Anastacia Macdonald Andrew Maxwell Taylor

As a Lesbian illustrator, the themes in my practice are influenced often by my identity. My partner is a significant muse of mine, our experiences guide a lot of my narrative choices. With my partner being Butch, our relationship has taught me the differences she faces as someone who does not conform to social expectations of gender. By drawing from personal experiences, it is my design calling to give visibility to others who don’t feel seen in art or media.

“Blair’s Hair” is a children’s picture book I have been making since September. Inspired by experiences I’ve had with hair but is most relevant to my partner’s relationship to hair. was influenced by children’s books on diversity and gender expression for boys. But there was a gap in this tone for girls. What about girls who also express themselves differently? It is important to normalise gender non-conformity for young girls too, tomboyish attributes shouldn’t be regarded as something to supress or ‘grow out of’!

My interest in gender expression transferred into my essay for DH&T, with more mature themes in relation to Lesbian gender and sexuality. My essay explores these subjects within cinema, comparing three iconic Sapphic films: ‘Bound’, ‘The Handmaiden’, and ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.

I am a graphic designer who engages with community based projects, often with the aim to raise awareness through methods of visual communication. My practice usually reflects a piece of my personality and social environment. I am an avid lawn bowler, I work in hospitality and also a devoted rugby supporter. explore these communities in my folio, developing under voiced narratives. My strength lies in idea generation and conceptual thinking, with a visual language informed by in depth research would describe my practice as process led in the sense that I am primarily drawn to analogue techniques, such as hand lettering, print and sign painting. Additionally, my practice is often rooted in conceptual thought, I enjoy delving deep into concept and really understanding the eccentricities and stories which synthesise and result in design. My most recent and main undertaking this year has been a type design project with a focus on ornamental lettering. Initially looking to the influential (but now obsolete) German arts magazine, Jugend, this project evolved into a celebration of ornate letterforms. Looking to provide a space for the intricacies and charm of such letters, I designed a typeface and from it printed artworks which function as tasteful and tactile compositions, honouring the beauty of less conventional letterforms. This year has been a turning point for me as feel I have finally discovered my niche as a designer, have absolutely fallen in love with hand lettering and this intimate approach to type design. have always enjoyed writing, story-telling and scrutinising narratives. My dissertation, “Interpreting Ecological Reciprocity: An Exploration of the Influence Nature Connectedness and Sustainable Environmental Preservation has in Promoting Eudemonic Wellbeing”, explores the widespread disconnection of humanity from nature and the hypothesis that this may exacerbate eudaemonic wellbeing, alongside having a negative influence on the global environmental crisis. This is a crucial and relevant topic of discussion that am incredibly passionate about and that I would love to incorporate more within my studio work.

A highlight of my practice this year has been designing and writing about issues surrounding World Rugby. My extended essay argued the role of a designer in tackling representation in the modern game. I discussed the importance of Rugby Union’s professionalisation at a time of deregulation, leading to a monopolisation of identity design. I concluded that a contemporary designer should avoid universality in design, allowing visual identities to be inspired by a communities culture. For my folio, I designed a data visualisation project, intending to make information more emotionally resonant. My aim was to raise awareness to the risk of developing a Neurodegenerative Disease for professional rugby players. A feature of this project is a scrum cap, constructed of 15 panels, of 15 players; representative of their associated playing number, who suffered from either Motor Neurone Disease or Dementia.

What does it mean to be dressed? Is the overarching question for my critical journal, it’s one that’s coherently linked to my studio practice and in the realm of what explore through my work: clothing, community and what’s the role of photography within that? I am interested in ethnography, societies, cultures and social studies of fashion. I try to use these themes to underpin the context of my work and base it in a social anthropological context. The street is my studio, use the outdoors and sometimes the indoors. Historical adornment is also explored in one of my projects this year. I provided alternative perspectives to traditionally villainized women in Scottish Folklore. The work presented is in a triptych series, invoking feelings of freedom, power and beauty, when these women have been represented in an inherently patriarchal society. My next project ‘To Be Adorned’ delves into the meaning behind our clothes, where the subjects have sourced their clothing from, and what oral histories and testimonies can be learnt behind these ensembles. Narrative image making is how I articulate my thoughts and feelings about the world inhabit. would also argue they are a concentrated, systematic type of enquiry into photographic social anthropology. Additionally, a tool for analysing, albeit one that’s playful and pleasurable.

