Graphic Design Commons^™

Re-Order The Order Of Thing, Yingxi Sabrina Ji

Masters Theses

Humanocentrism positions humans as the measure of all things; what we know as the ‘real’ or ‘true’ is perceived through this limited perspective. As a designer, I challenge the hierarchy, actively moving away from the notion that inanimate objects are subjugated matter.

In this body of work, I turn to actions of world-building to create immersive experiences where ‘objects’ become ‘subjects.’ They are rescaled and re-centered — called into prominence to become protagonists on the cultural and environmental stage. Through generating, collaging, and juxtaposing recycled facts, imagery and organic materials using digital filters, I insert absurdity as a breakpoint to …

Slow Ruptures; Slow Formations, Asta Thrastardottir

Masters Theses

Language shapes our understanding of identity, place, and self. As a graphic designer, I question the existing structures of language, while using it as a material to build new formations. Nudging against certainties, I challenge how the stories we are told can dispossess us, even flatten us.

My method is a constant attempt to peel back the layers and study what lingers below. When questions arise, I look to the ways in which visual artists and writers have seen through this surface. I observe, listen, and hold stories closely, passing them back and forth between my hands. Using annotation and …

Capture, Control, Circulate : Can We Queer Regulatory Power In Graphic Design?, Adie Fein

Masters Theses

Capture, Control, Circulate addresses regulatory power, the transmission and enforcement of culturally-sanctioned behaviors and identity. How does regulatory power operate in graphic design and what—if anything—can the graphic designer do to subvert that operation? The methodologies for subversion explored in this book typically draw from queer and trans* experience and thought. Therefore, the work herein takes up issues of identity, normativity, marginalization, and community.

This thesis also considers design education, and its contemporary emphasis on the capture and control of content. It advocates instead for an educational model that centers circulation; that is, graphic design’s capacity to platform, to publish, …

Alien Encyclopedia, Zengqi Guo

Masters Theses

Alien Encyclopedia is a body of work that analyzes, expands, redefines, and leverages the definition of “alien” as both problematic and an avenue of possibility. By mapping the word “alien” as a fragmented play of alternatives, I translate the lessons derived from this exploration into a maker’s lexicon. I use “alien” to frame my identity, as a prompt to ground my projects, a factor to interrupt existing typography and to spark questions, a generative tool to explore the interpolation between the familiar and unfamiliar, and to incite new solutions and actions to solve the problems we are facing now. Alien …

Ports Of Entry, Forough Abadian

Masters Theses

Ports of entry are places where one may lawfully enter a country by crossing land and sea borders‭. ‬This thesis frames the space conceptually where the boundaries of place, time, culture, and identity are crossed through existing ports or by building new ones. ‬

As an Iranian immigrant in the United States‭, ‬displacement of identity informs my worldview and design practice‭. ‬I find myself between two worlds, one inherited and the other adopted. ‬Both worlds are simultaneously active and exert their forces on my thought process‭. However, their interrelated dynamic is ambivalent because their path intersects and diverges unforeseeably‭. ‬My …

!, Nick Larson

Masters Theses

This thesis uses the exclamation point to represent a way of thinking and working methodology. The exclamation point in mathematics represents a factorial function, an operation for determining all possible orders of a set. Colloquially, the meaning of the exclamation point relies entirely on context. Within a yellow triangle, it means caution or danger, but at the end of a sentence delivering good news, it means excitement. In the context of this thesis, the exclamation point represents enthusiastically and exhaustively reordering objects, words, and processes to highlight shifting meaning.

Other Realms, Louis Rakovich

Masters Theses

Can a system existing in rigid order be taken back to a state of malleability, a space of potential not yet actualized?

If creation reduces the infinite to produce the finite, then in the simplest sense, creation is the process of bringing something tangible, real, out of the ether—out of the primordial chaos of possibility. The technique of defamiliarization can be viewed as an agent of de-creation, the active reversal of creation, in order to make creation possible once again. As such it holds spiritual power in its own right.

In pursuit of this state of renewed potentiality, I use …

Openness, Qiwen Ju

Masters Theses

We perceive the world as flat when we close one eye. When both eyes are open, the world takes on a three-dimensional quality.

Our childhood, education, family, and environment form and bind our cognitive perspective. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes: “You can’t see Mount Tai by blinding your eyes with one leaf.” Truth is exceedingly difficult to discern. Like the obscuring leaf, there are blind spots in our vision. Prejudice is often the narrow leaf that obstructs perception, preventing us from seeing with greater dimension.

For actual comprehension, we can only see through the eyes, hearts, and minds of …

Connect: Translating Complexity Through Visual Simplification, Ilhee Park

Masters Theses

CONNECT: Translating Complexity through Visual Simplification brings complex data into concise visual systems that encourage ease of access. With a background in Human Factors Engineering, user engagement remains a central focus in my design. Whether reducing barriers to scientific information or untangling deeply complex data, design must contain intuitive concepts without the need for extended explanation. Using bold color and geometric shapes as the core design language to render pictorial narratives, this thesis maps my development as an information designer through modes of gathering, deciphering, and interpreting.

