The First Green:
Design as Experimentation and Becoming
Book Design + Typeface Design

My thesis project explores the connection between plant growth and design processes. By relating two plants to different phases of my creative process, it reflects the beginning of action and the discomfort that emerges throughout. Through handcraft and experimentation, I used this project to rediscover enjoyment in making, allowing meaning and form to unfold gradually.

Nature Does Not Hurry
Design is a journey of discovering magic in both the world and ourselves, yet rapid production and digital workflows have made it mechanical and emotionless. What needs to be reclaimed is the magic within the process itself: a practice of experimentation, deviation, and failure.

Nature offers a model for this way of working. As Lao Tzu wrote, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Plants grow without fixed goals, adapting to their environment. Designers grow in the same way: experimentation leads to discovery, discovery creates enjoyment, and enjoyment allows meaningful work to take root and develop.

Moss: The Beginning of Action
Moss is small and often overlooked, yet it carries remarkable vitality. It often appears in unnoticed places, gradually forming a living carpet as it spreads. This suggests that when ideas are unclear, action can still begin. We can start with small, simple steps and develop into something more complex.

I started simply by opening InDesign, choosing a book size, setting margins and bleeds, and testing different type settings and grid systems.

I studied how moss grows and found that it reproduces through spores, which appear as circles in varying sizes. I translated this pattern into a grid and developed a typeface.

I also explored different image treatments and physical materials to simulate moss, including paint, matcha powder, handmade paper, and yarn. Handcraft became important to me because its tactile, immediate process taught me to accept uncertainty, helping me reconnect with the enjoyment of making.

Variegated Plants:
The Discomfort and Unpredictability
Variegated plants have an uneven distribution of chlorophyll. The lighter areas result from mutation and cannot photosynthesize, making them biologically inefficient, yet they are often considered beautiful. In my project, variegation represents a phase of working through discomfort, unpredictability, and imperfection.

I extended this discomfort to the viewer by using vellum to separate layers of information, making the reading process more demanding. I also extracted variegated areas from leaves and used them as “stains” to represent moments of blockage and negative thoughts.

To prevent overthinking, I tried working with my body instead of my mind, which led me to cyanotype, a process shaped by light and time. It helped me accept uncertainty and imperfection as part of making. Unlike traditional printing, it requires a full sequence of physical steps: mixing chemicals, coating paper, drying it, preparing negatives, exposing it to sunlight, then rinsing and drying again. In this process, I realized I was acting like a plant, constantly chasing the sun.

Through my thesis, I want to remind myself and others that starting something doesn’t have to be difficult, it can be simple at the beginning. I also want to embrace the discomfort and uncertainty that comes in the middle of the process, since learning happens through mistakes, and it’s going to be super boring if you already know how things will go, so just enjoy the process.

CREDIT:

Photos by Sight Photography Studio

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