Communication Design School of Design
Elizabeth Law
I’m an enthusiastic designer working across print, digital, and physical media. Always eager to step outside my comfort zone, I’m committed to refining my ideas through continuous learning. Storytelling and hands-on making are at the heart of my practice.
This year, I’ve been exploring world-building and narrative development through graphic ephemera and moving image work. I’m especially interested in how visual design can give form to and enhance a story. Collaboration also plays a key role in my process, and I’m excited by opportunities that invite experimentation, and new ways of thinking.
GSA Modul | Paulin Watches
The GSA Modul was a project designed in collaboration with Glasgow based, Paulin Watches. They visited the Art School and conducted workshops with my Communication Design cohort to encourage us to consider creative ways in which to conceptually design typography and numerals for a watch dial. Their goal was to take one student crafted design through into production as a commemorative Graduation Watch for the Glasgow School of Art, my design was ultimately selected.
Through further refinement with the Paulin team I was able to shape my ideas into a flowing and rhythmic dial design, with the underlying theme of time being precious. My time at The Glasgow School of Art will always be precious to me and I chose to express this through ribbon like numerals as they represent me, my personal style and being able to express this as an art student. I am overjoyed to have had my design produced to commemorate such a special occasion.
Read more about the making process below.
Project Links
She Will Bring You Happiness
She Will Bring You Happiness is a project that allowed me to build a fictional world and craft a narrative rooted in my love for Sonny Angel collectible figurines. At its heart is Betty, a character I created as an alter-ego, who serves as a vehicle to explore a multitude of themes from feminism and the media to capitalism and collector culture. She represents a shift from the local to the global, and her undying loyalty to the Sonny Angel brand is both unsettling and endearing in its exaggerated nature, but I’ll let her introduce herself…
‘Hi! I’m Betty Baby! I am from Rutherglen in Scotland, and I am obsessed with Sonny Angels. I’m an avid collector, owning a staggering 600 babies! I’ve been featured in five newspaper articles, all detailing the extent of my devotion to the Sonny Angel brand. Earlier this year I entered a Fan Competition to find Sonny Angel’s number 1 Fan (obviously it is me) and won! My prize? To be turned into my very own Betty Angel doll! I worked tirelessly alongside a graphic design team to produce the most perfect cutesy, and purely ‘Betty’ brand identity. I’ve travelled far and wide from my humble beginnings and cannot wait to see what more the world has to offer me! What I have to offer you, is my brand-new collectible Sonny Angel doll line. In-stock and available to buy now! She will bring you happiness!’
Every Object Tells a Story
Every Object Tells a Story is an animation project created in collaboration with Zara Roberston. This project explored the storytelling of WWI Dazzle ships through strikingly distorted typography, considered motion and spoken word. The brief was to create a short projection mapped animation that could be used as an immersive installation for a museum. The dynamic animation is used cleverly to disguise the form of the plinth nodding to the confusing quality of the Dazzle ships.
The warped imagery are lines from a poem by Victoria Hendry, a Scottish female poet. We decided to add the audio of the poem layered with ambient wave noises that evoke the movement of the sea. The audio component adds depth to the piece, inviting the viewers to not only see but feel the confusion that the Dazzle ships aimed to inflict.
Motion Language
Motion Language is a project that enabled me to make use of the Caseroom and it’s wonderful array of wooden type. I made large typographic posters that showcase lyrics to songs that resonate with me. Creating an accompanying animation that digitally echoes the analogue nature of the making of the posters, mimicking ink rollers and paper grain, the motion component to accompany the language.
