Dominyka Sekonaite (she/her)
I am a passionate graphic designer and creative researcher mostly focused on the fields of editorial design and identity. My visual approach is bold and structured; and I enjoy playing with basic geometric shapes in order to create complex designs. I also often use photography or illustration as visual tools during my working process.
While researching, I am always excited about discovering the peculiar aspects of my subject and I usually add depth by exploring relevant socio-historical, psychological, or scientific themes. This leads to various outcomes relying on data interpretation, sci-fi speculations or placemaking. The relationship between people and places is particularly interesting to me, therefore a lot of my projects discuss those issues.
I am excited about the possibility to collaborate in different creative fields, though in particular I am looking for opportunities which involve editorial or book design.
Contact
Saltcoats
An identity project for a small seaside town of Saltcoats situated on the west coast of North Ayrshire.
The tiny town was a huge spot of attraction in the last century – famous of its outdoor swimming pool, Saltcoats served as a popular holiday destination for many. However, times have changed and the tourism industry has moved out from the town.
While taking a site visit, I came across a ‘Talking Wall’ – a monument for people’s recollections of their time spent in Saltcoats. I was touched by how particular places can bring sentimental values and be very personal, therefore I aimed to create the identity which would reflect that personalisation and intimacy. I have developed a playful modular system which is unified but also varying throughout the objects to which it is applied.
Film Booklet
A film booklet listing the top ten films (of a personal preference) which start with the letter ‘M’ (the letter was chosen randomly). Here I was playing with the grid systems in order to make an engaging and well-structured layout. I was also attempting to create a tension between the text blocks and photographs which have a strong eye trajectory. Each film title has nine additional bars, and a number of a film on the list is indicated by a yellow bar which ‘moves’ up (in the last film it ‘hits’ a yellow ‘M’). The yellow blocks seen throughout the booklet were used as a playful and unifying element.
The Shape of Happiness
A speculative project made in response to the body of research which states that the global shape of happiness is “U”. The curve shows that a person tends to be happier at their early and late years, with the least joyful period occurring around one’s middle age. Similar life patterns were also seen while experimenting with the apes, which led me to thinking about the genetic aspect of happiness. Further research showed that genetics plays a significant role here as even 50% of our capacity to feel happiness depends on the genes. However, the analysed report seems quite generalising – can such a complex emotion as feeling happy be compressed to a simplified set of data?
In order to illustrate this with a satirical note, I took the role of a deterministic ‘scientist’ and challenged myself to “diagnose” the level of happiness from a person’s DNA/bacterias (which I have attempted to grow on my own from the collected specimens).
Extraterrestrial Code
A conceptual typeface made using John Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ – a cellular automaton based on a simple algorithm which controls whether the cells should live, die or reproduce. The ‘Code’ derived from my work exploring the themes of non-human (alien) communication systems, however I was also interested to see how would the alphabet evolve if it was an independent organism. In order to achieve this, I have drawn the letters in Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ and recorded their development – some letters eventually disappeared, some have turned to static or endlessly looping shapes from which I have designed the typeface. As I wanted the ‘Code’ to look more lively, I have drawn it by hand. This way the imperfect ‘letters’ create interesting patterns and textures. While trying to put an emphasis on the bizarreness of the typeface, I have paired it with abstract human anatomy pictures which have a strange aura of ‘unfamiliar familiar’.
Project Links
Red Road
In this project I am exploring the complicated history of Red Road Flats – perhaps, the most discussed and idealised council estate in Glasgow. A housing complex was perpetually praised and loathed since it was erected in the 60s and thus gained an intriguing range of conflicting opinions. Gradually, the towers were turned into a social metaphor for the controversial urban dreams.
By taking into practice diverse research methods such like the investigation of social media archives, physical and digital site visits, I have come up with a publication which takes a form of a ‘mix and match’ book. It aims to reflect the complexity of different interpretations of Red Road Flats and their ever-changing image which persists in the collective memory. Therefore, the book is divided into four chapters, each representing a different ‘camp’: grey stands for architects/contractors; red – for local communities; yellow – the press; and the blue chapter shows historical context (the colour palette was taken from a tower block of Red Road).
