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This essay is an overview of my research findings in which I explored the anatomy of intuition and how it is translated to creativity in Graphic Design, emerging through experimental approaches or problem solving methods or speculative design. Recognizing Intuition is a sensitive part of the creative process, It can be fleeting in spaces, abstraction, perception, temporality, or randomness. It is never fully deliberate or entirely accidental; rather, it is a liminal space that suddenly shifts to a tangible figure of thoughts, visions, sounds, and action and it operates in the in-between—the gaps. My current practice examines how intuition manifests in graphic design, how it materializes in design, and how it translates into visual language.
The original spark for this investigation holds highly personal ideas that I kept exploring as a creative person in pursuit of an exceptional expression of their vision. What made this a valuable research point for me is that intuition is represented differently for everyone and It relies on someone’s personal experience in life and symbolic systems in the nature they have built their layers of existence on.
In Eastern philosophy intuition is a holy approach and it becomes a fountain of inspiration for the artist where everything is a symbol conveying an immediate manifestation of an idea. This symbolic system is ambiguous and dynamic.
When you approach a process intuitively, creativity becomes a tripable dimension, a divergent quality fruitful to the process. I analyzed this phenomenon in different sources in order to identify its underlying nature when it comes to ideation process, graphic systems, and typographic expression. I also explored the approach in various projects which are included to support these four principles:
Intuition as an Emergent Process
Intuition as an iterative process tool
Intuition as a Symbolic Mapping
Intuition as Conceptual Layering
[ Ellen Lupton ]
[ David Knowles ]
[ Tammy Dayton ]
[ Pouya Ahmadi ]
Produced in Graduate Graphic Design II (CFA AR 884) under the guidance of faculty advisors Kristen Coogan, Associate Professor of Art, and Christopher Sleboda, Associate Professor of Art, with additional assistance provided by Graham Atherton, Visiting Critic.
School of Visual Arts
College of Fine Arts
Boston University
May 2025
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