As society changes, our customs and expressions follow, yet while these aspects of mainstream culture fall in and out of fashion, a counter-culture persists. One particular sector of counter-culture that has been especially influential over the past 60 years has been punk. When hearing the term "punk" at first, one might think of the stereotypical elements: distorted aggressive music, ripped clothing, mohawks, and anything considered “underground.” As I developed research on the punk influence in contemporary culture, I discovered that undergrounded-ness, was the most critical part of punk’s survival. The punk ethos is formed around beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, not “selling out.” By this definition, punk-ness must be conceived and acted out independently, by each person.
With this in mind, I decided to challenge how we, as a society, perceive contemporary punk-ness. I quickly realized that this could not be done through traditional graphic design and that in order to best communicate my argument, I had to become uncomfortable, taking on a punk mindset to guide my actions. Storytelling became the most important aspect of my project and these accounts, best told in video format. In these biographical videos, three different "punks" are unconventionally interviewed and edited into short videos. Using this punk lens, my thesis is a visual communication of the roughness and fractious complexities to be found in the punk ethos.