Art and Design Commons^™

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 …

Thoughts From An Unapologetically Honest Introvert, Amy Michelle Wilson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

My thesis exhibition, titled Thoughts From An Unapologetically Honest Introvert, highlighted our extrovert-centered society and provided introverts with new communication tools to change the social expectation.

Operating An Interior Design Firm In Saudi Arabia: Opportunities And Challenges For Professional Female Employees, Najah Alsaffaf

Theses and Dissertations

Empowering women is the aim of the research. Saudi Arabia is the research location and interior design is the subject of the investigation. Saudi Arabia is on the path of empowering women through education and facilitating job opportunities. There is vast research about entrepreneurship and obstacles that women face in Saudi Arabia, but there is no evidence of research on the interior design field in Saudi Arabia in both education and job opportunities. Finding out that the art and design scene is thriving in education indicates that there would be a need for creating jobs and employment options for design …

Chere, Wilson Andres Borja

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chere is research project and a thesis exhibition installation composed of a series of drawing/paintings and short animations that explores the phenomenon of migration and the African diaspora. This exploration was originated by contrasting aspects of forced and voluntary migration in addition to Kvasnyand and Hales' idea, that "Belonging everywhere or not belonging anywhere" describes the situation among people of the African diaspora.

Through research I intersperse layers of personal history with that of my ancestors and their descendants in the Americas. As a biracial person, a self-identified Afro-descendant from Colombia, South America, I am interested in the process of …

The Corporate Logo: An Exploration Of The Logo Through Infographics And Other Works, Caroline Aldrich

Honors Theses

Everywhere we go, we interact with logos in one way or another, whether it is the car we drive, the toothpaste we use, or even the water we buy, a logo is present throughout our every move. The logo can be defined as “a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition.” The logo has evolved over hundreds of years, and due to its continued presence in our lives, there are many facets of the logo that I chose to explore as the primary focus of my thesis. …

Connecting The Disciplinary Dots: Faculty Attitudes Toward The Professionalization Of Web Development, Kathleen Mary Kalata

Dissertations

Professionalization offers rewards such as prestige, financial benefits and autonomy. Fields such as nursing and social work have undergone the professionalization process. This exploratory study examined faculty attitudes regarding the professionalization of web development as defined by the Hall model of professionalism. The purpose of the study was to understand how faculty view web development as a profession. Based on the Hall’s Professionalism Scale (1968) and modified survey by Snizek (1972), the Web Development Professionalism Inventory (WDPI) was used to explore faculty attitudes toward professionalization.

This study surveyed faculty about their views on the structural and attitudinal components of web …

The Effectiveness And Impressions Between Responsive And Non-Responsive Websites Displayed On A Computer, Tablet And Cell Phone: Displaying Websites Of Eichler Homes, Camille Mary Duckett

Graphic Communication

The researcher designed two types of websites for Eichler Homes in Thousand Oaks. The researcher created both responsive and non-responsive websites.

The researcher performed a study and observed the data. Afterwards, the data was analyzed to see people’s preferences and which one they liked best.

Most of the general public is not knowledgeable about responsive design. In business, people need to decide for themselves if responsive design is worth the investment since most people aren’t aware of it. As responsive design continues to grow with the use of mobile devices most people aren’t educated about responsive vs. non- responsive design. …

Design Practices In Mobile User Interface Design, William Hunt Robbins

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine optimal user interface design practices for differing age demographics and mobile operating systems. Specifically, users at three different age groups were administered a test to gauge their preference of mobile app icons. The style of the first set of icons, commonly known as flat design, was minimal and simple, with few colors, bevels or gradients. The second style of icons was a more realistic and detailed style known as skeuomorphic design. Users selected the preferred icons, and then took a brief survey to gauge their opinion. After the data was collected, it …

Designing An E-Commerce Website For Summit Outdoor Supply (S.O.S.), Eliott Kentaro Mason

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to design an appealing and easy to use e-commerce website for a startup company called Summit Outdoor Supply (S.O.S.) in order for them to expand their customer base and continue to grow. This new website will provide customers with a convenient online store to order S.O.S.’s unique survival gear products at the click of a button.

This study investigated the requirements to design a successful e-commerce website along with increasing visibility of the company through search engine optimization techniques. A usability testing questionnaire was sent out to students, faculty, and personal friends through e-mail …

Brand Identity For New Artists In The Music Industry, Drea Achacoso

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aspects of brand identity and apply it to new artists in the music industry. The research from this study was applied to Hills & Strongholds, an aspiring alternative rock band. Designs were created for the band’s brand identity on multiple platforms that attempted to portray the band’s musical vision. A survey was conducted to determine which logo and album artwork designs were able to effectively transport the bands genre and vision based on the audience’s perception. The results of this study can be used to develop Hills & Strongholds into a …

Speculative Archives : An Index, Sameer Farooq

Masters Theses

Building an official archive, a comprehensive depository of cultural memory, is an impossible pursuit.My work centers around the question: what gets lost in the capture ? Responding to this problematic, I create “speculative archives”— setting the practice of archiving against the archive. In doing so, my display systems (including photography, film and writing) reveal countless ruptures, even blind spots, in the smooth surfaces of the archive: the invisibility of the archivist, the challenge of capturing ephemera, the inherent value bias in collecting, and the inexhaustibility of documenting a subject.

