Kari Kuehn, class of 2012

the project

For my final I wanted to do a project that combined both of my degrees, Graphic Design and Art History into a cohesive, stylized whole. By that what I really mean is I just wanted to spend my last year researching, creating, and basically playing around with things I 
loved and was really passionate about. 

After multiple stages, variations, and mediums, which included everything from books to black lights, I focused on reinterpreting the internet, and its sub-cultures, through the lens of a Victorian cabinet of curiosities and nonsense writers of the time. I was trying to make sense out of nonsense, and in the process make my audience chuckle.

By approaching things/subjects I am seriously interested in and passionate about, in a not-so-serious way, I was able to stay interested and in the end manipulate them into a very edited down, cohesive whole.

kari's advice

1. Be Flexible – It would be almost impossible, and very frustrating, to start with your heart set on making something very specific. Your ideas are going to change, for a variety of different reasons. Don’t stress because change is good, your ideas can only get better.

2. Have Fun –This goes along with being flexible. Don’t fight change and enjoy the process of evolving. 

3. Don’t Despair - If your not having fun or get frustrated, which will happen; change it up, step away for a second, bawl your eyes out, or spend a night in a drunken haze. Just wake up the next morning, take an Advil and move on. Wallowing won’t get you anywhere.

4. Time Management – Chances are your project will change drastically in the last month before installation. Do more earlier to prevent this and leave more time for editing and refinement. You don’t realize how long the winter break is until you’ve wasted it.

5. Stay Organized – and BACK UP YOUR WORK. Only you can prevent forest fires and lost files. Computers crash so be prepared.

6. Finally Do You – It’s your project so do what you want, how you want, about what you want. Be open and listen to suggestions and advice, especially good advice, but don’t lose your voice in the process. If you’re happy with the outcome, and done it to the best of your ability, you’ll have no regrets about it. Also no matter what you show in the end, mom and dad will be really proud.

----

Kari is currently a designer at a small architecture and interior design studio in Baltimore.
See more of her work at karikuehn.com.