Graphic Design Commons^™

Visualizing Irrationality: Digit Mosaics In Okabe–Ito, Raven Quilestino-Olario

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Five visual mosaics translate 10,000-digit segments of well-known mathematical constants into color. For each constant, the digits are placed in a 100×100 grid read left to right and top to bottom, including the digit before the decimal point, and each digit (0–9) is mapped to a color in the Okabe–Ito palette. A matching bar chart shows the digit counts within the same window, allowing quick comparison of how evenly digits appear. The series includes π, e, √2, φ, and the Euler–Mascheroni constant γ. Together, the mosaics and counts turn numerical randomness into visual harmony while keeping the work readable for …

Mother Of Mine, Liv Schlosser

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

Color Shift: A Graphic Design Process Book Exploring How Color And Motion Influence Emotional Perception And Brand Connection In Affordable Women's Fashion Jewelry, Elizabeth Voight

Theses

This study examines how manipulating color and motion within a single brand identity system influences consumer emotional response and brand consistency. Using a fictional modern jewelry brand, Quanta & Co., the research isolates color as the primary variable by applying nine distinct mid-range color palettes to identical layouts, logos, and structures across both print and digital touchpoints. These collateral assets include jewelry packaging, vehicle wraps, digital advertisements, and an animated logo. A quantitative survey was executed to capture real-time audience impressions regarding brand traits, perceived quality, and the overall alignment of each color variation with the brand's identity.

The findings …

This Must Be The Place, Janie Marino

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

Automated Creative Evaluation Based On Multimodal Ai For Facebook Reels Ads Using Chatgpt, Mohamed Zakaria Soltan

Journal of Art, Design and Music

This work presents a useful multimodal analytical method for automating the creative evaluation of Facebook's Reel ads through the use of ChatGPT. Nowadays, brief ads in digital spaces need to evoke an emotional response from viewers in order to grab their attention. Traditional techniques of evaluating creativity might not be reliable, scalable, or fair. To encourage quantifiable and repeatable innovations, this paper lays forth a method for combining time, space, sound, and motion into a scientifically solid framework. The suggested multimodal analytical framework is utilized. This work explores the themes of time, motion, color, and music. The study utilized notable …

Zine Open Assignment Guidelines For Mmp460, Anna Pinkas

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Junk Journaling For Graphic Designers: Analog Play & Process In An Increasingly Digital Design Landscape, Kristina N. Rosgen

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores junk journaling as an accessible analog practice for young graphic designers experiencing digital fatigue, creative stress, and perfectionism. Through historical research, a hands-on workshop, and an interactive Readymag website, the project shows how junk journaling can help designers reconnect with play, process, physical materials, and the joy of making.

Navigating Filipino-American Identity Through Philippine Foodways, Jenelle Kirsten De Leon

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the complexity of Filipino-American identity and investigates how Philippine foodways can function as a meaningful pathway for cultural understanding, identity formation, and intergenerational connection. Shaped by colonization, cultural hybridity, generational divides, and limited representation in Western education and media, Filipino-American identity is often difficult to define and navigate, leaving many individuals without accessible entry points to explore their culture, history, traditions, and more.

Through an analysis of existing literature, primary research, and a survey of Filipino-American youth, this study finds that Filipino cuisine operates as a powerful site of cultural and historical knowledge. The narratives embedded within …

Ra Hub: Streamlining Resident Advisor Workflows Through A Mobile App, Samantha Danahe Gonzalez

Graphic Communication

This project explores the need to improve the workflow experience for Residential Advisors (RAs), specifically focusing on polychat logging and event planning workflows that currently rely on multiple disconnected software platforms. This fragmented system creates confusion and makes it difficult to complete responsibilities efficiently and accurately. Survey findings revealed frustrations with tracking tasks, managing workflows, and navigating between systems. In response, this project proposes a centralized workflow system designed to create a more organized, accessible, and userfriendly experience for RAs.

Redesigning Rhapsody In View's Website For Improved Storytelling And Navigation, Christine Ha

Graphic Communication

Rhapsody in View is a family-owned and operated hotel boutique in Morro Bay that offers bespoke rooms and warm hospitality. Their current website has the opportunity to improve the layout design for ease of navigation and improved storytelling. This project aims to deliver a high-fidelity interactive prototype that showcases a visually appealing website design, improved user journey and expression of Rhapsody in View’s story, and refined navigation flow.

Let's Talk Twenties, Yuwa R. Tennen

Graphic Communication

“Let’s Talk Twenties” is a senior design project that explores what it really feels like to be in your twenties...the highs, the lows, and everything in between. It focuses on creating an open, relatable space where conversations about identity, relationships, and personal growth feel honest and normalized. The goal is to break away from the pressure of having everything figured out and instead highlight the shared experiences that define this stage of life.

