Workshop with Erin Honeycutt

Relational Marks: Translating Voice into Form

Recently, I participated in a workshop led by Erin Honeycutt at KASK, where we explored the intersection of language, listening, and material form. The session centered on the concept of Ekphrasis —traditionally the verbal description of visual art— used as a tool to translate spoken fragments and sensory experiences into graphic compositions.

The workshop began with a series of exercises designed to shift our perception of communication. We practiced "language as listening" by describing objects in exhaustive detail without naming them, forcing the audience into a state of active, searching reception. These moments of sharing and with our voices eventually manifested into collaborative Venn diagrams, mapping the overlaps in our collective perception. These moments of shared description eventually manifested into collaborative Venn diagrams, mapping the overlaps in our collective perception.

Building on this idea of ekphrasis, we moved through various stages of translation. This included a guided meditation that evoked the "memory of a book" through internal imagery, as well as an exercise where we recorded a personal memory in the third person to later transcribe it word-for-word. This process highlighted the friction between the fluid, spoken word and its static, written counterpart.

Eventually, we transformed these accumulated notes, transcriptions, and ekphrastic fragments into a physical object. The result was a handmade publication with a "Slinky-like" structure. This kinetic form allowed the book to be viewed from multiple perspectives, moving away from a linear narrative and instead becoming a tactile extension of the language itself—an intermedia object that captures the very movement of thought.

Connection to my Research

The workshop offered a valuable perspective on the performative nature of typography and the role of the body within the writing process. By emphasizing the translation of voice, memory and sound into a physical form, the act of designing becomes more than an aesthetic choice; it becomes a direct registration of presence. This experience aligns closely with my own research. The process of transcribing a voice or materializing a meditation reinforced my understanding of the graphic mark as a tactile extension of human experience.

Workshop #2

Time for an update! ---------------------- From Fingers to Potatoes: 🥔 🥔🥔🥔🥔

Do you remember Workshop #1? That was the session where I introduced participants to typography through the lens of the body in a very literal sense—designing initials using nothing but our fingers.

Workshop 02 has now come to a close, and it took that investigation into performative typography a step further. While we continued exploring the body's role in design, there was a major twist: the introduction of a tool.

I kicked off this workshop with a new reference: a text from the book Glossary of Undisciplined Design by Anja Kaiser and Rebecca Stephany. The text, titled "Emotional Typefaces," suggests that fonts do far more than serve a functional purpose—they evoke specific emotions in the reader. By starting with this reading, I wanted to spark a different perspective on how the participants view typography and the actual act of "making" letters.

I wanted to see how the design process and decision-making shift when you're handed a tool that, once again, demands physical engagement.

The tool in question? The humble potato. 

Banal, cheap (most were on the verge of shriveling up), but surprisingly versatile.

The participants had to navigate:

 * Negative space and relief cutting.

 * The tension between form and readability.

—> It raised a fundamental question: Is legibility still the priority? Or does the focus shift toward something else entirely due to the inherent clunkiness of the medium?

Podcast @radiopunt

Hi everyone, good news! Together with graphic designer Maud Declerck — a fellow master’s student — I recorded a podcast episode about my research on performative typography (that departs from / is informed by the body).

The episode was recorded for Radiopunt, a platform founded as a master’s project within graphic design. Radiopunt functions as an experimental radio platform that creates space for creative exchange, live broadcasting, and audio-based experimentation, bringing together graphic designers, artists, DJs, and other creative practitioners.

You can find the link to the radio program here: http://radio.declerckvanmalder.be

(Tip: you can start listening from 6:30, as the introduction consists of a song.)

Letters from Letters 💌

Time for a new update: At this stage of the research, I work through a personification of typography. Letters are approached not as abstract signs, but as carriers of personality. Typography thus becomes bodily and physical: first shaped through the body in the workshop context, and later further embodied through the narratives attached to each letter.

Each letter is given a voice through an associative writing process. Starting from the visual and material form of the letter, I write a text that functions as a letter addressed to the reader. The narrative does not exist separately from the typographic form, but emerges from it. These texts are not illustrative additions; they are a method for articulating what the letter embodies.

This approach resonates with Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, in which meaning is understood as something carried rather than linearly produced. Similarly, the letters in this project operate as containers of bodily, subjective, and associative knowledge. Typography is researched here as an embodied practice—one in which meaning is not merely communicated, but physically and narratively held.

Workshop #1

Graphic design that starts from the body may sound appealing in theory, but how does it actually take shape in practice? To explore this, I created a format that gives me deadlines, constraints, and room to experiment. Every few weeks, I host a workshop that begins with a reference —a text, image, book, essay, or manifesto— that responds to the idea of the 'body as a medium'.

The first workshop took place with nine fellow master’s students. I opened the session with a breathing exercise, reading a text by Clara Pasteau, Hypertensions: Mindful Liberation, from the publication Beginnings. This helped us arrive together, settle into the space, and become more aware of our bodies.

The focus of the workshop was to create our initials—the first letter of our name. The tools were simple: ink, white A3 paper, and our hands and fingers.

Context about my research

As you may or may not know I'm now in my master year. Throughout the year the title of this research, project changed almost every month. And I'm still unsure about it. I believe that this ongoing change reflects the evolving nature of the project’s content. 

The initial title of my research was The Magical Character of Language, which emerged during my final bachelor year. It expressed the idea that language is never neutral or transparent. How we read, see, think, and interpret is subjective and shaped by individual experiences. This subjectivity is what gives language its power and magic.

Over time, I encountered the broadness of the concept of language—ranging from images and speech to gestures, actions, and letters—which made the scope of my research unclear. To gain focus, I narrowed the project, leading to the second title: Performative Typography. This phase explored typography as something that originates from the body. However, the notion of performance began to feel limiting and distant from my own design practice.

What became clear is my desire to research typography starting from the body. I now approach typography as a personal carrier of stories, not as a neutral form. Letters are, to me, bearers of personality and meaning—shaped by both physical presence and inner experience.