Graphic Design as Intervention
ALICE DONOVAN
Boston University MFA Graphic Design 2015
SHOW ME AND I MAY REMEMBER
Chinese Proverb
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The ripples that are created by the intervention itself are as important to me as the piece that caused them.
My work stems from an insistent yearning to understand the world we live in, to participate in it on a deeper level and to find meaning in daily life. I am inspired by the need to connect and the ability we have, as individuals, to disrupt the constant. By intervening, we create ripples of change and action, once dispersed these ripples take on lives of their own and thats what makes the experience beautiful. The ripples that are created by the intervention itself are as important to me as the piece that caused them. I strive to transform and affect the human experience by using design as a tool of intervention. The act of participation, by both myself and the audience, is an integral part of the process. I hold tightly to the words of this famous Chinese proverb “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” The chosen medium is informed by the content and context and therefore my work lives in both the digital and physical space. It is an extension of myself. It is a method of speaking out. It is my attempt at making a difference, at contributing something that matters. Through designed intervention I hope to contribute work that matters, work that demands an emotional response, in turn disrupting the disregard.
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we must speak out, we must speak loud and sometimes we must be quiet.
MANIFESTO
we must matter
Life is inherently lonely; the most fulfilling answer to our loneliness is in the form of connections. Connections through people, experiences, moments and our environment. Without these connections we remain inside ourselves. Through authentic expression we are able to reach outside of our bodies, to let other people see bits and pieces of us in a filtered way. The filter is our method of expression. How shall I choose to express myself? What will I express? At the end of the day, our expression is what we want to tell the world. What is our message? Are the people worthy of our message? Will they understand it? Does it matter if they do? It does not matter if the message is understood, it’s through the process of creating that message that we really get somewhere, that we learn something about ourselves and the world around us. Its the act of allowing people into our minds, the choice to be vulnerable and susceptible to judgment, disagreement and criticism. The choice to add something, tiny or big, is the choice to participate.
Because expression is more meaningful when being received. Our minds are made to make. And so make we must. But do we owe it to the world to make something that matters? Something that can truly make a difference? We don’t owe the world anything. But we do owe it to ourselves. Maybe in our efforts we won’t make a huge difference, maybe we will only touch a few, but if we touch those few, and they touch others, and those others touch many, and many touch more then what has our impact become? Maybe we can make a bigger difference by doing something small. By delivering something with a softer voice that will speak loudly to some. We must make with meaning, we must make things that matter, we must destroy built in obsolescence and demand quality. We must be vulnerable. We must be willing to express. We must look deeper, think deeper and be deeper. We must speak out, we must speak loud and sometimes, we must be quiet.
To participate is to start a conversation. To make the choice not to participate is to be passive, to be passive is to be ignorant, cowardly, weak. If we are given the opportunity in life to participate, in conversation, in art, in relationships, in life, in our environment, how could we pass this opportunity up? To allow it to slip away is to ignore the very purpose of our very being. Our being is controlled by our mind. Our minds tell us what to do, and they are telling us to make. And so make we must. With our voice. With our hands. With our eyes and our ears. With each other.
We must make but we must also make things that matter. We must matter. We must try. We must.
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METHODS
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voice editing delivery
meaningful: purpose, or value; purposeful; significant:
Asserting typographic Voice I believe, especially in my thesis work, that design should speak directly to people. I find type and image to be the most effective design tool for creating a meaningful conversation with the audience. Strong typography has the ability to speak loudly, softly, sarcastically, etc. The type does not need to necessarily say what it means, in fact I think the ability creative content has to create an open ended discussion is one of the most powerful tools of design. Obsessive Editing In my work I have found that the most successful pieces come when almost all unnecessary information, imagery and ornament has been removed. I do not wish to declare myself as a minimalist but I have found value in obsessive editing. I have found that strong geometry and use of white space, along with highly considered typographic decisions, create pieces that I am most happy with and that get the most positive response from others. Meaningful Delivery The method of delivering the work to the viewer has deemed to be more important than any other part of my process. In every project completed through my thesis work, the context and experience has driven the outcome both aesthetically and functionally.
