Graphic Design Commons^™

The Favela Blossoms: Voices Of Favelas In São Paulo, Brazil, Vasti Cruz

Scripps Senior Theses

This project spotlights improvised housing in the peripheral areas of São Paulo, Brazil, better known as favelas. For over a century, the favela has been known as a place of death, violence, crime, and oppression. Paradoxically, the first favelas in Rio de Janeiro were named after a plant that produces flowers. However, today, these communities are rarely compared to their beautiful, symbolic-of-life namesake. Instead, this prejudgement is rampant not only globally, but also within the proper city– which perpetuates social division. When favelas are discussed in the media, they often reference those in Rio de Janeiro; however, favelas are present …

Always Judge A Book By Its Cover, Abby Miller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal for this honors project is to build my illustration portfolio and to explore the world of children's book illustration. This project will facilitate my improvement in design layout, theming, and illustration. I would love to pursue a job involving children's book illustrations at some point in the future and completing this project would help me to understand the challenges that come with designing such covers, it would improve my ability to illustrate in a purposeful manner, and it would strengthen my portfolio overall.

Matriarchal Design Futures: A Collective Work In Progress, Ayako Takase, Heather Quinn Snyder, Tycho Horan, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Graphic Design

Volume (unpaged), 22 cm. Edition of 200 numbered copies. Workbook design by A. Takase, H. Snyder Quinn, and C. Rosas. Printed and bound by Tycho Horan at the Binch Press / Queer.Archive.Work studio. Accompanied by a pencil with the title stamped in gold on white. Pencil stamped at DWRI Letterpress, Providence, RI. Includes a sticker and postcard-size publication information card. Risograph. Clear plastic coil binding.Library has copy 197. RISD Alumni, A. S. Quinn, GD 1996; A. Takase, ID 1999; and RISD Faculty: A. Takase, T. Horan, Dan Wood. Purchased at Multiple Formats, Boston 2024.

A Taste Of Home, Mia Schneider

Graphic Communication

The focus of my GrC 462 project is to preserve and celebrate my family's cherished recipes passed down through generations by transforming a collection of notecards into a comprehensive Holiday cookbook.

This cookbook will serve as a modern and lasting alternative to the fragile notecards, providing a tangible and shareable heirloom for future generations to enjoy and carry forward the rich culinary traditions of my family.

Don't Be Startled, My Dear Mother, Jon Quiroz

Life in Letters: A Typographic Poster Exhibition Featuring Paul Laurence Dunbar

Dimensions: 30 inches wide, 36 inches tall
Inkjet on matte paper, printed on both sides

Artist's statement:

In Letter 66, Paul Laurence Dunbar aims to reassure his mother, Matilda Dunbar, not to be so concerned about his whereabouts. He emphasizes that he will return home as soon as he can. Within the letter, he sends a $2 bill to give financial support during his busy schedule of recitals, particularly in the South—a gesture that underscores his devotion to his family’s well-being even in his absence. Dunbar reassures his mother that after gaining great success from his writing, all the financial …

Hacking The Library Exhibition Panels, Sally Brown, Jackie Andrews, Matthew Conboy, Ruth Yang, Trudy Trudy Borenstein- Sugiura, Shan Cawley, Chantel Foretich, Xue'er Gao, Ryan Lewis, Robin Miller, Imari Nacht, Chris Revelle, Erin Tapley

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The hacker ethos in the positive sense is about the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct information systems. Hacking starts with reconceptualizing libraries. Libraries are now beyond the book. As libraries evolve into a new sort of space --still a space for research, learning and study-- but also for community engagement and collaboration, library exhibits present a unique opportunity for both collaborating exhibitors and library users. Artists engage with libraries creatively through artist residencies, installations, using discarded library materials in their work, collaborative workshops, digital collections remixing, performances and more. Hacking the Library will present artwork that highlights the intersecting values …

Charles And Ray Eames, Tracy L. Ketz

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

Charles and Ray Eames were a dynamic husband-and-wife team and were two of the most influential multidisciplinary designers of the 20th century. Their innovative and humancentered design approach and remarkable creativity resulted in innovative contributions to various fields of design, including architecture, graphic design, industrial design, and filmmaking. Known for their groundbreaking contributions to design, the Eameses employed a deep understanding of human needs that combined functionality, technology, and aesthetics that still resonate today.

Dick Bruna, Roseld Laguatan

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

Dick Bruna was a talented and successful Illustrator and designer. He is most famous for his creation, Miffy, a curious simple white rabbit that has the innocence of a young child—which made her an endearing character to children all over the world. Because of his successful children’s books, he was highly sought after by children’s medical hospitals and world health organizations to help promote health and safety for children everywhere. He also designed thousands of spy, mystery and detective novel covers for his family’s publishing company. Bruna was a master designer of simplicity, color and form—able to convey a great …

Abram Games, Lisa Wei

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

Abram Games always knew he wanted to design posters and from a young age, was focused

on seeking out his own opportunities. He made the decision to leave school in pursuit of more

quality art experiences and submitted work to several design competitions by the age of 21

years old. He is best known for his impactful and punchy style, but also for his independent

design nature and controversial posters shedding light on World War II atrocities and aftermath.

