Graphic Design Commons^™

Recovery From Design, Cassandra J. Ellison

Theses and Dissertations

Through research, inquiry, and an evaluation of Recovery By Design, a ‘design therapy’ program that serves people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and developmental disabilities, it is my assertion that the practice of design has therapeutic potential and can aid in the process of recovery. To the novice, the practices of conception, shaping form, and praxis have empowering benefit especially when guided by Conditional and Transformation Design methods together with an emphasis on materiality and vernacular form.

Open / Close: Assimilating Immersive Spaces In Visual Communication, Anika Sarin

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in two spaces obverse to each other: open and closed. An open space develops organically based on how people inhabit it. Interacting with an open space is a dynamic, sporadic, multisensory, immersive, and subjective experience. In such spaces, we are confronted with an alternative aesthetic, one that is in conflict with the seamlessness of a closed space. A closed space is anchored on definite variables like structure, use and boundaries. While interaction between people and space is important, the space is tightly controlled and interaction is designed. Through this thesis project, I present a method that metaphorically …

Retirement Reboot: A Website Redesign, Christina Gillen

Honors Projects

A website could be created with the latest technology, but after a few years it will still need to be updated. This is what happened to Swanton Health Care and Retirement Center’s website. This project is designed to remedy the problem by creating an entirely new website with updated content, images, and interactive features to bring Swanton Health Care’s online presence back to life.

Visions: Chaos In Naango, Katarina J. Klask, Hunter Gibson, Taylor Roseberry, Summer Shigetani, Mattie Coccia, Alena Siu, Caitlin Mihm, Gaston Dondero, Sophie Rudell

Honors Thesis

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxjqjJNMSFQ

Website: http://www.visionsthegame.com

Development Blog: http://visionsthegame.tumblr.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/visionsthegame/?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/visionsthegame

Email: [email protected]

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 …

Work It: A Study In Fashion Photography Portraiture, Dominic J. Iudiciani

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Fashion is a device with which the perception of one’s appearance is manipulated. It is a device that is used across all cultures to identify, symbolize, isolate, and appropriate. It is figuratively and literally woven into the fabric of humankind as a whole. Fashion has the ability to reinforce gender or create dissonance within it through androgynous silhouettes. It can express strength and confidence or emphasize vulnerability.

Through this study, the use of specific studio lighting techniques accentuates design elements of a highly curated collection of avant-garde, 21^st century garments. Drape, texture, form, and luster are but a few …

The Problem With Creativity, Con Kennedy

Conference papers

Creativity would seem to be the single most important competency of design practitioners. The literature would suggest that, in general, creativity is considered to be a positive thing generating positive outcomes of design practices and their clients. This paper investigates how creativity can be defined within the paradigm of design practice and practitioners and draws upon references in international literature to establish themes and concepts. Once identified, these themes are then investigated to identify potential problems or issues with creativity. Problems may include but are not limited to: practices undertaken by the individual designer; attitude responses from the individual designer; …

The Leadership Hub, Michelle E. Healey

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The Leadership Hub Senior Honors Creative Thesis comprises a website and creative design book. It organizes and designs leadership within the JMU community within four key areas.

Speed And Resolution In The Age Of Technological Reproducibility, Shawn Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, …

The Land Scouts: Guide Book, Katie D. Ries

Faculty Creative and Scholarly Works

The Land Scouts promote modern land stewardship and are open to all. The Guide Book gives an overview of the scouts as well as information on getting started earning badges and hosting a troop.

The Effects Of Alternate-Line Shading On Visual Search In Grid-Based Graphic Designs, Michael P. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: The goal of this research was to determine whether alternate-line shading (zebra-striping) of grid-based displays affects the strategy (i.e., “visual flow”) and efficiency of serial search. Background: Grids, matrices, and tables are commonly used to organize information. A number of design techniques and psychological principles are relevant to how viewers’ eyes can be guided through such visual works. One common technique for grids, “zebra-striping,” is intended to guide eyes through the design, or “create visual flow” by alternating shaded and unshaded rows or columns. Method: 13 participants completed a visual serial search task. The target was embedded in a …

Visual Metaphor In Games Of Chance: What You See Is What You Play, Stephen Andrade

Computer Graphics Department Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Visual images have been a key element in the development of wager-based games. The legacy of visual metaphor in gaming can be traced through paper ephemera such as playing cards and lottery tickets. Both paper and printing technology ushered the age of wide spread playing opportunities in the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern play behaviors have given way to Postmodern gaming norms in digital space. The digital age has presented a new set of challenges for gaming architecture in wager-based play. Action research in prototyping games is beginning to reveal a new and different set of game characteristics.

'A Century Of Transformations' Exhibit Design, Anne Giangiulio

Selected Works Temporary Series

I designed this bilingual exhibit for the Centennial Museum located on the campus of The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to commemorate the University's Centennial in 2014. 'A Century of Transformations' follows the Texas School of Mines and Metallurgy, which opened as a mining school in 1914, and evolved into the University of Texas at El Paso, a nationally recognized research university. Featuring over 40 text panels in English and Spanish, as well as video slideshows and an interactive sticky note feedback wall, the exhibit highlights the University’s rich history and traditions. It also features significant milestones, distinguished …

Passages Through The Ordinary: Human Pyramid, Daniel Dean

Art & Design Faculty Research

A man picks his way across a wooded hillside, a curious reluctance in his step. In a small, two-door hatchback, pale mushrooms sprout from car seats. Drawings of edibles spread across the walls of a windowless room, where wooden furniture beckons to sit, linger, and enjoy the view. A dumpster doubles as a hot tub next to an arrangement of plywood benches and white ceramic tubs, inviting the weary to bathe their feet in salubrious salts. Close by, a set of coal-black bowls nestles into itself, while dust motes dance in a glow of orange light. Ladders and levels, carefully …

