Our identity is formed by individual components coming together to create new forms, new ideas and new perspectives, allowing the physical and digital platforms of the show to come alive and for the visitors to partake in the experience. To translate our concept into form, we viewed the three basic shapes--a triangle, a circle and a square--as individual units that represent the students of the three shows. Once the individual units combine, they invoke new meanings and communicate our identity in a way that highlights the power of the whole. The sum of its parts.

Along with Gina Crighton, my primary contribution to this project was designing and managing all physical deliverables, printed material and wayfinding within the college.

This publication was created after Identity Theft? Pt1 ↪ and in reaction to Boris Groys' theory of self-design. Groys declares all humans have the obligation to their identity and are completely responsible for any information about them not be misinterpreted or misused. Thus, every person in the contemporary world has to curate their online presence, in order to protect their privacy and identity.

This project becomes a visual support of Groys' theory as it shows the ease of obtaining data and how much can be learned and potentially exploited from it. Because the data is presented in a large A3 physical form, it underlines the sheer amount of information we present to the world. The publication recontextualises our understanding of social media and privacy. It forces any reader to think of their own online presence as they can derive an almost complete understanding of the personality and behaviour of this exposed individual, just from raw data.

Director of Photography: Anna MacDonald ↪|
BTS Photography: Calum Barlow ↪

This handbound-publication comes as a result of my search for an answer. I have yet to discover that elusive singular answer and am only debating internally more than before. This is an attempt to help myself and others navigate this never ending the discussion. It does not deliver any conclusions but attempts to deliver a deeper understanding of the discussion whilst highlighting the multiple perspectives and consensus (or lack thereof) about ‘What is Designer?. The publication is purposefully confusing an at times to reflect the many perspectives, and the lack of consensus.

The foundation of the debate is set down by Ellen Lupton and Michael Rock, whose essays, “Designer as Producer” and “Designer as Author”, introduces us to the wider discussion on the subject within the graphic design community. They form the basis of the debate and through a voices of other critics/designers (Jessica Helfand, Daniel van der Welden, Andrew Blauvelt) the discussion is expanded. It shows not only the agreements within the community but also the disagreements and never-ending scope of the discussion through both the written word and visual imagery.

London is its people, and thus we created a social-voting-user-generated campaign, which allows all of us Londoners to create, share and celebrate the voices we want to represent our city. The city will host an open dialogue through the digital billboards screens, sharing the stories they think make their city special, diverse and, most importantly, open to those that have here and those that are coming. However, the campaign isn't just about getting London to show it's true voice but about celebrating it!

I asked a hundred individuals to fill out a physical form asking for their age, height, weight, nationality, etc. followed by ten personal questions. The questions were designed to allow me to obtain similar specific information to what Facebook can deduce about their users i.e. “how many times have you travelled in the last year?”, “how many selfies have you taken this month?” or “how many times have you called your parents this week?” Then afterwards, the individual would have to sign the form, attesting that 'their answers and personal information could be used in any way possible'. Everyone signed it, and only one person read it. It poignantly demonstrated how little we consider the use and loss of our personal information.

We voluntarily give away our data for anyone to use. The publication demonstrates how we willingly give away personal information for anyone to exploit and challenges us to change the way we approach future debates on this topic.

The forms were bound together to look like something fit for a secret filing cabinet, ready to be distributed around the office and perhaps the world.