Description:

Living in a fast-paced city environment, many of us are moulded to the security of structure, guarantee and acceptance. The expectation of living within a classification, career or role in society can feel rigid and often overwhelming.
Re-working knowledge to ground ourselves and our understanding of the world can allow space and time to explore different ideas and pathways. Through this exploration, one can awaken to something that we may not have noticed or thought about in our lives before.
The publication ‘Awaken’ is a heuristic led enquiry employed by embodiment. A heuristic approach was a core part of distinguishing the designer’s self and identifying the constitutive elements used within the book. Driven by the question of ‘how might I honestly depict my own embodied textural world to awaken others?’ ‘Awaken’ was intuitively driven in the creative process.
‘Awaken’ undertakes research that challenges the logical pathways and parameters of a tertiary graphic design student. It delves into the researchers own textural depiction of the world and uses this knowledge to influence the graphical style with and without reason.
Extending further into contextual ideas underpinning Visual arts, architecture and studies of situated cognitions, the ideas discussed in the publication are framed within the physical and metaphorical idea of a compass. Each section of the book investigates a different aspect of the place, nostalgia, storytelling, and texture with linkage between the navigational directions.
The produced work is made in an organic and honest matter. Mark making techniques are woven into the publication through sizeable photographic van dyke pages, sketch details and textural laser engraved covers. The selected colour palette of rich, earthy tones was derived from collected imagery from the designer’s childhood family home on Waiheke Island. ‘The Lighthouse’ on Queens Wharf which overlooks Hauraki Gulf and Waiheke Island was another place which drew similar textural material used to create connections in the publication.