Graphic Design Commons^™

Operating An Interior Design Firm In Saudi Arabia: Opportunities And Challenges For Professional Female Employees, Najah Alsaffaf

Theses and Dissertations

Empowering women is the aim of the research. Saudi Arabia is the research location and interior design is the subject of the investigation. Saudi Arabia is on the path of empowering women through education and facilitating job opportunities. There is vast research about entrepreneurship and obstacles that women face in Saudi Arabia, but there is no evidence of research on the interior design field in Saudi Arabia in both education and job opportunities. Finding out that the art and design scene is thriving in education indicates that there would be a need for creating jobs and employment options for design …

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.

Salvaging Print: Letterhead In Post-Industrial Urban America, Nancy Sharon Collins

The Mid-America Print Council Conference

This panel will explore the link between today’s small press movement and the formal aspects of commercial printing during the American 20th century. Panelists include Christine Medley , Philip Gattuso, and Nancy Bernardo.

Using as its primary example letterhead from defunct companies in Detroit, and secondarily, specimens of business and legal letterhead from other urban centers of the industrial United States, this panel will examine and discuss: What did letterhead represent to 20th century printers in local markets such as Detroit? What is the significance of printed letterhead, and stationery, to the art of small press printing in post-industrial cities …

Dotphotozine Issue 4, September 2014, Students Of The Csusb Art Department, Thomas Mcgovern

Dotphotozine

No abstract provided.

Renoir To Remington: Impressionism To The American West, Anne Giangiulio

Selected Works Temporary Series

Catalog designed for the exhibition 'Renoir to Remington: Impressionism to the American West', on display from September 21, 2014 to February 1, 2015 at the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Gallery of the El Paso Museum of Art. Organized by the El Paso Museum of Art in partnership with Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington. 144 pages.

Impact Of Combining Traditional Printmaking With Contemporary Digital Print, Harumi Okoshi

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

For this project, I would like to combine the precision of computer-generated graphics with the warm-feel of traditional printmaking as a way to integrate traditional art practices with new technology. Graphic design is regarded as commercial art, such as designing packages or posters, and is separate from fine art. As a graphic designer, my goal is to develop meaningful visual solutions. Through the presentation of my project, I will demonstrate a way to introduce traditional printmaking into contemporary graphic art. There are a lot of preparations involved for traditional printmaking. You have to make several proofs before you actually print …

Chere, Wilson Andres Borja

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chere is research project and a thesis exhibition installation composed of a series of drawing/paintings and short animations that explores the phenomenon of migration and the African diaspora. This exploration was originated by contrasting aspects of forced and voluntary migration in addition to Kvasnyand and Hales' idea, that "Belonging everywhere or not belonging anywhere" describes the situation among people of the African diaspora.

Through research I intersperse layers of personal history with that of my ancestors and their descendants in the Americas. As a biracial person, a self-identified Afro-descendant from Colombia, South America, I am interested in the process of …

The Effectiveness And Impressions Between Responsive And Non-Responsive Websites Displayed On A Computer, Tablet And Cell Phone: Displaying Websites Of Eichler Homes, Camille Mary Duckett

Graphic Communication

The researcher designed two types of websites for Eichler Homes in Thousand Oaks. The researcher created both responsive and non-responsive websites.

The researcher performed a study and observed the data. Afterwards, the data was analyzed to see people’s preferences and which one they liked best.

Most of the general public is not knowledgeable about responsive design. In business, people need to decide for themselves if responsive design is worth the investment since most people aren’t aware of it. As responsive design continues to grow with the use of mobile devices most people aren’t educated about responsive vs. non- responsive design. …

Designing An E-Commerce Website For Summit Outdoor Supply (S.O.S.), Eliott Kentaro Mason

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to design an appealing and easy to use e-commerce website for a startup company called Summit Outdoor Supply (S.O.S.) in order for them to expand their customer base and continue to grow. This new website will provide customers with a convenient online store to order S.O.S.’s unique survival gear products at the click of a button.