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With Love from Boston
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WITH LOVE FROM BOSTON a contextually based typography installation in the city of Boston
#Withlovefromboston was a contextually based project where items were designed and placed in certain areas of Boston with the content curated specifically for the location. The most successful portion of the project occurred in the form of a sign printed on bright paper reading ‘if you were looking for a sign this is it’. The flyer was placed directly below a sign on a bridge in downtown boston that is heavily used by commuters. On the first day footage was captured of passerby’s reading the sign, stopping to view it and capture it. On days after that people used #withlovefromboston to document the photo of the sign. On the third day someone moved the flyer up and placed it directly on the sign. At this point I realized the power of participation. I returned the following day with a new, sturdier version of the flyer and placed it in the location that a passerby had placed it in. Through this action I began to recognize that projects
may be more successful if the audience were more easily able to influence the message, whether it be the location or the message itself. Other portions of the project were less successful. Business sized cards were left in the Boston common, at park benches and hidden away for people to find. These were never recorded on social media, whether they were found and enjoyed is an unknown. This brings up the question of sharibility and whether it is a crucial part of the experiential process for both the maker and the participant. I deem the second part of the project as ‘unsuccessful’ because I did not receive feedback but it is impossible for me to know if someone did in fact find one of these cards and enjoy it.
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ginagelato: Only pic I took in boston #withlovefromboston
samanthadenette: peace, sunshine, love #withlovefromboston lauramatteston: Miss you
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The Amazing Project
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THE AMAZING PROJECT a digital and physical experience project theamazingproject.co
The Amazing Project is a digital and physical experience project. The first, tangible portion existed in the form of physical cards that were fastened to brilliant pink posters around NYC and Boston. These posters were left in places fitting for the content, on the stairway of a busy street leading toward the High Line, on a Graffiti door in the Meatpacking District in New York or on a bus stop on BU campus. The cards, reading ‘you are amazing’ were intended to be taken and kept or taken and shared, with acquaintances, friends or perhaps strangers. The hashtag #mazng was associated with this portion of the project and sharing did occur, mostly from locations in NYC or from others who visited the installation that occurred in the annex of the SVA floor. The second portion of the project was a digital experience where users had the opportunity to send messages, through a designed web experience, to others telling them ‘why they are amazing’. A back end server, email system and API was set up to send, receive and track messages. The messages were captured on an anony-
mous basis and on the first day over 20 messages were sent and received. The most rewarding portion of the this project was the feedback that I myself received from others. I sent quite a few messages to people that I find amazing in my life and the things I received back from them really touched me. Several people mentioned that receiving the messages brightened their day. This is where I realized the power of intimate and personal connections to an experience and the value that provides in creating a more long lasting impact. Through this project the question of “why” occurred to me. What is the point in creating a project like this? Is it simply for the moments created for people? Should there be another level of participation? I also found at this point that for me, the experience almost overshadows the physical design of the object. I find myself more excited about designing the experience, than the actual thing and I decided to take note of this.
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nueves: Take one: You deserve it. You are amazing
qunty: #mazng #nyc #street-art andreafpagliai: This is #amazing
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BABY, YOU ARE SUCH AN AMAZING PERSON, YOU ARE THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME, THE ONE WHO KEEPS ME GOING THROUGH THIS WEIRD EXISTENCE Message sent through the Amazing Project
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Memories for Sale
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MEMORIES FOR SALE a satirical design project exploring memories and consumerism
Memories for Sale was an exploration of a previous desire to develop a ‘store’ or ‘brand’ of goods which could not actually be bought. This stemmed from the questioning of consumerism and the role designers often play in selling items of little or no value to the public. The project initially existed with only memories of myself and Weifan Chen, a classmate, but has been developed further to allow others to ‘list’ their own memories for sale.