Games’s wartime work thrust him to the forefront of the industry and paved the way for dozens

of more high profile …

Eric Carle, Emily Rudolph

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

If you grew up or had a child in the United States after 1969, the work of Eric Carle has touched your life. Carle was a German American illustrator, graphic designer, art director, and children’s book author, who is best known for his work The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This book has been a staple to every American preschool classroom for over 40 years and has been translated into 66 languages to fit into schools across the globe (Eric Carle’s biography, 2019). It is hard to overstate the popularity and acclaim The Very Hungry Caterpillar has rightfully received. According to …

Helen Friel, Katt Marshall

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

As the foundation of design is laid down early in a designer’s career, it is the process of creatingwithin limited parameters which develops their style. Many designers begin with a broad rangeof skills that are honed as they navigate working with clients. Applying their unique approach tohe project at hand, it is at this time when design peers create a niche market. The designer’stouch becomes a recognizable signature upon their body of work. With a comprehensiveportfolio, the designer can present their approach to tackling challenging concepts. Paperengineer and illustrator Helen Friel is a designer with a diverse body of work, …

A Part Apart, Spenser Atlas

Masters Theses

I am fascinated by connections. Things that click, snap, slide, and hold. I care about the ways in which objects meet, looking for answers in the space between. What binds one thing to another?

I believe the world is presented to us in pieces. It’s hard to say how it all comes together. It's easy to believe things are shapeless and detached from each other. Connection is a bridge, a way of linking one thing to another that reveals interdependence, and eventually moves outwards to express a correlation between pieces, once assumed to be discrete and isolated.

This work is …

Moving At The Speed Of Trust, Sun Ho Lee

Masters Theses

Moving at the Speed of Trust is a workbook of strategies — practices, definitions, and techniques — to nurture community-building in support of inbetweeners who live between power structures and cultures and are often left out. Inbetweeners are those individuals whose lives are in transition through recent immigration or forced translocation from Asia to America.

These strategies revolve around threads of trust: kin, giggles, vulnerability, and shared experience. With these threads, we can question power. We can preserve stories, expand the ways we connect, shift perspectives on what is “standard,” and cultivate a community rooted in understanding. To understand each …

Infinitely Incredible Configurations, Jenni Oughton

Masters Theses

As a designer, I am intent on charting out a radically different perspective on the future. To instigate movement beyond current design thinking centered on problem solving, I propose a shift toward design fiction—a deliberate and direct inquiry into the realm where design meets science fiction, and how that merges with reality. My practice uses science, speculative fiction, and technology as positive models to both generate prompts and spur design outcomes. I borrow from the author Isaac Asimov's three categories of science fiction narratives to instigate a way of structuring this design endeavor: What if ..., If only ..., If …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Ambivalent Images, Beloved Objects: Building Bridges Between Picture Books And The Tangible World, Danielle Ridolfi

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

"Ambivalent Images, Beloved Objects" examines how pedagogical theories prioritizing objects and direct sensory experiences in early childhood can be applied to the creation of picture book illustrations. In doing so, it positions picture books as educational tools, and advocates for the importance of using them not to recreate nature, but to connect readers with the tangible world of natural and human-made objects that our digital-driven culture eclipses. It strives towards a unifying pedagogical and aesthetic philosophy that accomplishes what illustrator Eric Carle characterizes as a bridge between the tactile world of objects and the world represented in illustrations.

This exploration …

Archi-Comics, Timothy Gatto

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Humor in architecture is not at the forefront of architect’s minds, this comes from architects need to be deemed serious. This way of thinking is what has backed architects up into a corner banal and stagnant architecture. Architecture is the art of context, everything in architecture is referential. Humor is foundationally the exact same way, the incongruity theory makes humor possible by putting a concept into context with things and finding contradictions in the process, thus developing a joke. Each of these arts, humor and architecture, are that of context and when architecture is delivered like humor, it points out …

Read Like A Dyslexic Sort Of..., Margaret Prost

Honors Thesis

READ is an interactive art exhibition created by artist and designer, Margaret Prost. Prompted by the neon sign, the audience is encouraged to pick up READ Like a Dyslexic Sort of… and enjoy the lighthearted presentation of a beginner’s guide to dyslexia. With its simple yet selective choice of words, READ Like a Dyslexic Sort of… is reminiscent of a children’s book — something you would have read when first learning the “dos and don’ts” of society. It is a manual for understanding dyslexia and is meant to evoke a sense of curious kinship with dyslexic people rather than an …

A Typeface For Tolkien: Hammer Uncials In Tolkienian And Gaelic Texts, Eduardo Boheme Kumamoto

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article explores the use of Victor Hammer's Uncial Typefaces for texts either by Tolkien or related to his literature, and, at the same time, for Gaelic texts. First, Tolkien's issue with the typefaces selected for the dust-jacket of The Lord of the Rings is recounted. Then, Victor Hammer's typefaces are presented along with examples of them in Tolkienian texts. Lastly, some reasons that might explain such usage are proposed.

