IDEATION

Dear Boston University Graphic Design Faculty,

I am both excited and apprehensive to begin engaging with the development of my Master of Fine Arts thesis. While I know that the content behind my thesis will evolve, I am hoping to use this letter as an opportunity to establish a framework for inquiry that thoughtfully directs the process.

My original understanding of the design thesis was that it served as a culmination of ideas from the past two years; a final, climactic presentation of our experience as graduate students of graphic design. Now, as I’ve begun to think about the design thesis as being for me rather than from me, it is not so much a summation as it is a transition. My current conceptualization of and hope for my design thesis is that it be the intersection of where I am coming from as a designer, and a launch pad for where I want to go.

The questions that immediately follow from this rationalization of thesis are: where have I come from as a designer? And: where do I want my design work to go? For me, these are the questions that fast track to the core of the thesis, but to answer them unequivocally requires hours of conceptual grappling, and several other questions to be posed first.

Of these questions, some that I’ve begun to relate to my process are: how can I convey structure through materiality? What tangible elements exist in transition? How can I uncover human solutions to design problems? In what way does the digital inform the material, and vice versa? And, where does craft persist digitally? It is my hope that posing these questions to myself as I begin my second year work will help guide my design perspective towards a consistent and thoughtful thesis.

My most successful work in the program thus far has been through craft-based, or analog deliverables. I believe that being intentional and replicative with materiality produces work that feels consistent with and improves upon what I’ve already done. However, I want to use the thesis to transition my work into areas of design that are outside of my comfort zone, while drawing from processes that have become a necessary part of my practice. To do so, I would like to consider how to relate dimensionality and craft in the digital space, as well as draw relationships with any physical work that I continue to develop.

I would also like to continue to emphasize typographic exploration; the past spring semester I began to develop a typeface that I would like to incorporate into typesetting my thesis book. Although form-based decisions will come much later, I generally trend towards more editorial or minimal styles—something that I would like to handle intentionally when approaching aesthetic decisions for my thesis.

I would like the purpose of my thesis to be intertwined with the questions that I hope to answer, and the methods/tools I utilize. If the thesis is representative of a transition from my academic to professional goals, then my hope is to convey this through my methodology by transitioning from physical to digital outcomes. In tandem, I hope that I can develop a line of inquiry on transition—both in relation to design practices and in the broader socio political, environmental, and/or technological climate: what are we transitioning from? What are we transitioning to? Though this may evolve, I am currently interested in directing the positions I develop from these questions towards architectural and structural transitions of the future; how they parallel social necessity, and their evident correlation to art and design movements.

Through directed exploration and developing content/methods simultaneously, I would like my thesis inquiry to evolve into a cohesive narrative on the effects of transition across themes of personal progress, design process, and cultural influence.

I imagine the content and form that my thesis takes will evolve drastically from my current conception. However, it is my aim that the thematic structure I have outlined in this letter will help direct the work I develop in the coming semesters to produce intentional and cohesive lines of thesis inquiry.

Sincerely,

Sophia Viviano

QUOTES ON IN-BETWEEN

“Change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events but rather the inner reorientation or self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won’t work.” —William

Bridges

“The future is always all around us, waiting, in moments of transitions, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.” —J.

Michael Straczynski

“All I have to do is work on transition and technique.” —Usain Bolt

“The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.” —Paul Rand

“I like to step into areas where I am afraid. Fear is a sign that I am going in the right direction.” —April Greiman

Grilli Type’s GT Sectra as a specimen and in use. Inspiration for typeface design and presentation.

Poster designed by Elin Matilda Andersson for For The People poster series. Design for good.

Poster designed by MM Paris. Used as inspiration for marriage between human elements and digital design. The Centre Pompidou. Architectural inspiration for structural transformation.

Rene Magritte; The False Mirror. See Bibliography.

Posters designed by Studio Helmo. Analog and digital representations.

Grilli Type’s GT Sectra as a specimen and in use. Inspiration for typeface design and presentation.

Poster designed by MM Paris. Used as inspiration for marriage between human elements and digital design.