BEYOND THE SURFACE

SENIOR CAPSTONE PROJECT

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Beyond the Surface: Exploring Emotions Through Design is my senior capstone project, which was exhibited at the Southern Utah Museum of Art in March 2025. This project explores complex human emotions, especially the feelings that can be difficult to explain, understand, or put into words until we take the time to truly examine them.

Through research, visual exploration, and design, I created a series of six posters, each representing a different emotion that is often overlooked or difficult to describe. Alongside the posters, I developed an animated video to further bring each emotion to life and created a booklet that shares the research, meaning, and design process behind the project.

LOGO DESIGN

For the Beyond the Surface logo, I wanted to create a mark that reflected the main idea behind the project: that emotions often have deeper meanings that are not immediately visible. The black and white design uses techniques that make certain letters feel hidden, encouraging viewers to take a closer look.

While the logo remains clear and recognizable, the hidden elements create a moment of reflection. This concept mirrors the purpose of the project, where understanding complex emotions requires looking beyond the initial feeling and exploring the deeper meaning behind them.

POSTER DESIGNS

The poster series for Beyond the Surface explores six different emotions: xeno, zenosyne, kairosclerosis, basorexia, monachopsis, and kenopsia. For each poster, I focused on translating the feeling behind the emotion into a visual experience through the use of color, texture, typography, and shape.

While each poster was designed to represent its own unique emotion, I created a consistent visual language throughout the series to tie them together as a collection. I carefully considered each design choice, using different colors, textures, typefaces, and compositions to capture the feeling and meaning behind each emotion while keeping everything cohesive.

VIDEO

The video was made to add movement to the posters and a new motion element to the project. It connects emotionally with viewers in a different way, and the addition of music allows viewers to connect to the video further. I chose to use the names of the emotions, rather than the phrase of the poster, to make a further connection to what the emotion is being portrayed.

BROCHURE

The brochure was made to add a "behind the scenes" aspect to this project. It explains why emotions were represented the way they were, how each part of the design adds to the theme of the project, and what textures and phrases were used. A QR code was provided that links to a full view of this project, since the full project was not shown in the art museum.