During the beginning of summer 2025, I spent three weeks studying abroad in London and Amsterdam, where I visited museums, local design studios, and print shops. The experience deepened my understanding of the creative process and introduced me to the experience of entering the professional workforce as well as new technical aspects of design. Being immersed in two vibrant design cultures helped me see how design shapes everyday life and inspired me to think more critically and globally about my own work. Below, I present some projects I did during the trip. All of the images are photos I took during my trip there.
Study Abroad 2025
London Project: “London in Layers” - Design a multi-page publication that documents your experience through a combination of visual storytelling and written reflection. The project integrates personal insights, observational writing, and design analysis, drawing from your exposure to London’s design culture, museum visits, cultural experiences, and workshop experiences.
Project 1: “Map” - During the Amsterdam leg of the trip, we also visited The Hague, Netherlands, and Antwerp, Belgium. I decided to focus this project on all three of these places, using textures, typography, and illustrations that I saw and photographed at each place to help highlight my experience. The assignment states: Map your experience as you arrive and get your bearings; as you explore new parts of it; as you leave and come back; as you’re about to head home. Think about writing and spaces, words, letters, interiors and exteriors, landmarks and paths and waypoints and boundaries; think about where you move, where you pause, where you stay, and where you go; think about what you read in and around those spaces and what it tells and signifies to you.
Project 2: “Places in the city (Amsterdam landmark posters)” - I was assigned a partner and a landmark: Vondelpark. One person made a promotional poster for the landmark. The poster I did was critical and confronted what I thought were the preferred stories or ideas/feelings relevant to the landmark, with potentially contradictory ones. I took this project in a direction that highlighted some of the vandalism, grittier textures, and visuals that might not wanted to have been highlighted when looking at this landmark.
Project 1:
Project 2: