use filter to navigate if needed, and click the coloured ink dots to open each entryallcoachingvisual researchcase studymilestoneoct 2025inquiry & contextualisationhow can unfinished or imperfect print outcomes be documented and presented as part of final production, rather than being discarded?oct w1plenum 1
In my first project proposal at the beginning of October, my topic was: “How can unfinished or imperfect print outcomes be documented and presented as part of the final production, rather than being discarded?” During my pre-master year in the printmaking studio, I often made many test prints to achieve a single “perfect” result. I want to develop a visual approach that reveals and preserves those imperfect prints instead of throwing them away.oct w1case study
In the first week of October, I asked myself: are there designers who already work with imperfection on purpose? I looked at two: Bráulio Amado, a contemporary Portuguese designer based in New York, and Wolfgang Weingart, the German-born "typographic rebel" who broke the rules of Swiss typography in the 1970s. Both produce works that look messy, distorted, or imperfect on purpose. They helped me see that "imperfect" is not always a failure. It can be a design choice.oct w1coachingIn my first coaching after plenum 1, Sander pushed me to think deeper. He said my research questions are "already answered" — instead of asking how to show the process, I should ask why I, as a designer, feel the need to show it. This points to bigger questions about anxiety and perfectionism in design culture. He also reminded me not to make the project only about myself, and to keep the scope open before narrowing down. Time to start printing something in the studio.oct w1studio consultationFirst studio visit with Gerard, the silkscreen print coach. I asked about overprinting colours, printing on black or silver paper, and mixing custom inks. Gerard suggested using two contrasting colours like red and green, or yellow and blue, to make overprints more visible. He also gave me a thought I didn not expect: imperfection doesn not have to live only in the print itself. It could also happen on screen, in the digital file. Something to explore.oct w2case study
This week I looked at Chris Ashworth, the British designer who turned Swiss grid into "Swiss Grit." His work for Ray Gun and Blah Blah Blah magazines in the 90s is full of distortion, layered textures, torn edges, and mixed media. Like Weingart, he broke the rules of clean Swiss typography, but in his own raw and analogue way. A good reference for my early research on imperfection as a deliberate design choice.oct w2coachingSander asked us to prepare a presentation around the word "idiosyncrasy" — what we are fascinated by, what we notice that others might not, what we would make if no one was watching. I shared 7 things about my own practice: deconstructing systems, learning from failing, coordinating consistency, observing visual hierarchy everywhere, developing my own typographic rhythm, adjusting image-text relationships obsessively and intuitively creating. A useful exercise to look at myself from a distance, before going deeper into the research.practice-based & visual researchoct w2.5visual research
First time back in the silkscreen studio since June. I made my first test poster around the phrase "bare minimum" — what stays visible when a designer decides to stop perfecting? Gerard forgot to add registration marks on my film, so I had to align the layers by instinct. Small errors kept appearing, and I let them stay. The print was not planned, but it gave me my first answer: "done" can be an emotional limit, not a technical one.oct w3case study
This week I looked into Process: Visual Journeys in Graphic Design, a book by Stockholm studio BankerWessel published with Counter-Print. The book documents over 1,700 sketches and annotations behind their commercial logo and identity projects. What struck me is that they treat their messy, in-progress drawings as part of the work itself — something usually hidden, here made fully visible.oct w3coachingSander suggested incorporating coincidence into graphic design — letting unexpected outcomes become part of the work, rather than always controlling them. He also pointed me toward TouchDesigner as a possible digital parallel to analogue imperfection. Two questions to keep thinking about: is it still perfect if coincidence becomes part of the process? And how can perfectionism be rethought through accepting imperfection? nov 2025nov w1visual research
First Risograph test after the summer break. The idea was to visualise the tension between perfection and imperfection — red/yellow halftones marking imperfection, black halftones covering perfection — almost like a poster mumbling both words at once. Compared to my screen printing the previous month, the riso process was more mechanised and the outcome was more controlled. But to my surprise, the test prints I made on leftover papers (discarded by other students) ended up looking far more interesting than the neat ones.nov w1coachingCross-coaching with Reg and fellow students. The feedback was practical and direct: my prints might still be considered perfect, so imperfection should be pushed further; try distortion by moving the scanner mid-scan, tearing prints, or pouring ink; collect leftover materials as part of the design; experiment with quotes as visual material. One question stayed with me: what happens to test prints — are they kept, reused, or discarded, and why? Reg also suggested adding new elements to already finished prints, asking when a work truly ends.nov w2side quest @Amsterdam
Trip to Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam to see Unbound, the Karel Martens retrospective. He trained as a graphic designer when graphic design was barely a discipline yet, and has been making monoprints with found metal objects, old archival cards, and repurposed newsprint since the 1960s. Each print is different. None is ever finished in the conventional sense.nov w2visual research
This week I went back to the screen prints and riso posters from earlier weeks, and started tearing, rearranging, and rescanning them. New phrases entered the work — "CASE CLOSED," "IN PROGRESS," "DISMISSED" — borrowed from administrative or legal language. They felt like categories I was secretly using to judge my own prints: this one is done, this one is not, this one is still under review. Testing the idea of finished prints can become raw material again.nov w3coachingCoaching with Sander. He directly pointed out that my recent scans (torn, rearranged, rescanned prints) had drifted into pure aesthetic experimentation. It borrowed the look of rebellion without carrying its ethos. He also raised a question that quietly stuck with me: is a design ever truly finished, or do I stop because someone else tells me to? Need to reflect more on my subject.dec 2025dec w1coaching iCoaching after theory intensive week, so I came in without new visual work. We talked first about the internship choice, then moved to the research question. I had revised it after the last hard coaching: "Is a design ever truly finished, or does it stop simply because a deadline, a rule, or someone else tells me to?" Sander said this question is better than the one I brought to plenum 1. He suggested I test different stopping points — deadline, procrastination, instinct, exhaustion — and see how each one changes the meaning of "done."dec w1visual research
Two new digital posters made after the last coaching, while still in transition. The first, Chance Operations 機緣運作, treats screen printing as a collaboration between intention and uncertainty. The second, Abandoned File 殘念, sits with a familiar designer condition: the unfinished files that stay on the computer, never deleted, never developed. Both were prepared for screen printing later this month. Conceptually, I was still framing things as "imperfection," but the new question "when does a designer choose, or avoid, ending a process" was already creeping indec w1coaching iiOriginally planned for 25 Nov at M HKA, postponed by a public strike, and rescheduled to Dec 4 at school. Cross-coaching with Jan. Like Sander, he was not convinced by my recent prints. He said I was only making things look imperfect on purpose, without my own voice in them. The conversation pulled me to a more honest question: why do I keep pushing myself to revise? What pressures come from inside, what pressures come from outside? He suggested I reflect on each time I decide to stop or continue a piece, and ask myself why.dec w1side quest @Genk
