Abstract. Most, if not all, of our experiences of the world, are physical and achieved through sensory and motor actions learned over time. These performative and kinetic acts are mostly three-dimensional and are dependent on speed and duration.
This thesis began with an inquiry into the potential for these sensory interactions to inspire and create visual forms. The resulting body of work aims to reconsider the act of consuming a graphic design work as a performative and physical experience, that is momentous and unique to the person, environment and time of event.
With these inquiries in mind, different means of visually illustrating and quantifying these seemingly intangible and abstract moments are explored. By marking and recording our actions, especially the interstitial moments, the ephemeral qualities of these interactions are translated into more lasting visual forms.
The works in this thesis embrace the two-dimensional quality of the page. They utilize the pages of the book as sites to frame our awareness of physical places and real time in order to offer different ways of thinking through qualities of temporality, duration and continuity.
AN EXERCISE IN PALIMPSEST. A notebook that records, multiplies and accumulates its own content. The notes become more overwhelming over time.
MARKING TIME. Email requests and agreement between my advisors and myself, printed, stamped and snail-mailed to myself. Both physical and digital time markers co-exist in this piece of mail.
Prologue. The thesis began with an abstract, which served as an anchor for the projects and experiments that followed. However, beyond the abstract and the final visual outcome, the process is the most important and interesting for me. I realized how personal the experience was. It was one where I learned how I tend to think and how I typically organize my thoughts, and how to make the best of these tendencies as a designer.
During these months, I also learned about what I gravitate to, not visually, but more in terms of theories, ideas and thought processes. The research and readings were also more rewarding than I thought they would be. I am more aware of how art can inspire design work, conceptually and visually. Another important takeaway would be the importance of making as a design process in my personal practice.
FOLDING FONT. An exploration on the act of writing as an act of marking time and reading as an act of decoding.
© 2025 Yoana Wiman