MA Graphic Design and Illustration projects

After the Rain

The major idea of the publication ‘‘After the Rain’’ is to share different stories, quotations, and poems of refugees and asylum seekers. The stories are told by people from various countries with different experiences in Liverpool. All of them went through uncertainty and lack of control over their lives and the future.

Nowadays, there is a crucial problem of inadequate coverage of refugee crises by media and misrepresentation. It entails growing of scepticism associated with new immigrants crossing international borders. The problem is also about telling only bad stories and experience. Media do not cover the successful stories of refugees. However, in the project “After the Rain” there are some stories about people who have succeeded in the UK. For example, Dorkas Akeju has got the Order of British Empire. She has been honoured by the Queen for her 35 years of working here.

Therefore, the mission of the project is to tell all kind of refugees’ stories: not only sad but also successful.

Project blog (opens in a new tab)

Digital version of the publication (opens in a new tab)

Collecting Zelda

Collecting Zelda is a data journalism project driven by nostalgia, reselling and collecting. The project allowed me to collect, document and analysed a large quantity of data to look for any similarities or anomalies that appear across my sales as a small profit reseller. My research is heavily based around ethnography study. Ethnography refers to both the data gathering of anthropology and the development of analysis of specific peoples, settings, or ways of life.

The project contains a series of infographics, data, public stories and photographs all brought together by a website. The infographics show how much an item cost, where it was sold to and what exactly the item was.

Website (opens in a new tab)

The Big Project

The big project is an interactive walkthrough of popular narrative in video games in the style of an 8-BIT NES Game, created in UNITY and coded with C#. The big project also tackles real issues challenging the user into asking questions such as “is there really a disconnection between real life and these fictional stories?” if not, why not? This was an expression of my love for video games and fear of the unknown.

Social media (opens in a new tab)

IRL

This was a project exploring the concept of social media as game. This came about after some interest in board games and an introspection on the board game ‘Game of Life’

The publication visually explores, in an introspective way how you would explain the ‘game’ of social media.

“when playing the game, you may not have realised, but you unconsciously agreed to engage in voluntary conflict, and follow a specific set of rules that govern the conflict. Game designers call this the ‘Magic Circle’.

We enter the circle, follow the rules and try to win. when the game ends, we leave the circle and return to normal. The magic circle is what separates game from reality.”

We sit down to play a game knowing that it’s a complete fantasy, and on the other hand how much are we aware that social media is not fantasy?

Website (opens in a new tab)

Perranporth Beach and the Plastic Pollution Problem

This project is communicating the complex issue of plastic pollution in our oceans to a young target audience. My outcome is a website prototype made in Adobe XD and is called Perranporth Beach and the Plastic Pollution Problem.

It aims to teach children about the dangers to our ecosystem if the plastic pollution problem was to continue as normal. It stemmed from a quote by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that By 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish (2017). Throughout this year I have focused my illustrations towards children and using it to teach them about mature topics. I feel sustainability is especially important for children to learn as climate change will directly impact their lives.

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Zhuanbian

Project Zhuanbian explores the possibilities to create new Hanzi (Chinese characters). The project consists of three parts. The research of Hanzi revolution and etymology, new Hanzi forms developed with the six writing system and a piece of typeface design based on the seal script. The new Hanzi forms are about Chinese neologisms, especially in science and technology fields. The typeface design intends to give seal script, an ancient script a modern, slim look in order to fit contemporary design.

Website (opens in a new tab)