Sophia Leonard

Past Paths

Past Paths is a community-driven storytelling project that explores memory, nostalgia, and local identity through interactive walking routes. Using a combination of physical and digital design, the project encourages people to rediscover familiar places through shared memories connected to specific locations. Participants follow mapped paths and unlock stories through the app, while also contributing their own experiences to a growing public archive. Beginning at local libraries, the project aims to strengthen community connection and preserve everyday memories, and encourage reflection on the emotional relationship between people and place.

Past Paths is a exhibition event that encourages people to remember what their local areas where like to them, through a pop up event, and are encouraged to take part in contributing to a collective memory of a local area.

Poster treatment

Bus stop posters advertise Past Paths within everyday public spaces, promoting the event to the local community and connecting the project to the areas where the memories take place.

Posters placed around a local area use short excerpts from community memories to gather interest and encourage people to download the Past Paths app.

The event begins in a local library, where a kiosk introduces users to Past Paths and explains how the experience works. Visitors choose a walking route, view the map, and scan a QR code to download the app before beginning the walk.

Screen applications for Past Paths include an interactive app designed to guide users through the event and notify them when memory walks are available in their local area. The app allows users to follow mapped routes, unlock memories connected to places.

Walk through of the apps tutorial and show case of the apps function

Social media campaign for Past Paths targets young adults while helping promote local events, attract participants, and provide live updates when walks are happening in nearby libraries and communities.

Thesis: Wild Desires: The Animal Symbolism Used To Present Gender Roles in Perfume Marketing.

This thesis examines how animal symbolism in perfume advertising plays a significant role in reinforcing culturally constructed gender norms by associating masculinity and femininity with traits perceived as natural or instinctual. Advertising plays a powerful role in shaping contemporary cultural narratives, particularly in relation to gender and identity. Rather than simply promoting products, the perfume industry takes advantage of pre-constructed systems that influence how masculinity and femininity are perceived, and resells them through the usage of animal imagery. By analysing selected fragrance campaigns, this study showcases how masculinity is often associated with strength, dominance, and control, while femininity is linked to seduction, grace, and passivity.

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Sophia Leonard

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

Hello! I’m Sophia, a multidisciplinary designer with an interest in creating thoughtful and engaging experiences across all sectors of design. My work combines branding, typography, illustration, and design strategy with a strong focus on human-centred and inclusive design. I’m particularly interested in projects that explore emotion, storytelling, and community connection, using design as a way to communicate meaningful ideas and improve user experiences. Through my work, I aim to create outcomes that are visually impactful while also feeling personal, accessible, and emotionally engaging.