Degree Project : Pretty / Ugly / Breaking / Constructs
Having focused on the basics of good graphic design (formal aesthetics, typography, color, etc.) I have recently come to these questions: What is good graphic design is anyway? What is bad graphic design? Is there ever a justification for designing something, which is deliberately ugly? From that querying process, I decided to focus my degree project on exploring so-called ugly design. This helped me to assess the roles of ugliness and beauty more generally, and from to look at related concepts such as order versus disorder, or complete versus incomplete. Throughout this inquiry, I frequently tried to defy the expectations of others (as well as my own) to question the conditioned mindsets of the social order of things and its constraints. Of course, this is challenging since we all grow up within extensive systems of rules and constructs—but it was exactly this challenge that truly compelled me to make this inquiry. It’s still not clear what good or bad graphic design is, and I can’t draw a clear line between them—but I trust that in my continued efforts the answers to these questions will slowly unfold.
Exhibition book displayed at the RISD GD Commons
