Digital Commons Network^™

The Look Of Fiction: A Visual Analysis Of The Front Covers Of The New York Times Fiction Bestsellers, Daniel Patrick Gallagher

Theses

In spite of the common saying "don't judge a book by its cover," studies show that actual books are overwhelmingly judged on the appearances of their covers. While studies have been conducted on what style or form of cover art is most attractive, most interesting, or most likely to sell, the current research conducts a visual analysis of the conventions contained in the covers of the best selling fiction books in the US, using the methods and ideas found in the theories of semiotics and visual culture, to offer a new perspective on the visual imagery of the covers. This …

Expanding Dimensionality In Cinema Color: Impacting Observer Metamerism Through Multiprimary Display, David L. Long

Theses

Television and cinema display are both trending towards greater ranges and saturation of reproduced colors made possible by near-monochromatic RGB illumination technologies. Through current broadcast and digital cinema standards work, system designs employing laser light sources, narrow-band LED, quantum dots and others are being actively endorsed in promotion of Wide Color Gamut (WCG). Despite artistic benefits brought to creative content producers, spectrally selective excitations of naturally different human color response functions exacerbate variability of observer experience. An exaggerated variation in color-sensing is explicitly counter to the exhaustive controls and calibrations employed in modern motion picture pipelines. Further, singular standard observer …

Branding A Professional American Football Franchise, John J. Ragone Jr.

Theses

The original intent of my thesis was to create a professional-level team identity that a community can embrace and emotionally bond with by utilizing contemporary design trends. As I researched the visual aspects of the brand strategy, it became apparent that current trends toward multiplicity of uniform designs could become a threat to an organization’s brand equity.

A corporate identity is the strategically engineered “personality” of an organization created to facilitate business objectives. How that identity is perceived and accepted supports relationship building between an organization and its audience or customers. Brand equity is developed through ease of recognition and …

Seasons: A Motion Graphics Depicts Activities Of Ancient Chinese People In Four Seasons, Qina Chen

Theses

Seasons is a 2D motion graphics film that aims to visually depict my interpretation of seasons changing and seasonal activities of ancient Chinese people. It is an attempt to reproduce two classical arts on modern media. I mimic and mix the visual effects of Chinese shadow puppets and Chinese ink wash strokes through digital media technologies. Neither Chinese painting nor shadow puppet emphasize on reproducing the appearance of subject. It is more regarded as a form of expressionistic art, which intends to capture the spirit of the subject and illustrate the perception of the scene. My graphics are not planned …

Designing Children’S Interactive Pop-Up Books: Creating Enhanced Experiences Through The Incorporation Of Animation Principles And Interactive Design., Michael Begay

Theses

This thesis, Designing Children’s Interactive Pop-up Books: Creating enhanced experiences through the incorporation of animation principles and interactive design, created by Michael Begay, explores how interactive design and computer graphics can be used to create enhanced user experiences in children’s book design. Key factors taken into consideration during the creation of this thesis include children’s book design, typography, storytelling, animation principles, and interactive design principles.

In order to explore the effect computer graphic design has on creating an enhanced user experience in pop-up book design, this project starts with research on writing a compelling, age appropriate story for children between …

The Long Walk, Joe Columbia

Theses

The “Long Walk” is the concept for my body of work consisting of a group of items that tell a visual story about life and metaphorical transcendence. There are common processes used to make the work with changes in materials, surface, and form that give each sub body of work its individual character and meaning. The vessels I created are based on historical research of funerary urns modified in design, and material to explore what makes a vessel transcend its utilitarian design and become a metaphor for life. Ultimately this exploration led me to look within myself for the answer …

Chinese International Students At Rit: A Digital Book Representing Chinese International Students’ Lives At Rochester Institute Of Technology, Muzi Meng

Theses

This thesis work is a digital book presenting Chinese international students’ lives at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The book introduces detailed information about Chinese students who are presently attending RIT. There are five main topics discussed in the book: finding housing around the campus, commuting and transportation, food and dining, education and academics at RIT, and extracurricular activities for Chinese international students at RIT.

The book content is developed based on the research of RIT Chinese students. It is designed for those who are interested in as well as those who are considering attending RIT.

