Graphic Design Commons^™

Visual Aids And Numeracy In Healthcare: Leveraging The Drawing Effect, Zephyr J. Markley

Capstone Showcase

Healthcare decisions often require patients to interpret numerical risk information under stress, yet many struggle with low numeracy, which can distort comprehension and undermine informed consent. Well-designed visual aids can improve diagnostic inference, calibrate confidence, and support better choices, especially for patients with limited numeracy, but their impact depends on whether users can actually interpret the format accurately. Drawing may further enhance these tools by adding a tactile, generative layer that engages visual, semantic, and motoric processing while helping patients organize information into concrete models.

Passive visual aids appear useful but limited because they often position patients as observers rather …

Designing Intentionally: Color Psychology In Graphic Design, Savannah Jons

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study will explore the role of color in graphic design and the psychological processes behind viewersʼ emotional and perceptual responses. Research will investigate how color psychology is influential on design, how the selection of color guides design appeal, and how it can alter commercial messaging.

Will You Let Me In?, Irene Piazza

Theses and Dissertations

Imposed borders are everywhere: The borders created by stanchions during bureaucratic lines, the borders of a country, the borders of a page. Humans are forced to follow them. Borders are imposed structures that dictate a way to move, a way to write, a way to be confined. But what happens when those borders aren’t followed? What happens when someone decides to walk through the stanchion belt by crouching under it or sliding its buckle open? What happens if a person decides to walk outside of the paved pathway? What happens if someone crosses a border or writes beyond the page …

"Spectrum", Mackinzey H. Critzer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

These body of works explores themes centered around ASD/Autism Spectrum Disorder, including symptoms involved, my personal views/experiences of it, social issues, and other related topics. My work consists of various mediums, digital pieces/prints and physical installations that involve bright color tones, human/humanoid figures, and various symbols.

Below The Rows, Beyond The Roots: An Art Exhibition Depicting Agriculture Across The Globe, Maggie Enoch

Honors Theses and Capstones

In Below the Rows, Beyond the Roots, artist Maggie Enoch creates multimedia works inspired by her exposure to diverse agricultural systems and perspectives while studying geography and sustainable agriculture/food systems around the world. By integrating complex histories with the contemporary realities of farming, Maggie paints vivid pictures of the power of food in this five-piece exhibition.

Infinite Loops, Betsy Selvam

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Artist’s Statement: In this composition, blue arms and hands loop through one another, their curved pathways forming an infinity symbol, representing autism and neurodiversity. The intertwining arms create loops that depend on one another for completion, and no single form stands alone, but rather each contributes to the pattern of the whole. This signifies interdependence and how the individual is part of a larger collective. As with Infinite Links, I used a palette of blues, the overlapping colors and curves creating depth and fluid movement while maintaining chromatic unity. The spectrum of blues also suggests the heterogeneity within the …

Expanding Epilepsy Representation: On Education And Awareness, Aliyah Wise

Honors Projects

The present-day American public education system has evolved to try to teach young students about more cultures and people of different lifestyles. However, despite these reforms to push for an inclusive education system, there is still minimal effort to teach students about disabilities and the people who live with them. As a student living with epilepsy, I have observed a lack of education or conversation about this disability. The purpose of this research project is to ask: How does miseducation on epilepsy contribute to harmful stereotypes and lead to real issues for people living with this disability? How should neurotypical …

Itadakimasu: Recipes From Japanese American Internment Camps, Alexander K. Nishida

Graphic Communication

This project presents a historical narrative told through the format of a cookbook, exploring the relationship between food, memory, and resilience during the Japanese American Internment of World War II. Using primary resources such as news publications from within the camps (Topaz Times,1943), historical interviews (Herzig, 1994), and secondary resources from an archival podcast (Campu, 2021) to highlight how food served as both a means of survival and an expression of identity under confinement.

The cookbook will combine recipes inspired by documented internment-era meals with stories and reflections gathered from interviews, archival materials, and community voices. Each section will contextualize …

Communicating Change: A Visual Analysis Of American Political And Activist Posters, Hana Sage Morshedi

Graphic Communication

Across U.S. history, posters have helped movements inform, persuade, and mobilize the public, going beyond information to signal identity and values. In this project, I analyze 40 historically significant American political and activist posters, from wartime propaganda to civil rights and queer liberation, to explore how visual choices shape public opinion and drive social change. I focus on elements such as community/heritage colors, typography, composition, and cultural or movement-specific motifs to see how they signal identity, guide action, and contribute to a “successful” poster.

