‘What Moves Us?’, a new mural by Master’s and Degree students tutored by Guido de Boer and Ido Brouwer

A group of 45 students of the Master in Visual Design and the Undergraduate Degree in Design and Innovation have projected, designed and materialized a new mural in the Atri of Elisava as part of a workshop led by Guido de Boer and Ido Brouwer, designers of the High On Type collective. Below, the students themselves explain the meaning and concept behind the new mural, synthesized in the phrase ‘What Moves Us?’

What Moves Us? Why this question? First, how is it possible for a group of over 30 people to feel represented by the same statement? To start the process, we focused on what could unite us. Some ideas were design, passion, music, beer, Barcelona, anxiety about the future and even death. We realized that all these concepts could be related, because to design and reshape the future you also need to have fun and relax.

This sparked a debate among us: is it possible for us, as designers, to reshape the future if we don’t have fun while doing it? We realized that for many of us, uncertainty, judgments, self-imposed expectations and fear of failure often prevent us from being creative and living up to our potential. Sometimes the best ideas come when we are relaxed and not thinking so much.

This conversation revealed that there are many emotions involved in the design process: fear, anxiety, expectations, but also fun, passion, relaxation, hope…. In the end, it all comes down to: what drives us to design? Or what drives us in general?

“What moves us?” is a very open question that can have a strong meaning. Why are you doing what you do? Is it because you want to? Or because you don’t know what else to do? Is it because of anxiety, fear or doubt?

What moves you? What makes you feel alive? What makes you cry, laugh, worry, relax, feel strong, weak, or hopeless? What moves us, as humanity, to keep going with our life and trying to make the world a better place every day?

This question can have strong answers if you think deeply about it. Reevaluating the motives behind our actions can help us revise our values and priorities, and hopefully help us live a more purposefilled life. For this message, we chose to design every letter completely different from the other. They each represent how much diversity we find in our group, and how in spite of our differences we can still come together to find a common ground.

Máster en Diseño Visual students
Martí Bru, Alessandra Carta, Lúa Climent, Marc Galán, Pau Gómez, Yeray González, Paula Martín, Pipe Morelli, Dani Salceda, Iuri Vivanco

Master in Visual Design students
Mercedes Alves, Marina Denia, Juliette Dussart, Madalena Franca, Naomi Kaley, Prachi Malviya, Linda Marlen, Beatriz Silva, Luisa Urrea, Natalie Vukic

Undergraduate Degree in Design and Innovation students

2nd year
Marina Blanch, Eloi Bobet, Elisabeth Comas, Aina García, Bea ly, Alba López, Núria Oriol, Claudia Quesada, Berta Rasquí, Andrea Sengoku

3rd year
Guillem Caballol, Luca Chemello, Maia Diaz, Pablo Navarlaz, Manel Pla

4th year (Erasmus)
Federico Fanucchi

Assistants
Mark Bohke, Oriol Miró

Coordination
Thais Caballero, Marc Panero

Production
Eva Ríos