Art and Design Commons^™

Chroma Cowboy, Jessica Gryder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chroma Cowboy consists of eleven canvases wrapped in used feed sacks layered with vinyl to create brightly colored narrative scenes. Pulling from Pop Art colors, cubism shapes and a consciousness of materials, I designed this body of work to give the hard-working cowboys, ranchers, and agribusinesses a way to have their stories told to a larger audience. The strain on ranches due to generational changes, politics and environmental circumstances makes it even more important to document this way of life. I strive to further advance and inform the general public’s knowledge of the unyielding lifestyle and dedication that it takes …

Instinct, Eric Sanders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a convergence point of my interests that I explore in this body of work. As a service member and wildlife enthusiast, I pursue not only an outlet for my own creative expression and illustrative ambitions, but a platform to support creative advocacy for military service members and their families. With the principles of relational aesthetics and art as social practice supporting illustrative and design-centric work, I have found that convergence. This dream continues to manifest in Noble Instinct Artworks, a creative-based company I founded that incorporates the fine art methodology, business practices, and artistic collaboration with outreach potential …

Surface Levels, Keisha Brathwaite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surface Levels are depictions of unobserved and imperceptible realities of many phytoplankton exteriors. The exhibition explores various structures, textures, and repetitious forms from microscopic surfaces of objects that cannot be seen with unaided eyes. Electron microscopy is used to perceive and analyze these otherwise unseeable surfaces in depth. Magnifications provide a reference in creating three- and two-dimensional works that are minimalistic and abstract at a visible level. This abstract 3D/2D image collection is translated into material expressions using acrylic sheets, acrylic ink, and wood as the main media for construction of individual works. Collectively, they serve to make the invisible …

A Study On The Visual And Verbal Languages Of Typography, Ellyn E. Duncan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It takes a person 0.05 seconds to form a first impression of something new. While first impressions are quick and surface level, they are generally important in the lasting impression developed by the individual. I believe graphic designers have the ability to manipulate the first impression of their work by using the different languages of typography to command the attention of an audience and direct a planned impression. Through the testing and research of this thesis study, I aim to provide examples of how people share common responses and interpretations of visual elements and show that the visual and verbal …

M0mentary Lapses, Alice Salyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts exhibition Momentary Lapses, held at Tipton Gallery, February 25-March 8, 2019. The mixed media works and video examine the intersections between digital, somatic and societal decay through the mediation of the digital image by physical anthropogenic efforts.

Themes in the work include glitch art and theory, entropy, memory, decay, and loss. Contemporary American society’s desensitization associated with the oversaturation of digital imagery is discussed, as well as Guy Debord’s theory of the Spectacle, and the artistic practices of Kurt Schwitters and Robert Rauschenberg.

A Systems Approach To Graphic Design Practice, Parisa Farmoudehyamcheh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, design issues have gotten more complex, and designers got responsible for solving more significant problems, from object-level problems to system-level problems to societal-level problems. This thesis is an exploration of employing a systems approach for solving these complicated issues. The systems approach helps designers to look at matters as a whole and consider all connected pieces in a network all together. In this way, proposing solutions to those problems will address all those parts and will solve them at the same time. In this thesis, I will study and analyze case studies such as Canva, …

In Search Of Communication, Usman O. Oladeinde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work included in Usman Oladeinde’s MFA thesis exhibition. The goal of this thesis paper is to explore major themes such as communication, identity, change, centeredness, landscapes, and language. These paintings present Arabic letter forms transformed into illegible shapes which are painted on landscape backgrounds, often depicting an aesthetic of textual elements receding into space. All these works are inspired by the Qibla, which is represented in the abstract and painted using acrylic media. Occasionally image transfers are mounted on the painted surface.

Visual representations like mine are communicative without forcing the viewer to one specific idea. …

Happy, Dontay Farley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of graphic design and how it can be used as tool to create awareness about mental illness and positive solutions to decrease its affect on individuals. Using the “simple things” in life as metaphors, this thesis attempts to use graphic design as a way to help decrease depression. Drawing on the emergent strands of enquiry associated with mental illness, this thesis will investigate how design and its basic principles can be used create positive experiences for the complex issue of mental illness.

This thesis will also review the body of critical and historical design thinking, …

Zoetic Fitness, Brooke S. Fremeau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graphic design is a problem-solving field. A client or company tasks a designer with a problem, and to solve that problem the designer uses 2D fundamentals and technology. As a designer, one must carefully listen to the client to understand their needs before making design decisions. While graphic designers are responsible for creating stunning visuals for both print and digital media, one of the most important aspects of graphic design is branding. Broadly speaking, branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product or service in a consumers mind. Through branding, the designer aims …

Colaboratory: Design Collaboration For The Greater Good, Stephanie Arends Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A university campus is comprised of countless students enrolled in an array of degree programs that logistically creates a diverse population that can and should culminate into a dynamic professional network for graduates. How can higher education capitalize on this melting pot to provide experiences for students and fuse this network? A place, where students collectively solve problems by applying knowledge from their degree-specific areas, will foster interdisciplinary collaboration. By requiring working-relationships between students that benefit their community, a design center will provide students with experiences across disciplines that mirror a real-world, collaborative work environment while they identify opportunities and …

Colaboratory: Design Collaboration For The Greater Good, Lindsay B. Tyson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graphic design is a powerful tool, which has the power to shift perspective and create an impact. A recent shift in the design world has graphic designers using their skill sets to address complex social problems, to engage their audience in new ways that bring awareness to a social issue for the greater good of society. This thesis examines how graphic design collaboration ignites social change within a community and inspires transformation in human behavior. It explores how designing for the greater good impacts our society; and how these collaborative experiences improve the community and clients they serve. This thesis …

The Project Shop, Lindsey Sullivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Project Shop is a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) brand designed to promote a value-creating activity that impacts the lives and personal development for those who participate. The strategic culmination of research, marketing, and graphic design generated during the creation of this brand is intended to attract a target demographic of 18-24 year olds. This target market is identified as a transient population often typified by being civic-minded and pragmatically idealist.

