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Practice Makes Practice, Gabriel Melcher

Masters Theses

Graphic Designers today must operate independently of specific tools and media. Modes of production are democratized, and so it is in the ways we choose to operate within these modes that define the value of the field. Practice Makes Practice is a response to this condition, refocusing attention from the products of design as endpoints of process to visual evidence of persistent questioning by the designer.

Through my work I question roles and media, enfolding audience, client, and collaborators into my process. My practice is improvisational, quick, and performative in its response to the specifics of site and circumstance. Through …

The Untitled Mapping Project: Case Study Trauma, Wyndi A. Desouza

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis is my personal exploration of what trauma is and how, if possible, it can be visually represented. The use of data collection, data visualization, and archive methodology is utilized in my project and this document examines how these components come together to understand trauma. This thesis also works through the ideology that everyone has the ability to experience trauma, of some form, in his or her life. Yet, there are different social perceptions for defining and labeling trauma. It is this social fallacy of trauma that I investigate and then seek to eliminate through the visual representation of …

Rhetoric: The Art Of Using Language Effectively, Eric Burwell

Graduate School of Art Theses

My thesis is constructed of fifty text modules, each containing 100 words exactly. These modules express my technical interests, my personal history, and artists that influenced my writing and paintings. The module form enables me to concentrate my thoughts about how I approach personal studio methods and constrain personal limitations that direct my writing into poetry. The methods employed in the writing also correlate with my paintings. Many of the modules address methods I use in constructing my paintings; arrays of gestural marks of language and sometimes specifics words. I choose to arrange these letterforms in gestural fields of color. …

Graphic Design And The Cinema: An Application Of Graphic Design To The Art Of Filmmaking, Kacey B. Holifield

Honors Theses

When the public considers different art forms such as painting, drawing and sculpture, it is easy to understand the common elements that unite them. Each is a non-moving art form that begins at the drawing board. Using line, color and shape to evoke a particular response from audiences is what ties these fine arts together. Graphic design, however, tends to separate itself from the fine arts. Because of its later development in the art world, as well as, its operation within modern technological developments, graphic design is driven by the idea of communicating to large audiences. In this way, although …

Form, Content, And Form As Content, Bon Hae Koo

Masters Theses

Form, Content, and Form as Content demonstrates form as a tool of communication used to explore the role of aesthetics, play, and order in giving form to design. This thesis maps the journey of an aesthetic critic who makes visible and explicit the structures and symbolic meaning valued in the graphic forms we experience.

The practice draws upon the properties of the kaleidoscope, rearranging form to produce new content that questions the reliability of standards, from corporate ranking to color palette trending. Bearing witness to culture, I closely observe and highlight identities and trends that command high stakes in culture. …

A Roof Overhead: Creating A Conceptual Long Term Day Facility For Street Children And Orphans In Tehran, Iran, Marjan Safdari

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

With approximately 1.5 million orphans, over 200,000 street children, and 2,500 cases of child violence each year, Iran is not an ideal place for children. Although government groups and non-governmental organizations (NGO) have tried to provide facilities and institutional care centers, there are still many shortages that need to be addressed. Facilities that provide something more than the basic needs of these children are necessary. Orphans and street children face many difficulties during different stages of their lives that cause psychological and social problems for them. In addition, health problems and lack of education are other issues that they face. …

Yellow Nancy, A Graphic Narrative, Susan Borchek Smith

2016 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman (1860-1935) was an accomplished American author who suffered from depression and post-partum depression. Her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written in June 1890, could be considered both a brief autobiography and a call for help. This well-known work tells the story of a woman trapped within her own declining mental health, using subtle, visual language and downward spiraling imagery to illustrate a woman imprisoned in her own mind, succumbing to the loss of control of her own sanity.