During this academic year, have mainly focused on self-directed projects as part of my coursework. These projects include explorations into Java coding, the creation of a tool utilizing ASCII software, and a complete rebranding for refuweegee, a local Glasgow charity. The focal point of my efforts has been ‘Hidden in plain sight’ a typographic examination of how men express their emotions – what men say contrasted to how they might feel. I was drawn to the typographic possibilities of steganographic strategies - the graphic and communicative tricks of saying two opposite things at the same time.

For the Design History and Theory component part of my degree, I documented and reflected on the ‘Hidden in plain sight’ project. The critical journal analysed my work relating to the growing issue of male depression and explored the suppression of emotions within Scottish culture. Through my creative thinking, this allowed me to consider the vulnerability of the subject matter, comparing my input to other people. It was this critique that shaped my work to follow, leading to a focus on highlighting the struggles that men face.

My practice is driven by an interest in typography, book design, and materiality through printed matter. Often inspired by concepts of nostalgia, hauntology and non-linearity, my work typically revolves around reinterpreting and retracing lost or historical communicative forms through contemporary perspectives.

Following a period of research and experimentation with archival Celtic and Roman typographic forms, I developed a variable typeface which shifts between optical weights along an axis. The typeface’s name –Dolmen – is borrowed from a type of megalithic stone structure used in ancient passage rituals. This act is mirrored in the typeface’s transition and interpolation between two states, allowing for increased optimisation and usability in contemporary, digital design contexts.

In my dissertation, Acid-Futurism: Design Politics & Corrosion, I looked to build upon the core concepts and themes explored within Mark Fisher’s unfinished book, Acid-Communism. By retracing the lineage of these ideas and reapplying them to the context of design politics, I looked to propose ways in which designers could form non-hierarchical, collaborative platforms which look to ‘corrode’ our relationships to capitalism through politically engaged design practices and digital commons.

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My dissertation ‘Pilgrimage and the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Does Digital Mediation Contribute to a Depreciation of the Intrinsic Value of Vincent Van Gogh’s Artworks?’ Begins to unpack the new modes of spectatorship associated with art-themed immersive exhibitions, looking at how the commodification and presentation of reproductions of artworks in the exhibition setting is consequently depreciating the intrinsic value of the original. My case study Van Gogh Alive, is an example of this new increasingly popular exhibition format, primarily presenting projections of digital reproductions of some of Van Gogh’s most popular oeuvre in vast spaces accompanied by a range of sensory stimuli to ‘heighten’ the viewing experience.

In my documentary project on my home, Blackpool, I explore the theme of the façade using documentary and abstract imagery. Looking at the multi-faceted nature of Blackpool This project begins a discussion regarding some of the issues associated with northern seaside towns in general, and specifically in Blackpool. In showing another side of Blackpool through my photography, aimed to remove some familiarity of the visual cliches associated with the seaside resort. Presenting instead a body of work which is reflective of locals and my own perspective, showing that there is much more to Blackpool than what is on the surface.

Can graphic design be an effective tool for cultural and political agency, or does it predominantly exist to obscure the machinations of capitalism?

I’ve often found design’s historic complicity with exploitative, corporate agendas hard to reconcile. My practice represents an effort to divert from this seemingly preordained path of consumerism to realign graphic design with its alternative lineage of radicalism. Whilst the idealistic belief that novel aesthetics alone can change the world is often viewed with scepticism after the countless examples throughout history of the capitalist appropriation of countercultural signifiers, I am much more interested in the designer’s active role as facilitator. What practical skills do designers possess that can be used to lend legitimacy to causes, distribute information in more egalitarian ways or co-ordinate pluralistic projects that connect disparate strands of subculture?

This ideology underpins how each project is intended to function in the world. One prominent example is Lune, the hybrid record label and publishing house I have been designing. As a non-hierarchical collective of experimental musicians, artists, and writers, it aims to exemplify prefigurative tactics of co-operative working and creating. These include amassing a tool library, providing free access to culture via the commons and adhering to complete operational transparency. The project’s imagery coalesces around a speculative, post-apocalyptic, flooded island, in which Lune is framed as a utopian syndicate of scavengers.

