Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Senior Capstone Project – Kayden Knauss


For my senior thesis project, I decided to visually show my journey with my identity and alienism. I came to the to the word alien as I’ve lived through different experiences, met certain people who have impacted me, and understood the world around me. I believe I am foreign in many ways and want to express my different states through design.

There’s one event that has had tremendous impact on the way I perceive the world and how I identify. The most traumatic and life changing event I want to share is my adoption. I was adopted at only a couple days old and feel this has shaped who I am as an individual. Through therapy, rigorous internal processing and relationships have I found that many deeper conflicts lie within myself. As I’ve grown up, I’ve discovered things about myself and my struggle with abandonment to be something deeper.

Another important thing that happened to me was I met someone who opened my mind up to extraordinary things. She not only taught me a lot about the world that physically exists around me but helped me see and feel things beyond. It’s a little hard to explain, as I’m sure this comes off as bizarre. I have discovered more about myself and “where” I came from more with my relationship with her than ever before. She taught me about different spaces, and things that exist in different times that helped me piece my puzzle together.

Both of these events are incredibly significant because they help shape me. Although the second event is fairly recent, the feeling I have inside of how this fits is surreal. It still impacted me and it still matters. I’ve felt for my entire life that I came from another world because of my disconnect with my adoptive family. My adoption has seriously altered my way of thinking and I’ve come to be okay with the circumstances I find myself in. This is important because it’s helped me be comfortable with myself, my family, my surroundings, and any and all relationships I find myself to be in. My experience with adoption is deep and I’ve learnt a lot through it. It’s been my biggest weakness but it’s made me stronger than I ever believed I could be. When I met this person, I was closed minded to the fact that there might be more in this universe than what we’re able to see. Through the intensive therapy I’ve done for most of my life, I can say the way my system feels about otherworldly possibilities rings home.

These two events definitely cross paths and have a lot to do with each other. I plan on making the connection apparent with what I hope to design and work on. They are incredibly meaningful to me and hold a lot of my core. I want to express my inner way of thinking and my perception of this world through this project. I also want to challenge audiences on the possibilities of things “out of this world”. I’m hoping to use my knowledge of typography and visual design skills as the foundation for my capstone project.



Week 1
Research Egyptian hieroglyphics and history

Week 2
Sketch/concept new language/typeface

Week 3-4
Continue to refine while continuing to research

Week 5
Have rough version finished and digitalized (final version?)

Week 6
Figure out what content I want to show
Start sketching ideas for print series

Week 7
Continue to work on series

Week 8
Start laying out book spreads

Week 9
Work on photography piece
Start to implement photography into designs

Week 10
Start putting together content into book layouts

Week 11-12
Figure out what I’m missing and what more I need

Week 13-14
Refining book and print series

Week 15
Make sure book is ready for printing
Order

Week 16
Make sure prints are ready for printing
Print as soon as possible

Week 17
Hope the book arrives/put together my project (finalize)

Week 18
Present and showcase work


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