Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Graphic Design
First Advisor
Kelsey Elder
Second Advisor
Kathleen Sleboda
Third Advisor
Douglass Scott
Abstract
Fictional Truths starts with a question: What if storytelling wasn’t just content, or a way to pitch to a client, but instead became a way of approaching design? What if we could borrow from how narratives are built to reimagine how we design?
This thesis investigates how analyzing narrative structures opens up possibilities that traditional linear design frameworks simply can’t reach. Context shifts meaning. Through feminist revision and plural truth- making, I propose that fiction is a legitimate way of knowing, not separate from truth, but a way of producing knowledge that resists a singular perspective. Instead, Fictional Truths embraces imagination and plurality as generative forces. It looks at design as a fluid medium, as something constantly shifting and changing.
When we look at storytelling as form rather than content, something shifts. Narrative architecture becomes a tool, a way of thinking about how to design futures that can hold complexity, contradiction, and multiple ways of being. This approach builds on what exists: revising it, reimagining it. What happens when we listen to what we’ve been told and ask: what else could come next? What if we choose new ways to think about the stories that define our life and the practice of graphic design?
Recommended Citation
Mehta, Saachi, "Fictional Truths" (2026). Masters Theses. 1654.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1654
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