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ARCHIVE OF SPACE IN DESIGN
Building an intuitively curated archive of worldwide design artifacts.
Role: Researcher, Curator, Book Designer
Tools: Adobe InDesign, Figma
Deliverables: A full-color disc-bound book
Specs: 114 pages, 8 x 10 inches, 4 fonts, 70 pieces.
WHY AN ARCHIVE?
Cultural understanding is a pivotal part of making design relevant. Building an eye for design started here with a structured perusal of artifacts throughout history. Curating a final set of 70 pieces that were intuitively inspiring into categories that explain the source of that intuition.
CONCEPT
The archive collection process yielded exploration outside the Eurocentric lens, looking at designers outside of the design canon for a broader cultural perspective. Such a breadth of pieces revealed a pattern of a variety of spaces, colors, and typography.
The final curation is categorized by three levels: Minimalism, Minimalism and Maximalism. The final archive book is designed to mirror these levels as the details of pieces increase in intricacy.
COLLECTION
Research is central to this endeavor, starting with exploring online archives such as Letterform Archive and the People’s Graphic Design Archive. The list grows gradually, as the gaps were identified in the collected assets to inform target zones for the next phase of research. In the end, there was a list of 70 pieces that were intuitively resonant.
CURATIONAfter collection comes curation, which first starts with going in depth about the metadata of each piece and why it eventually resonated. This revealed patterns in the collection that can be categorized. This particular set was broad, from minimal Swiss design to highly intricate posters and advertisements.
ARCHIVE BUILDINGThe building of the actual archival book started with a clear deliberation of how to present all the collected data while enhancing the curation. While looking through archive inspirations and forming a map for the book, the utilization of space with detail shots of each piece started off minimal to maximal and naturally yielded to a clever use of the grid that mirrored each category level.
KEY TAKEAWAYSAn active distillation revealed a lot of context to intuitive design thinking. It proves to be a great building block for observing the wide variety of art and design even today. This archive curation also broadened design out of the Eurocentric lens, starting to dig deeper into the cultural contexts of design in Asia compared to how it is in the West.