Exploring Abstract Ideas Through Type Design!

A Visual artist playing with abstract ideas through the medium of Type design, NID student Syddharth Mate expresses his feelings about the contrast in the changing and everlasting qualities of life..As a final year, Master's student enrolled in the Graphic Design program at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Syddharth prefers to research more about the creative and aesthetic aspects of Motion or Kinesis in the realm of Graphic Design..Thus currently stooped in the process of practising and experimenting with his own skills, nature of work, styles, ideas and so on, he wants to learn more about his abilities and be better aware of why and what he creates so that he could use his medium of expression as a designer to make the world in which we live a better place..Syddharth's experiments in Type, thereby, are all about finding self-expression and learning about the art of motion in graphic design..As a graphic designer or a visual artist, these experiments help him understand how motion can add or alter meaning to static elements of graphic design (type, form, colour, etc.); what role motion actually plays when considering aesthetics in graphic design; how motion/kinesis can help him visually communicate ideas better, as also what subjects or messages he'd like to communicate and why..Introduction to software like After Effects, Illustrator and Cinema 4D helped Syddharth explore various possibilities in Type with regard to what can be done with the merger of the medium with these tools. To thus learn more about the tools/software, he started exploring class assignments through them, learning by doing along the way..Most of these artworks turned out to be perfectly looped – this visual effect of continuously ongoing motion in the artworks is acquired and achieved out of Syddharth's intrigue on the impermanence of life..In today's unapologetically digital world, where screens have almost replaced paper, these experiments are exploring how graphic design also evolves along with the medium. 'If you have a medium which supports motion, what's the point in having just a static graphic?' he feels..Through these artworks, expressing his ideas about the world around him, Syddharth just wants to intrigue the viewer or raise a question in their minds, at least, about whatever he is trying to communicate – he would like these experiments to evolve into artworks which can convey ideas better, change people's behaviour and make this world a better place. With that perspective, he is currently focused on learning Processing, intending that it'll help him make evolutionary interactive motion art pieces..Syddharth thinks, the people wanting to communicate with people will have to be very precise about how they are doing it. "We are already starting to shift to a screen-less communication system. AR, VR will be the new standards of design in future..The messages will have to be more immersive, and very attractive. I think a motion element if done right attracts more than a static element. In an AR/VR realm, since almost everything can be created from scratch, motion and interactivity could be easily implemented," he states..Likewise, apart from the technological aspect, there is also a concern about what would be communicated to the future generations. Would it be the capitalist propaganda, fancy marketing schemes, trying to sell more products to people who don't even need them, by exploiting the advances in communication design?.Can we, instead, use the same advances in communication design to promote something which is far more significant, like kindness or empathy? How can we use the evolved technology and communication skills to make people more tolerant? Can we communicate the right messages in the right way, to make this world better? It's all a huge possibility. All these are questions pointed out by Syddharth, and it is time we choose well.