Kima's Journey, Wonjune Kim

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

A digital collage storybook on what might happen if we get and do everything we want. Based on visual and thematic elements of neoclassicism 's and romanticism's relationship and influence on science fiction.

Ivy Leaves, Volume 98, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2023 edition of the Anderson University journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Lily McNamara, Adam Jobson, Taylor Merner, Emma Miller, Canon Allen, Katelyn Flower, Johnathan Sorce, Zoe Dubiski, Carson Cawthon, Maeve Foote, Taylor Merner, Brianna Elwell, Abbie Vanasse, Lindsay Blumenfield, Knoxie Le Roux, Rebecca Thompson, Jocelin Flora, Caroline Reynolds, Julia Hewitt, Emily Miller, Lindsay Gatlin, Isabella Rigsby, Jennifer Hollifield, Dr. Derek Updegraff, and Tim Speaker.

Lisa Congdon: The Self-Taught Design Pioneer, Kate Foley

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

Known for her colorful, bold, and whimsical folk art-inspired illustration and design style, Lisa Congdon brings joy and passion, fueled by her own self-taught journey, to the modern world of graphic design. Congdon is a fine artist, illustrator, and writer, producing works driven by her experiences with mental health, social justice, being queer, and being a woman. “And while all of those things can feel really dark and hard sometimes, there is a certain amount of joy that I feel, and that’s always what I want to try and express to the world” (Johnson, 2021), she shares. Although her path …

Lisa Frank, Kirk Demaris

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

No abstract provided.

Lauren Hom: Design Pioneer, Hannah Schock

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

Self-made hand lettering artist Lauren Hom is living the American Dream – doing what she loves, having fun, and getting paid to do it all. Based in Detroit, Hom has created quite the following on social media as a playful, whimsical artist who doesn’t take life too seriously. She turns her life’s hardships, friends’ jokes, and weird ideas into art all while not giving a damn what other people think of it. Her journey to where she is now is an inspiration to all aspiring artists.

Sarah Boris, Emily Gaugler

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

Boris Sarah Boris has been in the art and design industry for over fifteen years, but some might say she is just getting started. Boris worked for design industries and art organizations such as the Barbican, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), and Phaidon Publishing, but in 2015 she took a more independent approach and opened her own design studio in London, Sarah Boris Design. Since opening her studio Boris has pursued personal explorations, collaborations, and commissions. Her work is clean, bright, and impactful, and she is gaining admiration from students and design critics. She has a gift for creating …

Cipe Pineles, Nicole Powlina

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

No abstract provided.

Graphic Scotland: Visuality And Empire, 1810 – 1913, Laura Michelle Golobish

Art & Art History ETDs

Graphic Scotland: Visuality and Empire, 1810–1913 interrogates the aesthetic, technological, and literary conventions used to represent Scotland’s character in nineteenth-century publications. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, publishers, authors, and readers began to correlate the material format of prints, books, illustration, and bookbinding with individual and national character. Periodicals and literature drew the correlations between the aesthetic conventions of picturesque Scottish landscape, physiognomy of Scottish authors, and bookbinding to frame ideas about Scottish character as a didactic model for middle class British and American readers. Thus, Graphic Scotland offers an intertextual reading of three illustrated publications about Scotland–J.R. Osgood’s 1882 …

Raymond Pettibone, Michael Caputo

Communication Design: Design Pioneers

No abstract provided.

Chez Henri Cookbook Redesign, Izzy Kelly

Graphic Communication

Chez Henri is a redesigned version of a cookbook that Bonnie Henry, my grandmother, has curated over the past 50 years. The original book was entitled “A Collection of Recipes From Friends and Family”, but I decided to rename it to “Chez Henri”, a phrase that was written on a sign outside of her home for almost 20 years. Bonnie Henry is an excellent cook and her recipes include many salads, soups, entrees, and dishes that most people don’t see everyday. Chez Henri contains photography that depicts these recipes, notes from the chef, and clear cut instructions that are easy …

The Queer Dictionary, Mia Lew

Graphic Communication

With the government continually obstructing queer education in public schools, it becomes harder and harder for queer people to understand themselves than in turn, have the tools to explain what they are going through to others. This is a problem but in turn an opportunity. While there are queer literature and children’s books out there, they typically only encompass one story or one view on queerness. Thus, this project's main goal is to encompass queerness as a whole by using as many LGBTQ+ words as possible, people's stories under each word, historical graphics, highlights on the internationality of queerness, pronoun …