Fansheng Yuan
Yuan Fansheng is a graphic designer and visual practitioner currently studying MDes Graphic Design at the Glasgow School of Art. His practice explores the relationship between image, typography and communication, with a particular interest in how visual information can be transformed, interrupted and reinterpreted.
Through photography, experimental publication and material-based processes, Yuan investigates the boundaries between readability and abstraction. His work often focuses on everyday visual languages, such as commercial signs and vernacular typography, exploring how meaning changes when images and texts are fragmented, layered or degraded.
Combining analogue experimentation with digital processes, his practice examines how materials, structures and interactions influence the way information is experienced. He is interested in graphic design not only as a method of delivering information, but also as a way of creating new relationships between viewers, images and meanings.
PARTIALLY READABLE
PARTIALLY READABLE explores the boundary between readability and abstraction through everyday commercial signs. The project began with the question of how much visual information can be disrupted before recognition changes.
Using photography, film soup experiments and digital image processing, I investigated different forms of image degradation. The final publication combines translucent paper, layered images and fragmented typography to create a reading experience where information can disappear, overlap and return.
By physically separating and reconnecting images and text, the publication encourages readers to reconsider how meaning is constructed through visual communication.
The publication combines translucent paper and opaque paper in an alternating sequence. The transparent layers create visual interference when placed over the original images underneath.
The publication opens through a gatefold-like structure, allowing different layers of images and text to gradually reveal and interact with each other.
Fragments of commercial sign typography are separated across different layers, creating new relationships between text, image and material.
The translucent layer partially obscures the original image, creating a visual transition between readability and abstraction.