Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons^™

A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre, Harris Darcie Shugart

Master's Theses

The Underground Comix Scene of the 1960s and 1970s was born out of an age of censorship. The Comics Code Authority, a regulatory body created by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954, established guidelines requiring publishing houses to self-regulate following a recommendation from the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953. Comix with an X, for their X-rated nature, represent an emerging counter-culture in the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, with an epicenter of San Francisco. These comix and their artists were not interested in obtaining the looming ‘Seal of Approval’ from the …

Ra Hub: Streamlining Resident Advisor Workflows Through A Mobile App, Samantha Danahe Gonzalez

Graphic Communication

This project explores the need to improve the workflow experience for Residential Advisors (RAs), specifically focusing on polychat logging and event planning workflows that currently rely on multiple disconnected software platforms. This fragmented system creates confusion and makes it difficult to complete responsibilities efficiently and accurately. Survey findings revealed frustrations with tracking tasks, managing workflows, and navigating between systems. In response, this project proposes a centralized workflow system designed to create a more organized, accessible, and userfriendly experience for RAs.

Redesigning Rhapsody In View's Website For Improved Storytelling And Navigation, Christine Ha

Graphic Communication

Rhapsody in View is a family-owned and operated hotel boutique in Morro Bay that offers bespoke rooms and warm hospitality. Their current website has the opportunity to improve the layout design for ease of navigation and improved storytelling. This project aims to deliver a high-fidelity interactive prototype that showcases a visually appealing website design, improved user journey and expression of Rhapsody in View’s story, and refined navigation flow.

Moonlight Matcha Process Book, Adrienne Liang

Graphic Communication

As matcha continues to rise in popularity across the United States, there are significant gaps in consumer awareness regarding its health benefits and cultural significance. Moonlight Matcha, a fictitious brand developed for my senior project, seeks to bridge those gaps by educating consumers about the wellness benefits of matcha while featuring a modern, appealing design that resonates with a broad audience. This project has been especially meaningful because it allowed me to explore the full process of building a brand from the ground up – from brand strategy and storytelling to packaging development and user experience (UX) design. It brings …

Evermarket:The App For Fresh Finds And Hidden Treasures, Kira M. Sugihara

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this project is to discover a new way of bringing communities together when it comes to buying, selling and trading goods locally. Many smaller vendors struggle to connect with their communities while buyers often become frustrated with the lack of marketing and advertising for these markets and sales. With the help of a mobile app, sellers will be able to list their markets and sales to buyers who will be able to easily locate these local events. This concept eliminates the frustration of trying to find second-hand and fresh goods by putting them all in one place, …

Touch By Angels Café Rebrand, Hailey Choi

Graphic Communication

Touch By Angels, a local Korean-dessert café in San Luis Obispo, CA, specializing in bingsoo, taiyaki, and specialty teas, has struggled since its December 2023 opening to establish a cohesive visual identity across its B2C interaction spaces, including its website, social media pages, and on-site signage. This rebranding project aims to develop a comprehensive visual identity for Touch By Angels by enhancing its logo design, color palette, typography, and photography, revamping its social media, and on-site signage to create a unified and appealing brand image. The expected outcome is improved customer engagement, enhanced brand recognition, and business growth, positioning Touch …

Moondoggie's Ad, Mia Horvath

Graphic Communication

I created a 2 minute ad for Moondoggies that defines the brands “attitude” as well as establishes its demographic, highlights the products they sell, and showcases the natural beauty of the region Moondoggies was founded in.

Spotify: The Addiction, Madison Skye Jackson

Graphic Communication

The redesign of the Swedish digital music streaming service called Spotify gives it the potential to play an even larger role in the world by becoming its own social media platform. Even with Spotify's successes, Spotify currently still lacks the best social experience because of the limited ability to share music within the mobile app.

A redesign of the Spotify app offers interaction opportunities between users to make it a solid form of social media and a stronger competitor to the rising TikTok app. Combined with user experience criteria and new visualizations, I was able to build a prototype that …

Agora: App Prototype To Improve The Live Event Experience, Taylor L. Leslie, Lexi Berryhill

Graphic Communication

Agora is a mobile application that aims to connect live event-goers with safety protocol and information about the event’s safety measures and plans. We are targeting live events with many attendees because there is a need for more safety and group planning support. Through initial conversations with friends, family, and peers, we discovered that it is constantly challenging to coordinate schedules, determine meeting points, message group members, and find medical and safety protocols at live events. This app will improve the user experience of live events and benefit attendees and event holders.

Agora’s prototype will feature solutions such as planned …

An Exploration Into The Design Of A Portable Music Player For People With Alzheimer’S And Dementia, Jaxon V. Silva

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

An exploration into the design of a portable music player for people with Alzheimer's and dementia.

"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.

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 …

Goodreads Redesign, Brooke Mylander

Graphic Communication

The following project is a redesign of Goodreads.com. The current user interface of Goodreads’ website is outdated and not user-friendly. This project addressed many problems current users complained about the site and made new designs for each major frame of the site with new, fixed features.

Mytrials: Clinical Trial Application Concept, Katie Hollister

Graphic Communication

A clinical trial’s success is dependent upon whether a patient attends their highly-structured clinical trial visit schedule, which may include both in-person clinic visits and virtual check-in visits. MyTrials is a clinical trial journey app prototype that enables patients to schedule, reschedule, and attend join their in-person or virtual clinic visits. This product seeks to reduce the burden that scheduling places on the patient, and provides trial-provided resources and a daily and weekly timeline to help patients navigate their clinical trial journey.