This study investigated the requirements to design a successful e-commerce website along with increasing visibility of the company through search engine optimization techniques. A usability testing questionnaire was sent out to students, faculty, and personal friends through e-mail …

Design Practices In Mobile User Interface Design, William Hunt Robbins

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine optimal user interface design practices for differing age demographics and mobile operating systems. Specifically, users at three different age groups were administered a test to gauge their preference of mobile app icons. The style of the first set of icons, commonly known as flat design, was minimal and simple, with few colors, bevels or gradients. The second style of icons was a more realistic and detailed style known as skeuomorphic design. Users selected the preferred icons, and then took a brief survey to gauge their opinion. After the data was collected, it …

Connecting The Disciplinary Dots: Faculty Attitudes Toward The Professionalization Of Web Development, Kathleen Mary Kalata

Dissertations

Professionalization offers rewards such as prestige, financial benefits and autonomy. Fields such as nursing and social work have undergone the professionalization process. This exploratory study examined faculty attitudes regarding the professionalization of web development as defined by the Hall model of professionalism. The purpose of the study was to understand how faculty view web development as a profession. Based on the Hall’s Professionalism Scale (1968) and modified survey by Snizek (1972), the Web Development Professionalism Inventory (WDPI) was used to explore faculty attitudes toward professionalization.

This study surveyed faculty about their views on the structural and attitudinal components of web …

Brand Identity For New Artists In The Music Industry, Drea Achacoso

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aspects of brand identity and apply it to new artists in the music industry. The research from this study was applied to Hills & Strongholds, an aspiring alternative rock band. Designs were created for the band’s brand identity on multiple platforms that attempted to portray the band’s musical vision. A survey was conducted to determine which logo and album artwork designs were able to effectively transport the bands genre and vision based on the audience’s perception. The results of this study can be used to develop Hills & Strongholds into a …

Not Not Real : Exercises In Styling, Sophie Mascatello

Masters Theses

As a generative process of visual form, styling and artifice are co-dependent. Styling mediates visual and sensorial elements for aesthetic benefit, and artifice produces a fantasy otherwise unattainable. Together they are a rebus — an orchestration of symbols and shifted realities — that impacts modes of representation and subsequent shifts in taste.

In Not Not Real, the logic of “real” life is moot. Relevance and subjectivity are the only fixed parameters that govern stylistic intuition. The image produced — however candid or authentic it may appear — is artificial. But this imagery supersedes reality in provoking aspiration, rendering the …

Learning To Live In Thick Interface, Jonathan Hanahan

Masters Theses

As media platforms shift towards more dynamic interfaces, the separation between user and content grows infinitely. While advertised as thin, light, and seamless, these platforms mask a thick and complicated space in which society must navigate. This is what I call the “Thick Interface.” The Thick Interface is the portal we use to toggle back and forth and through which we communicate. It is solid and porous, physical and digital, enhancing and diminishing. It may also be a combination of these things simultaneously, or none at all. My work highlights—rather than masks—the complexity of this space through interaction, participation, and …

Speculative Archives : An Index, Sameer Farooq

Masters Theses

Building an official archive, a comprehensive depository of cultural memory, is an impossible pursuit.My work centers around the question: what gets lost in the capture ? Responding to this problematic, I create “speculative archives”— setting the practice of archiving against the archive. In doing so, my display systems (including photography, film and writing) reveal countless ruptures, even blind spots, in the smooth surfaces of the archive: the invisibility of the archivist, the challenge of capturing ephemera, the inherent value bias in collecting, and the inexhaustibility of documenting a subject.

