2008, 2009 | collaboration, design research, event, print

In collaboration with Benjamin Larose.

Looking into ideas behind participatory design and student relations between the art & design departments at Emily Carr, I decided to ask certain questions and test out several hypotheses and observations regarding these through initiating a collaborative effort with Benjamin Larose, a Film & Media 4 student from ECU. The project involved establishing very close and personal relations with an art student, and designing something based on a common intention, not a finished body of work. Both of our processes were ongoing, which required constant communication and clarification, and in a sense, creation from similar starting points.

Very much a research project to look into process, articulation, and collaboration, Nuit Blanche resulted in various promotional material that expands more on an artist’s message through designed collateral. By taking advantage not only of the graphic message (2-dimesional), but of the medium’s & material’s characteristics (3-dimensional), what resulted was a slightly different way of creating and interacting with the traditional poster and postcard. The collateral’s aesthetic is simple, but the tactility of the form and materials employed are designed to ask the audience for a little more consideration and sensitivity towards the artist & his message.

This message then becomes encased in a viewer’s hands with the delicacy of a light and frosted whisper, echoing the formal themes inspired by winters in Quebec found in Larose’s work.

Nuit Blanche also resulted in a collaborative effort in designing a small artist-run gallery space on Main and Hastings (The Plank Gallery) for Larose’s very first solo show. The primary goal was to convey Larose’s subject, and not his objects. We chose to focus on a more process-based exhibition, to invite the viewer to understand from beginning to end how his final art object was created.

As for more personal reflections, this project quickly became a lesson in studying what design is by exploring what it is not. Especially at a time where conviction and heartfelt gestures are so crucial to develop, we all need to be aware of who and what we wish to become, and in a sense, challenge these assumptions to gain the insight we need in order to survive as young designers.