So we had to come up with a self-initiated project over the course of six weeks until the end of the year. I was researching tassels and fringe paper crafts when I came across the book called the 'The Fringe Projects 1-10' by Henrik Vibskov and Andreas Emenius. I thought it was a pretty cool concept but it was more art than design. Although, Andreas Emenius mentioned something about whether a fringe can exist as a singular piece or does it have to be in a group? I liked that question and so I decided then that I wanted to do six projects; one for each week exploring the themes relating to my topic 'Fringe'. I did quite a lot of reading up online on articles, journals, anything with the keyword 'Fringe' in them.

There was the literal fringe like hair, to the TV show, to living in the fringes of something. Though none of them made me passionate enough or even gave me an interestingly good idea for an outcome. I then went on Wikipedia to look up categories on 'Fringe'. I thought that perhaps it would give me a decent starting point from which I could narrow down in an organised manner. I found terms like Fringe Shift, Fringe Theory, Fringe Science, Fringe Theatre, Fringe Party and Fringe Culture. It was at this point that I was kind of lost and overwhelmed. Part of me enjoyed the general knowledge I was gaining but I was unsure how they could be related to graphic design. I am passionate about branding, identity, symbolism, website design and crafting things (which are very commercialised so it was hard to work with something without business at its forefront or direction) and I definitely did not want a publication as my outcome for all six projects. So I was stuck on this for quite a while. I kept researching and hoped that an idea would strike me.

Way back before this, I had considered exploring more of hypnotherapy and fringe science and theory but I eventually decided I did not want them as part of my six week project. I did not want fringe theatre either as it was more an outcome (performance) than a topic. So I was left with Fringe Shift, Fringe Party and Fringe Culture. I then decided to add Life on the Fringe after keeping up with the Migrant Crisis and change Fringe Party to Lunatic Fringe Party after keeping up with the Paris Terror Attack on BBC. I kept contemplating on doing something on homelessness but I felt that it had been done plenty of times and I was not sure how I could bring a fresh perspective on it. I had read this article about rebel architects building low cost, sustainable and recyclable homes for people displaced after natural disasters and I liked the idea. I started researching on it and also looked up 3D printing. I watched quite a lot of TED Talk videos to get questions and perspective.

Then I decided what if I looked at Fringe Art and Design? I had initially brushed them off because I did not know any contemporary fringe designers and it was hard to find online. The thing I felt about being a graphic designer or a designer in general is that we have to be different to stand out or bring out-of-this-world ideas to be the best but they still has to fit within the mainstream society as they are the audience and consumers. I was researching Fringe Culture and looking at the UK underground culture and I thought about Graffiti Art. They were a form of Fringe Art and when I went for the World Goes Pop exhibition at Tate Modern, it gave me an idea about political art and there I watched a documentary by Artur Żmijewski titled BLindly. Disability art, political art, outsider art, naive art and graffiti art were all considered as being the fringes of art. I decided that I could go with that as my fifth project. I then looked at Fringe Design. I started with Rebel Architecture and then I came across Hostile Architecture which resonated with me.