Known Otherwise
MFA in Design Thesis Exhibition
Working as a cohort of six designers, we developed a flexible identity system for our MFA in Design Thesis Exhibition that unified six distinct thesis projects within one cohesive visual language. Textured elements and hand-drawn symbols introduced visual character while remaining restrained enough to allow each body of work to maintain its own distinct presence.
VIDEO | DESIGN | BRANDING | DIGITAL | EXHIBITION | PRINT
Branding Team
Deana Marie Dieujuste
Kelsey Gamino
Zachary Bynes
Production Team
Lala Amirguliyeva
Lauren Campbell
Ariel del Vecchio
Faculty Coordinators
Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton
Karol Murlak
Carma Gorman
Known Otherwise is the 2026 University of Texas at Austin MFA in Design thesis exhibition. The title challenges the idea of knowledge as singular or objective, highlighting ways of knowing rooted in culture, memory, embodiment, and resistance. Known Otherwise frames sensemaking as an inherently political and personal act: to “know otherwise” is to insist that there are truths not sanctioned by institutions, not visible in mainstream discourse, yet no less real or meaningful.
Known Otherwise proposes that making sense is never neutral—it’s shaped by who we are, what we’ve lived, and where we come from. In design, it asks how materials, images, practices, and symbols can carry knowledge that is felt rather than explained, inherited rather than taught, or questioned rather than accepted. The exhibition is a site for surfacing, disrupting, and reframing what has previously been assumed or erased. Known Otherwise is both a proposition and an invitation to consider meaning not as something given, but as something made, remade, and understood anew.
Known Otherwise proposes that making sense is never neutral—it’s shaped by who we are, what we’ve lived, and where we come from. In design, it asks how materials, images, practices, and symbols can carry knowledge that is felt rather than explained, inherited rather than taught, or questioned rather than accepted. The exhibition is a site for surfacing, disrupting, and reframing what has previously been assumed or erased. Known Otherwise is both a proposition and an invitation to consider meaning not as something given, but as something made, remade, and understood anew.
