Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2023

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2023

Social media users have collectively fabricated a false reality, only existing under our shared experience within social media. This phenomena is a result of our growing reliance on the internet to reflect and represent our ways of communication. One phenomenon is identity culture, where users accumulate libraries of internet content to capture their ideal version of reality. This has created an endless feedback loop where the interactions on social media greatly impacts individuals’ sense of self, this very same methodology is used by corporations to manipulate us into consuming more.

In the format of current pop culture mediums like iPhone selfies, TikTok videos, Worldstar recordings etc—this series of images have created a prevalent identity. Through constructing a fictional world that references pop culture history and memes—this series of images aim to address individual psyche, spaces, and collective memory within hyperreality.

My thesis aims to highlight the drastic contrast of interactions in our life with social media, I used 3D depictions of Pepe the Frog, a controversial symbol that has been used on all sides of political activism culture as an avatar to deliver the message. I designed a series of commercial print advertising in public spaces to address and explore the blurred boundaries between social media and real life, highlighting the over-commodification of identity and culture through the same means used by corporate entities to sell products. The goal is to create a sterile environment and sense of claustrophobia reflected through body languages of the avatar that defy social cues.

Fatima AlJaber

Ghada Alkhaznadar

Jenni Ang

Natalia Arteaga

Jewel Baek

Danielle Berger

Morgan Boals

Celeste Bohan

Marie-Pia Bonnot

Reece Brind'Amour

Mina Caglar

Yuqin Cai

Ashley Yeo Hye Chae

Joyce Chan

Beryl Chen

Jiahui (Georgia) Chen

Ari Cho

Ella Christensen

Abel Chua

Zoe Cui

Whitley Darby

Tasha Dezelsky

Nitya Dhingra

Liam Doyle

Tyler Dunn

Kashish Dusad

Jonga Fan

Siyao Fang

Elaine Fei

Boyang Feng

Ashley Fletcher

Alisa Gannota

Maggie Gibson

Mia Gilling

Arlo Goldman

Pablo González

Dhriti Goyal

Blythe Graziano

Abbey Gregory

Jonna Grigelevich

Min Guan

Mira Guo

Juri Han

Oluschi Harmon

Lara Hemels

Julia Herceg

Yuk Hei Ho

Min Heong Hong

Hugo Hsi

Jiayi (Jialin) Huang

June Huang

Stella Huang

Yerin Hur

Hannah Hwang

Michelle Jeong

Jiayi Jin

Christine Joo

Marion Jun

Jong Hee Jung

Yuka Kamata

Juyeon Kang

Irem Kaplan

Ani Kapreilian

Natalie Kendrick

Eddie Kim

Michelle Kim

Se Won Kim

Sejung Kim

Sharon Kim

Shinyoung Kim

Yousun Kim

Marika Kleinfeldt

Alexander Lavertue

Emily Lee

Gia Lee

Gina Lee

June Lee

Rachel Lee

Sia Lee

Ayline Le Sourd

Chang Li

Chenxu Li

Yiwei Li

Michael Lim

Feng-yi (Cassie) Lin

Joyce Lin

Emily Liu

Lan Liu

Ruoxuan (Hedy) Liu

Selina Liu

Lissette Lomeli

Citra Luna Martha

Elan Ma

Sydney Maggin

Nadia Makmur

Sophia Marret

Hunter Marrs

Dhruvi Mehta

Lily Meng

Annie Mildrew

Katherine Musgrave

Michelle Napolitano

Madhvik Nemani

Su Jin Oh

Lexi O’Neill

Si Ran Pang

Christopher Panicker

Jaskirat Panjrath

Rachel Park

YeoJin Park

Annabelle Press

Anaïs Pyrczak

Xinyu Qiao

Diva Rathore

Jillian Rees

Hanna Reichler

Agathe Renou

Lourdes Salazar Castillo

Aoi Sejima

Zoyah Shah

Waver Shan

Nahui Shon

Yixing Shou

Xier Song

Malavika Srinivasan

Zoë Stapel

Shaina Suri

Isabelle Tan

WenHsin Tzeng

Zoe Ueda

Maya Valencia

Noa Villarin

Deanna Wang

Hsiang Tzu (Sandy) Wang

Michelle Wang

Tingyue Wang

Wenyi Wang

Zi Wang

Leon Wong

Qiqi Wu

Saskia Wulandiarti

Grace Xin

Rui Xiong

Katherine Xu

Moxin Xu

Hyein Yang

Val Yang

Emily Yoon

Rongzhen Yuan

Kaitlyn Zhang

Kexuan Zhang

Peki Zhang

Yuzhou Zhang

Xuru Zhao

Kore Zhong

Aria Zhou