Art and Design Commons^™

Experiences In Embroidery: Stories From The High Fashion Embroidery Industry, Theresa Christine Alexander

Theses & Dissertations

Fashion embroidery has been an integral part of high fashion since before King Louis XV of France in the 18th century. Upon the development of haute couture in France, a professional fashion embroidery industry arose to serve the needs of the new high fashion designers. Despite significance of professional embroidery in high fashion, there is little documentation of the history of the fashion embroidery industry. Particularly scarce is information about the professional embroiderers working in the industry. The purpose of this qualitative study was to capture the life stories of the people working in the modern fashion embroidery industry in …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Human Centered Design Applied To Perceptual Paradigms, Jonathan T. Fancher

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis gives three examples of projects that apply knowledge from areas such as human centered design, computer science, and psychology to study sensation and perception. All three of these projects were created to gather information on how humans interact with their surrounding environment and the world. For instance the first area of discovery included the way humans interact within their perceptual and personal space through an interactive table. The second project looks at exploring the neural mechanisms that affect Haptic Hallucinations by creating a device that can give the feeling of bugs crawling on or below the surface of …

Creativity And Web Design: Designing And Producing A Successful Site On Creativity And Leadership, Travis N. Turner

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the connection between design, website development and creativity. As the Internet plays an increasing role in every day life, the ability to produce a high-quality website showcasing one’s personal and professional writing becomes essential to personal and career success. This project features a literature review as well as an analysis of successful website to determine what makes for a good site. The project then implements these findings with a complete re-design of www.creativeleader.com as well adding and improving the content already on the site.

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 …

Ergonomically Designing Art Objects, Ambika Subramaniam

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

The following thesis examines the work of Ambika Subramaniam, in particular her thesis installation Ergonomically Designing Art Objects, for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis. Based within a discussion of semiotics, the thesis researches furniture signification and tracks its evolution through traditional form, ergonomic function, and consumed product. Major points include the ways in which objects are capable of collapsing and retaining the semiotic divide between a sign and referent, and how that signification relates to contemporary design-oriented products. Using the chair as the exemplifying object, the thesis installation questions how objects have …

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 …

The Sustainability Movement And Its Effects On Package Design, Gillian Mcglynn

Graphic Communication

The goal of this study was to examine how the sustainability movement has affected the packaging industry and how packaging design has changed to appeal to the more environmentally-friendly consumer. Furthermore, it examined how sustainability is defined and the specific design aspects that suggest a package is “green”. Consumer price and quality perceptions of green products were analyzed. The objective of this study was to expand consumer’s knowledge of what is sustainable and find how effectively consumer product companies are marketing to the “green” consumer.

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 …

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 …

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

Graphic Communication

No abstract provided.

Colormoo: An Algorithmic Approach To Generating Color Palettes, Joshua Rael

CMC Senior Theses

Selecting one color can be done with relative ease, but this task becomes more difficult with each subsequent color. Colormoo is an online tool aimed at solving this problem. We implement three algorithms for generating color palettes based off of a starting color. Data is collected for each palette that is generated. Our analysis reveals two of the algorithms are preferred, but under different circumstances. Furthermore, we find that users prefer palettes containing colors that are compatible, but not too similar. With refined heuristics, we believe these techniques can be extended and applied beyond the field of graphic design alone.

Designing Connection, Laurie K. Culshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Social connection is an essential human need. Personal connections exist at a variety of depths and within different types of relationships. Small daily choices determine the strength of those connections and their impact on our well-being as individuals and as a community. Modern society and technology have altered the speed and channels of connection, increasing communication but decreasing meaningful connection. It is critical to understand how the methods of communication affect the depth of connections. Through a series of participatory graphic design projects, I analyze the strengths and weaknesses of one-on-one, small group and community connections within an established taxonomy …