I am a Hungarian-British artist, illustrator, and graphic designer with an incurable fascination for the weird, the comically obscure, the charmingly odd, and the wonderfully peculiar.
My practice combines influences from window dressing, visual merchandising, art, and graphic design. Having had firsthand experience with people with different needs, I continually explore ways of making my work more accessible and accommodating to different abilities.
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Have you ever thought about what words might feel like? What might they sound like beyond their pronunciation? And how might these additional sensory layers shape memory and understanding?
Welcome to Obscurities Observed.
This installation began as a research project for my dissertation, where I explored how visual humour affects memorability. That research led to the publication of Obscurities, an illustrated dictionary of strange English words, and has now expanded into this multisensory experience complete with an audio guide, as well as its sister project, Obscurities Overheard in the Clocktower Gallery.
Obscurities Observed investigates how engaging multiple senses can influence memory and understanding, and it also explores how communication can become more inclusive for people with different sensory abilities. To support this, the installation incorporates dyslexia-friendly colour contrasts, carpet to aid navigation, raised NaviLens QR codes linking to audio descriptions, and interactive touch- and sound-based elements.
Each unit explores a different word through humour, text, illustration, sound, and touch, and the element of surprise! I played with tactile and auditory interpretations that may not be quite what visitors expect.
My original concept was a life-sized, walkable tunnel book that visitors could enter and explore. Due to space limitations, this evolved into a scaled model, which is displayed alongside the installation.
I also included a hand-bound copy of Obscurities for display that visitors are welcome to look through and handle.
BA (Hons) Studio Practice (Visual Communication) 
Quinn Walker | Graphic Design
