Senior thesis project for California College of the Arts’ BFA in Graphic Design program. 

Written, Designed and
Illustrated by Lydia Ortiz.
8.25 x 10 in; 260 pages
Full color with
8-page 4-color
screen printed and
acetate insert

* 2012 Senior Thesis
Award recipient
* Featured in Design and Ethics: Reflections on Practice, published by Routledge.

THESIS:
The immigration of an individual begins a psychosocial process with lasting effects on identity. This play in identity construction ultimately produces a uniquely augmented identity, one that is neither old or new, but instead complex and layered.

Drawing from my background as Filipino and soon to be American, I have collected in this book, an unusual narrative that looks into my own augmented persona.

 The chapters in this book were inspired by the ‘Welcome To America’ immigration packet given to me when I first came here. This book’s structure is based on the glossary of the packet, arranging each narrative alphabetically, giving order to an extremely chaotic experience. The characters you’ll see in the book are abstract representations of the protagonist, the immigrant, and the author: myself.

These characters’ forms are constantly changing in each narrative, a rendition of how I constantly wrestled with cultural, social, political, and religious differences and this book does a great job in telling how each experience has changed me anew.

By exploring certain identity shifts that I have undergone as a 19-year-old immigrant coming here from the Philippines, this book hopes to illuminate the complexities of identity and self that we all face when entering a new place, and how we move forward.