Drove to Genk with friends to see ALPHABET CITY at C-Mine. The exhibition gathered five Belgian type designers — Jo De Baerdemaeker, Erik Desombere, Geertrui Storms, Sam Van Vaerenbergh, and curator Jo Klaps — who collected letters from public space in Genk (buildings, monuments, old machines, signage) and built new alphabets out of them. Not directly related to my research, but useful to see how typography can be developed, scaled, and presented as a finished exhibition.dec w2masterclassFive-day masterclass with Danial Shah on the question "Why do we make photographs?" It pulled me far from graphic design and into questions about gaze: how do I, as a maker, look at the world, and what does that looking say about me? I started seeing my own gaze as a camera lens with both functions and flaws, sometimes needing repair, sometimes replacement. A turning point I didn not expect from a photography class. The questions translated almost directly to my design research: why do I make adjustments? Whose eye is doing the deciding?dec w3coachingShort check-in with Sander before the holidays. Not much progress to share, partly because the masterclass the previous week had drained me, partly because I had decided not to bring up the Chance Operations and Abandoned File poster series, as I was leaning toward dropping the whole direction anyway. We talked briefly about internship rejections from a few print studios, which made me reconsider whether a design studio might suit my project better. Sander shared a few references to look at over the break: Nosaj Thing, Eric Hu, Kelli Anderson. dec w3visual research
Screen-printed the Chance Operation series despite having decided to drop it as a research direction. Two practical reasons: the transparent films were already prepared by Gerard earlier in the month, I did not want to waste the materials. One technical reason: I wanted to keep my muscle memory with the screenprinting. Feel new to print something I had already let go of in my head.dec w4side quest @home
Watched The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, 2021) during the holidays. The main character Julie keeps changing studies, jobs, partners. From outside it looks like she is lost. But the more I followed her, the more I saw she was just trying to figure herself out through the messy process of deciding and undeciding. It reminded me of my design practice — every revision, every "is this enough?" is the same kind of figuring out.jan 2026jan w2-3(coaching)Two coaching sessions, both missed. The first I cancelled by email due to exhaustion from my second intensive theory week, with heavy snow outside and no new work to show. The second I simply read the wrong time and skipped. Instead of treating these as lost weeks, I stayed home and reflected: reread all the feedback from semester 1, re-conceptualised the entire project, and wrote a new research question. The biggest shift came in: making imperfect prints is not my main point anymore. The new question is about when designers decide a work is "done."jan w2.5visual research
Back in the screen printing studio after the holidays, this time printing the Chance Operations series in blue and red. I had already decided to drop the series, but somehow I kept coming back to make new colour versions. Looking back, I was already iterating without calling it that. At the time I thought I was just printing a side project.jan w3side quest @Gent
Day trip to Industrie Museum Gent for two exhibitions: Three Centuries of Graphic Industry, which traced Belgian printing from 1750 to the present through old presses, type cases, and printed ephemera, and Expo // Typefaces, which focused on wooden poster letters from the 19th century onward. Useful background and encouragement for someone working with screen printing and typography in 2026.jan w3visual research
Screen-printed the Abandoned File series, this time on blue and orange paper. Same pattern as the past two weeks: a project I had decided to drop, but somehow still finding its way to the print studio. A series literally called "abandoned" yet there I was, still printing it.how to decide when a graphic design work is “done” — by meeting requirements, by a decision, or by what emerges intuitively...?jan w3-4visual research
Reopening the Bare Minimum poster from October, this time as a series instead of a single print. After the two missed coaching sessions and the rethinking that followed, I started revising the same poster again and again — small shifts in colour, kerning, position, paper choice — and keeping each version instead of choosing one. The point was no longer to find a final form, but to make the decision-making itself visible. When does a designer actually stop? Whose voice is doing the stopping? The series doesn not answer these. It stays in this iterative process.jan w2-3plenum 2
Plenum 2. The presentation gathered everything from the past three months and put it under one updated research question: "How to decide when a graphic design work is "done" — by meeting requirements, by a decision, or by what emerges intuitively?" The plan moving forward: take all the earlier visual research series (Bare Minimum, Imperfect Prints, Chance Operations and Abandoned Files) and remake each as iterative versions, then see which versions actually feel "done" and why. The shift from making "imperfect prints" to investigating "(un)finishedness" was now official.feb 2026feb–aprinternship
Three-month remote internship with graphic designer Hao Wei Tu, from February to April. The work centred on the D&AD New Blood Awards: developing Set the Scene, a typographic reading folio for the Penguin Random House × Monotype brief. The internship turned out to be more closely connected to the master project than expected — the iterative revisions, the editing until the final minute, and the negotiation between brief, client, and designer all became material for thinking about (un)finishedness in a commercial context.feb w4coachingMid-internship check-in with Sander, three weeks into D&AD. No new visual work to show. We discussed the brief I was working on at the studio (a commercial pitch for Penguin Random House × Monotype) as a contrasting context to the master project. We also reviewed feedback from Plenum 2: a question about whether the visual works should communicate about the research, or work as pure form, and a prompt from the teachers meeting — "Imagine you are already graduated, and have this semester for pure experimental pleasure. What would you be creating then?"mar 2026production & materialisationmar w3coachingCross-coaching with Hugo, late-internship. We talked about the D&AD competition I had been working on — a commercial pitch I kept revising until the moment before submission. Hugo pointed out that this experience, although outside the scope of my master project, is actually right material for it: the tension of revising the same design under pressure is exactly what my research is about. We also discussed direction: instead of remaking the three earlier series I had planned in Plenum 2, focus on developing one poster (Bare Minimum) continuously until the final jury. Hugo also encouraged me to keep using screen printing, as a way to make the physical labour behind design visible.mar w3studio consultation