Creating With Code: Critical Thinking And Digital Foundations, Brad Tober

Mid-America College Art Association Conference 2012 Digital Publications

While students are often attracted to opportunities to learn how to use software applications commonly employed by digital artists and designers, the fact remains that time spent on purely software-based instruction in the classroom is time that could arguably be better spent on exploring the broader conceptual issues of making digital work. This presentation begins to frame an argument for the comprehensive integration of code-based technologies, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Processing/Java, openFrameworks/C++, and Objective-C, into digital art and design foundation curricula. This integration holds the potential to position code-based technologies as new media for teaching art and design alongside …

Design & Communication: The Future Of Service-Learning, Ulrike Gencarelle M.A., Laura Gabiger Phd, Deana Marzocchi

Computer Graphics Department Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Poster for a presentation at the Eastern Region Campus Compact Conference 2012.

Depicted are online writing class projects, as well as web and print design examples created by Johnson & Wales (Providence Campus) Digital Media department design students for non-profit organizations in Rhode Island communities.

The Culturator: Film Noir Meets Bike Culture, Daniel Dean

Art & Design Faculty Research

Part of this weekend’s nuit blanche Northern Spark festival, project Mobile Experiential Cinema invites goers to embark on a rambling, bicycle-mounted, multi-location cinematic experience that blends bike culture with locally-bred film. Created by artists Daniel Dean and Ben Moren, the project launched alongside the inaugural Northern Spark fest last year as an interactive projected film-focused group ride featuring live performance elements and urban exploration embodying all plot twists and theatrical curve balls we’ve come to expect from the mystery genre. We caught up with Mobile Experiential Cinema collaborators Dean and Moren to chat about the project’s creation, its noir influences …

Texture Mapping With Mudbox And 3ds Max, Joshua Holland

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine the intuitiveness of texture mapping and compressibility of files generated using Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 versus Autodesk Mudbox 2012. This will be used by anyone starting to learn how to texture map and who is comparing programs that have the capability to do so. This will save users time in researching which program is better suited for their needs.

This study investigated how Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and Autodesk Mudbox 2012 compared in mapping textures to 3D models. A basic computer skills assessment test and an intuitive test was administered to twelve …

Possible Symbolics 33, Stephen Andrade

Computer Graphics Department Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Professor Steve Andrade is continuously experimenting in a wide range of visual arts and technology. He is an avid researcher in the areas of interactive technology, gaming, modern visual metaphor, archeology, fine arts, Western geology and the sociology of technology space.

When he is not teaching or conducting projects at the University, Professor Andrade can be found traveling or working in his studio (pictured here). His artwork includes digital imaging, graphic art posters, virtual space planning, information graphics, 2d and 3d sculpture, representational sketching, realism, video and his current passion - abstract modern painting with a hint of allegory. He …

Teaching Design And Communication Through Project-Based Service Learning: Past, Present And Future, Ulrike Gencarelle, Laura Gabiger

Computer Graphics Department Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

The Stand, Kelsey Boyer

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Concept Statement

The Stand is based on the concept of creating a new alternative source of information and news specifically for the South Side community of Syracuse, New York. The new publication will improve upon the existing small-format local newspapers, creating a vibrant new media source. It will focus exclusively on the people of this community and serve as a visual connection for the members of the South Side. Its monthly production will create an awareness of recent events and happenings of the community that currently often go unheard and unseen. This will in return help community members become a …

The Blinds Shop Company Limited Brand Identity Project, Peter Dee

Other resources

The Blinds Shop offers made to measure window blinds catering to all markets across Ireland. The Blinds Shop required a clean, bold and modern logo using fresh colours and imagery.

Peter Dee - Strategic Design and Marketing Consultant, was responsible for the design and development of the brand identity for the The Blinds Shop Company Limited which was used on business cards, letterhead, promotional information, uniforms, advertising and e-Commerce website.

The Blinds Shop is a retailer of made to measure window blinds catering to both the domestic and commercial market within the Dublin area. Blinds are made to the highest …

Macromedia Director Audio Project Research - Written Report, Peter Dee

Articles

A written report about the Director Audio Project: Underground Sound to include the four headings of control of audio, thematic coherence, management of assets and originality of approach / design rationale. The Underground Sound Director Audio Project is about contemporary black music in an urban setting. Images of old and young captured in the environment in which they live.

Enterprise Ireland: Stimulating Creativity Through Design Strategies, Peter Dee

Other resources

Stimulating Creativity through Design Strategies: A seminar organised by Enterprise Ireland for business organisations to explore a holistic approach to the design / marketing interface.

Peter Dee - Strategic Design and Marketing Consultant, specialises in the creation of brand development strategies for Enterprise Ireland’s Design Unit. Peter was responsible for the design and development of the brand identity for the Enterprise Ireland Stimulating Creativity through Design Strategies Seminar in Dublin.

Design is an excellent expression of innovation. It can provide product differentiation, gain and hold onto competitive market advantage and assist in the building of strong brands through creative packaging …

T. Cassidy Printing Company Limited Brand Identity Project, Peter Dee

Other resources

T. Cassidy Printing - Dublin's finest lithographic and digital printing company. T. Cassidy Printing required a clean, bold and tasteful logotype using strong colours and imagery.

Peter Dee - Strategic Design and Marketing Consultant, was responsible for the design and development of the brand identity for the T. Cassidy Printing Company which was used on business cards, letterhead, promotional material and business website.

T. Cassidy Printing provides a complete design and printing service for all printed materials - from graphic design through to printing, finishing and delivery. All types of corporate printed materials from newsletters and marketing brochures to corporate …