Design Mind

Seeds of Transformation: A Zine About My Philosophy

art direction

print making

  graphic design  

Course: Carnegie Mellon MA in Design, Design Minds Seminar

Role: Solo Designer

Team: Lorin Anderberg

Tools: InDesign, Illustrator

Duration: 4 weeks

Design Challenge:

Create a zine that expresses your design philosophy in an accessible and compelling way for non-designers.

How might I define and share the inner workings of my design mind in a format anyone can understand?

Design:

This isn’t just a zine. It’s a vessel for growth—a curated collection of ideas and influences that have shaped me. A seed bank of transformation.

Front: a narrative that unfolds through a simple accordion structure
Back: a metaphorical seed bank, filled with design values, quotes, principles, and community wisdom

My Design Mind: Seeds of Transformation

The reader would flip through this accordion zine to read the story before opening up the paper and flipping it over to see the “seed bank,” a collection of wisdom from the co-design and transformative justice community.

Final Zine

The result: Seeds of Transformation. A foldable, flippable zine that invites readers into my design worldview.


Inside the seed bank, each mini-zine explores one of my core values and its roots:

  • A guiding quote

  • A design principle

  • A hand-drawn seed illustration

Each element serves as a gesture of gratitude to the thinkers, practitioners, and communities who guide my work.

Below are the digital files for the mini-zines of my design values within the seed bank featuring:

  • Value + Source

  • Quotes

  • Principles

  • Seed Illustration

Approach:

I began with big questions and an open mind, gradually anchoring my vision around the metaphor of form as meaning. I knew I wanted the final piece to be tactile, vibrant, and interactive—something that invited exploration.

Professor Jonathan Chapman’s seminar exposed me to transformative frameworks like pluriversal design, decolonizing design, and social design. These challenged my assumptions and fueled deeper inquiry into how I could design ethically and intentionally.

I educated myself thoughtfully on existing frameworks for justice and equity within the industry while assessing my own worldview and privileges. This process led me to co-design—the core of my design philosophy.

I dove into independent research, exploring restorative justice pedagogies and equity-oriented design practices. I was deeply inspired and influenced by archival resources such as:

Ultimately, I decided that the most meaningful contribution I could make was to gather and amplify the voices already leading this work. Inspired by the metaphor of a seed bank or a community seed stand, I created Seeds of Transformation—curated zine of collective wisdom and inspiration that I hope can grow alongside me as I step into my career.

(See bibliography at the end)

Visual Language:

  • Organic, hand-drawn shapes

  • Vibrant, earthy colors

  • A balance of clarity and play

  • Structure used as metaphor

Multiple print tests helped refine the final product. In future iterations, I’d opt for thicker paper stock to minimize wrinkling and enhance durability.

Works Cited:

Reflection

Seeds of Transformation is a love letter to the values that sustain me and the communities that shape me. It’s also a prototype—one I hope to return to and replant as I grow in this field.

Inspiration and philosophy lineage:

Previous

Cuba Creatives: Interactive Journalism. University of Oregon—School of Journalism & Communications.