Pratt BFA Communications Design Thesis

Lola Khoram Graphic Design

Lost Angeles

Activism
Gentrification
Los Angeles
Photography
Publication Design
Social Advocacy

When thinking of what I wanted to focus my thesis on, a big inspiration was Los Angeles. From living here my whole life, going to school in New York City, to then having to come back home for online classes, I had a new perspective going into this project. Coming back home from NYC made me notice all the little things about LA that I had taken for granted. With that idea I thought about the connotations and perceptions all my classmates had of me everytime I would say I transferred from LA. I was instantly made up to be this snotty rich person, and then I realized that was everyones idea of what people were like here. So one day I was driving through LA, looking at all these beautiful houses until we got to the main intersection and it was construction site after site. Once I saw those fences go up I knew these beautiful houses were going to be torn down to make another shiny apartment complex for triple the rent. I realized then that everyone outside of LA has their assumptions about the city, but no one is talking about how gentrification is essentially erasing LA’s culture and contributing a huge problem to the housing crisis. It was then when my thesis was born. I wanted to show the unfiltered perspective of Los Angeles that brings awareness and attention to the gentrification problem happening today.