Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Variable Data Print On Usability In Design, William Wells

Theses

In a world where people see, process and remember information differently, the question arises: Is technology being used in a manner that acknowledges and addresses user differences to the fullest extent? Currently, new print technologies like Variable Data Printing (VDP) are only being used to create customized direct mailing pieces and personalized products for the purpose of marketing, sales and promotion. However, VDP introduces the ability to change data and design elements in printed documents on an individual basis, making it possible to address differences in visual and cognitive abilities, language and culture, and situational considerations. Applying this concept of …

Educational Needs Of Late-Deaf Learners, Mitchell Bacot

Theses

None provided.

Interactions Between Physical And Virtual Space, Carolyn Hsu

Theses

Taking an in-depth look into how graphic design is used to successfully open doors to and encourage the journey through conceptual environments can provide an enhanced understanding of visual communication and visual perception in virtual spaces. This may lead to the creation of improved strategies for navigating through virtual environments, helping to create a system that will more closely reflect wayfinding and navigation in the physical world. Aspects of the study will include the visual translation of time, space, motion, and emotion through conceptual, spatial, and color considerations. Furthermore, understanding visual coding and other navigational aspects will involve the study …

A Kinematic Analysis Of Sign Language, Chemuttaai C. Koech

Theses

Signed languages develop among deaf populations and employ manual communication instead of voiced communication. Stokoe attributes classify individual signs in American Sign Language (ASL) and include handshape, hand location, movement, orientation, and facial expression. Signed and oral languages are not mutually understood, and many deaf individuals live in linguistic isolation. This research addresses computer translation between signing and speech, investigating sign duration in sentence context versus in isolation and identifying kinematic sign markers. To date, there has been little study of continuous signing kinematics; it was previously unknown if kinematic markers existed.

Kinematic data were collected from a proficient signer …

J-Horror : A Discourse In Cross-Cultural Communication And Cinematic Hybridity, Marylou Quillen

Theses

Film visually communicates the idea of culture, leaving interpretation open to an impressionable audience. Though a genre's recognizable iconography can transcend boundaries, understanding a film's intended message still requires a certain amount of foreknowledge. J-Horror, the common term for Japanese horror among fans, is a sub- genre of Horror that has been catapulted into Hollywood's limelight due to adaptations such as The Ring (2002). Based upon a novel, Ringu, by Koji Suzuki and Nakata Hideo's 1998 cinematic creation of the same name, Gore Verbinski adapted the terrifying plot for Western audiences in his 2002 counterpart.

With the cross-cultural transition, certain …

Typographic Decision-Making: Children's Book Design, Christina R. Fisher

Theses

Most children's first encounter with words and the act of reading is in the form of having a children's book read to them. Whether it is a cardboard book with only a sprinkling of words, an illustrated storybook with more narrative, or an independent reader with a few images and a larger concentration of words, children's books are essential to developing a child's reading ability and to fostering an enthusiasm for reading. Despite the importance of these books, their typographic design is often neglected. Little attention is paid to the integration of text and image, and typographic variables are often …

Creative Problem Solving Through Methods Of Collaborative Improvisation, Alex J. Girard

Theses

The field of graphic design is an inherently creative and collaborative endeavor. The design process itself can involve a range of people and variables that are brought together for the purpose of creation through a forum of influence, exchange and teamwork. This thesis will study problem solving processes in a variety of settings, the role of parameters and constraints, and their effects on the evolution of creativity, particularly focusing on solutions that are responses to the predefined context in which they are created. One of the major goals of this thesis is to infuse the graphic design approach to problem …

Identification And Ranking Of Relevant Image Content, Mustafa I. A. Jaber

Theses

The work in this thesis proposes an image understanding algorithm for automatically identifying and ranking different image regions into several levels of importance. Given a color image, specialized maps for classifying image content namely: weighted similarity, weighted homogeneity, image contrast and memory color maps are generated and combined to provide a perceptual importance map. Further analysis of this map yields a region ranking map which sorts the image content into different levels of significance.

The algorithm was tested on a large database that contains a variety of color images. Those images were acquired from the Berkeley segmentation dataset as well …

The Integration Of Graphic Communication And Educational Tools For Children With Dyslexia, Amar Abdulla Behbehani

Theses

Design for education is an important approach in the graphic design field. The intention of this thesis is to conduct further research that can help educators and designers build healthier learning environments for children with learning disabilities. Learning environments are not limited to physical environments such as classroom designs or school architecture; they are extended to cognitive environments that are greatly affected by external influences such as sensory stimulation and learning methods. Children with special educational needs could benefit from effective design solutions for better information processing. This designer attempts to develop typographic solutions to facilitate the reading process of …

