This project based on an every day object took me into a journey of self-awareness and introspection. The simple act of observing with intention is a magical process of discovery. This piece composed by seven individual pieces enlightens the concept through the design, form and practicality.
OBSERVATION PROCESS
1. OBJECT OBSERVATION
Walking around my house during a lockdown looking for an exciting object was initially daunting. Everywhere I looked was something I'd seen thousands of times, and I stopped for a second and looked at what was out there.
A Russian doll caught my eye, mainly because it was founded by a group of souvenirs bought on several family trips that we did yearly. The surge of memories came towards me, and I was immediately drawn to pick it up and play around with it.
2.INITIAL DISCOVERY
Through my design process, concepts come while making or manipulating an object. While playing around with the seven dolls in various sizes, I came up with the connection of concepts linked to the object and my family, such as nesting, relationships, home, and nurture.
3. 50 IMAGES
What is an image? Once you define what does it mean to create an image representing an object then you proceed to make them. An image, in my opinion, is whatever concept you get in your mind generated by a picture, video, audio, etc.
PUBLICATION PROCESS
1. THE PLAY
This seven-part publication is a metaphor for the seven Russian dolls I took inspiration from. All the individual parts have different sizes resembling the staggered-sized dolls. Each section is a part of a story based on my life at that moment. There are only 6 items, but the seventh is the overall composition and relationship between the elements. As you experience the piece, you can discover new connections and concepts.
2. THE ANNOTATIONS
In the smallest size, I asked my family to describe and write keywords that represent our family. I printed out the various terms I gathered and perfectly bound them together to be the backbone of this project. It is the smallest in size but not in meaning.
3. THE SCENES
I took two of my favorite memories and converted them into a flip book that I could flip over and over to re-live those moments. The analog characteristic of the flip book adds a nostalgic feel to this piece in particular.
4. THE SCRIPT
During one of our daily lunches as a big family, I recorded our conversation with different generations engaging in the same dialogue. We speak in Spanish, so one side of the accordion book is our native language, and the other side is in English for a broader audience. Through pacing, scale, and weight, I added hierarchy to words and sections of the talk that I wanted to stand out.
5. THE COLOR PALETTE
During the Pandemic, we decided to stay together as a family in our summer home located an hour away from Lima. The landscape surrounding our house is very arid. Neutral colors like beige, tan, and the blue hues of the sky and ocean were representative of what I was experiencing, and thus it needed to shine through the publication. The color swatches have dotted punctures to separate as individuals and create your own combinations of colors.
6. THE SET
This middle part book is my favorite of the group because of its playfulness and need for user involvement. The flipping back and forth of the half pages allows the audience to create a set for unraveling the story. The cut in the middle represents the half section of the spiral bound, which represents the infinite rotation of the Russian dolls. The content in this piece is parts of landscape imagery and some of the initial interpretation images.
7. THE CAST
The cast is obviously my family sized from big to small representing eldest to youngest.