Speculating on the archive has consequence for design practice. From the …

White Space: An Overlooked Element Of Design, Samantha Coates

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There are many different elements used to enhance visual appeal in Advertising and Graphic design. While all elements of design are important, arranging all of these components effectively, affects the overall visual appeal to viewers. The use of space may be thought of as the single, most important element of design. How things are arranged contributes to how effective an advertisement is to its audience. While space is important, it is also vastly taken for granted, specifically in the form of “white space.” Whitespace is important to visual appeal in many ways. This includes readability, viewer perception of brand image, …

Visual Tension In Graphic Design, Raven Heinstein

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

My thesis explores the use of visual tension in various graphic design areas and works. It delves into the purposes of creating visual tension and in which instances it can be most effective, as well as most ineffective. It discusses the use and creation of visual tension with design hierarchy, rhythm and dynamics, symmetry and asymmetry, negative and positive space, color relationships, and typographical design. I will define visual tension, discuss its relevance and significance, and show informative examples. I'm using mainly secondary research in the form of textbooks and examples by other designers, but I have also included a …

Remixing Remix Remixed, Joshua Cornelis

Graduate School of Art Theses

Remix culture plays an important role in the expression and communication of visual art. It is a discourse by which I strive to directly engage culture by cutting and pasting together already existing visual information. By doing so, I strive to promote an exchange of ideas and feelings between juxtaposed pieces. In this age of post-digital era collage, I am interested in the meaning and propaganda associated with collage and assemblage and the modes of disseminating messages via cut-and-paste.

By juxtaposing images that differ in style, content, and meaning, I am able to build panoramas of fractured identities that manifest …

Graphic Designers And Brain Surgeons, Both Highly Trained, Yet Not Interchangeable: The Creation Of Promotion Materials For Springfest 2014, Alanna Mehrtens

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Graphic design and brain surgery. What do they have in common? Each person is trained in their profession. Each person is called upon for services that are needed for a specific reason. Common sense tells you to not perform brain surgery without the proper training. Why would that be any different for Graphic Design? Whereas most people would never attempt brain surgery, the average person seems more than willing to attempt creating Graphic Design, usually with poor results. Event branding is an example of where training in this profession is most beneficial. I was the Graphic Designer in charge of …

Maturation Of Practices, Wendell J. Brunious

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The disparate concepts of Pop Art and abstract painting heavily influence the scope of my work. Finding a link between these two concepts has been the focal point of my studio practices. The apex of my process is the focus on commercial imagery as abstract form. The merging of these two concepts presents a complex composition of balance, color and information.

This thesis explores the various concepts as well as influences that have propelled the evolution of my work. It chronicles the steps I have taken in my quest to articulate my conceptual ideas. By describing the works and defining …

Application Of Problem Based Learning And Mastery Learning To Multimedia Education, Gabriel J. Grant, Dominick E. Fazarro, Luke Steinke

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

The current state of education and the workforce demands a special kind of learner capable of creativity, communicating effectively, analytical skill application, critical thinking, and problem solving. Whereas these skills are important, it is also a necessity for learners to be masters of the knowledge and skills that they have acquired. Traditional educational methods have proven to be somewhat ineffective in producing these results. Problem based learning has proven worthy in handling some of the load, however, mastery learning has been abandoned long ago for reasons in spite of its effectiveness. Through given examples and careful design, the educator will …

E-Volving Information Literacy Tutorials With E-Maginative And E-Ngaging Design, Damecia Donahue, Axa Liauw, Rebeca Peacock, Jill Wurm

Library Scholarly Publications

Presentation on May 22nd, 2014, at The Workshop for Instruction in Library Use (WILU), at Western University, Ontario, Canada.

Re-Inscribing History, Yoonkyung Kim

Masters Theses

Most images and informational data from historical records and databases remain unseen because there is a massive over-saturation of visual material. This material has not been thoroughly investigated or understood. Historical archives offer opportunities to discover stories that reposition history in more intimate terms. I explore what remains unseen by revealing new routes that these "facts" can take.

Exploring the boundaries between the public and the personal, I visit archival documents, public databases, and historical collections. Fascinated by their stories' multifaceted nature, I critically examine these primary sources that nourish generations of new histories.

