THE RIPLEY CORPORATION:
BE YOUR BEST VERSION™
BE YOUR BEST VERSION™
“It is no longer a question of a false representation of reality (ideology) but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.”
— Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Jean Baudrillard
The Ripley Corporation is where anyone can become their best version. The corporation presents identity as something that can be designed, adjusted, and improved through a structured program. Within this system, identity is presented as a window that can be opened, closed, customized, and carefully framed. A window separates the inside from the outside while controlling what is visible between the two.
Ripley syndrome is a condition where someone creates a false identity, believes it, and uses it to gain admiration or escape their real self. This thesis responds to a culture where people constantly edit and rebrand themselves to seem more real, more successful, or more likable. But the more they try, the more the self they were improving disappears. This thesis project is a complete fictional corporate identity system: branding, posters, catalog, ephemera, and an experiential View-Master. Every design decision—clean typography, structured layouts, employee swag, and marketing language—was made to make the corporation feel believable, while slowly revealing its artificiality. The Ripley Corporation holds both the humor and the sadness of a culture where authenticity has become a performance, and where the desire to become a better version of yourself never ends.
Parsons School of Design
Communication Design Thesis
Awarded Departmental Honors at Parsons School of Design
Selected by Design Dispatch as a Future Forward Design
— Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Jean Baudrillard
The Ripley Corporation is where anyone can become their best version. The corporation presents identity as something that can be designed, adjusted, and improved through a structured program. Within this system, identity is presented as a window that can be opened, closed, customized, and carefully framed. A window separates the inside from the outside while controlling what is visible between the two.
Ripley syndrome is a condition where someone creates a false identity, believes it, and uses it to gain admiration or escape their real self. This thesis responds to a culture where people constantly edit and rebrand themselves to seem more real, more successful, or more likable. But the more they try, the more the self they were improving disappears. This thesis project is a complete fictional corporate identity system: branding, posters, catalog, ephemera, and an experiential View-Master. Every design decision—clean typography, structured layouts, employee swag, and marketing language—was made to make the corporation feel believable, while slowly revealing its artificiality. The Ripley Corporation holds both the humor and the sadness of a culture where authenticity has become a performance, and where the desire to become a better version of yourself never ends.
Parsons School of Design
Communication Design Thesis
Awarded Departmental Honors at Parsons School of Design
Selected by Design Dispatch as a Future Forward Design
From the beginning, I wanted to be both the creator and the subject of this world. I used myself as the brand's model and icon, not to make it about me, but because I wanted a real person inside the system. Different poses, expressions, moods, all of them me, but none of them quite feeling like me. The more versions I created, the harder the original became to find. Which is exactly what The Ripley Corporation promises to fix. We are all, in some way, editing ourselves.
The window became the central symbol of the brand. A window separates the inside from the outside, but more importantly, it controls what is visible between the two. You decide how much to open it, how much to reveal, and how to frame what others see. That felt like the most honest metaphor for how we present ourselves.
So I made windows out of myself. Each one is different, each one is framed differently. Because identity isn't one fixed thing. It's something that gets adjusted, customized, and carefully presented depending on who's looking. The Ripley Corporation sells you the perfect window. What's behind it is up to you.
So I made windows out of myself. Each one is different, each one is framed differently. Because identity isn't one fixed thing. It's something that gets adjusted, customized, and carefully presented depending on who's looking. The Ripley Corporation sells you the perfect window. What's behind it is up to you.