Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

A Fight for Freedom
Dawa Dolma

Tibet is an innate part of me that has been endowed upon me by birth. Despite growing up in the culture, there are certain practices, customs, objects that are very alien to me. All of these have immense symbolism and complexity. My aim is to study and capture the Tibetan life- style and culture in order to shed light to the politi- cal issues and difficulties faced by the Tibetans in Tibet under the Chinese regime. The unique lifestyle, culture, and religion are a unifying force for all Tibetans, and it is for the preservation of this culture and its values that so many Tibetans are not even hesitating to self-immolate themselves to continue the fifty years of struggle and solidarity in the fight for freedom. The Tibetans sacrificing themselves are crying out for help and recognition from the international community and it is theircries that I would like to bring forward to the people around me. Tibetan Altars is a video that captures my father performing the unique Tibetan ritual and practice of offering water bowls every morning in the altar. It is an amalgamation of my personal narrative, Tibetan culture and lifestyle, and the mundane activities with a revelation about the political conditions and issues faced by Tibetans in Tibet. The altar is a very sacred part of the home where religious prayers are performed and Tibetans have a genuine feeling of reverence towards it since it serves as a door towards attaining Buddha hood and connecting with the divine power. On the other hand, I have also used political issues faced by Tibetans in Tibet with the help of typography in the video. The way in which I addressed these political issues are by juxtaposing them with the practices of the mundane Tibetan life and cultural activities since it is this culture that is at the risk of being lost. A Fight for Freedom takes factual informa- tion about the Tibetan people’s fight for freedom and portrays it in the form of bold typographic visual language that is bold and confrontational along with some images. I used the colors of the Tibetan prayer flags — blue, red, green, and yellow — to distinguish each topic with a specific color and kept the design monotone by inverting the colors occasionally. Since the layperson is only aware of the ‘Free Tibet’ slogan, and not the actual mean- ing and issues about cultural genocide and human rights faced by the Tibetans for decades; my concept was to educate them about the issues in a holistic way.

Jonathan Abbo

Nick Abreu

Silao AJ Afano

Amel Afzal

Jeongkyun Ahn

Frederico Afrange de Andrade

Cynthia Bacall

Piper Black

Shravika Bothra

Zipporah Burman

John Bussiere

Noelle Campbell

Susana Castro

Nate Cepis

Yi-Shan Chang

Lisa Seoyeon Cho

Paul Jay Choe

Sara Chou

Saiq'a S. Chowdhury

Iee Deun Eden Chung

Caitlin Clingman

Evon Coleman

Rachel Cutler

James Czyz

Mae Decena

Stephanie De Jesús

Jonathan De La Rosa

Carlos De León

Kristie DeLouise

Dawa Dolma

Erica Efstratoudakis

Alexis Dawn Ely

Beril Esin

Sofia Falcon

Francisco Flores

Erik Freer

Ying Joyce Fu

Carina Giacomelli

Ermioni Giakou

Isabel Castillo Guijarro

Alex Hack

Shaobo Han

Paulina Ho

Lauren Hodges

Jenny Holt

Vicky Huang

Jess Hutchison

Joanna Izzo

Hasita Kamlesh

Elizabeth Kenney

SoJung Kim

Jihae Kim

Michelle H. Kim

MJ Minjung Kwon

Alleson Lai

Alfred Lam

Yejin Lee

Michael Leng

Christina Lu

Chris Lunney

Maketa Mabane

Amanda Maduri

Sara Maier

Tara Mann

Jenn Martins

Caroline Mathews

Andrew McCausland

Anna McKendrick

Bryan Meador

Melanie Mencarelli

Julio Montás

Jenni Mällinen

Burak Nehbit

My Nguyen

Jacqueline Oh

Melisa Ozkan

Boram Park

Caroline Partridge

Xing Hai Piao

Brenna Pladsen

Stephanie Porzio

Rocco Rada

Jay Ramirez

Joelle Riffle

Elizabeth Rodriguez

Yvonne Romano

Juan Carlos Santos Andrade

Ariel Scala-Perykasz

Shelly Seroussi

Betty Shang

Leslie Shapiro

Jennifer Haesoo Shim

Jeemin Shim

Amos Shin

Ben Shotwell

Robyn Silev

Nika Simovich

Axel Hammarskiöld Spendrup

Lesley Sakinah Steele

Naomi Sundberg

Britt Tapsall

Sabina Telagis

Daniel Bogre Udell

Azalea Vaseghi

Will Warner

Courtney Wells

Belinda Whiteman

Bryce Williams

Anita Wong

Chu-yi Wu

Giselle Nari Wynn

Katherine Yaksich

Kyungwon Yang

Emily Zhong

Michael Zoppo