Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2023

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2023

Story Thrifting
Mira Guo

Flea markets have existed in Europe for centuries. In the 1990s, thrift shops and second-hand stores became increasingly popular in the United States and Japan. Compared with brand-new products, secondhand objects are generally more affordable, if they’ve been well-maintained, they can be in great condition. In addition to their economy, second-hand objects have the value of history and mysteriousness. Unlike mass produced products, the stories behind the old things make them unique.

Many thrift shops are messy and unorganized, which results in an unpleasant and unaesthetic shopping experience. Based on personal experience, it is hard and time-consuming to find a desired product straightforwardly in a secondhand market due to the messy arrangement and the lack of well-defined themes. Overly cluttered visuals make the audience exhausted.

My project, Story Thrifting, embraces a creative curation of secondhand objects from my personal belongings and my friends’, categorizing and displaying them according to distinct themes such as 1920s and Earthy. Unlike what we could find in a regular thrift shop, Story Thrifting shares a story about each object, celebrating the history and life it had before. It also includes a description card for each item, but leaves the original owners anonymous. With this project, I aim to communicate that thrift shopping is more than purchasing inexpensive items, the functionality is not the only thing that sells and comes with the objects. It should be always meaningful for the people and the society that stories behind each object are the ones that are worth purchasing.

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