A pop-up ‘memory’ store has been developed to exist at the thesis show and allows the audience to record their own memories, giving them a suggested retail price with the option to be featured on memories-4-sale.com
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Commuter Therapy
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COMMUTER THERAPY design for right now
February was full of record breaking snow fall as well as all encompassing public transit failures. The overall sentiment towards the MBTA and commuting in general was (and is as I write this) at an all time low. People were frustrated, angry and feeling hopeless as weeks went by with little to no service and estimates of one to three month wait times until a fully restored service were to return. As an every day commuter I was part of the mayhem. People cried, yelled and were generally grumpy. As I waited for a ‘shuttle’ that was probably never coming I realized that there were thousands of us going through the same thing, yet we all stood in silence, stewing over what we had determined may have been the end of the world. An assignment came from Yael Ort-Dinoor to complete a project for the thesis that was not a video, poster or book. It was this timing that brought me to the idea of creating a mock ‘CharlieTicket’. The Commuter Therapy ticket is a reminder to ‘trust the journey’ or ‘smile’. To laugh a little about the current situation and acknowledge that we are all experiencing it together.
The cards were laser printed and then laser cut to size. Two sheets were cut at a time and a total of 900 tickets were made and handed out over a two day period. The cards were initially distributed during the early morning at Park Street station. They were picked up about an hour later by local news sources and by 2pm they were featured (along with myself) on the local news stations. They went viral on Twitter and even reached Reddit. The feedback was incredible. People loved the sentiment. What was interesting was that three types of cards were made ‘OptimismTickets’, ‘SarcasmTickets’ and ‘ProfanityTickets’. They were distributed in equal amounts. Not one person tweeted or shared the Sarcasm or Profanity tickets. Even though I received lots of smiles and laughs in person, the Optimism tickets were the only to be shared on social media. The press also completely overlooked the others and focused completely on the ‘OptimismTickets’ even going as far as to deem me as the ‘OptimismLady’. Perhaps this was a lesson in Human , a positive one if I were to access myself. That in times like this people would prefer a little optimism that a sarcastic or lewd joke.
This project was a wonderful lesson in the temporary nature of our current times. The project received thousands and thousands of views and tweets and re-tweets and likes on the initial day of distribution, by the second day there was about 10% of the noise and by the third day the hashtag was almost silent. I learned that the power of designing for the ‘now’. It allows people to feel really connected to the thing you are making or the experience you are designing. If I were to go out in a month and hand out these tickets no one would care. But everyone, not just the people on the trains, understood what was happening, they related to the sentiment and the content and this created something worth going viral. I also learned that it is okay for something to be just a small blip in the everyday nature of things but that I am eager to design an experience that embodies both the longer lasting sentiment of the #mazng project with the hype and excitement of the #btta project.
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milhizza: to the guys handing these out this morning at the park street exit/entrance: you did in fact make my morning. this made me smile. #btta #bostonsnow
onceuponaliz: handed to me by a silent stranger on the Red Line this morning. Suddenly -16 felt like a mere -5. #BTTA @BTTA
STILL NEED CONVI VALUE? RT @ONLY THE BOSTON TRAN AUTHORITY #MBTA #BTTA
INCING ART HAS YINBOS: FROM NSIT THERAPY A COMMUTERS. Twitter: @Magzilla_ 02/19/15
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REFERENCES
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DESIGNERS /STUDIOS 2x4 Aaron Koblin Banksy Bruce Mau Candy Chang Dieter Rams Daniel van der Velden E. Roon Kang Ellen Lupton Emily Pilloton (Project H) Hyperakt Ideo John Bielenberg (Project M & Future Partners) Jonathan Harris Mende Design MINE Open Sagmeister & Walsh Studio Moniker Tibor Kalman
*These lists are inclusive only of designers, studios and readings that have influenced the thesis work featured in this publication
BOOKS/ARTICLES /TALKS/BLOGS Armstrong, H., Stojmirovic, Z. (2011). Participate: Designing with User-Generated Content Harris, J. (2013). Data Will Help Us www.datawillhelp.us/ Kalman, T. (1998). Fuck Commitees www.manifestoproject.it/fuck-committees/ Mau, B. (Ongoing). An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth www.manifestoproject.it/bruce-mau/ Pilloton, E. (2012). Advice for Design Graduates: Start Now, The Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-pilloton/advice-for-graduates_b_1516349.html Shea, A. (2012). Designing for Social Change: Strategies for Community-Based Graphic Design Simmons, C. (2011). Just Design: Socially Conscious Design for Critical Causes
alicedonovan.com alice@alicedonovan.com