Before beginning this master’s program, my work already revolved around questions of storytelling and communication. Coming from a background in interior and exhibition design, I became interested in how people understand narratives through space, atmosphere, and visual cues rather than through long textual explanations. In my previous thesis, I explored how lighting can support storytelling and guide perception within an installation. The project focused on how visitors interpret meaning through sensory experience, even when verbal guidance is limited.
Alongside this academic interest, communication has also been a personal challenge in my everyday life. Living and studying in a country where my mother tongue is not spoken has created a constant negotiation between languages. I regularly move between Persian, English, and German depending on the situation and the people I interact with. Often I notice that certain thoughts are easier to express in one language than in another. At times I struggle to find the right words, even when the idea itself feels very clear in my mind. Because of this, communication has become something I am highly aware of in daily life. It is not simply a neutral tool but something that requires constant adjustment and creativity.
This experience has gradually led me to search for ways of expressing ideas that are less dependent on words. Over time I have experimented with different forms of expression that allow communication through other senses or forms of perception. One example is music. When I began learning the violin, part of the motivation came from a desire to express emotions that are difficult to articulate verbally. Music can communicate mood, tension, and rhythm without requiring a shared language.
Visual expression has played a similar role in my life. Drawing and painting have been lifelong challenges for me. I have repeatedly tried different mediums and techniques in order to find a visual language that feels natural. Although this process has often involved frustration, it has also kept my interest in visual communication alive. Photography became another way to observe and communicate moments visually. Through photography I became more attentive to gestures, light, and composition as ways of conveying meaning.
Even baking has played a role in this exploration of communication. Through my small project Dot Pastry I experimented with recipes, presentation, and packaging. While baking might appear unrelated to design research at first glance, it also involves communication through sensory experience. Taste, color, form, and presentation all contribute to how people interpret and experience something. In this sense, the process also became another way of thinking about how meaning can be conveyed without relying on written or spoken language.
In the first semester of this master’s program I explored storyboarding as a method of visual communication. The project focused on how a narrative can be conveyed within a group that shares a common language while using as few words as possible. The aim was to experiment with visual sequencing and the minimal use of text, relying instead on images, gestures, and context to communicate meaning. Through this process I became more interested in how people read visual sequences and how much information can be communicated through images alone.
Now, in the current semester, I feel the need to deepen my skills in illustration. While storyboarding allowed me to think about narrative structure and the sequence of events, illustration focuses more on the creation of individual images that carry meaning on their own. I am interested in experimenting with different illustrative approaches and visual styles to understand how ideas, emotions, or instructions might be communicated with little or no text.
At this stage the direction is still developing and not yet fully structured. For this reason this section reflects a process of thinking through possibilities and connecting past experiences with current interests. This process of reflection is also part of the research itself. By looking at the different ways I have tried to communicate over the years through language, music, drawing, photography, and even baking, I begin to recognize a common thread. It is an ongoing search for ways to express meaning when words alone are not enough.
