The question of authorship in design has always carried with it a set of complications, namely who makes, who owns and therefore who controls. But closely linked, and perhaps more practical in daily work, is the act of design as translation. Design is never just about form or style, it is about translating ideas, data, strategy, and culture into something visual. To give this article context, I delivered both projects in this write-up while working as Design Director at Defeye Creative, where I led the creative process end-to-end. The Junction Arts Annual Report and 'Atomic. Light. Mother.' publication were conceived, directed, and designed under my authorship, though within the framework of the agency. Now, as I continue under my own practice, I return to them not as portfolio pieces, but as moments to reflect on the wider question of design as translation. The Junction Arts Annual Report is, on the surface, an administrative document that houses figures, targets, and outcomes. But to present them plainly would be to miss the opportunity for meaning. Through bold typography, a pared-back layout, and a decisive use of colour, the report becomes a statement, a translation of organisational activity into a message of impact. The words “Art Inspiring Change” on its cover do more than introduce the content, they translate Junction Arts’ ethos into a call to action. In this sense, design mediates between the internal workings of an organisation and the external world that needs to understand and support it. By contrast 'Atomic. Light. Mother.' was an essay publication (via Junction Arts' This Girl Codes initiative), which demanded another form of translation. Here the task was not to distil data but to hold space for ideas that are poetic, fragmented, and sometimes ambiguous. The designer’s role was not to clarify into bullet points but to create a vessel that could carry layered meanings. Layout, pacing, and typographic rhythm became the tools of translation thus turning thought into experience, giving weight to pauses, silence, or emphasis. If the Annual Report sought to translate outward (towards clarity and public legibility) this publication translated inward towards depth, reflection, and resonance.

Both projects point to the same underlying truth that design is a machine of translation. It converts the raw materials of culture into something that circulates and moves between people, and with that comes questions of power. Translation always edits and chooses what to amplify and what to mute and it exercises control, sometimes even censorship, by omission or by emphasis. In both of these works, translation was not just about clarity but about framing and thus deciding how Junction Arts would be seen and how its voice would carry. The notion of design as translation destabilises the myth of neutrality. It reminds us that every colour, every margin, every typographic choice is an intervention in meaning. The designer does not merely pass information along, the designer authors coherence and experience. If ownership in design has long been debated, translation brings another dimension... responsibility.