This is the first of two images I created in response to this research and the thoughts I was having as I wrote this image essay. I didn’t have to stray too far from my own design style to create this, and here I let my intuition lead the way. I wanted it to feel very choppy and disjointed, and I wanted some, but not all, of the text to be choppy and disjointed as well. For the picture, rather than chop it up and mix the pieces up all over the place crazily, I wanted the decisions to be more pointed. So I took pieces from the original photo and placed them only a few inches from where they were taken,leaving the original picture fully in the background. I wanted the disjointed feeling to be there but didn’t want it to be overwhelming; I wanted some sort of grounding element. One of my favorite “ugly” design habits is to break up text and have some of it exist specifically to contribute to the composition rather than to be read. Of course, this is also where the repetition comes in. You get the message one way or another, whether it’s by reading the full sentence in the one instance it happens, or if you piece it together from the other fragmented segments. It’s also just meant to be fun and humorous; I think that is one of the reasons why I like ugly design so much. In so many ways I think design is taken too seriously, and ugly design feels playful and energetic and exciting. And once again, this design is flawed and human and totally me. It is not perfect, it is not polished; it is flawed. Isn’t that beautiful?