New Ugly

Thesis

Experiment with, Revive, Celebrate the bad, the below-standard, the radical, the tacky, the un-designed, the unintentional, the ugly, the un-curated. New Ugly is a movement to honor, celebrate and revive ridiculed typefaces and vernacular design, bringing fresh perspectives into our prestigious design ecosystem. Through visual investigation and experiments with these typefaces that are usually poked fun at, New Ugly manifests potential design literacy and flexibility in these typefaces, behind all of which there is an anonymous graphic or non-graphic “designer.”

New Ugly also addresses underlying colonialism and colonizing power behind the ugliness of typefaces like Karate and Papyrus. The ugliness is constructed by appropriating bits and pieces of another exotic culture, the Far East, Mysterious Asia, and the Tropics. New Ugly is a movement but it is also a manifesto and a way of being.

Degree Thesis at Rhode Island School of Design
Thesis Instructor: Lucinda Hitchcock