Instead of another traditional …

Early Pioneers, Philip Szrama

Theses

Rochester, NY has a rich history of innovation and visionary ideas. Many people who hear or talk about Rochester outside of the area are not familiar with the people who called Rochester their home. These pioneers took advantage of the areas strategic placement in the United States and use it to help achieve great things. The use of a short motion graphics piece can help people get a taste of what some of the early pioneers achieved.

Content, planning, and organization of this piece has been completed through research on four specific people (George Eastman, John Jacob Bausch, Henry Lomb, …

The International Market: Designing An E-Commerce Experience To Promote Different Cultures, Marina Minnikova

Theses

Learning different cultures and promoting international trade can be implemented through web design and marketing. Most e-commerce websites implement design and marketing strategies in an efficient way, however none of them implement the idea of exploring international cultures through purchasing experiences.

This thesis project implements a complex brand identity and determines how to effectively create an e-commerce website employing the ideas of shopping as an online trip (“out shopping”), providing several categories of products for particular user segments. A significant part of the project focuses on determining which graphic elements are applicable for a specific design situation.

Learning Beyond The Classroom: Photography As A Major Design Element In Graphic Design Layouts For Print And Web, John E. Dyer

Theses

Learning Beyond the Classroom: Photography as a major design element in Graphic Design Layouts for print and web, is a thesis which explores alternative methods for learning and the teaching of the design process through the use of shared experiences and expert testimony.

The final thesis will provide a resource for designers and students to be able to discuss the effective and ineffective application of design principles and provide some basic lessons in the use of photography in graphic design.

Elements of design that are to be discussed include, but are not limited to: typography, hierarchy, color, scale and placement. …

Community Crime Mapping: Increasing Predictive Policing With Dynamic Symbol Sets, Michael Chaszczewski

Theses

Crime prevention is an important area of study in our society that plays an integral role in the lives of citizens and the local police who enlist the aid of strategic counter crime plans to tackle the urgency created everyday when crimes are committed. This mode of counter acting crime is termed “problem oriented policing” and is a policing approach where individual pieces of police data are critically examined with the hope that the findings learned will lead to discovering a new and more effective counter crime strategy. Crime mapping is one of these analyzed tools allowing officers to understand …

Living Dragons: Illustrating Vfx Character Creation Techniques, Karen Vandivert

Theses

Living Dragons is a 3D character design Master’s thesis project in which four visual special effects technologies (puppetry, stop motion, CGI, and motion capture) are represented with four different characters intended to represent the archetypes of those technologies. The goal is to foster curiosity in these topics and encourage its audience to explore their new interests further. The project itself is meant to be casual and fun, an inviting place to begin learning about a new topic. This project is also meant to explore how character design can be used to convey how technology works, and to utilize that design …

Time Out: Influence Of User Experience Design On Behavior To Reduce Smartphone Use, Tejal Sampat

Theses

We are more connected than we used to be but people are becoming disengaged from the real world. Are smartphones a blessing or a bane? That depends on how we use it. Being hooked to a smartphone while interacting with family or friends is a definite no-no.

To address the issue of being neglected in social situations, timeOut allows neglected users to send anonymous timeouts to obsessive smartphone users who are preoccupied with their smartphones and are in close proximity to neglected users. The timeOut app allows neglected users to express their feelings without upsetting or embarrassing anyone. The application …

Data-Ink Ratio And Task Complexity In Graph Comprehension, Kevin Mcgurgan

Theses

Human processing of graphical information is a topic which has wide-reaching implications for decision-making in a variety of contexts. A deeper understanding of the processes of graphical perception can lead to the development of design guidelines which can enhance performance in graphical perception tasks. This study evaluates the data-ink ratio guideline, which recommends the removal of non-data graph elements, resulting in minimalist graph designs. In an experiment, participants answered graph comprehension questions using bar graphs and boxplots with varying data-ink ratios. Participants answered questions with similar levels of accuracy and mental effort. Some participants drew on graphs, reducing the data-ink …

X10 Comics: Reimagining The Sequential Narrative, Sten E. Mckinzie

Theses

At its core a comic book is a narrative told using a sequence of images or a sequential art narrative. There are a number of conventions, established early in the history of comics, which make the comic panel format a powerful tool for visual communication.

