Soft Resistance: Painting Against the Logic of Design Visual Ambiguity and Intuitive Practice in Communication Design

This article examines Soft Resistance: Painting Against the Logic of Design, a practice-led painting project that questions the rationalist, research-driven frameworks dominant in communication design education. Drawing from the author’s dual role as a design educator and practicing artist, the project explores softness, blurriness, and visual ambiguity as intentional aesthetic strategies rather than signs of imprecision. Through an intuitive, process-driven methodology that bypasses conventional design models such as the Double Diamond, the work foregrounds making as a mode of thinking, where meaning emerges through material engagement rather than pre-defined concepts. Influenced by affective orientation, cinematic memory, and everyday material exploration, the paintings employ airbrush and pastel techniques to resist high-resolution visual culture and its demand for clarity and efficiency. Engaging theories of experiential learning and the “poor image,” the article argues that intuitive and ambiguous visual practices constitute a rigorous form of practice-led research. Embracing contradiction rather than resolution, the project proposes an expanded understanding of research and resistance within communication design discourse.