"A Conceptual Framework For Measuring Criminal Justice Success In Responding To Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) Crimes: Final Results And Recommendations", Sarah Goan, Kris Lugo-Graulich, Susy Hawes, Hannah Brintlinger Mph, Susan Smith Howley

Publications

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), established under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, leads national efforts to prevent and respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking through 19 grant programs that strengthen victim services and enhance offender accountability. These programs include four formula grants distributed to states and fifteen discretionary programs for which OVW defines eligibility, goals, and deliverables. Grantees submit biannual progress reports containing quantitative and qualitative data that are later compiled into biennial Reports to Congress. While these reports effectively capture outputs such as numbers of victims served, trainings conducted, and partnerships …

Burt's Bees: Branding And Packaging Update, Mia Rogers

Graphic Communication

This project will focus on examining the existing brand identity, package design, and social media marketing collateral for Burt’s Bees personal care company in order to create updated versions of each. I will be re-branding the products to appeal to a wider target audience, focusing primarily on Generation Z and their consumer preferences.

My deliverables will consist of a complete brand style guide (logo variations, primary and secondary color palettes, typography, and visual collateral), updated packaging (four popular lip balm flavors, the beeswax hand salve, and two facial cleansers), and an example of a digital advertisement showcasing the new brand …

Visionaire Branding Company, Toni Joy Forsythe

Graphic Communication

It has been a goal of mine to one day launch my own branding and marketing agency, therefore this opportunity has allowed me to ideate what the agency would look like in terms of branding and business. I developed Visionaire Branding Company, a branding and marketing agency located in Central California. Creativity has always been at the forefront of my ambitions and Visionaire is a reflection of my passion for taking businesses to the next level and doing it with a vision.

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 …

Converting Horizontal Media For Vertical Platforms, Eric A. Hernandez

Graphic Communication

Today, most media is viewed on mobile phones and seen on a vertical screen. There are very few methods for converting horizontal media into vertical media for vertical platforms. This manual shows new ways to redesign horizontal content so that it looks better on vertical displays; I imagine watching things like the Super Bowl or the The Grammys on TikTok or Instagram with a new broadcast design that is more attractive.

Branding The Cal Poly Transfer Center, Ryann Joy Swift

Graphic Communication

The Cal Poly Transfer Center was established in 2020 in the midst of an ongoing pandemic; naturally, this led to the challenge of building recognition and engaging Transfer students with the center. As the first and only graphic designer, I saw an opportunity in creating the visual foundation for this organization, one that could be well understood and built upon by future designers. This is important as the Transfer Center is quite unique in its specific demographic of transfer students; they fall under an older age group and I want to create said foundation that reflects this; mature, professional, modern. …

E-Commerce Brand Design And Website Prototyping, Ashley J. Tuliau

Graphic Communication

MJ Swim is an e-commerce brand and website concept with a focus on customizable products and individualized sizing. Most online swimwear companies follow a fast-fashion business model which prioritizes mass production and offers affordable prices. However, aside from the many environmental consequences of this, fast fashion leaves large disparities in clothing quality, sizing accuracy, and product uniqueness. My primary goal was to create a dynamic website that would be flexible across a variety of devices and allow for optimal product customization. My secondary goal was to create a strong and inclusive brand identity that would thrive in a solely online …

"Yay Area Fest" Proposal, Taira Tyler Matsuzaki

Graphic Communication

As an avid hip-hop music lover and producer, I always envisioned the creation of my own hip-hop festival theme and lineup. I used my senior project as an opportunity to execute this vision while showcasing all of the skills I have acquired as a Graphic Communication student. My project encompasses the creation of a marketing flyer, website prototype, app prototype, and social media animation for a hypothetical hip-hop festival. These deliverables highlight my abilities in learning new tools, graphic design, UI/UX design, and project management.

Meraki Cosmetics Branding And Packaging, Irene C. Lin

Graphic Communication

The use of technology and illustrations in packaging has been on the rise but is not widely used in the cosmetics industry. There is an opportunity to apply technology and illustrations to cosmetics to attract customers and build a strong brand. Meraki Cosmetics is a fictitious cosmetics company that explores illustration and near-field communication (NFC) to stand out and bring packaging design to the next level.

Design/ Rebranding Of Andies Cafe To Go Packaging, Ryan Oscar Kastella

Graphic Communication

The following pages goes over the creation of To go packaging for a restaurant called Andie’s Cafe that sorely lacked it. The To go packaging that was created for this was Menus, Tamper Seal Stickers, Bags, and a Burger Wrapper. The goal in creating these is to increase there brand awareness and improve there current packaging branding.