First time back at the screen printing studio after the internship. Not to print yet, but to update Gerard on my new direction and prepare the next phase. The torn typographic patches I had shown at Plenum 2 (printed from a normal printer as prototypes) were ready to be screen printed on better paper. During the conversation, Gerard suggested something that became a brilliant bonus for the project: making my own Letraset sheets, so that decisions about the work could also come from outside me — jury members or viewers adding or changing elements during the exhibition. Even if without interaction eventually, the Letraset format itself echoes the my themes of editing, layering, and deciding when to stop.mar w3(un)finishing i
First round of screen printing for the (un)finishing series. The torn typographic elements I had developed since Plenum 2 were now produced as proper screen prints. Will be printed with black, royal blue and fluorescent green on white paper. Just executing the plan this week.mar w4(un)finishing ii
Second round of screen printing. Continuing the (un)finishing series with the same three colours (black, royal blue, fluorescent green) on white paper. This time I also tried overprinting on the same type.mar w5(un)finishing iii
Third round: this time, the assembly. The printed pieces were torn and glued onto base posters as overlays, and the earlier decisions about ‘which patch goes where suddenly ceased to be abstract. Each move led to the next. Cutting one edge made me want to shift another. Sticking one patch suggested a third. Reflection-in-action, in the very literal sense—and it felt closer to my own research than anything I had read about it.apr 2026apr w1(un)finishing iv
Fourth round, iterating mostly through colour. Testing combinations on screen takes seconds; doing it through screen printing means washing the screen, cleaning the squeegee, mixing new ink, and printing again — a slower iteration that reveals how much labour sits behind a single colour choice. I also tested silver paper for the first time. Toward the end of the session, I shifted the paper between layers so that "its done" landed in different positions on different prints — a manual version of the align function in Illustrator.apr w1(un)finishing v
Last studio session before Easter break. This round tested the opposite direction: black paper with white and silver ink. The instinct came from a familiar designer habit — when feeling stuck, invert everything and see if a different starting point opens new options. Only four prints in this batch, because black paper is expensive (for real). A reminder that material costs are quietly part of the design process: in commercial work, clients often ask me to change plans because a paper or technique is too costly. The pressure scales down but it does not disappear in a master project.apr w3side quest @København
Solo trip to Copenhagen during Easter break. Officially a rest, but also a way to recharge by observing — urban planning, colour palettes, public design, the quietness of how things sit together. Danish design has its own answer to "when is something done". A reminder that "less" or "minumum" is not always "unfinished."apr w4coachingCoaching with Sander, focused on practical decisions for the final stage. We reviewed the (un)finishing prints made between late March and early April. The structure across the series was seen as consistent, with small variations between each print. For the scenography, the suggestion was to organise the work into at least three blocks, and to show both process and results side by side rather than the prints alone. The Letraset idea from earlier was reaffirmed, with a new suggestion: use it to embed project information directly into the work, as a printed footer. On the processfolio: the online version on Cargo is enough, no need for a printed publication. The time and budget saved could go into producing the Letraset sheets instead.apr w4scenography plan¹ˢᵗ
First draft of the scenography proposal, submitted as a single PDF with two options. Option 1: hanging all the posters directly on the wall. Option 2 (the preferred one): hanging some posters on a clothes rack and placing others on a grey desk, alongside transparent films, postcards, and Letraset sheets. The clothes rack reflects the idea of prints still drying, not yet finished. The desk recreates the working space where decisions are still being made. The exhibition does not show the project as a finished display, but as a working state caught mid-process.apr w4case study
A case study added during the thesis writing: Korean graphic designer Na Kim and her ongoing series SET, which reopens her past commissioned and autonomous works inside the gallery space. Unlike BankerWessel (client-driven completion) or Karel Martens (self-imposed reopening within a single work), Na Kim reopens an entire body of finished commissions, moving them from applied design into autonomous practice. She offers a third angle on (un)finishedness: not as an ongoing process during making, but as a retroactive act after a work is officially "done."apr w4studio consultationPractical consultation with Gerard on Letraset screen printing. Minimum font size is 12 pt for reliable transfer; smaller is technically possible but unreliable. Paper is back in stock, with a larger format (500 × 700 mm) available, halved to roughly B3. There is enough space on the sheet to add a header and footer for project information. Ink colour is open. Gerard also mentioned that Emelie, an applied context student from last year, will be back in the workshop to print her own Letraset sheets, and suggested working alongside her since the process is technically challenging.apr w5dry-transfer i
First design round for the (Un)finished Type Kit. Working from the technical specs Gerard confirmed the week before, I drafted two layout options at B3 (500 × 353 mm), both treating the sheet as a real Letraset reference page — with header, footer, project description, technical credits, and a hidden code (AW92-SS26). Two directions: one more organised and grid-based, the other more chaotic and experimental in scale. After discussion with Sander and a few peers, the organised version was selected for production.apr w5coaching & zwartopwitCoaching with Sander, covering several practical points. Scenography: proposal 2 (the working-desk setup) was preferred for showing process and quantity. Letraset: the organised version was confirmed for production. Internship: self-evaluation form to be submitted to Sander. Postcard: needs a new design, since Zwartopwit cannot print the fluorescent green I had planned. Sander reminded us that the postcard works like a "thumbnail" of the project for the exhibition audience, so it is worth taking time on.apr w5dry-transfer ii
First Letraset printing session in the studio with Emelie. The workshop was unexpectedly crowded that day, with several other students working at the same time, which made the precise alignment that Letraset requires harder than expected. I left after only two prints each. The two dry-transfer sheets turned out visually well, though the production rhythm would need to be picked up another day.apr w5studio consultationStudio consultation with Gerard, reviewing the two Letraset prints from the day before. It turned out that the ink we used — the standard black ink for paper does not transfer fully in this technique. Gerard suggested switching to textile ink and testing both new and older glue versions. The two existing prints will be kept as part of the process, showing material behaviour and partial failure. Stopping at two prints the previous day turned out to be the right call. Gerard will be away the following week, so the next round of testing will be on my own.may 2026may w1dry-transfer iii
Back in the print studio on Monday, alone this time, with textile ink as Gerard suggested. On Tuesday I went to check the results and tested the transfer on a smoother matte paper. It just kept failing. A friend at the same working space casually asked if it might be the paper. Another friend opened their notebook and offered it for testing. The transfer WORKED. The character I happened to pick first was a semicolon. Of all things.may w1project postkaart
