Rala Johanna Therese Arcilla
About
Johanna (Jo) is a graphic designer driven by storytelling, observation and the quiet details of everyday life.
Her practice is inspired by lived-in human experiences, particularly the mundane narratives that often go unnoticed or undervalued. Through design, photography and illustration, she explores how emotion, memory and human connection translate into visual forms.
Jo is particularly drawn to themes of impermanence, the relationship between people and their environments, love, loss and everything in between. She utilises layered compositions and experimental approaches to communicate these concepts, creating immersive experiences that encourage audiences to slow down and reflect on the overlooked moments of daily existence.
Whether through zines, photographs or mixed-media projects, she bridges conceptual storytelling with thoughtful design systems that are both visually engaging and emotionally resonant.
Jo enjoys challenging conventional formats by experimenting with texture, sequencing and interaction to create work that feels intimate and personal. Beyond technical design, she draws inspiration from skateboarding and the inherent trial-and-error of creative exploration. She views design as an evolving practice of learning, adapting and experimenting with meaningful visual narratives.
Ultimately, Jo aspires to create work that fosters empathy, curiosity and a deeper appreciation for the subtle beauty found in ordinary human experiences.
Read/Able
Read/Able is an awareness campaign exploring dyslexia as a different way of seeing, processing and interacting with language.
Through experimental typography, layered compositions and user-centred design, the project translates the often invisible experience of dyslexia into engaging and tangible forms. Challenging conventional reading formats, Read/Able fosters empathy, accessibility and understanding while encouraging audiences to reconsider how information is presented and who it is designed for.
By bridging physical and digital experiences, the campaign raises awareness of dyslexia and celebrates the unique strengths and perspectives of dyslexic individuals.
I Could Throw It All Away, But Not Today.
I could throw it all away, but not today is a typology zine that reflects the quiet unraveling of platonic or romantic relationships, the ones caught between holding on and letting go.
Using fading receipts as a metaphor, the design captures the bittersweet understanding that some connections, no matter how meaningful, must come to an end. The receipts serve as fragments of memory, preserving traces of conversations, shared routines and emotional exchanges that slowly lose clarity over time.
Much like thermal paper naturally fades with time, the zine mirrors how some relationships gradually shift, becoming distant, fragile or difficult to hold onto, thus visualising the emotional weight of attachment, longing and acceptance.
Rather than focusing on dramatic endings, it explores a quieter process of drifting apart and the lingering hesitation to let go completely.
Pieced Together
Pieced Together is a mixed media photography collage series that unravels and reassembles visual narratives to create new compositions, shifting meanings within each collaged image.
By cutting overlapping, obscuring and reassembling photographs, the project explores how memories. emotions and experiences are rarely linear or complete, but instead exist in fragments that continuously reshape over time.
The tactile process of creating the collage becomes a way of disrupting the original context of each image, allowing unexpected relationships, textures and forms to emerge.
Through reconstruction, this series reflects on perception, inviting personal interpretation through personal associations and understanding with each composition.
Seri Batrisyia Balqis Abdul Hafiz
Sanjana Alluri
Darin Nabilah
Ayesha Mahmood
Eng Li Wen
Loi Euzen
