminism and has informed many of my studio work afterwards. Similarly, the projects and papers I found most interesting were the ones that related to my goals and interests as a designer and was able to either help my develop my graphic design skills or given me a better understanding of things that could potentially inform one of my future projects.
One of the highlights from my first year is the Label project I did for my Sustainable Systems class, where I focused on the manufacturing process of a pair of athletic shoes and all the chemicals and pollutants derived from this process. I first researched what the chemicals were and wanting to communicate these, I decided on producing a graphic style illustration similar to a sticker. I wanted to play around with juxtaposition and humour, by referencing and appropriating the different elements of eco-friendly and organic designs, such as the color and the fonts, making it appear very positive and seemingly environmentally friendly. This contrasts with the actual meaning of the text, which lists out all the chemicals and harmful effects of making the shoe. I chose this project, because it has not only allowed me to discover many new techniques in Illustrator, but I also that I was able to successfully communicate a concept visually, which is what I am interested in doing.
The other highlight would be the Book project for my Drawing the Imagination class, where I created two sliding cards inspired by a book on deconstructing popular beliefs/myths. Initially it was just meant to be a normal card, however after some feedback, I decided to make it more interesting and interactive, so that people would want to pick it up and open it to reveal its content. I researched different types of sliding cards and as I had two illustrations for each myth, I decided to make a double slider card. I found this to be an extremely valuable learning process, because it was one of the only times I was able to successfully execute a project the way I had planned for it to and also one of the only times I was able to properly follow through the entire design process. Many times during the year, I was unable to finish or properly complete projects to my satisfaction because of lack of time, so this project really represented a milestone for me. It moved through several different stages and I had to make multiple prototypes and changes to my original design. I also learned a lot about communicating concepts in this project, as I had to research and look at typography and color palettes to design the cards so they would reflect its content and convey a specific mood – again aligning with my learning goals. Furthermore, this project was a combination of communication design concepts and physical making skills, which is something I’m not confident at and it really allowed me to develop my technical skills.
In the future, I would like to further develop my skills in Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign and learn more about technical design elements, as in hierarchy, color theory, layouts, typography, style etc…so I can be able to more successfully communicate the ideas I have. I would like to focus more on looking at feminism and social issues and developing designs based around that. I would also like to work on creating my own unique style/aesthetic that I can carry forward through both my digital and physical work.