Finalising the postkaart design. I prepared mockups of that version alongside a few backup options, to confirm how each would read at A6 in the exhibition context. Final files are now ready for Zwartopwit to print.may w1coachingCoaching with Sander, mostly check-ins on the work in progress. On the dry-transfer prints: not to worry whether they "work perfectly" or not — at this stage they function as prototypes within a student project, and the form and idea matter more than technical perfection. On the postkaart: the first version (case closed / in progress / dismissed) was preferred for its narrative quality and its visual contrast against the (un)finishing posters. On documentation for the online expo: try photographing the prints in the working environment (desk, cutting board, metallic surface) instead of relying only on scans; if scanning, keep the lid open for a full black edge. Keep making.may w2dry-transfer iv
Back in the studio, alone again, but this time printing a fuller batch after the successful test the week before. I also added fluorescent green to the experiment — it has been the main accent colour of the (un)finishing series, and although it is also a paper ink like the black, its texture is thinner and watery. My intuition said it might transfer well. We will see.may w2coachingThe last formal coaching with Sander, a progress check across the project. On the dry-transfer prints: the fact that they actually work is a positive sign, and the plan is to keep producing more, including a few in fluorescent green. On the main poster: keep making more versions during the week, as the repetition and variation between posters has become an important part of the project. On the scenography: check carefully what materials and equipment are still needed, and refine how the work will be presented in the space. On the processfolio: the overview timeline is seen as helpful for the jury, with a suggestion to organise the entries with a systematic colour structure (for example, one colour for visual research, another for coaching). From this point onward, coaching becomes self-initiated when needed.may w2studio consultation
Studio consultation with Gerard, reviewing the dry-transfer prints from the past two sessions. The results were clear across three variables. Textile ink: works almost perfectly. Paper ink in black: sometimes transfers, often fails, but the imperfect results still look visually interesting and fit the project themes. Paper ink in fluorescent green: works as well as the textile ink, which confirms what the texture had suggested. Gerard also mentioned that these tests had value for the workshop beyond my project, since they explored a new glue formula and compared two different ink types.may w3side quest @Antwerpen Art Weekend
Antwerpen Art Weekend over the weekend. A pause before the final stretch — partly for rest, partly to observe how other artists and galleries handled their installations: how the works sat in the space, how colours were used across rooms, how the curation guided the visitors. Useful background for thinking about my own scenography in the coming weeks.may w3master thesisSubmitted the master thesis. It traces (un)finishedness through three approaches: a theoretical framework drawn from design theory, three case studies (BankerWessel, Karel Martens, Na Kim), and a practice-led autoethnography of the studio project itself. The thesis was written while the studio project was still ongoing — meaning the thesis itself was written from within the state of (un)finishedness it describes. Full PDF below.may w3(coaching)Sander offered us an additional coaching session, but I decided to stay in production as planned. Instead I sent him an email update covering the six fronts in motion: the matte black clothes rack arriving for the scenography, the 60 iterative Bare Minimum sheets printed so far, the dry-transfer stock (with an inquiry of which colour of baking paper I should use for storage), the processfolio filter and colour dots still to test, the thesis submitted that morning, and the online expo texts uploaded.may w3(un)finishing vi
Another round of Bare Minimum, this time pushing into new colour variations beyond the fluorescent green and black that had become the project main palette. Silver, white, fluorescent orange, yellow, blue, and combinations of overlays — testing whether the previous colour pairing was really the strongest, or whether it had simply become a habit. No conclusion yet. The new versions will sit next to the old ones, and the comparison will happen later.may w3(un)finishing vii
Returning to the collage approach from Mar W5, but with newer material this time — the additional fluorescent green base prints from the recent rounds. Cutting, tearing, repositioning, layering. At this point in the project, the eye gets used to the same shapes and colours, so the editing has to slow down: looking longer at each combination before committing. The final jury is approaching, but the question stays the same as week one — which version actually feels finished, and why.may w3documentation i
Following earlier suggestion from Sander, I went to school to photograph the poster versions on a brushed silver metal table for the online expo. The test went better than expected, so I ended up shooting everything in one go. The behind-the-scenes shots were taken for processfolio, whereas the final images will go to the online expo.may w4scenography prep
The matte black clothes rack and silver metal hangers arrived this week. I assembled them at home and tested the setup — the rack and the hangers sit well together, and the dimensions match what I had planned in April. Also followed up with Hugo about borrowing the light-grey display: confirmed available from 8 June. Exhibition props now ready.jun 2026jun w1documentation ii
Preparing 93 RAW photographs for the online expo required a tailored Lightroom workflow divided by paper type: white, black, and silver. Retouching focused on neutralising white balance shifts, reproducing visuals of fluorescent inks and masking unwanted warm light casts. Crucially, studio imperfections like table scratches were preserved to maintain the authentic visual language. With batch processing nearly finished, only final Photoshop warp adjustments and exporting remain.jun w2scenography setup
Began the final exhibition setup in the school space. Poster variations were layered on the table for visitors to flip through, hiding bright color variations beneath the dominant black and fluorescent green palette. The clothes rack held prints like drying sheets in an un-finished state, intentionally left sparse to reveal overlapping layers behind. Following feedback from Hugo, the final layout of the hanging rack, silkscreen and work desk was pulled further apart, creating a looser, more imperfect arrangement with more breathing room.jun w2(un)finishing viii
Printed the final poster of the project on the last day of exhibition setup, just before the jury. Poster No. 85 was created using the dry-transfer technique and completed at 16:24 on Thursday 11 June 2026. Executing this final print right inside the exhibition space felt like the pause point of the process. It brought the ongoing production phase to a temporary halt, bridging the gap between active studio work and the static presentation for the evaluation.jun w2documentation iii
Finished retouching the photographs of all 80+ poster versions and edited them into a single sequence video. The video runs through the iterations in order, showing how the series accumulated over the past months. This concludes the documentation work for the online expo.jun w3jury
Final jury presentation. The project will be presented through a slide deck alongside the on-site exhibition setup.now
Master in Visual Arts
Applied Context
@Sint Lucas Antwerpen, School of Arts
use filter to navigate if needed, and click the coloured ink dots to open each entry
all
coaching
visual research
case study
milestone
oct 2025
inquiry & contextualisation
how can unfinished or imperfect print outcomes be documented and presented as part of final production, rather than being discarded?
