500 words summary

The direct influence of the content on the form (of the book and the page as well as the type and linked to the idea of visibility over readability) allows the book to work as a whole rather than a support, it blends in with the content. The form of the book follows the content but it is more than just that – it’s a space for critical form making that put froward the complexity, the ‘unseen’, the different dimension and meaning the content can have to open its understanding to the reader, using the visible characteristic of the printed matter. 

I would say that my position within the scope of graphic design is process-led experimental publishing using deconstruction as a strategy for critical form making where the expressivity has an important place, in this manipulation that reshapes the relationship the reader has with the content, positioning myself as a translator, opening it to another dimension.

Besides, I use letters as a way of critically representing History as well as using a critical form making process of deconstruction in order to make a commentary on an original content/input in relation to Black History and the way it is viewed by the West. I find it important, as a POC person, but also for a wider audience in the West, to have an understanding of History, as it is what shaped the world that we now live in. Following this idea, it is critical to restore, or re-told, some kind of truth about the African continent. 

In relation to my position as graphic designer working with a sensitive and important subject, I find myself in a position where being read and seen are important. Thus, in my work I try to create a dialogue between the legible and the visible, the meaning and the material through typography and experimental publishing, following the idea that the ‘outside’ (form) has to be the result of the inside (content).

My current work is somewhere at the cross-path of all the references developed previously, particularly post-modernism, deconstruction, lettrisme international and uncreative writing. I aim to use deconstruction as a mode of research and a manner of questioning what frames the nature of the content. I want my practice to be a critical response to existing content and here in particular, the western view of Black History, in the relation to a recent event: The Queen’s death and the questions it raises and issues within the way History is told. However, I would like to expand this research and thematic further, in a more empowered way, looking at pre-colonial Africa and its greatness. It pursues the concept of Sankofa. Sankofa is an Adikra symbol from the Akan people in Ivory Coast and Ghana that signifies ‘looking in the past in order to move forward’. I guess this also applies to the more graphic design side of my practice, in the sense that most of my major references are set between the 1950’s and 1980’s, instead of contemporary references. I felt that at that time, and in relation to the techniques available, the work produced, the concepts and philosophies are stronger and really engaged in a social aspect.