Thesis Documentation
Ideas & Sketches
September 25, 2025 •. Project Development
To start off, I came up with 3 potential formats on what could work well with my project.
Motion Design – I would like to explore motion design in a way that communicates the misunderstandings of a glass child in connection with home videos. Home videos were a big part of my life growing up, and they are also the time when one can see how my brother received more attention than I did, and how that affected me. With that, I would like to explore this by creating a soundscape that complements the visuals, as well as a muffled voice within the video that shares my thoughts on how. In terms of audience engagement, I believe that my viewers will be able to understand the emotions behind my experience as a glass child, which will allow them to relate to how I may be feeling. It can also enable the audience to follow the narrative I wish to share within my project. I believe that the greatest strength of this format is in its ability to provide an emotional connection by offering a sensory experience to my audience, particularly through the sights and sounds of the visuals. However, the limitation behind it is that it’ll be less interactive and more visual. However, the interactive portion could be solved if I were to involve a print component.
Initial Storyboard & Concept Development
Photo Album Book – Another way I can communicate the misunderstandings of a glass child is in the form of a photo album. Similar to home videos, photo albums were a prominent symbol of my childhood, and I would often look at them to relive memories. However, like home videos, they also evoke a multitude of thoughts. With the photo album book, I would push the boundaries of the traditional photo album. I’m interested in die cuts and transparent paper as I feel it could represent the idea of feeling looked through as a glass child, as well as sharing my hidden thoughts that invoke the feeling of guilt. The strength behind this idea is the interactivity it will bring to the project. The viewer can browse through the pages, which will introduce a feeling of surprise and anticipation. However, the drawback is that, although it is more interactive, it can make the experience less emotional as it lacks the sound component. Furthermore, it might not be easy to incorporate an emotional aspect into my project; however, I feel that pushing the boundaries and adding elements such as die-cuts and transparent paper will make the experience more meaningful.
Initial Photo Album Sketches
Augmented Reality Poster Series – Lastly, I want to explore the intersection between augmented reality and print design with a focus on poster design. Augmented reality is interesting as the viewer doesn’t see the additional layer of a piece until they scan a QR code and put their phone against the poster. I find this to be interesting, and it aligns well with my topic because it’ll not only introduce a level of surprise and interactivity to my project, but it also resonates with the feelings of invisibility, guilt, and nostalgia. The poster would start off looking faded, quiet, and fragmented (which relates to invisibility), and then, once scanned, additional elements representing my brain would appear—additional images would emerge, and more hidden thoughts would become visible. A major strength of this form would be that it offers an opportunity for me to push the boundaries beyond traditional graphic design. It allows me to express my topic in a way that people might not expect. The two drawbacks would be that some people might have a harder time working with the AR software, and it might not be functional. Additionally, the posters would lose their emotional component, as people would be more mesmerized by the AR aspect rather than the content.
Initial Augmented Reality Poster Sketches
Moodboard
I ultimately then create an initial moodboard of visual references that could be beneficial to me when it comes to the feelings of guilt, nostalgia, and invisible. My goal for the moodboard was to think about the vision I have for this project and in what ways the visuals could be used to communicate those feelings.
AI Exploration
As a way of sketching, I then created AI generated imagery based on the images on my moodboard to see how I can use image manipulation to my advantage and to see what I can do when I eventually create my own imagery.
The prompts and my reflections are included on my AI Log.