Many Are The Deceivers, Cassie Worley

Theses

This thesis examines the adaptations and disseminations of ancient and modern dominant Western Parables. It investigates both Biblical myths and fairy tales, as they are used as socializing tools, which set standards in Western culture, and prescribe conventions to our children. Within the thesis, themes from Little Red Riding Hood will be extrapolated, and compared to those found in Old Testament tales such as, The Expulsion from Eden, the Deluge, The Ten Plagues, and Exodus. Throughout the thesis, the history and function of the myth and fairy tale will be defined, and questions will be raised regarding the role of …

Modio - Interactive Sound Visualization, Kwon Hyouck Jin

Theses

The word “Modio” is a compound word of Motion and Audio, which I coined for this thesis. The intent of this thesis is an interactive installation project that will explore and convert musical elements into visual elements, which will lead to various responses to the change caused by users’ interaction.

Sweet! Cartoons And Contemporary Painting, Sarah Atlee

Theses

I am an artist, and I use cartoons. My work consists mainly of images that communicate to the viewer through recognizable forms. I also use text to help tell my stories. I often create visual elements that function in place of text or information. I use a third visual tool, a hybrid descendant of images and words: the cartoon. Cartoons, once situated at the margins of visual discourse, now have a place in the fine art world. There are comics and animated television shows created for adult audiences. There are gallery and museum shows of work influenced by cartoons, not …

Role Of Illustration As A Visual Communication Strategy For Film Poster Design, Kapil Grover

Theses

Not Included

Redefining The Responsibility Of Pre-Press File Management Within Graphic Design: How Printing Technology Impacts Our Design Development, Meredith A. Bielaska

Theses

Technical problems can arise when a graphic designer submits digital files to a commercial offset lithographic printer. The graphic design profession has an opportunity to strengthen the education of design students by teaching them how to recognize potential printing prroblems and address them before the students enter professional practice. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the most common design problems and printing constraints that designers encounter when they develop an item to be printed using offset lithographic printing. The graphic design content of this thesis will include design development processes that specifically focus on issues of imposition, pagination, …

Visual Design System For Music Education For Children, Sehwa Choi

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simple and understandable visual system to convey complicated concepts of musical composition for 1st grade music students. The abstract ideas of major scale, melody and harmony are redefined and expressed appropriately through visual communication. Thus, the visualization of musical sound in this thesis can contribute to the development of music education for children. The graphic design problem of this thesis is an exploration to express abstract and complex ideas through simple visual solutions. This thesis will propose a method of visualization to convert abstract ideas into graphic design solutions, and show …

Enhancing Science Education Through Engaging Visual Content, David Kavanagh

Theses

In recent years a decline in the number of Irish students choosing to study science, at second level and on into third level, has become potentially harmful to the desired creation of a science-based knowledge economy. A primary contributing factor towards this decline is a lack of interest in the subject within the classroom, as was established by The Task Force on the Physical Sciences in 2002.

The primary aim of this Masters research is to investigate the role of visualisation in making the study of science more accessible and engaging to students to counter this decline. To this end …

Perspective By Incongruity In Visual Advertising: Applying Kenneth Burke's Theory To The Adbusters Anti-Consumerism Campaign, Elizabeth B. Gorman

Theses

Kenneth Burke developed the theory of "perspective by incongruity" in which he claimed that oddly juxtaposed symbols influence audiences to have new perspectives by challenging their habits of thinking. This study applies Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory of perspective by incongruity to the Adbusters anti-consumerism campaign. Twenty "spoof ad" postcards created by the Adbusters Media Foundation were analyzed to see how they utilize the technique of incongruous juxtaposition. The analysis concluded that the cards either juxtaposed two incongruous images, two incongruous phrases or words, or a combination of incongruous words and images in order to create new insights about consumer advertising …

The Mainstream Press: Then And Now Has The Prominence Of Sensational News Changed In 100 Years?, Kathleen Marchaesi

Theses

The present research explores the levels of sensational news reporting in three distinct periods of journalism history by examining the largest mainstream newspaper in America, The New York Times, during the yellow journalism, jazz journalism and modern eras. The front pages of a representative sample of the newspaper were analyzed to determine the extent to which prominence of sensational news topics in the modern press differs from that of the yellow and jazz eras. The style of sensational reporting was examined to determine if the treatment of news has changed. The results of a content analysis indicate that readers are …

The Work Of Fred Troller: An Evaluative Study Of A Graphic Designer, Tara Markert

Theses

This thesis will provide a process to help graphic design scholars and historians conduct an evaluation of a designer whose work has been rarely documented within a specific design style. Through implementation of this model of research and evaluation, graphic design scholars will not only be able to identify that designer's philosophy and personal style, they will also recognize the value of studying within a specific style of graphic design. This evaluation process includes placing the work of the rarely documented designer beside the work of pioneers in this stylistic idiom in order to highlight similarities of thought, process, form …