My intention is to redefine our …

Procedural Pleasures: An Algorithmic Manifesto, Jerel Eugene Johnson

Masters Theses

This thesis engages with algorithms through five interlocked arguments: 1) algorithms are an operating condition of our current era; 2) algorithms are the engine of scripted systems; 3) designers create verbal, visual, and scripted systems; 4) there is procedural pleasure in the creation and execution of systems; 5) algorithmic acts are political acts.

The algorithm in its various forms is the subject and verb of this thesis investigation. Therefore, the projects in this thesis pivot on both strict and loose definitions of the algorithm. Projects move from narrowly-scoped, tightly controlled algorithms to open, search-based algorithms. Furthermore, I set out to …

In And About: Investigating Graphic Design In And About The Digital Landscape, Brienne Jones

Masters Theses

Book 1 : Projects as texts, pgs. 1 - 54 -- Book 2 : Projects as images, pgs. 55 - 128 -- Book 3 : Projects as links, pgs. 129 - 148

The web continuously increases our capacity to access to high fidelity representations of the real world. The forms of these representations are manifold: from high resolution photographic imagery to interactive panoramas that simulate walks; from static-yet-infinitely- customizable-maps to geolocational mobile apps; from blog posts and news articles to cinematic, multimedia narratives. These tools often position themselves as proxies by which one may experience a location or an event. …

Reconsider Everything, Hyunjin Kim

Masters Theses

This thesis is composed of three overarching chapters that exploit conventions as a tool to reexamine our social and cultural habits. Observing commonalities in our everyday experiences, this body of work explores subjectivity of rules of convention, questioning assumptions and common values.

In the first chapter, "Formal Conventions," I observe formal qualities and definitions of existing objects and explore alternative meanings and the performance of form. In the second chapter, Limits of Vision," I look at imperceptible subject matter to explore limitations of default modes of human perception. In "Boundaries of Techniques," I search for possibilities of expanding graphic design …

Readily Available, Ali Shamas Qadeer

Masters Theses

Today, there is a massive framework in place to share and build ideas and information, and yet the status of the public domain is being eroded legally and ideologically. In the digital age, we are constantly creating datasets, leaving physical and ideological trails of whatever captures our attention and experience. However, massive, disorganized archives are prone to becoming unnavigable storehouses of information—or worse—privately traded commodities. In opposition to the idea of our lives as privately stored and sold as imaginary capital stands The Commons — the vast network of our collective cultural memory that is readily available to the public—at …

Events Of Assembly: Exploring The Terms Of Co-Production, Chloe Lee

Masters Theses

Graphic designers, by nature, create sets of rules or conditions to establish relationships between disparate parts. The product graphic designers produce is thus an assembly of materials organized by these rules. In the context of our increasingly networked culture, there is an opportunity for graphic designers to reconsider how we orchestrate relationships. Rather than establishing conditions to make discrete objects as singular designers, this thesis proposes methods for generating new content and new form in collaboration with others.

Through rule-based design and trans-disciplinary collaboration, this body of work explores the terms of co-production. Using site-specific events, I assemble small networks …

Bringing Design To Life: Three-Dimensional Graphic Design, Cydnee E. Jones

Honors College Theses

For most people, graphic design is seen as a two-dimensional medium. I have challenged this preconception by creating a design that incorporates both two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements. The secondary purpose of this work is to highlight the importance of environmental sustainability, by both the use of sustainably sourced materials and by the choice of recycling as the topic of the design. The design was created with scavenged cardboard and utilizes photography and digital design techniques.

Zoom In To The Layers Of Graphic Design, Paola J. Robelo

Honors College Theses

Graphic design is a lot like languages varying from place to place. It’s a way of communication that retains its own cultural characteristics even though it shares similar design’s aesthetics. Graphic design varies from culture to culture, influenced by a country’s culture, language, traditions, history, and society. Just like art and music, graphic design’s aesthetics differs and expresses different messages across every culture. There are common graphic design’s elements found in one culture that are not found in other cultures and vice versa.

As an international student, this is a topic that has really interested me because I want to …