Bachelor Thesis & Project
VISUAL COMMUNICATION (B.A.)
THE ABSTRACTION OF CRAFT & THE DISPLACEMENT OF SPECIALIZED DESIGN PRACTICE
Graphic Design in the Age of Virtual Media
ABOUT
Recent innovations in design technology such as template-based website builders, artificial design intelligence, and other digital media manipulation tools have expanded creative capabilities and optimized the process of visual content creation, but at what cost to originality, and specialization?
Through both theoretical and practical methods of inquiry, this thesis examines the convergence of design, technology, and digital culture, exploring the ways in which computer mediation of the design process is conditioning creative outcomes. Of equal interest to this inquiry is the question of how the technological democratization of practices once gatekept by creative professionals is transforming visual, cultural, and commercial paradigms, while reshaping the boundaries of professional creative work.
Thesis Project
“ F O L L O W E R S ”
The practical component of my thesis, F O L L O W E R S, uses practice-based research methods to examine the abstraction of craft and the displacement of specialized design expertise. Blending poetic reflection with critical analysis, the roughly 100-page book traces the shift from analog to digital, and considers how virtual life and immateriality are reshaping creative labor, altering relationships to craft, and redefining the role of the designer today. The project weaves together long-form interviews with artists, designers, and craftspeople with original photographs, and collage works to explore what it means to be a maker in the digital age.
