This post is part of a series of posts that explain aspects of my MFA Design Thesis project.

Where does a print based graphic designer with ten years experience find herself professionally in 2019? The most logical way to stay in the game would seemingly be to keep up to speed with fast changing digital technology. This project starts as an investigation that asks what can be said for moving backwards, away from progress, towards overlooked or forgotten ways of visually communicating even when the intention of the author is to return to the industry of graphic design upon completion of studies?

One of the practical driving forces within the project was to lift typography off the page and transform it into physical letterforms that would change and eventually disappear, based on their environment and physicality. There were three important phases to this project. The first was to undergo a series of experiments that intentionally used the wrong materials or methods according to current commercial graphic design practices and trends. The second phase took the most promising experiments from phase one and developed them further, with the aim to be able to share them with a Visual Communications audience. The third phase folded the accumulation of knowledge acquired during the project back into the discourse of Visual Communications through a physical bespoke conversation piece for the stakeholders of the project that took part in a questionnaire. A website was also created to share all of the experiments undertaken, some articles relating to the changing landscape of graphic design and the challenges designers face within the industry and with each other.

This project is firmly rooted in the discourse of Visual Communication. Both the problems addressed and reflections made are directed at the industry of graphic design. However, there are aspects of the project that could relate to the discourses of feminism, technology, design intervention and sustainability.

To see the full project please visit this website.