Paul Rand: Life, Work, Philosophy, And Influence On Modern Design, Benjamin Nicholes

Senior Honors Theses

Paul Rand is one the most influential graphic designers of the 21st Century. This thesis will cover his biography and show how the events of his life shaped him into the famed and prestigious designer we know him to be today. The thesis will then cover the many projects Rand designed and show the influences on his style and how his design philosophy is evident in his work. Finally, the thesis will look at how Rand’s style and philosophy has impacted graphic design in the modern era. This study will show why Paul Rand is considered to be one of …

Volume 08, Meghan Enzinna, Casey Dawn Gailey, Raven Collins, Chiara Enriquez, Amelia Mcconnell, Alexander Morton, Emma Beckett, Leah G. Parr, Briana Adhikusuma, Taylor Embrey, Rowan Davis, Danielle Sisson, Bianca Cherry, Melissa Cacho, Chloe Woodward, Catherine Rollins, Carson Reeher, Landon Cooper, Haley Vasquez, Marlisha Stewart, Eric Whitehead, Sabrina Walker, James Bates

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Interim Dean Dr. Jennifer Apperson

Indigenous Peoples and the Modern Era by Meghan Enzinna

"Who Says": How Selena Gomez and the Scene Attempt to Subvert the Popular Standards of Beauty by Casey Dawn Gailey

Art by Raven Collins

Meltdown on Social Media: Amy's Baking Company Meets Kitchen Nightmares by Nathena Haddrill

Art by Chiara Enriquez

Design by Amelia Mcconnell

Worth More Than a Thousand Words: A Visual Rhetorical Discussion of Virtual Reality by Examining "Clouds Over Sidra" by Alexander Morton

Design by Emma Beckett

The Sonata: An Analysis of Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, K. …

A Borrowed Language, Yvonne Osei

Graduate School of Art Theses

Art has the potency of mediation: bridging human differences, questioning voids in historical trajectories, negotiating spaces of relevance, and most importantly, being signifiers that embody the absent. I speak in a borrowed language, a multilingual visual tongue, inspired by a culmination of Western and African Art modes of practices to create charged platforms for multicultural communication.

My art presents visual portals that allow for intercultural and interracial mingling as issues of colorism, present-day colonialism, gender inequality and the politics of dress are foregrounded for collective deliberation. The essence of the work is often activated and brought to its full potential …

Osamu James Nakagawa Interview, Myumi Ware

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Osamu James Nakagawa was born in New York City; raised in Tokyo, Japan and returned to Houston, Texas at the age of 15. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston in 1993 He is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of Art at Indiana University and a recipient of the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship and 2010 Higashikawa Award: New Photographer of the Year, and 2015 Sagamihara Photographer of the Year in Japan. Nakagawa's work is shown internationally and his monograph GAMA Caves was published by Aka Aka Art Publishing in January 2014.

His recent work, BANTA …

Profile Of Business In The Traditional Design Sectors, Con Kennedy

Reports

This research report illustrates the findings form the “Profile of Business in the Traditional Design Sectors”. This research was commissioned by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland as part of the Year of Irish Design (ID1025) which is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and was under taken on their behalf by Con Kennedy. The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of the size, location and demographic of design practices and business in the Republic of Ireland. For the purpose of this report, the agreed sectors and design sectors to research were: • …

03. Design, Northeastern State University

Oklahoma Research Day Abstracts

No abstract provided.

Fashion Photography On Social Media: Insights From Hong Kong Fashion Image Producers, Athena Choi

Staff Publications

This study draws on fashion and culture theories to explore the influence of visual sharing culture on social media in fashion. The objective is to interpret the perceived creative values and the meanings of such cultural phenomenon from the perspective of fashion media industry in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews, in the exploratory semi-structured format, were adopted in which 20 fashion image producers in Hong Kong were interviewed regarding their increasing involvement in professional fashion image making and blogging. Among the 20 respondents, 12 respondents were younger generation of image producers with experience around 3 years, while 8 respondents have been …

Aesthetics, Economics And The Enchantment Of Cloth, Janis Jefferies, Barbara Layne

