“In my hometown it feels like people only ever wear black, grey, or navy. On my first day in Brighton, I saw someone wearing bootcut, american-flag-pattern jeans with an eagle on one leg in the coffee aisle of Sainsbury’s.”
Please tell us a bit about your work and your influences
In my third year, my design has become focused on producing publications and printed media. In the first semester this year I created my reader pursuit of a feeling, a collection of writing, literature, and artwork about loneliness. I became really interested in the role of curating in my design work, and how texts can be placed together. Mindy Seu’s work and writing was a big influence for me, as her ideas around gathering texts and sharing information really resonated with me. My latest project, Machine Fetish, is similarly also a collection of texts but introduces more abstract and narrative elements in the publication. I’m interested in more abstract uses of graphic design, kind of between the intersection of art, design, and sharing. Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries is one of my favourite creatives to return to for inspiration.
How have you found your course and what made you choose it?
I, very luckily, fell into graphic design after studying it at A-Level and deciding that I would find it to be the least grating to study (my other options being Classics or Sociology, no offence to my brother and his degree in Ancient History). I had always loved making things, and the brilliant thing about Graphic Design is it’s one of those made-up words you can stretch and stretch and stretch and no-one can ever really tells you no. While my current work is very publication focused, and very much within the traditional idea of “Graphic Design”, I’ve also made bizarre video and ambient sound pieces, and written about representation and computer mysticism.
I’ve loved how I’ve never really felt confined by the course in what I choose to make or write about, and instead encouraged to pursue what I’m interested in.
Was the location of your course in Brighton more important than you thought it would be?
In my hometown it feels like people only ever wear black, grey, or navy. On my first day in Brighton, I saw someone wearing bootcut, American flag-pattern jeans with an eagle on one leg in the coffee aisle of Sainsbury’s. And while I think those trousers were kind of tacky, there is no other type of person I’d rather call a peer or mentor. I’ve always been interested in making more off-beat work, and I’ve found the culture and community of Brighton to be incredibly
encouraging towards my artistic instinct.
What are your plans after graduation?
When I grow up, I am still planning to become Ocean Vuong.
If you could give you 16 year old self any advice about going to University what would it be?
If I could speak to my sixteen-year-old self I think I’d tell him to write down what he really wanted – I think most of us know this deep down – and then I’d tell him to run after that full speed. Sometimes I wish I had really sunk my teeth into university from the get-go. I wouldn’t bother worrying about being bad, or blundering through the beginning, because that’s inevitable. You’ll get to the end anyway.
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