Corvette Pacifica Website Redesign, Kyra M. Smith

Graphic Communication

This project is meant to redesign the website for Corvette Pacifica by improving usability and overall experience in order to increase website traffic and revamp the company's branding. The end deliverables include high fidelity mockups for various pages of the website, as well as improved branding such as logos, fonts, and color schemes. The end goal is to have something that could potentially be coded into a fully working website in the near future.

Between The Bars, Unique Shaw-Smith Dr, Eliese Maxwell, Victoria Otero, Catherine Trujillo, Habib Placencia Adissi

Creative Works

“Between the Bars” is a senior project exhibition, in collaboration with Cal Poly Sociology Professor Dr. Unique Shaw-Smith. Featuring artwork produced by incarcerated artists, the goal is to undo negative stereotypes and to empower the rehabilitation of incarcerated artists individually and collectively through art.The exhibit demonstrates that rehabilitation does occur in prison and emphasizes that art has the power to transcend all social differences and divisions. The exhibit features more than 60 works in diverse mediums including sculpture, painting, and poetry by 34 incarcerated artists from California Men’s Colony.

This catalog represents the onsite exhibit of the same name, which …

Visualizing Population Density Based On Wifi Router Location And Network Usage, Tyler Deitz

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This research paper introduces a prototype of a feature for Robert E. Kennedy’s maps web application. The feature visualizes population density based off wifi router location and network usage within the building. The significance of the feature is noted by documenting the library’s transition into a hub for student life and campus culture, which increases the space’s occupancy and visitor retention for a longer time. The feature is based off a Voronoi diagram map distribution which strongly affects its technical and visual implementation. The end product is user tested by Cal Poly students and received a 93.5% satisfaction rate.

Visualizing Relationships Between Related Variables: Improving Physics Education Through D3.Js Network Visualizations, Stephanie Friend

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

phiMap is a web application started by Cal Poly professors and students to aid professors in teaching physics. I developed Javascript visualizations for phiMap that serve to simplify the processes of both teaching and learning physics. These visualizations aim to present relationships between physics variables in an easy to understand manner, and they could eventually have a huge impact on physics education.

Public Art: Context & Process In San Luis Obispo, Ca, Kristin Ann Kiefer

Master's Theses

Public spaces are noted by historians, philosophers, planners, etc as being the lifeblood of civic centers, spaces that bring people in community together for a myriad of reasons. Recalling the ancient Agricola’s of ancient Greece to the modern version of malls and pedestrian plazas, these spaces are where social interactions occur, ideas are spread, and are open for all people to enjoy. Beautifying these spaces with public art and well-thought out design encourage the use of these spaces and work to empower those who use them. While the mode in which public art populates public spaces has changed, the notion …

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 …

The Laes Pocketbook For Filmmaker Enthusiasts, Steven (Sven) Thien Le

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

The LAES Pocketbook for Filmmaker Enthusiasts was written to be an essential tool for Cal Poly students to use when approaching the broad spectrum of film making. This introductory pocketbook tackles many of the confusions and questions that arise when first starting with film making and utilizes the equipment available at Cal Poly to make the film making process simpler for students. Printed out on standard 8.5" x 11" paper, this portable pocketbook is meant to be folded, stapled down the spine, and carried with the student on their filming endeavors.

This pocketbook will go over types of filming equipment, …

From Banging To Baking: A Documentary On Malachi Chavez And Restorative Partners, Brandon Kuhr

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

Projection Based Design: A Collection Of Acquired Knowledge, Max Brown

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

The application of new technology in a classic medium, such as theatre, can be a strong force in creating a unique experience for both the audience and the designer. At first, introducing new media techniques may seem like a novelty and easily dismissed as a gimmick. The fact is the modern audience is more familiar with information displayed in video format and will find projected video elements implemented into the scenic design as another way to access the story the performers on stage are trying to convey. It is our duty as designers to utilize every tool at our disposal …

Video Production Guide: A Manual On Video Production Custom Made For Laes, Andrew Mai

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

A guide in video production using the Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies Program’s main work space, also known as the Expressive Technologies Workshop. Includes a detailed instructional on video production from camera rentals to basic shooting to editing and distribution. Also introduces other tools in the workshop related to video production such as audio production tools and projection mapping.

Exploration Of Physical Computing: Digital Interfaces Using Microsoft Kinect And Peggy 2 Led Matrix, Jeffrey Franklin

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Physical computing, or more specifically social immersive media, is an offshoot of New Media that incorporates interactive physical systems (software/hardware systems) to sense and respond to the analog world. This serves as a creative framework for understanding our own relationship to the digital world. In this project, computer vision is incorporated as a medium between both input and output through the use of two cameras, a typical webcam and a Microsoft Kinect. For the first part of the project, a webcam streams visual data into a computer program which interpolates the video data into a 25x25 virtual dot matrix. This …

Design And Production Aspects Of An Electroluminescent Segment Display, Veronica Kopp, Chris Nixon

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the different ways printed circuits could be constructed and then implemented into creative, visual designs for printed electroluminescent displays. A variety of circuit design variables, such as area and length, were tested that will help create solutions for printed electronics.

This study tested different variables of circuit design, such as length of silver traces and the size of the image area, to help optimize ways to build a printed circuit. Then, findings were implemented into a segmented graphic display in order to analyze innovative ways to utilize multiple …