[Graphic Design]
Scenic Roots: A Biophilic Field Guide to British Flora
Medium: Adobe INDESIGN // Role: Designer, PHOTOGRAPHER, artist, writer
The Brief: “Scenic Roots” is one of the outcomes of my independent major project to earn my MA in Visual Communication, Graphic design. It is a compendium of photography and fact that shows an abstract view of botanical life in Cambridge through a metaphoric lens of culture.
Summer flowers sprinkle pops of color in the landscapes of the English countryside, forming a quintessential picture. Some blooms occur naturally, and some were nestled in symmetrical garden beds before breaching the confines to begin wild generations on the surrounding land. Behind flowers and plants are deep histories of stories and lore. They have cultural roots fed by our own imaginative abstractions of meaning, some grounded in biological truths and some seemingly baseless. The mystical allure of botanical life forms outlasts generational and societal change. Our innate desire to assign special meaning to plants feels inherently human.
Observations of summer flowers along the River Cam in Cambridge, England led me to explore the stories assigned to them. Much of the folklore I discovered illuminates the relationships between humans and plants throughout history. On daily walks, I uncover new details of the flora in my neighborhood and see the abstract qualities that only botanical life can display. Hoping to convey this biophilic feeling through images, I created my own manipulated lenses with lifelike qualities through which each photograph was taken. The result is a visual record of nature’s blooms through a metaphoric lens of culture.
Shown at Espacio Gallery in London, 13-18 September 2022