My thesis project examines these conventions and attempt to distinguish which ones are results of the unique nature of sequential art and which began as a byproduct of technological limitations. By doing so my goal is to take advantage of current technology by creating a new comic book format that integrates digital media while celebrating …

The Connex: A New User-Interface Design For The Contacts Of A Mobile Phone, Chelsea Lessnick

Theses

Many social media websites including MySpace, AniRoleplay, and Tumblr

give users the opportunity to express their personality by customizing the

profile. The contact list of an Apple iPhone currently does not allow users

to customize features. This project created a new user-interface design for

the contact list of an Apple iPhone which draws inspiration from the

Pokédex used in the popular Pokémon franchise. By rebranding this

fictional device so the core functionality translates into the real world in a

practical and original way, users can bring their personality and creative

expression to other devices outside the internet.

Many key components …

Paradise In The East, Hui Ouyang

Theses

“Paradise in the East” is a 3D animation that explores the use of 3D character design, rigging, animation and landscaping to create a hyper-realistic look of some of China’s astonishingly diverse landscapes. This project referenced some of China’s most recognizable locations such as The Great Wall, Zhang Jiajie National Park, West Lake, etc.

Custovo: A Digital, Personalized Job Search Collection Aid, Streamlined For Creatives, Anna Vecchi

Theses

In today’s society, the most common way for people to search for job opportunities is by using the internet on their personal electronic device, whether it be a laptop, desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. There are hundreds of websites and mobile applications catering to all kinds of career services in a plethora of fields. One specific sector of employment that is rather unique is the creative field. Creative positions are posted on their own websites like Behance, AIGA, Coroflot, etc. Since these niche websites exist, there are also hundreds of articles discussing how creative individuals approach the job searching process. …

Motion Sequence Teaser For A Trilogy By Satyajit Ray, Ashoomi Dholakia

Theses

Art is omnipresent, and the exclusivity in any form of art comes from our surrounding and the environment that we surround ourselves with. This thesis attempts to investigate the characteristic work of an Indian director, Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) from a modern point of view and bring back his work that has been forgotten with time. Satyajit Ray introduced the Neorealism movement 1 to Indian cinema, and came to be known for his artistic style which offered a certain sense of universality to the expression depicted. The honest portrayals in his work resonated with the international audience for the first time …

The Shape Of Poetry: A Typographic Exploration Of Poetry And Synesthesia, Boliang Chen

Theses

The Shape of Poetry is a thesis which explores the relationships of synesthesia, typography and poetry.

Synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. This phenomenon is common in poetry as a rhetorical device. In graphic design, we uses typography and other visual elements to make cross-sensory metaphors as well. The similarity among these three provides a new field of research possibilities.

The goal of the thesis is to visualize poetry by exploring typographic variations and implementing synesthesia findings. The final result …

Applying The User-Centered Design Method To A Perinatal Depression Website Design, Jiaying Li

Theses

The Internet has become the most useful channel for people to access information. Many websites have very useful or comprehensive content. However, some users are not willing to read them, because they feel overwhelmed by reading text-based websites. User-experience design plays a crucial part in building a bridge between users and the website. With a good design, websites make the user experience more enjoyable. This thesis is about applying the user-centered design method (UCD) to websites about perinatal depression.

Discovering Galapagos: A Children’S Website, Jing Yan

Theses

Information technology is changing people's lives. It changes the way people communicate with others, how people search for information, and how people study and learn new knowledge. According to several studies and reports, more and more parents are using computers and mobile devices to teach their children. However, with the exception of games, there are only a few fun educational websites are created for children.

