Graphic Design and Illustration

A childhood memory. Crouching over papers scattered on the floor of our room, we draw maps and flags unlike any that have ever been seen before. We draw up boundaries, changes our minds, erase them and draw new ones. It is a project in a state of constant change, subject to negotiation: what should be here?, maybe a city?, what is it called?, who lives there and what language do they speak?

World-building is something that is often associated with fantasy and science fiction, but in a broader sense it is an occupation completely beyond genre, portraying something other than the everyday and familiar. Perhaps it applies to a reality that is contained within our own, but which was previously invisible.

Our students build their own worlds in this year’s degree projects: here, government authorities draw aesthetic inspiration from the music genre “black metal”; here, a new system is tested to investigate and understand the laws of physics; here, the world is a typographic archive, for those willing to look extra carefully.

In several works, inner worlds are depicted, populated by figures who represent feelings, states, and who portray relationships. Figures who in a couple of projects are also given physical form.
Even in this year’s documentary degree project there are elements of heightened reality. Because a world of memories and experiences can be contained in a book, in places where nothing happens – or in a refurbished Opel Kadett.

The methods vary, but playfulness combined with great seriousness is present in all of this year’s works. They are not about escaping from reality, but rather are about careful investigation, about different ways of understanding and expanding the real world.

Jöns Mellgren
Lecturer and Programme Coordinator in Graphic Design and Illustration