case study video
name origin
Kothar takes its name from Kothar-wa-Khasis, the ancient Ugaritic god of craftsmanship, wisdom, and creation. In Bronze Age mythology, he was a maker, a builder of tools and structures that shaped culture.
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The reference is intentional. In a digital environment where creation is increasingly automated and templated, the project asks: what does authorship mean now? If everyone has access to the same tools, where does originality begin?
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Kothar repositions the act of design not as production, but as conscious creation.
visual system
The visual language balances restraint and contrast. Deep blue introduces reflection and depth, muted neutrals create a visual pause, and rust functions as a point of disruption. The system mirrors the project’s core tension between repetition and intentional creation.
hex: #001524
rgb: 0, 21, 36
cmyk: 90, 74, 57, 72
pantone: 296 C
hex: #78290F
rgb: 120, 41, 15
cmyk: 29, 93, 100, 36
pantone: P 47-15 C
hex: #ffebd0
rgb: 255, 235, 208
rgb: 0, 8, 19, 0
pantone: P 14-1 C
header font: Minion
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
body font: Usual
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
the app
Kothar is a digital literacy platform designed to help users understand, navigate, and resist aesthetic monotony in social media culture.
opening screen
Kothar opens with a deliberate pause. Users can create an account or enter without one, reinforcing the project’s emphasis on access without obligation. The interface is intentionally restrained, inviting reflection rather than urgency.
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Rather than encouraging endless engagement, the platform is structured around awareness. Users are guided to observe what they consume, track patterns in their behavior, and situate their activity within a broader digital ecosystem.
learning model
Kothar approaches digital literacy as a layered practice. Users engage with design and social media systems through multiple formats, reading, listening, watching, interactive exercises, and applied challenges. The goal is not passive consumption, but informed participation.
By understanding how trends form, how templates circulate, and how algorithms reward familiarity, users develop the ability to create intentionally rather than reactively.The platform culminates in certification, not as validation of aesthetic taste, but as recognition of critical awareness.
platform ecosystem
Before analyzing trends, users are grounded in the structure of the platforms themselves. Each network, from Instagram to LinkedIn, operates within its own incentive systems, content formats, and behavioral norms.
Kothar examines how these ecosystems shape what becomes visible, what spreads, and what is rewarded. Understanding the system is the first step toward creating within it consciously rather than unconsciously replicating it.
inclusive settings
Kothar was designed with variability in mind. Digital literacy cannot exist without access, and access requires flexibility. Users can adjust contrast, visual modes, motion settings, and sensory inputs to align with their individual needs.
Rather than treating accessibility as an add-on, the interface acknowledges neurodiversity and differing perceptual preferences as foundational to participation.
certification & distribution
To extend beyond a closed system, Kothar integrates with established educational platforms. By partnering with external course ecosystems, the project positions digital literacy not as informal knowledge, but as a recognized competency.
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Certification functions as a signal, not of aesthetic preference, but of critical understanding. The goal is to formalize media literacy within structures that already hold institutional credibility.
advertising campaign
cultural activation
To extend Kothar beyond the digital interface, the project materialized as a black-box installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The structure referenced both the opacity of algorithmic systems and the physicality of ancient knowledge storage.
The activation reintroduced Ugarit, the city from which Kothar’s name derives, through sound. The installation incorporated the “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” one of the oldest known written melodies, inscribed on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet. By pairing one of the earliest recorded musical compositions with a contemporary media literacy platform, the campaign created a dialogue between ancient authorship and modern digital culture.
The installation positioned forgotten cultural memory against today’s accelerated content cycles, asking what is preserved, what is amplified, and what disappears.
radio add
The audio spot extends Kothar’s central tension between repetition and originality into a conversational medium. Structured as a reflective monologue, the script mirrors the cadence of passive scrolling before interrupting it.
Rather than instructing, the message invites self-recognition: How much of what you create is truly yours?
kothar
Kothar began as my undergraduate thesis exploring a question that still shapes how I think about digital culture: as access to design tools and inspiration becomes increasingly democratized, does creativity expand, or does it begin to repeat itself?
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The project examines how algorithms, projection, virality, and cultural trends influence digital communication design, often encouraging familiarity over originality. Kothar was developed as a conceptual mobile platform intended to interrupt passive scrolling and reintroduce intentional engagement with design.
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The full academic thesis is available upon request.
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research & thesis
2023
posters
The poster series challenges the instinct to engage immediately. Each execution begins with restraint “you should not…” subverting the expectation of instruction.
The directive is intentionally paradoxical: do not look for it, do not change the settings, do not capture it. The campaign positions awareness as an act of resistance. In a culture driven by reaction and replication, restraint becomes differentiation.
qr code landing page
The poster series conceals a QR code within its visual field, revealed only when contrast is adjusted. The act of discovery mirrors the project’s core thesis: meaning is not always visible at first glance. Rather than presenting immediate access, Kothar requires intentional interaction. The landing page becomes an extension of the critique, rewarding attention, curiosity, and active engagement over passive consumption.