Speculating on the archive has consequence for design practice. From the …

Learning To Live In Thick Interface, Jonathan Hanahan

Masters Theses

As media platforms shift towards more dynamic interfaces, the separation between user and content grows infinitely. While advertised as thin, light, and seamless, these platforms mask a thick and complicated space in which society must navigate. This is what I call the “Thick Interface.” The Thick Interface is the portal we use to toggle back and forth and through which we communicate. It is solid and porous, physical and digital, enhancing and diminishing. It may also be a combination of these things simultaneously, or none at all. My work highlights—rather than masks—the complexity of this space through interaction, participation, and …

Not Not Real : Exercises In Styling, Sophie Mascatello

Masters Theses

As a generative process of visual form, styling and artifice are co-dependent. Styling mediates visual and sensorial elements for aesthetic benefit, and artifice produces a fantasy otherwise unattainable. Together they are a rebus — an orchestration of symbols and shifted realities — that impacts modes of representation and subsequent shifts in taste.

In Not Not Real, the logic of “real” life is moot. Relevance and subjectivity are the only fixed parameters that govern stylistic intuition. The image produced — however candid or authentic it may appear — is artificial. But this imagery supersedes reality in provoking aspiration, rendering the …

Remixing Remix Remixed, Joshua Cornelis

Graduate School of Art Theses

Remix culture plays an important role in the expression and communication of visual art. It is a discourse by which I strive to directly engage culture by cutting and pasting together already existing visual information. By doing so, I strive to promote an exchange of ideas and feelings between juxtaposed pieces. In this age of post-digital era collage, I am interested in the meaning and propaganda associated with collage and assemblage and the modes of disseminating messages via cut-and-paste.

By juxtaposing images that differ in style, content, and meaning, I am able to build panoramas of fractured identities that manifest …

Maturation Of Practices, Wendell J. Brunious

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The disparate concepts of Pop Art and abstract painting heavily influence the scope of my work. Finding a link between these two concepts has been the focal point of my studio practices. The apex of my process is the focus on commercial imagery as abstract form. The merging of these two concepts presents a complex composition of balance, color and information.

This thesis explores the various concepts as well as influences that have propelled the evolution of my work. It chronicles the steps I have taken in my quest to articulate my conceptual ideas. By describing the works and defining …

Zoom In To The Layers Of Graphic Design, Paola J. Robelo

Honors College Theses

Graphic design is a lot like languages varying from place to place. It’s a way of communication that retains its own cultural characteristics even though it shares similar design’s aesthetics. Graphic design varies from culture to culture, influenced by a country’s culture, language, traditions, history, and society. Just like art and music, graphic design’s aesthetics differs and expresses different messages across every culture. There are common graphic design’s elements found in one culture that are not found in other cultures and vice versa.

As an international student, this is a topic that has really interested me because I want to …

Bringing Design To Life: Three-Dimensional Graphic Design, Cydnee E. Jones

Honors College Theses

For most people, graphic design is seen as a two-dimensional medium. I have challenged this preconception by creating a design that incorporates both two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements. The secondary purpose of this work is to highlight the importance of environmental sustainability, by both the use of sustainably sourced materials and by the choice of recycling as the topic of the design. The design was created with scavenged cardboard and utilizes photography and digital design techniques.

Visualizing Music, Thomas Grill

Honors Theses

The results of this project were far from what I expected both in process and final solution. My topic was rather vague, tempting me to research a broad range of information, much of which was not necessary to the development of my pieces, but perhaps got me thinking in new ways. My project was unique in that it was not the typical, world problem thesis, and the logic behind my decisions was made almost entirely based off of my knowledge of music and and visual subjectivity. Though it was easily the most important part of the piece, and most visually …

Environmental Systems And Patterns Applied To Design, Aaron Cooper

Honors Theses

Looking at the variety of organic form in a natural setting is always an eye opening experience. Seeing how those forms are based on a common system in the environment is even more amazing. Applying the concept of form driven by ratios in the environment to design layout seems like a common sense approach to functional design, yet this is not a common solution in modern design.

