Leah Simpson
BDes (HONS) Graphic Design
The Design Harmacy
The Design Harmacy is an interactive exhibition space dedicated to showcasing people’s stories, memories, and experiences of when things go wrong due to poor communication design.
Styled as a mix between an old apothecary and a modern pharmacy. The Harmacy sells confusion, over-practicality, and complexity and shows the consequences of flawed design through a visible gradient of severity.
The labels on the bottles running from light to dark is a visual metaphor for the scale of consequences of poor design communication running from light to very serious.
Labels on the left are on white paper, these are the stories where poor design creates slight issues. This label is telling the story about the design issues of IKEA’s furniture instructions and diagrams.
Leaflets explaining the purpose and intent of the Design Harmacy to the viewer.
Labels on the right are on darker paper, these are the stories where poor design creates great consequences. This label is telling the story about prescription design issues involving anti-rejection medication.
The Design Harmacy carries a range of over 30 illustrated bottle labels depicting a whole range of complaints about the design of IKEA’s furniture instructions, lateral flow tests, confusing car parking and more.
The exhibition of the bottles is interactive. The viewer is invited to read the labels of the bottles and the leaflets as if they were passing time in a waiting room.
Posters give a brief explanation of the research behind the project.