Harrison Sirois
VCD – Advertising & Graphic Design
Through editorial design, writing, poster design, and world building, my work operates inside of the contemporary and the near future, carefully connecting the dots of our urban systems’ and environments’ understated aspects. As a designer engaging with contemporary theory from graphic design, architecture, urban design, and craft theory, I create work which opens critical issues and concepts to the viewer through methods of informational storytelling.
My design work has recently focused on construction/building, the relationship between urban and rural spaces, and viewing our built environments as a form of media archeology. I express my findings through graphic design as a way to introduce the topics to viewers who may be unfamiliar with the subject matter. This type of work utilizes a wide breadth of research and, through hyperfixation on a topic, can assemble broader connections than what may have been initially evident.
I have also used design work as a method to explore the relativity of self-expression and intuition to design, dissecting what qualifies someone to be a designer and what it means for a subject to be designed. Articulating abstract processes through which one can reposition themselves in relation to their work, these projects open a conversation of self-introspection in a field which is predominantly viewed as being in servitude to the client.
Curating information, emotion, images, and memory, each project often pulls from a multifaceted array of resources to bring a bigger picture into view.
We Can Move Mountains, But Where Will We Put Them?
We Can Move Mountains, But Where Will We Put Them? (And What Will We Do With The Holes Left Behind?). 5.5" x 8.5", digital book, 2020.
A 40 page book curating the current state of the world's sand and aggregate consumption, markets, uses, causations, prospects, etc.
From our ever-expanding networks of roadsystems, our reliance on these materials for cornerstones of 'modern' lifestyle (cellphone screens, concrete, circuit boards, plastics, glass), the deaths associated with mafias dealing in illegally mined sand, and the prospective object permanence offered to a new generation through Minecraft.
DESIGN FEELING (Before I Learned Too Much)
DESIGN FEELING (Before I Learned Too Much). Each ~1.5" in length, two found rocks (one by myself and one by a child), 2020.
I reflect on my loss of the intuitive early rationales I once held as a child, which had become so distant through the process of formal design education. In this design piece, I asked a 11 year old boy to select one rock he came across at any point in a week while I conducted my own search for a rock with the conscious attempt to ignore graphic aestheticism as a deciding factor. Once the boy had chosen a stone I compared our choices, leaving it ambiguous as to which was chosen by whom, and dissected the similarities we shared in the picking of our stones.
In Search of a New Ruralism
In Search of a New Ruralism. 24" x 18", print, 2020.
Pulling from statistical information such as NASA’s yearly spending budget, the eclipse of car sales in favour of outdoors oriented CUVs, declines in grassland bird populations, and the popularity of country genre references in pop music, this piece speculates a narrative of the ebb in our collective desire for rural spaces.
Kata Forma Shape
Kata Forma Shape. 9.85" x 14", typeface design and digital book, 2020.
The typeface Kata Forma Shape and its associated journal approximate the line between then and now in my personal interest in architecture over the last 5 years, celebrating how far I have come, and excitedly anticipating where it all may lead. This project was a winning recipient of the Applied Arts Magazine Student Award for Typography Design & Application.
XS
XS Magazine 1.00. 5" x 8", digital book, 2021.
XS is a conceptual magazine dealing with underappreciated aspects of urbanism combining academically and emotionally responsive writing. Cycling topics with each issue, No. 1.00 of the magazine focuses on the uncommonly considered urbanities, networks, and infrastructure of our sky.