For both of my final projects I’ve married my love for printed techniques with intuitive illustrative work, whether that be creating film posters that capture themes and atmospheres from moving image to a single piece of work, to creating an animation that exhibits the energy traditional media can provide with bold applications of printed elements like type and collagraph.

My final project focuses on themes of isolation and what we view of feminine rage. This is an animation that focuses on my personal experience going through the Scottish court system as the victim of domestic abuse. I feel that the court system has a lot to improve upon when supporting victims of domestic crime, and to not make people such as myself feel less like a ‘true victim’ due to our regular feelings of rage, upset and anger at what has happened to us.

My extended essay focuses on my love for horror films and whether women can find empowerment through this genre. Looking at the misogynistic tropes from slasher films, the monster and the feminine, and more contemporary examples of female treatment within the horror landscape, I analyse and examine whether we can find strength in this space from the narratives presented to us.

Hello, how do you move today? Do you hop, do you skip, do you keep straight ahead? Are you flying, are you prying, what echoes are in the air? When you munch, does it crunch?

This is my curiosity. have developed a verbal and visual language to describe movement. These include graphic scores and stop-motion animation with the body (pixilation). The moving image is a tool for recording as well as studying movement. In editing footage, witness the threshold between spectator and actor.

My research has culminated in a web-site, a living archive of movement. It is multisensory: the way that we move is via our senses. They tell us about where we are in space, and what is going on in the spaces of our bodies. The content on-site prompts visitors to move. As a living archive, it is an active and reflective space. I invite people to share their explorations through filmed and written responses. This community will grow the site. The design is informed by the scroll. A paper scroll rolls. It furls, and unfurls, it crumples, it folds. It continues, it connects, it contains. interpret this with the digital scrolling action.

You are welcome to move at movingspace.cargo.site play in the overlapping spaces of design, art, and community. I approach all my work as an exercise in storytelling, and researching things more significant than their physical or temporal bounds. Collaboration and collective making enrich the self and are centred in my work. Play is the heart of my practice – an endeavour toward seeing with a child’s eye, tracing lines and living inside them.

My most recent work explores the theatricality of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The work comprises of a mockumentary style film and a collection of physical artifacts documenting the life of fictional character Brad ‘The Butcher’ Benson. Through developing a character and building a world around him, was able to explore the idea of off- and onstage personas, linking to the ‘fixed’ nature of WWE. I wanted to depict the evolution of aesthetics within the industry through creating various pieces of ephemera relating to different eras.

The film’s eccentric props and blatant use of green screen is a nod towards the blurring of real and fake within wrestling and an underlining of its classification as sports entertainment. Looking at the biographies of wrestlers, this allure of performance and drama is what underpins many and is something wanted to highlight.

I enjoy working three dimensionally, creating props, products and puppets to explore various topics. My work lends itself to the slightly ridiculous or surreal, playing on reality to produce outcomes that are humorous or strange.

For my Extended Essay, I explored American History through the lens of Dolly Parton, looking at her physicality, discography and personal history. Through placing her within feminist, consumerist and Southern dialogues, I investigated how she has remained a global icon despite embodying various political contradictions.

Within my practice, I enjoy playfully repurposing familiar visual languages, making aesthetic contradictions between my subject matter and material/ typographic choices, in attempt to subvert and reframe traditional narratives. Informed by a love of history, my work is motivated by conceptled briefs and archival research. I hunt for potential lines of connection between dissimilar objects and cultures, contrasting the historical with the contemporary, weaving together the allegedly ‘highbrow’ and the ‘low.’ With an interest in identity, community, and heritage, my main project this year has explored English football fandom through the lens of the Church of England, juxtaposing and appropriating the visual languages of both of these ritualistic, English tribes. One of the defining changes in the English cultural landscape over the past century has been increasing secularisation. Nevertheless, football has filled this spiritual void, with fans demonstrating devotional behaviours traditionally associated with organised religion.