oct w1
plenum 1
In my first project proposal at the beginning of October, my topic was: “How can unfinished or imperfect print outcomes be documented and presented as part of the final production, rather than being discarded?” During my pre-master year in the printmaking studio, I often made many test prints to achieve a single “perfect” result. I want to develop a visual approach that reveals and preserves those imperfect prints instead of throwing them away.
oct w1
case study
In the first week of October, I asked myself: are there designers who already work with imperfection on purpose? I looked at two: Bráulio Amado, a contemporary Portuguese designer based in New York, and Wolfgang Weingart, the German-born "typographic rebel" who broke the rules of Swiss typography in the 1970s. Both produce works that look messy, distorted, or imperfect on purpose. They helped me see that "imperfect" is not always a failure. It can be a design choice.
oct w1
coaching
In my first coaching after plenum 1, Sander pushed me to think deeper. He said my research questions are "already answered" — instead of asking how to show the process, I should ask why I, as a designer, feel the need to show it. This points to bigger questions about anxiety and perfectionism in design culture. He also reminded me not to make the project only about myself, and to keep the scope open before narrowing down. Time to start printing something in the studio.
oct w1
studio consultation
First studio visit with Gerard, the silkscreen print coach. I asked about overprinting colours, printing on black or silver paper, and mixing custom inks. Gerard suggested using two contrasting colours like red and green, or yellow and blue, to make overprints more visible. He also gave me a thought I didn not expect: imperfection doesn not have to live only in the print itself. It could also happen on screen, in the digital file. Something to explore.
oct w2
case study
This week I looked at Chris Ashworth, the British designer who turned Swiss grid into "Swiss Grit." His work for Ray Gun and Blah Blah Blah magazines in the 90s is full of distortion, layered textures, torn edges, and mixed media. Like Weingart, he broke the rules of clean Swiss typography, but in his own raw and analogue way. A good reference for my early research on imperfection as a deliberate design choice.
oct w2
coaching
Sander asked us to prepare a presentation around the word "idiosyncrasy" — what we are fascinated by, what we notice that others might not, what we would make if no one was watching. I shared 7 things about my own practice: deconstructing systems, learning from failing, coordinating consistency, observing visual hierarchy everywhere, developing my own typographic rhythm, adjusting image-text relationships obsessively and intuitively creating. A useful exercise to look at myself from a distance, before going deeper into the research.
practice-based & visual research
oct w2.5
visual research
First time back in the silkscreen studio since June. I made my first test poster around the phrase "bare minimum" — what stays visible when a designer decides to stop perfecting? Gerard forgot to add registration marks on my film, so I had to align the layers by instinct. Small errors kept appearing, and I let them stay. The print was not planned, but it gave me my first answer: "done" can be an emotional limit, not a technical one.
oct w3
case study
This week I looked into Process: Visual Journeys in Graphic Design, a book by Stockholm studio BankerWessel published with Counter-Print. The book documents over 1,700 sketches and annotations behind their commercial logo and identity projects. What struck me is that they treat their messy, in-progress drawings as part of the work itself — something usually hidden, here made fully visible.
oct w3
coaching
Sander suggested incorporating coincidence into graphic design — letting unexpected outcomes become part of the work, rather than always controlling them. He also pointed me toward TouchDesigner as a possible digital parallel to analogue imperfection. Two questions to keep thinking about: is it still perfect if coincidence becomes part of the process? And how can perfectionism be rethought through accepting imperfection?
nov 2025
nov w1
visual research
First Risograph test after the summer break. The idea was to visualise the tension between perfection and imperfection — red/yellow halftones marking imperfection, black halftones covering perfection — almost like a poster mumbling both words at once. Compared to my screen printing the previous month, the riso process was more mechanised and the outcome was more controlled. But to my surprise, the test prints I made on leftover papers (discarded by other students) ended up looking far more interesting than the neat ones.
nov w1
coaching
Cross-coaching with Reg and fellow students. The feedback was practical and direct: my prints might still be considered perfect, so imperfection should be pushed further; try distortion by moving the scanner mid-scan, tearing prints, or pouring ink; collect leftover materials as part of the design; experiment with quotes as visual material. One question stayed with me: what happens to test prints — are they kept, reused, or discarded, and why? Reg also suggested adding new elements to already finished prints, asking when a work truly ends.
nov w2
side quest @Amsterdam
Trip to Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam to see Unbound, the Karel Martens retrospective. He trained as a graphic designer when graphic design was barely a discipline yet, and has been making monoprints with found metal objects, old archival cards, and repurposed newsprint since the 1960s. Each print is different. None is ever finished in the conventional sense.
nov w2
visual research
This week I went back to the screen prints and riso posters from earlier weeks, and started tearing, rearranging, and rescanning them. New phrases entered the work — "CASE CLOSED," "IN PROGRESS," "DISMISSED" — borrowed from administrative or legal language. They felt like categories I was secretly using to judge my own prints: this one is done, this one is not, this one is still under review. Testing the idea of finished prints can become raw material again.
nov w3
coaching
Coaching with Sander. He directly pointed out that my recent scans (torn, rearranged, rescanned prints) had drifted into pure aesthetic experimentation. It borrowed the look of rebellion without carrying its ethos. He also raised a question that quietly stuck with me: is a design ever truly finished, or do I stop because someone else tells me to? Need to reflect more on my subject.
dec 2025
dec w1
coaching i
Coaching after theory intensive week, so I came in without new visual work. We talked first about the internship choice, then moved to the research question. I had revised it after the last hard coaching: "Is a design ever truly finished, or does it stop simply because a deadline, a rule, or someone else tells me to?" Sander said this question is better than the one I brought to plenum 1. He suggested I test different stopping points — deadline, procrastination, instinct, exhaustion — and see how each one changes the meaning of "done."
