Design Beyond Calm

Publication Design | Motion Graphics | MFA Thesis

Design Beyond Calm explores how lessons learned from meditation can be metaphorically applied to the graphic design process and pedagogy. The thesis contains four projects, each with its own intention, that seek to explore the role of graphic design as a more contemplative, insightful practice.

1. Don’t Blink is the final film created as a culmination of my other motion projects. It aims to use the four elements as described in Ayurveda yoga as metaphors for different aspects of the design process. Earth as context and presence, air as concept, fire, and water as the contrasting focuses of iteration and refinement. Through this framework, I was able to create meditative pieces that spoke to graphic design as an insightful practice beyond calm.

2. Graphic design as Contemplative Art is a motion piece based on an interview with David Grey that explores his idea of the same name.

3. Meditating on a Capital A worked towards exploring the design process and its connections to introspection (looking inwards) and extrospection (observing and understanding the outside world) through a generative exercise with a capital A.

4. Just Breathe is intended to create visual calm. The aim was to push graphics towards something that contrasts the typical simplistic designs for meditations.