Further research: Materiality and Graphic Design

I decided to further explore materiality to help with my ongoing process in trying to somewhat answer my question and visually help adapt my own working practice. I actually discovered an MA Thesis from designer Nicole Beno, Exploring Materiality in Graphic Design Through Creative Play (Beno, 2015).

Beno, N. M. (2015, April 30). Exploring materiality in graphic design through creative play. http://hdl.handle.net/10315/30114

I decided to take notes on this as I felt this would benefit me and my own working practice within exploring materiality further. 

Notes taken from the work of Nicole Beno, Exploring Materiality in Graphic Design Through Creative Play (Beno, 2015).
 http://hdl.handle.net/10315/30114

What stood out to me from analysing this thesis, was the importance of materiality within the designer's development to articulate meaning and expression through a given brief. It was mentioned by graphic designer, Katherine McCoy that "emotion, subjective interpretation, and hand gestures are what humans can contribute and computer expert systems cannot" (Heller 2009, 12).

This to me identifies that it's the analog process that a designer goes through that can promote so much more meaning towards the design. I feel it creates further connotations to the work and allows room to explore a given subject area from a primary source perspective. It gives the designer freedom to express their knowledge and working practice within a given subject. In terms of how I see this within my own practice, I feel that materiality is starting to become more apparent within my own methodology. 

Notes taken from the work of Nicole Beno, Exploring Materiality in Graphic Design Through Creative Play (Beno, 2015).

 http://hdl.handle.net/10315/30114

I discovered visual examples of Beno's work that can be seen below. This allowed me to see the importance of materiality as a driving force within print design and connotes the tactile qualities of layering techniques that can add depth to the overall design. 

Image showing screenshot of Nicole Beno's screen-prints experiments, 2014-15 
 http://hdl.handle.net/10315/30114

What I found fascinating whilst analysing her work, was the array of different printed textures used in each print. The strong use of experimental compositions within the creative play of print clearly signifies the importance of materiality as an important fixture in design that can elevate the narrative of the work to a given audience. However, other people who view this kind of work may not see the importance of experimenting with print, as this style of design can suggest that the work becomes subjective to the audience. 

The reason for this is that the work created can allude to the designer's feelings and thought processes what they are influenced by and what they want to create at that moment in time. This can become a rather selfish act in not thinking about the audience and how they may perceive the work. In my opinion, design can be subjective at times and isn't always everyone's preference. However, I feel that some form of rationale can support the designer's methodology in creating such work that may not have meaning to others but the idea and thought process should be clearly evident in the work.