dec w1
visual research
Two new digital posters made after the last coaching, while still in transition. The first, Chance Operations 機緣運作, treats screen printing as a collaboration between intention and uncertainty. The second, Abandoned File 殘念, sits with a familiar designer condition: the unfinished files that stay on the computer, never deleted, never developed. Both were prepared for screen printing later this month. Conceptually, I was still framing things as "imperfection," but the new question "when does a designer choose, or avoid, ending a process" was already creeping in
dec w1
coaching ii
Originally planned for 25 Nov at M HKA, postponed by a public strike, and rescheduled to Dec 4 at school. Cross-coaching with Jan. Like Sander, he was not convinced by my recent prints. He said I was only making things look imperfect on purpose, without my own voice in them. The conversation pulled me to a more honest question: why do I keep pushing myself to revise? What pressures come from inside, what pressures come from outside? He suggested I reflect on each time I decide to stop or continue a piece, and ask myself why.
dec w1
side quest @Genk
Drove to Genk with friends to see ALPHABET CITY at C-Mine. The exhibition gathered five Belgian type designers — Jo De Baerdemaeker, Erik Desombere, Geertrui Storms, Sam Van Vaerenbergh, and curator Jo Klaps — who collected letters from public space in Genk (buildings, monuments, old machines, signage) and built new alphabets out of them. Not directly related to my research, but useful to see how typography can be developed, scaled, and presented as a finished exhibition.
dec w2
masterclass
Five-day masterclass with Danial Shah on the question "Why do we make photographs?" It pulled me far from graphic design and into questions about gaze: how do I, as a maker, look at the world, and what does that looking say about me? I started seeing my own gaze as a camera lens with both functions and flaws, sometimes needing repair, sometimes replacement. A turning point I didn not expect from a photography class. The questions translated almost directly to my design research: why do I make adjustments? Whose eye is doing the deciding?
dec w3
coaching
Short check-in with Sander before the holidays. Not much progress to share, partly because the masterclass the previous week had drained me, partly because I had decided not to bring up the Chance Operations and Abandoned File poster series, as I was leaning toward dropping the whole direction anyway. We talked briefly about internship rejections from a few print studios, which made me reconsider whether a design studio might suit my project better. Sander shared a few references to look at over the break: Nosaj Thing, Eric Hu, Kelli Anderson.
dec w3
visual research
Screen-printed the Chance Operation series despite having decided to drop it as a research direction. Two practical reasons: the transparent films were already prepared by Gerard earlier in the month, I did not want to waste the materials. One technical reason: I wanted to keep my muscle memory with the screenprinting. Feel new to print something I had already let go of in my head.
dec w4
side quest @home
Watched The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, 2021) during the holidays. The main character Julie keeps changing studies, jobs, partners. From outside it looks like she is lost. But the more I followed her, the more I saw she was just trying to figure herself out through the messy process of deciding and undeciding. It reminded me of my design practice — every revision, every "is this enough?" is the same kind of figuring out.
jan 2026
jan w2-3
(coaching)
Two coaching sessions, both missed. The first I cancelled by email due to exhaustion from my second intensive theory week, with heavy snow outside and no new work to show. The second I simply read the wrong time and skipped. Instead of treating these as lost weeks, I stayed home and reflected: reread all the feedback from semester 1, re-conceptualised the entire project, and wrote a new research question. The biggest shift came in: making imperfect prints is not my main point anymore. The new question is about when designers decide a work is "done."
jan w2.5
visual research
Back in the screen printing studio after the holidays, this time printing the Chance Operations series in blue and red. I had already decided to drop the series, but somehow I kept coming back to make new colour versions. Looking back, I was already iterating without calling it that. At the time I thought I was just printing a side project.
jan w3
side quest @Gent
Day trip to Industrie Museum Gent for two exhibitions: Three Centuries of Graphic Industry, which traced Belgian printing from 1750 to the present through old presses, type cases, and printed ephemera, and Expo // Typefaces, which focused on wooden poster letters from the 19th century onward. Useful background and encouragement for someone working with screen printing and typography in 2026.
jan w3
visual research
Screen-printed the Abandoned File series, this time on blue and orange paper. Same pattern as the past two weeks: a project I had decided to drop, but somehow still finding its way to the print studio. A series literally called "abandoned" yet there I was, still printing it.
how to decide when a graphic design work is “done” — by meeting requirements, by a decision, or by what emerges intuitively...?
jan w3-4
visual research
Reopening the Bare Minimum poster from October, this time as a series instead of a single print. After the two missed coaching sessions and the rethinking that followed, I started revising the same poster again and again — small shifts in colour, kerning, position, paper choice — and keeping each version instead of choosing one. The point was no longer to find a final form, but to make the decision-making itself visible. When does a designer actually stop? Whose voice is doing the stopping? The series doesn not answer these. It stays in this iterative process.
jan w2-3
plenum 2
Plenum 2. The presentation gathered everything from the past three months and put it under one updated research question: "How to decide when a graphic design work is "done" — by meeting requirements, by a decision, or by what emerges intuitively?" The plan moving forward: take all the earlier visual research series (Bare Minimum, Imperfect Prints, Chance Operations and Abandoned Files) and remake each as iterative versions, then see which versions actually feel "done" and why. The shift from making "imperfect prints" to investigating "(un)finishedness" was now official.
feb 2026
feb–apr
internship
Three-month remote internship with graphic designer Hao Wei Tu, from February to April. The work centred on the D&AD New Blood Awards: developing Set the Scene, a typographic reading folio for the Penguin Random House × Monotype brief. The internship turned out to be more closely connected to the master project than expected — the iterative revisions, the editing until the final minute, and the negotiation between brief, client, and designer all became material for thinking about (un)finishedness in a commercial context.
feb w4
coaching
Mid-internship check-in with Sander, three weeks into D&AD. No new visual work to show. We discussed the brief I was working on at the studio (a commercial pitch for Penguin Random House × Monotype) as a contrasting context to the master project. We also reviewed feedback from Plenum 2: a question about whether the visual works should communicate about the research, or work as pure form, and a prompt from the teachers meeting — "Imagine you are already graduated, and have this semester for pure experimental pleasure. What would you be creating then?"
mar 2026
production & materialisation
mar w3
coaching
Cross-coaching with Hugo, late-internship. We talked about the D&AD competition I had been working on — a commercial pitch I kept revising until the moment before submission. Hugo pointed out that this experience, although outside the scope of my master project, is actually right material for it: the tension of revising the same design under pressure is exactly what my research is about. We also discussed direction: instead of remaking the three earlier series I had planned in Plenum 2, focus on developing one poster (Bare Minimum) continuously until the final jury. Hugo also encouraged me to keep using screen printing, as a way to make the physical labour behind design visible.
