<p>Den här rapporten innehåller information om hur jag har gått till väga i mitt examensarbete, som har bestått i att utforma två broschyrer och tre skyltar till ett kopparverk i Riddarhyttan. I rapporten redogör jag för hur jag har gått tillväga vid utformningen av mitt arbete, de teoretiska utgångspunkterna som ligger till grund för utformningen samt det slutgiltiga resultatet.</p><p>Bakgrunden till uppgiften är att den befintliga broschyren är, enligt min uppdragsgivare Mona Kärner Eliasson, väldigt jobbig att läsa med svåra facktermer och dåligt utförd layout. De har även tidigare funnits ett skyltsystem som de var tvungna att ta ned för att det var i dåligt skicka och det var även svårt att förstå och hänga med i texterna.</p><p>Vid utformningen av de nya informationsmaterialen har jag både utgått från min uppdragsgivares önskemål så väl som de teoretiska erfarenheterna som jag har fått från böcker och min utbildning inom informationsdesign. Jag började med att titta på broschyren som redan fanns på plats vid kopparverket, och därefter inledde jag mitt arbete med att söka information om och bilder på kopparverket. Jag ringde även runt till olika myndigheter för att få mer information om vilka lagar och regler jag var tvungen att följa i mitt arbete. Jag sökte i olika litteraturer för att få mer kunskap om hur man utformar lättlästa och effektiva budskap. Därefter började mitt arbete med att utforma informationsmaterialen. Under arbetets gång gjorde jag tre utprovningar, en på vardera broschyr och en på skyltarna. Därefter skedde förändringar där det behövdes, innan informationsmaterialen var färdiga.</p>

The design process demands comprehensive knowledge of visual signs and symbols with a focus on visual literacy; it is related to visual syntax, semantics, and the pragmatics of contexts. My work is an interdisciplinary investigation into how designers integrate polysemantic signs into their design process for particular and highly individualized audiences. By analyzing the role of signs in specific contexts across the spectrum of arts, society, literature, and semiotics, a designer's understanding of the cyclical nature of interpretation and reinterpretation in complex environments creates an avenue for cultivating a new schema that provides further levels of interpretations and different access points. By removing elements from their original context, and fusing these elements into new narratives, we implement new meanings and emphasize the value of interpretation.

We are immersed in an era of supermodernity, an age defined by excesses: of information—the acceleration of historical time—spatial overabundance—the nullification of distance by electronic media and transportation—and an excess of self-reflexive individuality. In this context, the idea of place is giving way to non-places: designed spaces in which social relations are tangential and the boundary between the individual and the group is increasingly mediated. Media plays an important role in the creation of non-places, by favoring a removed form of communication made pervasive and extensive through mobile devices. The blurring of the line between media and actuality extends its definition to encompass not only traditional modes such as radio and television but to a web of systems that regulate and determine relationships between people and collective entities. As a visual communicator, I seek to understand the evolving relationship between individuals and society by focusing on the spatial-social codes and gestures that permeate and define our interactions. In my thesis project, I explore the boundary between personal, subjective space and social space in their physical manifestations. I perceive the latent tension that exists between what is expressed and what is kept to ourselves in a highly codified environment. I depict the inadequacies of media narratives to portray human drama and the strength of these codified visual systems to represent the drama of living inside their constraints. I look for ways of representing the duality of our shared vulnerability in the alienation of contemporary living perpetuated through media, and our acceptance of its imbalances.

The design process demands comprehensive knowledge of visual signs and symbols with a focus on visual literacy; it is related to visual syntax, semantics, and the pragmatics of contexts. My work is an interdisciplinary investigation into how designers integrate polysemantic signs into their design process for particular and highly individualized audiences. By analyzing the role of signs in specific contexts across the spectrum of arts, society, literature, and semiotics, a designer's understanding of the cyclical nature of interpretation and reinterpretation in complex environments creates an avenue for cultivating a new schema that provides further levels of interpretations and different access points. By removing elements from their original context, and fusing these elements into new narratives, we implement new meanings and emphasize the value of interpretation.

This thesis includes a body of work that explores our visual relationship to the physical spaces and places we inhabit in our everyday lives. Today we live in a complex world where we are bombarded with fragments of information and inundated with distractions. As designers, we are equipped with tools and methods that allow us to experience and interpret our environment through multi-faceted perspectives and from different viewpoints. My approach to graphic design adopts techniques and practices from a mix of different disciplines. The work focuses on a design process that alternates between the parallel depiction of first-person and third-person vantage points mediated through contemporary technologies.

The impulse to resolve and interpret messages drives creativity and understanding. As graphic designers, we may try to communicate familiar ideas in an unfamiliar way - unfamiliar, but unique, memorable, and engaging. By utilizing the theory and practice of psychology and the cognitive processes involved in assigning influence, importance, recognition and associations with signifiers in the mind, we can strengthen visual communication. Theoretical and applied psychological techniques and models will provide the basis for an exploration and development of new methodologies and tools that will enhance the creative process for graphic designers.

Memory is like afternoon light penetrating the windows of a fast moving car. The light coming through the trees creates images, reveals objects and faces, and introduces fluctuating sensations of warmth and coolness. Sometimes these images appear in logical sequences and at other times they are fleeting, surreal, and ambiguous. While memories are often presented linearly as fact, in actuality our stories only grasp at the truth. They are fragmented, imagined, and rearranged. By examining the intersection of reality and imagination in memories we see retelling as an act of creativity.

I imagined a world where designing is projecting and where the entire design field is called projection. My research into what it means to be a projector culminates in a participatory creative project that embodies concepts of projection taken from a range of disparate subjects.

Somewhere along the way, I found that graphic design in professional practice was becoming synonymous with form and style, and losing its connection with concept and audience. I’m trying to find a way back.

Hybridity is the result when visual form, color or tools interact. While not every combination of multiple elements result in success, I believe creativity, intuition and serendipity determines the successful hybridity. This is the documentation of my journey to develop a personal definition of successful hybridity in graphic design.