In my extended essay, I examined the relationship between dark tourism and souvenir culture, exploring how different souvenir typologies amplify touristic gazes and manipulate the histories of places associated with death and trauma. Considering the concepts of the tourist gaze, hyperreality, kitsch design, and death as a spectacle, my essay discussed the dark tourist’s role as an ‘amateur semiotician.’ Symbols within the ‘dark’ souvenirs confirm tourists’ preconceptions, privileging the ‘visual’ over accurate historical representation, which in turn can ensue significant political implications.

My primary focus this year has been on connection and disconnection, specifically in relation to technology. created an animation through experimental means for an interview that focused on a life spent online, in favour of real-world experience. I worked in stop motion using found footage, bringing it into a physical space by printing each frame and rescanning them to explore both the physical and metaphorical boundary of the screen to highlight this idea of disconnect.

Continuing this theme, worked with machine-learning algorithms. Exploring their collaborative potentials through an iterative process of deconstruction and reconstruction. asked an A.I to describe artworks of mine, then used these deconstructions to create new artworks and repeated that process in a kind of feedback loop. Through this, am also exploring the role of language in the creation of images, and the ways we interpret and construct meaning through visual art.

Motive of the Mask:

My essay examined musicians who use masks, pseudonyms, and other forms of anonymity to distance themselves from the commodification of their art while still capitalising on their unique brand identities. Through a deep dive into three case studies, showed how anonymity can both subvert and perpetuate capitalist systems, challenging conventional notions of authenticity and inviting readers to consider the complex relationship between art and commerce in contemporary music culture.

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My practice revolves around language and play. enjoy the tensions that are created by treating humorous concepts with total sincerity — I don’t feel that an object needs to be taken seriously in order to be beautiful, but I do think that the object should take itself seriously to some extent. My degree show project aims to explore this idea by playing with cartoon tropes of espionage to examine the camp cultural view of spies, and how that translates to the real world.

Language is integral to my work; for me, a project isn’t complete unless the copy holds up with the visuals. I often come up with the words at the same time as the design, which massively informs the design process. My largest project this year has been a collaboration with Callum Kershaw. What started as an exploration into following rules set by artificial intelligence has devolved into an examination of the client/designer relationship, and what place performance has in design. The narrative we created for the project has had a huge influence over our design choices.

My graphic design practice focuses heavily on exploring locations, cultures and identities, especially those that have played a role in shaping my upbringing and background. My work - which primarily consists of editorial design, book design and branding - embodies both humour and emotion depending on the concept I am exploring. Creating a sense of person and place with playful design is ever-present within my practice, allowing me to highlight areas and communities that may otherwise be overlooked.

My project, Lost at Sea, was focused on creating a book design based on the eroding coastal village of Happisburgh in North Norfolk. represented the destructive environmental issues this area of the UK is facing by using a variety of mediums within my work, including typography, photography and experimental book form. Within this project attempted to push the boundaries of what a book can be. As well as this, I have also worked on Dull Weekly, a tabloid magazine that combined both storytelling and editorial design to document the weekly dramas of a small rural village in Suffolk.

Although my studio practice focuses heavily on local identities, my extended essay explored work from the Russian Constructivist movement. examined the political implications attached to artworks, exploring how form, material and colour influenced the consolidation of different societal structures.

My photographic work stems from an interest in documenting details within environments that are often overlooked, whether that’s through observational street walks or more personal subject matter. I am drawn to exploring domestic spaces and the emotional attachments to objects found there. This project is about my Nana and her home in the Welsh countryside. It explores family relationships, loss and memories. This project began by documenting her and her home in the last years of her life and has continued since she passed. These photographs depict everyday reminders of my Nana, alongside the objects and intimate arrangements that were left in her home. They uphold tangible elements of the past such as archival family photos, and everyday household ornaments. Within these artifacts, traces of life and the surrounding nature, the fragility of time becomes apparent. The work champions our memories of people, places and everything that is left behind.

During my design history and theory studies, I wrote an essay about the portrayal of American families in the late 1950s and 60s in advertising, politics and mainstream culture. compared hegemonic ideals of family circulated by companies such as Kodak and Life Magazine, with documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks and Diane Arbus. I argued that Parks’s and Arbus’s work exposed a hidden reality that was being ignored by American structures of power and wealth.