WAYS OF SEEING AND TELLING: FORM & CONTENT
FLOWERS
01/02 PROTOTYPE
FORM & CONTENT project is about (forms of) representation and interpretation, a project to talk about the ways in which the choices we make as designers can condition the ways in which a story, an information or a message can be understood, and, how content directs our choices. These are the questions: how do forms of representation affect communication, meaning and understanding; how the same subject can
be viewed in different ways?
Photographic images in particular express and are perhaps the primary conduit of the paradox between reality and representation. Are they fact or fiction? What is the difference between a documentary image and a scientific one, or between a portrait and
a fashion photo?
The meaning conveyed through visual representations is directed by a wide variety of factors. As designers we need to develop knowledge and control over the ways in which this done. We need to understand not simply what a work is about but
how it is what it is about.
In this first of two prototype projects, I wanted to explore the funny names of some flowers and how their names can be literally visual. In fact, a lot of flowers, apart from the language, are named after something else, and their names mean other things, other subjects. For this, I decided to play with the names and translate visually what they really mean - e.g., brincos de princesa [princess earrings] can be shown in an image of a princess and royal earrings; after this, I wrote the meaning of the words. The ultimate question is: how were flowers named with these words?