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In a changing world everyone crafts, designs and engages in making: each individual person and each collective subject, from communities to cities and regions, can define and enhance a life project. We are witnessing an unprecedented wave of social innovations, sometimes using technology and sometimes not. As these changes unfold, an expansive open set of process and practices in which new solutions are suggested and new meanings are created. Most revolutions are about energetic movement and upheavals; even if ideas take a while to become ideologies, we don’t think of them as slow events. But the phrase also makes us …

Comfort Toys: Coping Tools For Children With An Epileptic Parent, Benjamin Evjen

Theses and Dissertations

When a caregiver suffers from epilepsy, a child can often feel frightened, vulnerable, and alone whenever a seizure occurs. In my thesis project I intend to help children negotiate this struggle with the use of therapeutic toys. Through play, children can navigate feelings that are often overlooked by adults. The visual appeal, simplicity, and materials used in their creation help facilitate comfort through sensory cues. By applying coping mechanisms to deal with stress caused by the passage of time, provide tactile comfort, and equip the child with tools to take action, their emotional needs are met. These toys address an …

Cold Lapse, Tressa Jones

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

cold lapse addresses the abstract notions of time and loss while conveying the value of observing the present. The postmodern view of time, the grid’s vernacular, and the aesthetics of postminimalism are my foundation for communicating time’s passage and its consequential sensations of absence. The duration of a slow drip, the cycle of breath and the sequential motion of a hand folding paper each mark passing moments. By observing these signs the phenomenon of time may be appreciated. Care and ephemerality in the work require the viewer’s sensitivity when encountering and witnessing it, much like the demands of observing the …

The Material Forms Of Memory: A Creative Arts Praxis Examining Family Archive Materiality And The Performance Of Memory Through Installation Art, Emily M. M. Hornum

Theses

This Master of Arts by Research investigates the role of new media in influencing familyarchive materiality and what effect this has on the performance of memory. The aim is to examine through creative arts praxis how installation art illuminates the participatory engagement of family archive materiality to mediate our mnemonic processes. The source materials for this project stem from my family archives dating from the early 1900s to 2013, and include photographs, 35mm slides, VHS tapes, audiotapes and personal items. The significance of this research lies in the creative outcomes that have occurred through the investigative and critical dialogues between …

Graphic Design For The Shark Reef Aquarium [Course Project], Alexxis Rodriguez

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

This essay examines the thought processes of how a short, informative booklet was constructed for the Shark Reef Aquarium. Methods of research includes searching for valuable, credible articles, viewing competitor’s designs, visiting the company’s official information and media, and gathering design books for inspiration. Other ways of research include the designer’s ability to think critically in order to create intentional design that effectively communicates the information to the reader. Ultimately, looking at Lied Library’s resources has played a role in the booklet design and how to think about the supporting design elements.

Together In Community, In Visual Culture, In Protest: Dzawada'enuxw On The Move, Catherine Nutting

Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas

No abstract provided.

Adornment And Modesty A Symbiotic Relationship Between Surface Design And Social Behavior, Hawa Stwodah

Theses and Dissertations

The impulse to beautifying clothing through acts of adornments or embellishments is an innate characteristic of humans. The added decorative details are used for identification and visual communication by the wearer and comprehension and visual appreciation by the viewer.

This thesis investigates the recent attention to female modesty, labeled as the Modesty Movement--the community that has developed around the apparel segment of the Movement and the framework of the behavior encompassing the participants within Movement. Additionally, the thesis focuses on adornment through the lens of textile/surface design (embellishment) specific to the Greater Middle East and the northern provinces of India …

Egyptianization: Culture Hacking As A Method, Hadeer Omar

Theses and Dissertations

In a broad sense, cultures undergo a metamorphoses due to the external influences and systems impacting the evolution of internal identities. Conversely, Individuals within cultures react to those external influences and systems.The act of hacking a culture is an opportunity to challenge an existing or imported system in order to bring about change and improvement. An aspect of culture hacking is to create messages of satire or irony in order to criticize, or completely reject established systems within cultures.