Organic form looks organic because it is a product of the environment it is from. If a page is the originating environment for content with a specific function, the content should look like …

The Impact Of Branding And Marketing Strategies On Events With Sole, Jennifer Vucinich

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to research current marketing, branding, and social media strategies and apply those to Events with Sole, a nonprofit organization that establishes running and multisport races in Northern California. This study explored the impact of these strategies on nonprofit organizations and the importance of sustaining a brand identity. More specifically, this research defined effective logo design for nonprofits, and based on collected data, provided suggestions for potential improvements to be made to the current Events with Sole branding. This research also provided suggestions for improvements to be made to social media strategy and marketing tactics, …

User Interface Design For Online Social Media, Jackie R. Hayes

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to identify implementation techniques of a successful user interface for an online social media application. Interviews were conducted with three employees from three separate social media applications to compare how designers approach user interface design differently. The working professionals were asked a series of user interface design questions about the social media application for which they work and help design. The interview responses were compared to the results of the Voice of the Customer (VOC) survey where 100 online social media (OSM) users were surveyed at random about their user interface design preferences within …

The Quincy Brand, Jessica Pelton

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to find how to effectively brand the Quincy brand by designing multiple platforms that will communicate the company’s intended message to the consumer. After researching the Western industry, designs were created for the brand based on the company’s target market and intended product. Designs were created for a logo, package, and website. A survey was conducted to determine which designs most effectively represented the company and appealed to the consumer. The results of this study can be used to develop Quincy into a distinctive and established brand in the marketplace.

Aesthetically Designed Maps: Development And Perception, Catherine Wang

Graphic Communication

This research explored the creative element of subway map creation in light of its effectiveness. Printed subway maps, used often for metropolitan cities and areas, are limited in physical dimension and scale, carrying minimal information. The New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Paris, London and Moscow subway maps highlight similar design and abstraction that fulfill the basic necessary elements for subway patrons. Over the years since the first metro map for each city was created, maps have become more simplified by removing physical land features and reference points to make way for expanding and new subway lines, stations, and …

Working Women: Contemporary Cinematic Costumes In "Desk Set" And "Working Girl", Karen Hummel Kinsley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The contemporary cinematic costume designer is a visual storyteller. Through the dressing, or undressing of the actor's body, the costume designer narrates the cinematic character's physical and psychological journey from the first frame to the final credits. The costume designer creates the character's image by selecting specific garments and accessories that will inform the audience about the character's relationship with his cinematic environment.

The focus of this thesis is to examine how the contemporary cinematic costume designer unifies contemporary clothing with the actor's body to narrate a cinematic character's story. In order to understand how the costume designer creates a …

Unloosed: Designing Participatory Objects, Laura Schlifer

Theses and Dissertations

The ubiquity of technology has mediated the means of receiving content through digital networks; users have complete control over receiving, shaping, and sharing information. In contrast to the inherent elasticity of these networks, physical pieces of communication often manifest through a closed and highly controlled process. However, the increased prominence of user-interaction with media provides an opportunity to evaluate the design process as it applies to the creation of physical objects. Throughout much of my work, I investigate the potential for unloosening the control of designed objects by inviting others into the design process. By considering the audience as active …

The Effects Of Alternate-Line Shading On Visual Search In Grid-Based Graphic Designs, Michael P. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: The goal of this research was to determine whether alternate-line shading (zebra-striping) of grid-based displays affects the strategy (i.e., “visual flow”) and efficiency of serial search. Background: Grids, matrices, and tables are commonly used to organize information. A number of design techniques and psychological principles are relevant to how viewers’ eyes can be guided through such visual works. One common technique for grids, “zebra-striping,” is intended to guide eyes through the design, or “create visual flow” by alternating shaded and unshaded rows or columns. Method: 13 participants completed a visual serial search task. The target was embedded in a …

Side A, Side B, Hong Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

I believe that aural and visual language can contribute and inspire one another. Sound evokes the emotions and the senses. It is a catalyst for our imagination. It can be combined with imagery for the purpose of communication, harmoniously or contrastively. Both have corresponding characteristics—color/timbre, brightness/pitch, length/duration, scale/volume, composition/rhythm—and thus provide ways of transforming each other back and forth as input and output. Computer technology has increased the ease of transforming and manipulating the two. In my thesis project, I explore sound visualization, sound/image transformation and combination.

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 …

Vogue As An Example Of Effective Fashion Magazine Covers, Kiefer Hackney

Graphic Communication

Abstract

In this study, my objective was to determine what cover design elements contribute to the success of Vogue, the world’s leading women’s fashion magazine. I found that color, fonts, layout, and photography all work together to make a cover that both catches the reader’s eye and gives the reader information about the magazine’s contents. I was able to narrow this down through extensive research on the background of women’s fashion magazines and, specifically, the history and future of Vogue.

In order to find out what is different about Vogue’s printed magazine covers compared to other fashion …

Flexible Branding: An Explorative Case Study On The Effectiveness Of An Adaptable Visual Identity, Adam Scott Houghton

Graphic Communication

No abstract provided.