Vice-Chancellor’s words

“Creative flow” is the theme of this year’s visual identity for the Degree Exhibition, created by graphic designers and alumni Hilda Tenow Benulic and Sofia Ljungberg (Graphic Design and Illustration, 2023). It builds on the thoughts of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who coined the term flow as a deep focus on something with a sense of ease and saw creativity as capturing the moments worth living – as well as curiosity, exploration and the ability for enjoying novelty and risk.

When we are in a creative flow, we can think anew, see different perspectives, insights and solutions and focus on experimentation. In this world under constant change, with rapid societal shifts happening all over the world, we need new perspectives and experiments that make us think in new ways.

The works we see in this exhibition is a result of this creative flow. The graduating students have come a long way from their first initial thoughts and questions around a topic that they found interesting, to finding their own take on it, contextualising it into a bigger whole, developing their concepts, collaborating, giving and taking feedback, and finally coming to the stage where we are today – being ready and able to present the outcome of the entire process. It takes both persistence and courage to get here, and I am extremely proud of the commitment of our students.

Taking the graphic designers’ concepts a bit further, I can also see creative flow in a bigger perspective for the students where the Degree Exhibition is part of a larger flow of life. It might be the culmination of their studies, but they have spent years building up their knowledge and skills, learning from different sources, environments and encounters. It also feeds into the future, where our students can inspire society for decades to come.

I hope this exhibition will engage all of us who have the opportunity to take part, to see how the work in this exhibition can raise our curiosity, exploration and ability to enjoy the new and unknown. The future doesn’t happen, it is created. We are all building it together.

Anna Valtonen, Vice-Chancellor at Konstfack