Take Flight Music Festival Branding, Maxwell Bo Chen, Jake Oxenham

Graphic Communication

We created a branding and design campaign for the Take Flight music festival on campus. The project covered many aspects of event creation and marketing such as name, logo, content creation, social media, printed media, vendor outreach, and administration outreach. All these pieces had to work together to create a strong and cohesive brand image for this event which would help ensure a successful turnout and event overall.

Ramble: Travel Journal Application Concept, Christine Elizabeth Curulla

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this project is to provide an easier and more engaging way for study abroad students to document their experiences. I wanted to collect data on the effectiveness of student journaling while abroad, and identify ways to improve the process through a mobile application.

Ramble is a social app I designed that provides a new question or prompt each day to encourage more frequent, fun journaling while traveling, and connection with others at home and abroad. Ramble solves problems that accompany traditional journaling by making the journaling process more accessible and requiring less time from the user.

Rebranding The Cal Poly Writers' Collective, Micah Wilkins

Graphic Communication

For my senior project, I rebranded the Writers’ Collective, Cal Poly’s creative writing club. This process included collecting feedback from the club members and creating both physical and virtual deliverables. I designed a new logo, then created a brand based around it. Using these, I then designed merchandise featuring the logo, such as stickers, and also designed a new template for the club newsletter. To ensure the rebrand is effective, I created a guide on best file practices and uploaded this, as well as all the designs I had created, to the club’s Google Drive, so that future officers can …

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 …

Baking With Depression: An Exploration Of Crisis Response Through Dessert, Phoebe Jacques

University Honors Theses

In this paper, I discuss the conceptualization, research and execution of my cookbook, Baking with Depression, in which I explore how cooking habits reflect human behavior during times of crisis. Looking through the lens of cooking provides a unique perspective into how widespread stress can alter behaviors and outlooks. By comparing the Covid-19 pandemic and Great Depression, I make historical connections and use humor to create an engaging exploration.

Branding In Motion: How Animation And Branding Intersect To Support Nonprofits In Need, Shannon M. Steed

University Honors Theses

Nonprofits often don’t receive the kind of attention needed to garner a wide audience. Especially during the pandemic when the world has largely gone online, it can be a challenge for many of these organizations to adapt to the fast-paced digital landscape. This is largely due to a lack of access to resources and modern design practices to create more community visibility. This thesis is an exploration of how thoughtful design can bring these nonprofit events a new life. I created design systems for two nonprofit events, each with a digitally-focused approach and a focus on deeply considering the audience. …

For Art's Sake: An Exploration Of The Persistence Of Imposter Syndrome And Low-Self Confidence In Creative Fields, Mckinsey Carroll

University Honors Theses

Inspired by personal experiences as a graphic design student and those of my peers, this qualitative creative thesis discusses the prevalence of insecurity, imposter syndrome, and similar mental health struggles in creatives, and the ways in which these experiences or tendencies can inhibit us and stifle our creativity. Through my research, I learned that there are many ways in which graphic design as a field is uniquely affected by these issues, and that there exists a glaring need for conversation, particularly in academic spaces. This prompted the development of my personal interactive workbook titled "For Art's Sake" in which I …

In Training, Tim Fish

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

No abstract provided.

I'M Going Cycle Every Day, Lauren Nguyen

LSU Master's Theses

Many designers and scientists have been able to integrate design and science in their respective fields to create works that effectively inform their audiences of complicated subjects. Each of these individuals can express their creativity and viewpoint of the subject matter in a way that is interesting, visually appealing, and informative. Using the medium of graphic design, I created printed posters that represent the way I view the processes of the human body that are technical, yet also visually appealing.

My thesis exhibition walks my audience through the biological cycles that maintain the human body on an everyday basis from …

It's Not All Rainbows & Glitter, Jerry B. Lockaby

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this exhibition is to contextualize the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community by anchoring personal stories with collage and poetry to demonstrate the ongoing difficulties of growing up queer. Mixed media digitized collages have been created and paired with companion typographic treatments of poems and narratives from diverse points of view.

The word queer as a term to describe gay men, lesbians, and other non-conforming sexual identities, has evolved over the past 100 years. This evolution of the word parallels the struggles of LGBTQ+ people to achieve equal rights, marriage equality, protection in housing and employment, and an …

The Precarity Of Images: Sci-Fi Worldbuilding And Its Uses In Agitprop, Noah Jodice

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

“The Precarity of Images” examines how theories of worldbuilding common to the science fiction genre are applied to the making of agitational propaganda for liberation movements. In doing so, it questions how both explicit and implicit political images—posters, games, comics, illustrations, social media posts—either light a pathway for making a more just world or limit our ability to imagine alternate futures.

Following the ethos of Steven Jackson’s essay “Rethinking Repair,” the paper takes the “breakdown, erosion, and decay” of images as a starting point. Images change meaning over time as our cultural connections to them shift. Strategies of decoding and …