Through thoughtful short-form content, branding, and storytelling, the project combines engaging visuals with real, meaningful content to connect with young adults. It emphasizes authenticity, inclusivity, and emotional …

Independent Apparel Brand Launch Campaign Strategy, Nick S. Schottenfeld

Graphic Communication

Soleil Lune is an independent California apparel brand with an established visual identity, a growing social media following, and a live product collection but lacks a coordinated marketing system to connect those pieces into a unified launch. Without that structure, the brand’s Instagram, Shopify store, and print materials were operating independently, making it difficult to build consistent customer trust or drive sales. This project developed a full launch campaign producing a print and digital lookbook, 10 Instagram campaign assets, a printed poster, and a branded care insert card all designed to work together to tell the brand story, grow the …

Designing A Mobile App For Mr. Turtle: Increasing Membership And Building Sustainable Refill Habits, Mira Pinto

Graphic Communication

Mr. Turtle is a sustainable soap and detergent refill station service. Instead of buying new plastic bottles, customers bring containers to a Mr. Turtle refill station and fill them up with products like dish soap and laundry detergent.

The stations are located inside local retail partner stores and on the Cal Poly campus, making it easy to refill. In the SLO area, Mr. Turtle has locations in the SLO Food Co-Op, Market Poly Canyon, and Swish & Swirl. Mr. Turtle’s mission is to reduce single-use plastic waste by making refilling simple and convenient.

For my senior project, I created a …

Advertisement Recognition And Recall In Urban Environments, Carson L. Ambrose

Graphic Communication

Why is it that certain advertisements are so much easier to remember than others? And how can places like Times Square actually be communicating effectivly through the dense amount of different ads? This project aims to get closer to finding out how design and environmental ad density effect advertisement recognition and recall. To capture the real-world feeling of a dense city, a 3D printed one was created to allow for custom testing and various locations meant for displaying custom advertisements. These ads would be created using a variety of design characteristics such as color, hierarchy, composition, typography, and over all …

Cor(E) Brand Direction, Jake T. Tokatlian

Graphic Communication

COR(E) is a new record label founded by an artist named Lil Uzi Vert, and for my project I have taken the initial steps to develop their brand identity and create physical products for the label. To achieve this, I made a brand book to help define COR(E) and provide a set of design guidelines, a Spring issue of a quarterly magazine that provides news and behind the scenes of the label’s artists, and a CD design including a cover and tracklist. I believe there is a gap in the market for bringing physical media into the music industry and …

Why Choose Green Burial: Raising Awareness About An Under-Utilized Method Of Body Disposition, Gretchen Mahlberg

University Honors Theses

Green burial, the process of human burial in a biodegradable vessel without embalming, is a simple method for disposal of remains that has been used around the world for centuries, yet it is chosen less than 5% of the time in the US today. The stigma about discussing death has led to a lack of awareness about options and created an environment where morticians, as the sole sources of information, direct the bereaved towards the options most beneficial to themselves. Previous methods to raise awareness about green burial have had limited reach, being focused on people who are already researching …

Material Costs, Karima Weinman

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how migration fatality and disappearance data can be reinterpreted through material craft to create a more reflective encounter with information. Working with the Missing Migrants Project's dataset, this project asks how design can communicate dimensions of human loss that conventional data visualization cannot reach.

The work situates contemporary border violence within a longer colonial history, arguing that the logics of surveillance and quantification that structured European imperial expansion persist in the databases that govern mobility in the Mediterranean today.

Terrazzo is a 15th-century Venetian flooring technique built from discarded fragments bound together into a unified surface. This …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

The Frame You're Holding, Andrea Mato

Masters Theses

The Frame You're Holding explores how my photographer's eye transitioned into a graphic designer's voice. The projects presented explore how to weave the textural and subjective qualities of photography into a design context. My practice explores how the frames of graphic design – the page of a book, the browser window, or the wall of an exhibition – can be expanded or reimagined. As a designer, I became the translator of content into form, seeking to author the design while collaborating with other voices. The Frame You're Holding is a snapshot of my practice as a graphic designer, encapsulating my …

Menstrual Muses: Art, Storytelling, And The Care-Based Communication Of Menstrual Justice, Burcu Koleli

Masters Theses

Menstrual Muses is an artistic research project comprising a written thesis and a body of work developed across soft sculpture, ceramics, illustration, graphic memoir, digital media, and participatory workshops. The written component operates alongside the studio practice, outlining the project’s theoretical framework, methodology, and context while engaging questions of communication, accessibility, embodiment, and stigma. It situates menstruation within feminist discourse, examining how it has been culturally silenced, regulated, and shaped through systems of power.

The artistic work functions as research materialized through practice, responding to the central question of how my art can facilitate conversations around menstrual justice. It explores …