mar w3
studio consultation
First time back at the screen printing studio after the internship. Not to print yet, but to update Gerard on my new direction and prepare the next phase. The torn typographic patches I had shown at Plenum 2 (printed from a normal printer as prototypes) were ready to be screen printed on better paper. During the conversation, Gerard suggested something that became a brilliant bonus for the project: making my own Letraset sheets, so that decisions about the work could also come from outside me — jury members or viewers adding or changing elements during the exhibition. Even if without interaction eventually, the Letraset format itself echoes the my themes of editing, layering, and deciding when to stop.
mar w3
(un)finishing i
First round of screen printing for the (un)finishing series. The torn typographic elements I had developed since Plenum 2 were now produced as proper screen prints. Will be printed with black, royal blue and fluorescent green on white paper. Just executing the plan this week.
mar w4
(un)finishing ii
Second round of screen printing. Continuing the (un)finishing series with the same three colours (black, royal blue, fluorescent green) on white paper. This time I also tried overprinting on the same type.
mar w5
(un)finishing iii
Third round: this time, the assembly. The printed pieces were torn and glued onto base posters as overlays, and the earlier decisions about ‘which patch goes where suddenly ceased to be abstract. Each move led to the next. Cutting one edge made me want to shift another. Sticking one patch suggested a third. Reflection-in-action, in the very literal sense—and it felt closer to my own research than anything I had read about it.
apr 2026
apr w1
(un)finishing iv
Fourth round, iterating mostly through colour. Testing combinations on screen takes seconds; doing it through screen printing means washing the screen, cleaning the squeegee, mixing new ink, and printing again — a slower iteration that reveals how much labour sits behind a single colour choice. I also tested silver paper for the first time. Toward the end of the session, I shifted the paper between layers so that "its done" landed in different positions on different prints — a manual version of the align function in Illustrator.
apr w1
(un)finishing v
Last studio session before Easter break. This round tested the opposite direction: black paper with white and silver ink. The instinct came from a familiar designer habit — when feeling stuck, invert everything and see if a different starting point opens new options. Only four prints in this batch, because black paper is expensive (for real). A reminder that material costs are quietly part of the design process: in commercial work, clients often ask me to change plans because a paper or technique is too costly. The pressure scales down but it does not disappear in a master project.
apr w3
side quest @København
Solo trip to Copenhagen during Easter break. Officially a rest, but also a way to recharge by observing — urban planning, colour palettes, public design, the quietness of how things sit together. Danish design has its own answer to "when is something done". A reminder that "less" or "minumum" is not always "unfinished."
apr w4
coaching
Coaching with Sander, focused on practical decisions for the final stage. We reviewed the (un)finishing prints made between late March and early April. The structure across the series was seen as consistent, with small variations between each print. For the scenography, the suggestion was to organise the work into at least three blocks, and to show both process and results side by side rather than the prints alone. The Letraset idea from earlier was reaffirmed, with a new suggestion: use it to embed project information directly into the work, as a printed footer. On the processfolio: the online version on Cargo is enough, no need for a printed publication. The time and budget saved could go into producing the Letraset sheets instead.
apr w4
scenography plan¹ˢᵗ
First draft of the scenography proposal, submitted as a single PDF with two options. Option 1: hanging all the posters directly on the wall. Option 2 (the preferred one): hanging some posters on a clothes rack and placing others on a grey desk, alongside transparent films, postcards, and Letraset sheets. The clothes rack reflects the idea of prints still drying, not yet finished. The desk recreates the working space where decisions are still being made. The exhibition does not show the project as a finished display, but as a working state caught mid-process.
apr w4
case study
A case study added during the thesis writing: Korean graphic designer Na Kim and her ongoing series SET, which reopens her past commissioned and autonomous works inside the gallery space. Unlike BankerWessel (client-driven completion) or Karel Martens (self-imposed reopening within a single work), Na Kim reopens an entire body of finished commissions, moving them from applied design into autonomous practice. She offers a third angle on (un)finishedness: not as an ongoing process during making, but as a retroactive act after a work is officially "done."
apr w4
studio consultation
Practical consultation with Gerard on Letraset screen printing. Minimum font size is 12 pt for reliable transfer; smaller is technically possible but unreliable. Paper is back in stock, with a larger format (500 × 700 mm) available, halved to roughly B3. There is enough space on the sheet to add a header and footer for project information. Ink colour is open. Gerard also mentioned that Emelie, an applied context student from last year, will be back in the workshop to print her own Letraset sheets, and suggested working alongside her since the process is technically challenging.
apr w5
dry-transfer i
First design round for the (Un)finished Type Kit. Working from the technical specs Gerard confirmed the week before, I drafted two layout options at B3 (500 × 353 mm), both treating the sheet as a real Letraset reference page — with header, footer, project description, technical credits, and a hidden code (AW92-SS26). Two directions: one more organised and grid-based, the other more chaotic and experimental in scale. After discussion with Sander and a few peers, the organised version was selected for production.
apr w5
coaching & zwartopwit
Coaching with Sander, covering several practical points. Scenography: proposal 2 (the working-desk setup) was preferred for showing process and quantity. Letraset: the organised version was confirmed for production. Internship: self-evaluation form to be submitted to Sander. Postcard: needs a new design, since Zwartopwit cannot print the fluorescent green I had planned. Sander reminded us that the postcard works like a "thumbnail" of the project for the exhibition audience, so it is worth taking time on.
apr w5
dry-transfer ii
First Letraset printing session in the studio with Emelie. The workshop was unexpectedly crowded that day, with several other students working at the same time, which made the precise alignment that Letraset requires harder than expected. I left after only two prints each. The two dry-transfer sheets turned out visually well, though the production rhythm would need to be picked up another day.
apr w5
studio consultation
Studio consultation with Gerard, reviewing the two Letraset prints from the day before. It turned out that the ink we used — the standard black ink for paper does not transfer fully in this technique. Gerard suggested switching to textile ink and testing both new and older glue versions. The two existing prints will be kept as part of the process, showing material behaviour and partial failure. Stopping at two prints the previous day turned out to be the right call. Gerard will be away the following week, so the next round of testing will be on my own.
