Space to Grow is a senior undergraduate minor thesis project for the Boston College Studio Art Department by 2022 created over the course of the 2022 spring semester. Inspired by activists, artists, and dreamers, the project incorporates both print and digital-based media to explore seen and unseen layers of the innovator's journey.
Creative Exploration
Working in Adobe Illustrator from color and shape exploration to finalized textures and patterns helped maintain interesting, unified motifs throughout the set of posters. The curvature pen tool and grain texture filter brought inspiration for initial sketches, while utilizing Illustrator's gradient and appearance palettes helped streamline the process of unification once exploration was complete. To represent the second layer of the innovator's mind—the one with bold visions that are often unseen or misunderstood by others—I aimed to bring still illustrations to life with animation. This was done by experiments in Adobe After Effects, also glimpsed below.
Design Solutions
Space to Grow demonstrates four steps of the artist or activist’s journey, reflecting my own growth in process and imagination during my time at Boston College. Within and figuratively between each poster lies room for creativity, failure, and growth as one moves from abstract ideas to concrete purpose. The printed posters created using Adobe Illustrator portray through gradient color, simple storytelling, and subtle texture the most visible layer of the innovator's mind.
To bring previously invisible layers of the doer’s mind to the fore, space-inspired animations are presented through more intimate augmented reality experiences on the viewer’s personal device. By illustrating both what an outsider and an innovator sees in the creative process, I hope to represent a key moment of growth in my Boston College career as I examine my own artistic process for translating ideas to words, and finally to a body of work with the help of professors and peers. In the exhibition itself, viewers may scan each printed illustration (below left) to view the animation (below right) on their own handheld device, personalizing the experience in a more intimate way. In going beyond print-based media and utilizing technology to enhance viewers' personal, dynamic experiences, I complete the cycle of growth in my own work and aim to inspire others to do the same in their own unique way.
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