Photographic Strategies For Graphic Design Problem Solving, Suthida Sakulsurarat

Theses

Graphic design and photography are both forms of visual communication although they are separate disciplines. This thesis will explore the potential benefits of applying useful approaches in photography and demonstrating their potential for solving graphic design problems. ... The main goal of this project is to outline the possibilities of bringing principles of photographic approaches into graphic design. This thesis attempts to help designers understand that two different disciplines can support each other to provide a wider range of opportunities. In addition, the thesis is designed to enlighten, challenge and inspire designers. To accomplish the thesis, the designer will research …

Guidelines For Parents On Homeschooling Deaf Children, Kalpana Varia

Theses

Many families have turned their family room into classrooms. In 1993, homeschooling became legal in all 50 states, when the number of students staying at home for schooling tripled. This trend continues today because parents want to retain control over the education and socialization of their children. Homeschooling refers to education of school-age children with their parents' guiding, directing, and monitoring them. It replaces full-time attendance at a traditional school. Parents express various reasons for educating their children at home; individualization, family time, strong academic, moral, and religious foundations. The problem with homeschooling, for parents of deaf children, is the …

User Considerations In Graphic Design, Neva Corbo-Hudak

Theses

Not Included

The Visual Story Of Exodus: Educational Multimedia Bible, Inwook Choi

Theses

My project is an educational multi-media tool and is related to the religion: Christianity. It was made for the purpose of learning and teaching Exodus: One of the most important books in the Old Testament. As a Bible teacher, I have looked for many ways to teach the Bible effectively for more than ten years. I used to teach the Bible with some visual materials like videos, charts, maps, and sometimes I even created my own supplements because there was no way to find any appropriate visual material which showed customs and culture in the biblical time. When I used …

Designing Medical Legal Exhibits: A Guide To Creating Successful Presentations, Sara M. Krause

Theses

This thesis provides design instruction for medical illustrators, including ideas and facts about design, literacy, attention, retention, and recall. It is designed to help illustrators create persuasive printed exhibits to serve as demonstrative evidence in court cases.

An Investigation Of Verbal Versus Visual Persuasive Elements In Travel And Gambling Pop-Up Advertisements, Elizabeth Karras

Theses

Although pop-up advertisements generate ill will, these ads, have an above average clickthrough rate compared to other forms of Internet advertising such as the banner ad, illustrating the significance this form has in modern day advertising. Travel and gambling ads are analyzed in the following study. Previous literature includes studies on factors that play an integral role in the success or failure of an online advertisement, the effectiveness of internet marketing on internet users, persuasive appeals used in advertising, and experiential consumption. Research on pop-up advertisements has focused primarily on tactics, their effects on the consumer, and their failures and …

Perception Of Meaning And Usage Motivations Of Emoticons Among Americans And Chinese Users, Yujiao Wang

Theses

Do people of different cultures agree on the meaning and use of emoticons? This study addresses this question from an inter-cultural perspective and explores the use of emoticons in the American and Chinese Computer-mediated communication (CMC) communities. The research indicates that both the Americans and Chinese participants use emoticons for entertaining, informational and social interaction motivations but the Americans are more likely to use emoticons for information motivations than the Chinese and the Chinese participants are more likely to use emoticons for social interactions than the Americans participants. The results correspond to the cultural differences between the two countries in …

But What Do They Think It Means? The Text/Image Relationship In Informational Communication, Nicole E. Bartell

Theses

To better understand how an audience processes information transmitted via image, text, or both, this study presented four different versions of the same message to four groups of RIT students. The message consisted of the following content: text only, text with images depicting evenly spaced years, text with images depicting irregularly spaced years, and text with irregularly spaced years. Subjects were instructed to look at the message for a set amount of time and then complete a questionnaire. Those who were given messages that had images and text felt less confused or misled than those who were given messages containing …

The Art And Business Of Medical Legal Illustration, Jeff Davis

Theses

Not Included

Improving Student Learning Through Theme Based Curriculum Design And Team Teaching: An Action Research Study, Brenda Dermody

Theses

This study is concerned with improving the design and delivery of the curriculum on a four year BA in Design Visual Communication programme in the Technologicl University Dublin. The study examines how aspects of curriculum design and delivery affect some of the key stakeholders - the students and academic staff – involved in the programme. It looks at how the design and delivery of the curriculum can be improved with a view to achieving two main aims. The first aim is to promote a deep approach to learning among visual communication students. The second aim is to promote a deep …

Fundamental Principles Of Narrative, Sequence, And Motion, James A. Pannafino

Theses

Not Included