The Modern Divide

Problem

Digital dating has made it easier than ever to meet people, but ease of connection does not necessarily translate into emotional intimacy. The casual nature of modern dating can make it easier to avoid vulnerability, commitment, and emotional responsibility, while behaviours such as ghosting allow people to disengage without confronting the person on the other side of the screen.

I was interested in how this distance can change the way we see one another. When interactions are reduced to profiles, messages, and brief encounters, it can become easier to treat people as replaceable options rather than as complex individuals with their own feelings and experiences. The challenge was to communicate this sense of emotional distance.

Process

I began with the idea of two people occupying the same space while experiencing completely different realities. The selected photograph depicts a woman looking directly toward the camera while a man moves through the foreground in another direction. Neither is engaging with the other, creating a sense of physical proximity without emotional connection. Their separate focal points became a visual representation of two people who are present in the same moment but not truly seeing one another.

I pushed this idea further by fragmenting and distorting the photograph, creating a blurred, glass-like effect that disrupts the clarity of the image. The fragmentation suggests fractured communication and perception, while also referencing the screen-mediated nature of modern relationships.

The dark olive green palette establishes a sense of emotional heaviness, stagnation, and withdrawal. I contrasted it with Pantone Primrose Pink, a soft romantic tone that introduces culturally familiar associations with femininity and relationships. The tension between the two colours reinforces the larger tension within the subject matter, while avoiding a literal gender-coded visual system.

Helvetica Neue provides a neutral typographic foundation, allowing the image and colour to carry the emotional weight of the poster. I also manipulated the word “DIVIDE,” physically breaking apart the typography and allowing the title itself to become part of the visual concept.

Result

The resulting poster presents The Modern Divide as something more complicated than a division between men and women. It explores the space between being able to connect with someone and actually feeling connected to them.

The fragmented image, opposing focal points, muted palette, and disrupted typography work together to create a feeling of distance, ambiguity, and emotional disconnection. The project considers how a culture built around constant digital access and seemingly endless options can simultaneously make genuine intimacy feel more difficult to establish.

Ultimately, The Modern Divide asks what happens when we become increasingly connected through technology while becoming less practiced at seeing, understanding, and engaging with one another as whole human beings.