Final Year Project
Veil
VEIL IS A VISUAL EXPLORATION OF THE "6 GRAND ILLUSIONS," USING PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN TO CHALLENGE THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
BRIEF: AN INDEPENDENT PROJECT, TASKED WITH FORMING STUDIO WORK SURROUNDING ANY TOPIC OF CHOICE, SUPPORTED BY RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION.
OUTCOME: THIS PROJECT EXPLORES THE CONCEPT OF HAPPINESS, CHALLENGING THE COMMON BELIEF THAT IT CAN BE ATTAINED THROUGH EXTERNAL ACHIEVEMENTS LIKE ROMANTIC LOVE, SUCCESS, OR FINANCIAL FREEDOM.
IT ARGUES THAT THESE PURSUITS ONLY LEAD TO TEMPORARY FULFILLMENT, AS HAPPINESS REMAINS FRAGILE AND IMPERMANENT WHEN DEPENDENT ON EXTERNAL FACTORS. INSTEAD, THE PROJECT SUGGESTS THAT TRUE CONTENTMENT COMES FROM UNDERSTANDING WHAT DIMINISHES OUR NATURAL STATE OF PEACE AND RECOGNIZING THAT OUR EMOTIONAL REACTIONS ARE SHAPED NOT BY EVENTS THEMSELVES, BUT BY OUR PERCEPTIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS.
BASED ON AUTHOR MO GAWDAT'S "HAPPINESS EQUATION" AND HIS CONCEPT OF THE "6 GRAND ILLUSIONS," THIS WORK, TITLED VEIL, EXPLORES THESE ILLUSIONS THROUGH A CURATED COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHIC DESIGN, AIMING TO REVEAL SELF-IMPOSED LIMITATIONS AND OFFER A PATH TO ALLEVIATE UNNECESSARY SUFFERING.
MY WORK
GRAPHIC DESIGN
COVER MOCKUP.
CONTENTS PAGE MOCKUP.
SPREADS MOCKUP - A COLLECTION OF CURATED IMAGES SELF PRODUCED AND REFERENCED.
SPREAD EXAMPLE.
BLURB
COPY WRITTING
'We spend our lives in search of things that we believe will make us whole. Some may try to find this in romantic love, others in a successful career and many in financial freedom. Yet even when we come close to attaining such things, our goal posts move and wholeness feels continuously out of reach. We are left feeling lost, confused and lack purpose. Society teaches us that this level of contentment is only available to those who work hard, hustle and seek the path to maximum gain. What we fail to recognize is what we aim to derive from such things, the feeling of happiness. When we navigate life with the viewpoint of happiness as an external concept, we place our emotional wellbeing in the temporary. The emotion becomes dependent on variables which inevitably change and eventually come to an end, deeming happiness as fragile and impermanent. But what if instead of yearning for things which bring us happiness, we identify the things that remove from our happiness? Understanding that our natural state is one of peace allows us to become aware of what we allow to influence it. Many people choose to determine their sense of happiness from events in their life, categorizing said events as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. This structure however dismisses our opportunity to embrace something for what it is. What truly causes our emotional reaction, is not the event itself, rather our own perception and interpretation. Mo Gawdat Author of ‘Solve for Happy’ formulated a happiness equation based on this theory and explains the elements which hinder our happiness as the ‘6 Grand Illusions’. Veil an exploration of the 6 Grand Illusions through a carefully curated collection of visuals. Utilizing the mediums of photography and graphic design, Veil references various influential voices in hopes of exposing our self-imposed constraints and alleviating unnecessary suffering.'