Post Arab spring, Egyptians practiced culture hacking by applying their cultural tools to external systems and influences, producing a process of …

It's Slapstick Design, Thanks! Wait! No "Thanks"- Just Slapstick Design ..., Curtis A. Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

I'm arguing for an approach to generating graphic form based on slapstick. Slapstick is a genre of physical comedy involving humorous portrayals of clumsiness, mistakes, and nonsense. I investigate it as an approach to form, content, process, and communication. These methods were used to construct an immersive installation loosely based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Graphic design is expected to function. It does this by conditioning users to its particular patterns or by skillfully implementing familiar patterns. A slapstick approach to graphic design is valuable as a critical tool for disrupting conditioned experiences for promoting empathy by relating …

No Woman Is An Island, Adele Ball

Theses and Dissertations

We have gathered the following pages to archive our time here in Richmond, Virginia. We have been here for two years, growing slowly, moving when needed to new anchorholds to avoid detection or arrest. We scrutinize the urban environment like modern archeologists. We collect stories and speculate about new uses of old things. It is imperative to be resourceful here, and we do so out of necessity but also in the spirit of practice. These pages were made en route, each an exploration of the tools at hand when on the move. The method of creation is just as important …

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

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & 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 …

Designing With An Underdeveloped Computational Composite For Materials Experience, Bahareh Barati, Elvin Karana, Paul Hekkert, Iris JöNsthöVel

Experiential Knowledge (EKSIG) Conference Series

In response to the urge for multidisciplinary development of computational composites, designers and material scientists are increasingly involved in collaborative projects to valorize these technology-push materials in the early stages of their development. To further develop the computational composites, material scientists need designer’s inputs regarding the physical properties and temporal behavior of the composite, as embodying an application in a context of use. Effective communication of material knowledge and design knowledge between the two disciplines (material science and design) has proven to be challenging due to their different perspectives on materials. Designing appropriate product concepts requires understanding of composite’s unique …

Other-Than-Ego Consciousness: Approaching The “Spiritual” In Secular Art Education, Nico Roenpagel

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Alternative worldviews bring forth alternative visions of education. This article sheds light on one contemporary approach to a spiritual worldview and its implications for secular art education. It proposes that high school visual art is a particularly conducive environment to engaging teenagers with existential and spiritual questions. An approach to spirituality grounded in a worldview of “profound interconnectedness” and “other-than-ego consciousness,” rather than religious systems, offers a timely basis for renegotiating the spiritual in secular art education settings. Through five concepts, the article bridges broader discussions on spirituality with concrete learning and teaching in the art classroom. For example, it …

Leon Sun, Linda Hanes

International Faculty Researchers

Living and working in two countries provided a cultural contrast that has greatly inspired and influenced the art and design of Yuanliang (Leon) Sun, an associate professor of art at Western Michigan University.

Simplification: An Effective Visual Solution For Graphic Design, Yihan Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Simplification, as an effective visual solution, is frequently applied in modern graphic design. During my graduate studies, this method was integrated with each project including identity design, package design and print design. As a result, it not only helped clarify thoughts in the creative process, but it also helped form a relatively consistent style. However, since graphic design refers to communication via visual elements, this presents the problem of whether simplification affects the transfer of information. In other words, the degree to which the visual language should be literal needs discussion and exploration. Contrary to the simplified expression of graphic …

Design Research: Typography Within The Israeli Linguistic Landscape, Shayna Tova Blum

Faculty and Staff Publications

A linguistic landscape signifies language used within a physical or virtual public space, in which communication is presented in typographic form, portraying a message to an audience. Within the state of Israel, the linguistic landscape presents a unique situation in which it is common to view municipal and commercial multilingual signs that are designed using Hebrew, English, and Arabic letterforms. By studying the diverse linguistic landscape within Israeli urban environments, the article offers perspectives on the use of multilingual visual language, based on discussions with five Israeli designers in the summer of 2015.