Portraits of Deception explores the role and importance of graphic design in political discourse and in shaping our perception of politicians, informed in large part by my experience with Romanian politics.
This is done firstly through a critical and self-reflective thesis on the ethics of designing election campaigns, the effects of capitalism on graphic design and why, from a visual history perspective, it is important to also look at alternative means of political messaging in order to create a complete and accurate picture of a time. This can be read in the publication “Ethics of Election/Political Campaigns and Coping With Them” alongside the complementary piece “Contextualizing Romanian (Presidential) Election Campaigns” which together serve as the written component of the project.
These ideas are then transposed into a series of campaign designs that use electoral propaganda to playfully reinterpret how we see common politician archetypes, hoping to compel the viewer to think about who they are being faced with and how those traits and principles are reflected in the designs. The works are not meant to be viewed as realistic campaigns, but more as commentary on electoral practices and our shared perception of politicians.
View the publication here:
View the candidate campaigns individually here: