Geo/graphic design

Non-representational theory suggests that representations, especially those that are text-based, are incapable of communicating the affective, multisensory experiences of everyday life, privileging the text rather than the experience. However, it is possible to reframe one’s understanding of print to see it as experienced in four dimensions and offering the opportunity to design its material form in a way that prompts memories and triggers affective and emotional responses. This approach to print is illustrated via Barnes’ discussion of a small experimental book, Stuff, that has been developed and designed using a geo/graphic design process. Drawing on theory and practice from cultural geography and graphic design, work of a geo/graphic nature offers the reader an individual, interactive and multisensory experience that reflects contemporary geographic conceptualisations of place.