may 2026
may w1
dry-transfer iii
Back in the print studio on Monday, alone this time, with textile ink as Gerard suggested. On Tuesday I went to check the results and tested the transfer on a smoother matte paper. It just kept failing. A friend at the same working space casually asked if it might be the paper. Another friend opened their notebook and offered it for testing. The transfer WORKED. The character I happened to pick first was a semicolon. Of all things.
may w1
project postkaart
Finalising the postkaart design. I prepared mockups of that version alongside a few backup options, to confirm how each would read at A6 in the exhibition context. Final files are now ready for Zwartopwit to print.
may w1
coaching
Coaching with Sander, mostly check-ins on the work in progress. On the dry-transfer prints: not to worry whether they "work perfectly" or not — at this stage they function as prototypes within a student project, and the form and idea matter more than technical perfection. On the postkaart: the first version (case closed / in progress / dismissed) was preferred for its narrative quality and its visual contrast against the (un)finishing posters. On documentation for the online expo: try photographing the prints in the working environment (desk, cutting board, metallic surface) instead of relying only on scans; if scanning, keep the lid open for a full black edge. Keep making.
may w2
dry-transfer iv
Back in the studio, alone again, but this time printing a fuller batch after the successful test the week before. I also added fluorescent green to the experiment — it has been the main accent colour of the (un)finishing series, and although it is also a paper ink like the black, its texture is thinner and watery. My intuition said it might transfer well. We will see.
may w2
coaching
The last formal coaching with Sander, a progress check across the project. On the dry-transfer prints: the fact that they actually work is a positive sign, and the plan is to keep producing more, including a few in fluorescent green. On the main poster: keep making more versions during the week, as the repetition and variation between posters has become an important part of the project. On the scenography: check carefully what materials and equipment are still needed, and refine how the work will be presented in the space. On the processfolio: the overview timeline is seen as helpful for the jury, with a suggestion to organise the entries with a systematic colour structure (for example, one colour for visual research, another for coaching). From this point onward, coaching becomes self-initiated when needed.
may w2
studio consultation
Studio consultation with Gerard, reviewing the dry-transfer prints from the past two sessions. The results were clear across three variables. Textile ink: works almost perfectly. Paper ink in black: sometimes transfers, often fails, but the imperfect results still look visually interesting and fit the project themes. Paper ink in fluorescent green: works as well as the textile ink, which confirms what the texture had suggested. Gerard also mentioned that these tests had value for the workshop beyond my project, since they explored a new glue formula and compared two different ink types.
may w3
side quest @Antwerpen Art Weekend
Antwerpen Art Weekend over the weekend. A pause before the final stretch — partly for rest, partly to observe how other artists and galleries handled their installations: how the works sat in the space, how colours were used across rooms, how the curation guided the visitors. Useful background for thinking about my own scenography in the coming weeks.
may w3
master thesis
Submitted the master thesis. It traces (un)finishedness through three approaches: a theoretical framework drawn from design theory, three case studies (BankerWessel, Karel Martens, Na Kim), and a practice-led autoethnography of the studio project itself. The thesis was written while the studio project was still ongoing — meaning the thesis itself was written from within the state of (un)finishedness it describes. Full PDF below.
may w3
(coaching)
Sander offered us an additional coaching session, but I decided to stay in production as planned. Instead I sent him an email update covering the six fronts in motion: the matte black clothes rack arriving for the scenography, the 60 iterative Bare Minimum sheets printed so far, the dry-transfer stock (with an inquiry of which colour of baking paper I should use for storage), the processfolio filter and colour dots still to test, the thesis submitted that morning, and the online expo texts uploaded.
may w3
(un)finishing vi
Another round of Bare Minimum, this time pushing into new colour variations beyond the fluorescent green and black that had become the project main palette. Silver, white, fluorescent orange, yellow, blue, and combinations of overlays — testing whether the previous colour pairing was really the strongest, or whether it had simply become a habit. No conclusion yet. The new versions will sit next to the old ones, and the comparison will happen later.
may w3
(un)finishing vii
Returning to the collage approach from Mar W5, but with newer material this time — the additional fluorescent green base prints from the recent rounds. Cutting, tearing, repositioning, layering. At this point in the project, the eye gets used to the same shapes and colours, so the editing has to slow down: looking longer at each combination before committing. The final jury is approaching, but the question stays the same as week one — which version actually feels finished, and why.
may w3
documentation i
Following earlier suggestion from Sander, I went to school to photograph the poster versions on a brushed silver metal table for the online expo. The test went better than expected, so I ended up shooting everything in one go. The behind-the-scenes shots were taken for processfolio, whereas the final images will go to the online expo.
may w4
scenography prep
The matte black clothes rack and silver metal hangers arrived this week. I assembled them at home and tested the setup — the rack and the hangers sit well together, and the dimensions match what I had planned in April. Also followed up with Hugo about borrowing the light-grey display: confirmed available from 8 June. Exhibition props now ready.
jun 2026
jun w1
documentation ii
Preparing 93 RAW photographs for the online expo required a tailored Lightroom workflow divided by paper type: white, black, and silver. Retouching focused on neutralising white balance shifts, reproducing visuals of fluorescent inks and masking unwanted warm light casts. Crucially, studio imperfections like table scratches were preserved to maintain the authentic visual language. With batch processing nearly finished, only final Photoshop warp adjustments and exporting remain.
jun w2
scenography setup
Began the final exhibition setup in the school space. Poster variations were layered on the table for visitors to flip through, hiding bright color variations beneath the dominant black and fluorescent green palette. The clothes rack held prints like drying sheets in an un-finished state, intentionally left sparse to reveal overlapping layers behind. Following feedback from Hugo, the final layout of the hanging rack, silkscreen and work desk was pulled further apart, creating a looser, more imperfect arrangement with more breathing room.
jun w2
(un)finishing viii
Printed the final poster of the project on the last day of exhibition setup, just before the jury. Poster No. 85 was created using the dry-transfer technique and completed at 16:24 on Thursday 11 June 2026. Executing this final print right inside the exhibition space felt like the pause point of the process. It brought the ongoing production phase to a temporary halt, bridging the gap between active studio work and the static presentation for the evaluation.
jun w2
documentation iii
Finished retouching the photographs of all 80+ poster versions and edited them into a single sequence video. The video runs through the iterations in order, showing how the series accumulated over the past months. This concludes the documentation work for the online expo.
jun w3
jury
Final jury presentation. The project will be presented through a slide deck alongside the on-site exhibition setup.
now