AM I AM? is the title of the project designed on partial completion the Visual Storytelling: Narrative & Sequence module, I took during my postgraduate studies of Communication Design: Graphic Design at Kingston School of Art.
The brief required students to work with a text of their choice and analyse, evaluate, interpret, translate, visualise or perform it in an appopriate form.
The design process therefore primarily focused on an in-depth research of the selected text, thorough visual experimentation and critical making.
Since I have always been interested in the application of multi-disciplinary approaches in graphic design, I decided to select the notes on Kierkegaard’s existentialist theory from my philosophy class I attended as a grammar school student to work on.
The final form of the project was completely influenced by the reseach conducted throughout the entirety of the design process. After analysing the text and evaluating its content, I concluded the artist’s book(s) was going to be the best medium for the message I intended for my project to communicate.
In that way I was able to transform the often intimidating character of scholarly texts into much more accessible alternative, but also challenge the stigma around the perception of the medium (book, artist’s book) through which they are communicated and by doing so prove that these kinds of text can indeed be interpreted in a less conventional way without losing their credibility.
After visual testing and experimenting, the mask became a main suggestive visual symbol communicating the theory, as it best served to illustrate the existentialist ideas around individualism described in the text.
The concertina format was then similarly selected based on the content of the text communicating the ideas around limit situations, during which a human realises her/his existence. The concertina format, allowed for the panels to drop down to the ground when unfolding and in that way accordingly visually communicating the nature of the difficult situations.
The brief required students to work with a text of their choice and analyse, evaluate, interpret, translate, visualise or perform it in an appopriate form.
The design process therefore primarily focused on an in-depth research of the selected text, thorough visual experimentation and critical making.
Since I have always been interested in the application of multi-disciplinary approaches in graphic design, I decided to select the notes on Kierkegaard’s existentialist theory from my philosophy class I attended as a grammar school student to work on.
The final form of the project was completely influenced by the reseach conducted throughout the entirety of the design process. After analysing the text and evaluating its content, I concluded the artist’s book(s) was going to be the best medium for the message I intended for my project to communicate.
In that way I was able to transform the often intimidating character of scholarly texts into much more accessible alternative, but also challenge the stigma around the perception of the medium (book, artist’s book) through which they are communicated and by doing so prove that these kinds of text can indeed be interpreted in a less conventional way without losing their credibility.
After visual testing and experimenting, the mask became a main suggestive visual symbol communicating the theory, as it best served to illustrate the existentialist ideas around individualism described in the text.
The concertina format was then similarly selected based on the content of the text communicating the ideas around limit situations, during which a human realises her/his existence. The concertina format, allowed for the panels to drop down to the ground when unfolding and in that way accordingly visually communicating the nature of the difficult situations.
details of the book I
details of the book II
details from the book III
selection of the pages from the project process book© 2022 Ivana Havadejová