Object Intimacies
BFA in Communications Design at Pratt Institute, 2025 Thesis
This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications Design at Pratt Institute, May 2025.
EXPANDED ABSTRACT
Everyday objects often exist within a purely functional context, diminishing their significance to solely intangible beings produced for their eventual demise. However, particular objects we hold onto possess the ability to store and transmit deeply personal experiences.
In using design as a tool, how can I use objects to map my personal history and create a tactile experience to move through traumas and memories? Through physicality, how can these crafted pieces become artifacts of the past through the lens of the present?
Through autobiographical investigation, the project accumulates a collection of designed objects made using mass-produced items like washing gloves, playing cards, tableware, and more, revealing them as vessels looking at the past in search of healing and remembering. Ostentatious design is reframed to reimagine its context, and objects that were once viewed as disposable become artifacts of personal history.
A designed book, Object Intimacies maps the objects and the contextualization of their creation, sharing writing and excerpts that frame their memory.
These objects use design features of “low vernacular” imagery, which surrounds the visual language of my life, similar to growing up in 99-cent stores and autobody shops. Similar to memories, heirlooms are held with preciousness, but sometimes, the stories behind them are lost over time. To archive and represent my memories, these objects become similar to sculptures but are meant to be consumed. The objects are meant to be used, shared, or touched. The stories and pieces share deeply personal thoughts, yet by materializing them with design, the conversation and consumption of human experience are facilitated.
These pieces discuss themes within femininity, domestic abuse, and the struggle with mental health. Through my writing, graphics, and typographic design, this thesis has allowed me to materialize my memories and contextualize the past.
Take the chance to connect your memories to the language and physicality behind these objects. Find things that place you back in that room, that car, and night. Memories can be beautiful, but they can also be complicated and scary to talk about. Discussing memories with others throughout this process has been a transformative experience that taught me to break down my own emotional barriers. In discussing these topics with others, I realize my feelings and ideas are valid.
Design can heal and give life to new perspectives.Designing has given me the strength to self-reflect because it has guided me to a newer version of myself. A version that can again find beauty in the things around me and love what I look like when I step in front of the mirror. We all deserve to speak on the things that make us happy and the things that we internally struggle with; I learned that through this experience.