Scarlett Butler
she/her
Whitewashed
'Whitewashed' is a typographic, research-led project that explores communication systems of control and concealment within Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. Using the metaphor of laundering—staining, washing, bleaching—it examines how language and routine were used to enforce silence, obedience, and erasure.
The book draws on archival research, survivor testimony, and conceptual development. Through expressive typography, layering, redaction, and print media, it reflects the manipulation of perception and the divide between public knowledge and private suffering.
As a multidisciplinary designer, this particular practice centres on socially engaged design, using publication and typography to explore power, memory, and systems of control. I work across print and digital media, often combining traditional processes with experimental formats to deepen meaning. This project aims not to speak for the women affected, but to create space where the concealed can be confronted, acknowledging the lives impacted, and the truths that were kept behind closed doors for too long.