The Project Shop caters to the needs of its target market by concentrating on habits and particular styles of living. This demographic often seeks DIY projects that are customizable due to …

Points Of Contention: Oddities, Delicacies, & Monstrosities, Arthur T. Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Points of Contention, an MFA exhibit, features fifteen works of relief-printed images from carved linoleum and layers of type printed with antique letterpress wood type. The work constitutes a visual exploration of dissatisfaction and disenchantment presented through the context of odd stories in the news and major current events, such as election politics and the closing of Hostess bakeries, as well as, NSA data collection and gun violence.

This supporting thesis explores the conceptual and physical processes of creating the pieces, including researching other artists who have wrestled with similar topics and produced their own unique reaction and resolution …

Eleven Bullets: A Counter Assault On Subjectivity And The Creation Of Meaning, Jason Wayne Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Eleven Bullets: A Counter Assault on Subjectivity and the Creation of Visual Meaning explores the sources of visual meaning as a combination of shared personal experience among the mass audience and the perpetuation of this meaning via popular cultural applications. It proposes that the analysis of an artist’s personal experience with sensory perception is the foundation for his or her ability to instill meaning within a design. By understanding how we make associations with experiences that are pleasurable, painful, safe, dangerous, passive, aggressive etc., we organize our world according to visual stereotypes. These stereotypes help us navigate the world efficiently …

The Secret Life Of Things, Maja Savic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses the work presented in The Secret Life of Things, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition held at Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, from March 18th through 22nd, 2013. The exhibition consists of sixteen illustrations (four of these are digitally enhanced photographs) and one animation that show the artist’s interest in bringing household objects to life. Pieces in the exhibition can be characterized as humorous with a strong narrative and attention to details. Savić’s ideas are based on traditional education with contemporary influences. All printed work is twenty inches wide, sixteen inches tall, framed, and hung in …

Narrowing The Margin: The Role Of The Black Superhero, Julian S. Strayhorn Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Comic books can be understood as a visualization of popular culture in the U.S. For a long time these tales were formed by a white power fantasy, circulating in mainstream culture as over-exaggerated narrations. To give an example of white power fantasy, Dwayne McDuffie, a prolific writer in popular entertainment states:

“…if I write, as I have many times, a story where Daredevil, who doesn’t have powers, gets the drop on Thor, who has unbelievable powers, people go Oh, that was so cool! Daredevil was so clever! If I have Black Panther do the same thing that’s impossible! It’s like, …

Typographic And Image Explorations, Ben Rupp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

These typographic and image based designs explore multiple components of design including: legibility, manipulation, communication, and conventionalism with an emphasis on information graphics. Drawing from influences of the Futurist designers and Dadaist typography, I take the mundane details of an object such as a baseball or car to create excessive amounts of visually stimulating graphics. Through this process of gathering detailed information, I take photographs, draw by hand and scan images to fully understand and portray an objects identity until I feel satisfied that the objects visual potential has been exhausted. These personal expressions are combined to form printed material …

Gaining Attention And Encouraging A Response: My Criteria For Successful Graphic Design., Kerry Scott Jenkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a graphic designer, my goal is to clearly express my clients' message to their intended audience. Based on the diversity of my clients and their products and services, finding a consistent style in my projects might be difficult, although there are usually some typical traits. With examples of my work and dialogue from leaders in the graphic design industry, I intend to point out a common thread that runs through all successful design projects, regardless of the projects' designer, era, or individual design elements (e.g., typography, copywriting, color, layout, imagery). Success comes from graphic design's ability to gain attention …

Catalysis., Mary Barton Nees

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses the process of discovery that led to her Master of Fine Arts exhibition at Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, from March 19 to 23, 2007. Investigations in printmaking, mixed media, and symbol are highlighted. The work for the thesis show consists of nineteen, 30" hand pulled works on paper. All works are oriented vertically and floated in the frame. Of this collection, thirteen are monotypes, four are collographs, and one is a collage. Insertions include intaglio, brayer marking, encaustic wax, paper, oil paint, pen, and sumi ink. Topics included are the artist's thinking into the nature …

Tolerance: Challenge, Perception, And Social Stigmas Defined Through Visual Communications., Ursula Moore Bryant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My explorations and journey through life have led me to discover a connection in my work and responsibility as a visual communicator. My objective of communicating challenge, perception, and social stigmas through informed stories of individual lives is to provoke questions and spark moments of awareness in viewers. With this supporting manuscript, I hope to inform about my motivations through time including my personal, artistic, and historical influences. I will define graphic design as a fine art through the evaluation of artistic movements. I also intend to discuss design as a language and build a case for social awareness. Evaluating …

Dynamic Force, Motion, And Life In Digital Design., James Michael Livingston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to explore specific works that I have created as it relates to digital art and design. My works include abstract, organic objects that exist within surrealistic environments. First, I explain the dynamics of the imagery that has emerged from my career in broadcast television, my coursework in the Department of Art and Design at East Tennessee State University, and the works of fantasy, surreal, and abstract artists. In conclusion, the images discussed impose an idea of abstraction and surrealism with a sense of force, motion, life, and dynamic action.