As a designer and young mother who wants to find good educational resources for children, I think this would be a good opportunity for me to design a website for our tiny thinkers. Because children …

Finding Place: Chaos, Control, & I, Brandi Rackers

Theses

This thesis and accompanying exhibition seeks to investigate through visualization the role of individual units within a system through personal association with those individual units. The art forms in the exhibition are artifacts of the pseudo-scientific process that I have developed. Through scientific research and interpretations of personal experiences, the process seeks to explore system construction, functionality and degree of success regarding each. The role of the individual unit within systems and the manner in which it exercises a potent influence is elucidated. As a consequence, the exhibition provides self-reflective information and an environment for viewers to consider the effects …

Stuff: The Abandoned Land An Interactive Sustainable Role-Playing Game, Chien-Ju Peng

Theses

Stuff: The Abandoned Land is an interactive role-playing game web application

designed to help teenagers and young adults understand environmental

destruction and the importance of recycling and reducing waste. We are part

of the production and consumption cycle but we can instead change our

consumptive behavior in order to create a better future. This web application

is designed for teenagers and young adults, ages 15 to 24. By developing

an engaging interactive game application, we intended to focus the target

audience's attention on serious environmental topics.

The story begins with the main character, Kevin, who questions the worth of

life …

Visual Guidance: A Universal Wayfinding Symbol System Prototype For Art Museums, Rui Ma

Theses

Wayfinding is very important for travelers. One example is, communicative symbol systems used at international airports. Art museums also need to employ visual guidance to help people effectively navigate the space.This prototype project involved designing a universal wayfinding symbol system for art museums based on art movements and geographic regions. The objective of the project is to make wayfinding easier for international museum visitors using visual guidance.

The subject was selected through research and discussion with the thesis advisors. The refinements were made based on feedback from diverse audience of users and students at Imagine RIT.

The project has two …

Decision Making And Communication Process Assessment Of Nasa Using Three Change Requests From The Space Launch System Program, Karen Campbell Hicks

Theses

This thesis investigated the communication and decision making process as part of the Systems Engineering practices at the NASA/Marshall Center to determine its level of effectiveness. Data was collected across three change requests to assess how decisions were made, how the decisions were communicated, and whether a process mattered in the formulation and dissemination of those decisions. Data results revealed the comprehensive decision making process for the technical change requests to be effective. Evidence revealed that the process was sufficiently tailored to accommodate the need of each individual technical change which promoted effective communication amongst the stakeholders in the formulation …

Tidy Guide – A Beginner’S Guide To An Organized Home, Katie Hollenbeck

Theses

Search for "how to organize" on the web, and you will be inundated with endless resources. Organizing information is everywhere, making the task seem intimidating. For my thesis project, I sought out to create an interactive, instructional, web-based application that would coach users on how to organize objects within a specific space. My goal was to create a unique, visual, creative solution - one that did not already exist on the web, and one that would become an important tool for users who were seeking organizing assistance and advice. Not only did I intend the application to be unique, visual, …

Sustainable Packaging Design Visually Explained Guidebook Prototype, Sara Almudhaf

Theses

As the fields of graphic and packaging design continue to evolve, it is important to keep their applications sustainable and green. Unaware graphic and packaging designers need to have an easy-to-comprehend source of information about sustainability. Developing an educational information graphics guidebook prototype has potential to serve as a unique tool for understanding the need for sustainable packaging design. The purpose of it is to eases the understanding of a complex system and enables users to discover relationships and connections among design, economy, environment, and society.

This prototype project involved designing a comprehensive sustainability symbol set where no satisfactory symbol …

Restoring Fort Frontenac In 3d: Effective Usage Of 3d Technology For Heritage Visualization, Mitsuyoshi Yabe

Theses

My thesis is composed of three elements: 3D modeling, web design, and heritage visualization. My goal is to use computer graphics design to inform and create an interest in historical visualization by rebuilding Fort Frontenac using 3D modeling and interactive design. The final model will be integrated into an interactive website to learn more about the fort's historic importance. It is apparent that using computer graphics can save time and money when it comes to historical visualization. Visitors do not have to travel to the actual archaeological buildings. They can simply use the Web in their own home to learn …

Exploring Feng Shui: A Real-Time Learning Experience, Yue Fan

Theses

Exploring feng shui: The 3D Real-time Experience is an interactive 3D design project that introduces daily feng shui tips to college students, office workers, and anyone who wants to learn how feng shui can enhance their lives. This project uses Web GL technology that runs on any computer with an up-to-date, modern browser. The user flow is a simple four-step process: "listen," "observe," "find," and "solve." This is how feng shui masters help people figure out their problems. It is an engaging practice because users become actively involved in the whole problem-solving experience. My goal for this project is to …