I went to the ECA library to search for further inspiration. An issue of novum magazine caught my eyes. In the cover design, the designer plays around with the idea of ‘unboxing’ through layers and layers of Russian dolls, the readers have to flip through four layers of paper to see the text hidden in the design. This design doesn’t only illustrate the idea itself but also the actual action of unboxing.
The idea of interpreting an action through a design inspired me to also think about how I could incorporate the act of ‘unlocking’ and ‘locking’ in my final piece.
In the process of breaking down the two actions, a reference to Janus, Roman God of the Gates and Doors drew my eyes. In most portrayals of him, he held a key in his left to open gates.”He could see the past as well as the future. Janus was the beginning and the end.” Past and future can somehow be associated to unlocking and locking, as in my own interpretation, when you lock something you’re keeping things away, things that are in the past (as you already have it), when you unlock the lock, you’re instead revealing things, creating new possibilities for the objects stored inside. This inspired me in thinking more about the traditional and contemporary aspects of keys discussed in last week’s small group tutorial.
I have thought about experimenting with various book forms (as can be seen in the picture above), the box-like design requires viewers to open the front layer to reveal the inner layer, which could be interpreted as the act of unlocking and locking. However, I felt like this idea is not strong enough, the link between the design and the actions are also quite weak.
To make the idea more apparent, I decided to incorporate the appearance of a key in the design. One side of the design would feature the traditional aspect of keys while the other side on the contemporary perspective.
