Design
This course was primarily centered on one project in which we created a campaign advocating for a cause we care about: designing branding elements such as a logo, billboards, social media graphics, and posters. The brand I created is a collective called Venus that fundraises for endometriosis research. The condition is grossly underfunded because of codified misogyny within the healthcare system that too often passes off women’s pain. I learned a great deal in this class. I sharpened my problem-solving skills by choosing a cause and focusing inwardly on how design could be used to propel change. I also improved my Illustrator and InDesign skills through constant practice and iteration on my ideas. I decided upon using motifs that are semiotically associated with feminity, at least within a western perspective, such as flowers, pearls, and the Roman Goddess of fertility but subvert them in a manner that felt explosive and unafraid to foster conversations about a scary topic in a way that feels natural through vibrant colors and romanantic typefaces.
To me, advocacy is the practice of uplifting previously unheard voices and driving actionable responses to the issues created when these voices are silenced. When advocacy is left unfounded, creative spaces are compromised by conformity. Advocacy allows for passion and accessibility to seep through design. Without advocacy, our communities and cultures would feel oppressive in structure, allowing only the privileged or the powerful to have control over the attitudes of the many. Advocacy is particularly important in creative spaces because creativity is an expression of humanity. Humanity is diverse and complex, so it must be represented as such. Advocacy is the only way to ensure that our extensions of self represent all selves and all the experiences humanity endures. Often, and especially in our modern day, advocacy is suppressed by idealized prescriptions to an oppressive institution and norm. It is the duty of intellectuals, creatives, and all human beings who want to ensure liberty to be advocates.
To me, advocacy is the practice of uplifting previously unheard voices and driving actionable responses to the issues created when these voices are silenced. When advocacy is left unfounded, creative spaces are compromised by conformity. Advocacy allows for passion and accessibility to seep through design. Without advocacy, our communities and cultures would feel oppressive in structure, allowing only the privileged or the powerful to have control over the attitudes of the many. Advocacy is particularly important in creative spaces because creativity is an expression of humanity. Humanity is diverse and complex, so it must be represented as such. Advocacy is the only way to ensure that our extensions of self represent all selves and all the experiences humanity endures. Often, and especially in our modern day, advocacy is suppressed by idealized prescriptions to an oppressive institution and norm. It is the duty of intellectuals, creatives, and all human beings who want to ensure liberty to be advocates.
Intervention
This assignment called students to make a design project with guerilla marketing tactics. I designed tea bags in Photoshop and placed them in the dining hall to spark discourse on the importance of democracy and how it is threatened in modern day America. I did so with a satirical campaign for “Brenter” to re-enter the British Empire and playing on the motif of tea within the Revolutionary War.
Fashion
The fashion project called us to subvert a commonly held belief or law, and empower the wearer of the design. My work, “At the Hands of a False God,” comments on the manipulation of White Christian nationalism which has bleed into the law, disregarding the foundations of the government to push exclusionary and tyrannical policies to justify hatred.
UnCommercial
For this project, students were tasked with creating a short satrical video. My group and I made “Hunting Men,” which plays on gender performance through a nature mockumentary.
Design 1005 - Fundamentals of Design and Making Project One: Identity
Our assignment was to create three abstract maps of our hometown and to represent various systems within it that are significant to us. My systems were the areas where I feed the ducks, hiking trails, speed cameras, and the locations of my closest friends' & families' houses in relation to DC’s geography.
Project Two: Masks
This project aimed to abstract the human form by taking elements of natural inspiration. My mask was inspired by a frilled lizard and a sea urchin, imbuing these creatures with stylistic echoes of wayang kulit (Indonesian shadow puppetry) and concealing their intricacies behind a veil.
Technical Sketches
Moodboard & Paper Prototyping
Sketchbook Heros:
Every week in the studio, we were assigned an artist whose style and typography we aimed to recreate through our own artistic lens.
Project One: Paper Weaving
To practice craft and composition, I created a woven paper narrative representing melting ice cream.
Project Three: Unconventional Fashion
This project challenged us to make a garment with unconventional materials, so I repurposed straws and make a poodle skirt.
The IB Design Tech. IA called for students to identity a problem that could be solved using design, it required various sections that covered prototyping, rendering, building, user feedback, and iteration. For my project, I made a bee house that could be assembled by the user to promote biodiversity and shelter bees.