Greekmate: Communicating Startup Value Through Design And Marketing, Cameron Do-Khanh

Graphic Communication

This project examines how design and marketing can improve communication for early-stage software by applying these principles to GreekMate, a candidate management tool built for student organizations. The software functioned well but lacked a strong brand identity and clear value communication. Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory and research on UX strategy, the project focused on redesigning the brand system and marketing website to make the product easier to understand and more appealing to its audience. The redesign included a new visual direction, updated hierarchy, clearer feature explanations, and a more energetic style that aligned with student expectations. Informal user feedback …

Virtus Fidelis: Design In Modern-Day Catholicism, Elisha N. Butryn

Honors College Theses

Art plays a major role in how we view the world, and particularly, how we view religion. This thesis explores those themes and how design appears in modern-day Catholicism, and how Catholicism can impact design through the development of the brand Virtus Fidelis.

Make Ready: Productive Disruption And Interstitial Sites Of Graphic Design Practice, Peter Maybury

Theses

This thesis draws on five publications produced between 2010–22: My 2020 film installation Landfall; a series of four museum and gallery-published books made with artist Gerard Byrne (2010–18); Gall, my practice enquiry with Tom dePaor which encompasses film, writing, books, sculpture, curation, and gallery works; releases and live performances by my band Thread Pulls during the period 2010–12; and my exhibition, conference talk, and book Make Ready (2015), the structure of which is taken as ‘armature’ for the writing of the thesis. Through these wide-ranging pursuits, this thesis articulates a non-normative role for the graphic designer. It identifies my operative …

Cultural Synthesis In Iranian Graphic Design: A Fusion Of Tradition And Modernity, Maryam Mehrabadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis examines Iranian graphic design as a politically embedded and semiotically charged field wherein visual form operates as a site of ideological negotiation, cultural memory, and symbolic resistance. Focusing on the works of Ghobad Shiva and Morteza Momayez, the study situates graphic design within the sociopolitical constraints of the Pahlavi monarchy and the post-1979 Islamic Republic. It argues that Iranian design practices cannot be understood outside the country’s enduring identity crisis—shaped by the unresolved tension between three coexisting cultural strata: ancient Persian heritage, Islamic civilizational identity, and Western modernity. Drawing on the work of Edward Said, the thesis also …

Ddx219.1 Social Media Analysis And Marketing Strategy Example 5, Sae University College

Exemplars

This project involved creating a suite of social media content tailored to the student’s chosen creative project. The work is exemplary for its consistent visual style, platform-specific content design, and alignment with the strategic goals defined on Project 1.

Ddx219.1 Social Media Analysis And Marketing Strategy Example 3, Sae University College

Exemplars

This project was created to explore how different social media platforms facilitate distinct forms of audience interaction. The student applied this understanding to develop a targeted social media marketing strategy for a chosen creative project. It is exemplary work due to its clear analysis of platform-specific engagement techniques, thoughtful strategy development, and strong alignment between content, platform, and audience. The work demonstrates both critical thinking and practical application of social media marketing principles.

Ddx219.1 Social Media Analysis And Marketing Strategy Example 4, Sae University College

Exemplars

This project was created to explore how different social media platforms facilitate distinct forms of audience interaction. The student applied this understanding to develop a targeted social media marketing strategy for a chosen creative project. It is exemplary work due to its clear analysis of platform-specific engagement techniques, thoughtful strategy development, and strong alignment between content, platform, and audience. The work demonstrates both critical thinking and practical application of social media marketing principles.

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Perspectives On Firearm Storage Conversations: Summary Of Health Care Provider Interviews And Parent Focus Group, Rachel M. Gallo Mph

Publications

This report summarizes perspectives from Maine parents who own firearms and health care providers on safe firearm storage and related conversations in health care settings. Through interviews and a parent focus group, the project explored how firearms are stored, what influences storage decisions, and how families and providers feel about discussing firearm safety. Parents emphasized the importance of responsible ownership, education, and individualized storage solutions, while identifying cost as a key barrier to safer storage options. Many health care providers expressed interest in addressing firearm safety but cited limited time, lack of training, and concerns about patient trust as challenges. …

Reviving Motion: Rebranding More Than Motion Dance Intensive, Ava Zamoff

Graphic Communication

For my senior project, I will lead a full rebranding initiative for More Than Motion Dance Intensive, an international dance convention that occurs annually across the US and other countries, connecting dancers and professional choreographers through a transformative weekend of dance. The main goal of this project is to turn the company’s outdated Wix website into an innovative site with a brand new visual identity. Additionally, the original site’s accessibility is lacking in terms of layout orientation and marketing strategy as it doesn’t convey the modern, dynamic feel the intensive is meant to embody. My goal is to complement the …

Graphic Design For Visual Narratives: The Semiotics Of Diegetic Retrofuturism, Brooke Luke Ballard

Theses

While semiotics, diegesis, and retrofuturism have all been discussed at length in academia, it is uncommon to find the synthesis of all three. When these concepts are combined, it forms what I argue is a new genre of graphic design now prevalent enough in contemporary media to warrant definition and analysis. This thesis first explores the theories of visual semiotics, narrative diegesis, and retrofuturistic aesthetics individually before uniting them as a new design genre. Several candidates for this design classification will then be examined in case studies that meet the criteria of 1) containing a visual language that a modern …