Faculty of Design

Graphic Design

JoYcelyn Wong

Colorful Black

[Graphic Design is Angst: A Leap of Faith Facing “It” series]We're living in an era flooded with more graphic information than at any other time in history. On advertisements alone, the average person is exposed to up to 5,000 ads every day (Nadia). Imagine the crazy volume of different types of graphic design a normal person encounters daily. In this technology-driven age, creating and absorbing graphics has become as easy as a few clicks, such as Instagram Stories. Can you recall the details of even five social media posts or graphics you've seen recently? Moreover, the deluge of graphic design can easily overshadow crucial messages or outstanding designs that genuinely connect with people, as the audience becomes overwhelmed by the sheer quantity. It's challenging to see exceptional design in the vast mass of visuals."Colorful Black" captures the overwhelming amount of graphic design in our world. This piece features 75 of my graphic designs, each vividly printed and affixed to a transparent plastic bag. Individually, these graphics are vibrant and full of life, yet when layered, they blur into nothingness and blackness. Despite their clarity and transparency, the sheer volume obscures our vision. The use of plastic bags symbolises how graphic design has slowly detached from humans as they only speak the languages of “it”. This display featuring a partially wired human form represents the dulled and exploited mental state in the face of graphic overload. Unlike text, which requires active engagement to comprehend and can be easily ignored, graphics can effortlessly infiltrate our subconscious with just a 13-millisecond glance (Trafton). Surrounded by an abundance of visuals, our ability to remember specific graphics fades, and our mental energy and focus are subtly consumed by this blur of imagery. We see a lot, but nothing is left. This illustrates the paradox of visibility and invisibility in our graphic-saturated age.Nadia. “How Many Ads Do We See a Day? (2024).” Siteefy, 10 Feb. 2024, siteefy.com/how-many-ads-do-we-see-a-day/#:~:text=Back%20in%202007%2C%20market%20research,or%20less%20will%20be%20relevant. Trafton, Anne. “In the Blink of an Eye.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014, news.mit.edu/2014/in-the-blink-of-an-eye-0116.

“We see a lot, but nothing is left.”