Photography today is based more in editing and manipulation than in the physical capturing of the photo. The pervasiveness of photo editing is only going to increase; however, whether an edited photo remains true to the original photo, let alone the original scene, is left for the photographer to determine. Photographers attempt to create the "perfect" image and are willing to sacrifice the original photo in the process. The finished product becomes in many cases an entirely different photo from the original, to the extent that it is more a product of the editing software than the actual camera. My project takes the form of a photo-editing manual, viewable in both physical and digital format, and an exhibition of the final images. None of the images are so extreme that it is immediately clear that they have been manipulated; however, as they are all images of Scripps College, people who are familiar with the campus will be able to recognize that something is off. I see these images as products of editing software more than products of a camera. I have exaggerated commonly used editing techniques to draw attention to their excessive use in photography today. In the manual, the manipulation and changes suggested become gradually more extreme, so that if the reader does not a first question the instructions, he or she will be sure to by the end.

This body of work represents a celebration and pursuit of realizing an alternative language, one capable of expressing internal conflict through process and response to external typographic form and content.

“Robin D.G. Kelley coined the term polyculturalism as an alternative to multiculturalism, ‘since the latter often implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side—a kind of zoological approach to culture.’ ” Polyculturalism assumes the whole world’s cultures are interactive and fluid instead of independent and static, and individuals’ relationship to cultures are complex and cannot be categorized. Yet an individual constitutes multiple cultures, and individual identity embraces the various forms of culture in all aspects of one’s life. My research examines how polyculturalism affects aspects of communications among people who hold a multiplicity of voices. It uses my personal experiences as the basis for work that expresses the effects of mistranslation and cultural mixing and seeks to communicate them to people of various cultural backgrounds.

I'm arguing for an approach to generating graphic form based on slapstick. Slapstick is a genre of physical comedy involving humorous portrayals of clumsiness, mistakes, and nonsense. I investigate it as an approach to form, content, process, and communication. These methods were used to construct an immersive installation loosely based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Graphic design is expected to function. It does this by conditioning users to its particular patterns or by skillfully implementing familiar patterns. A slapstick approach to graphic design is valuable as a critical tool for disrupting conditioned experiences for promoting empathy by relating to people through imperfection and failure.

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Thesis (PhD)-Open University. BLDSC no.DX186512.

Visual identity can be understood as the result of the application of graphic design methods aimed at inter-brand differentiation, which paradoxically is leading to “homogenizing identities” (Bell, 2004). The globalization of visual identity is a phenomenon that can be observed not only among global brands competing with each other, but also in locally specific heritage brands that relinquish distinctive elements of their identity to resemble the global. In many cases, their specificities end up being distorted, blurred, or lost, and the richness of what is historically and culturally unique about them is often misinterpreted, neglected, or even discarded. By showing what can be lost with regards to historical and cultural memory within a brand’s imagery, this thesis questions the significance of archives to locally specific brands claiming symbolic and cultural relevance. It shows how can graphic designers can contribute to the preservation of cultural diversity through visual identity. To address the loss of cultural memory as well as the globalization of visual identity, this study draws on visual design heritage to achieve an understanding of the past as a source and a means to feed future cultural development. By adapting visual methodologies and case-study methods to assess brand identity, the study presents a methodological approach for the rescuing, interpretative analysis, and exploration of historical memory in brand imagery. It applies ethnographic research methods for data collection and graphic design methods for recovering visual materials, combined with timelines and grids for contextual and visual analysis. A main case-study is presented to demonstrate how the methods originated, how they enable the observation of identity transformations over time, and of how visual identity dissolves with global influence. This case addresses the historical context and today’s cultural relevance of an archive of the Portuguese iconic Sanjo sports shoes brand, which emerged with the rise of the ‘Estado Novo’ authoritarian regime in Portugal (1933–1974). Through the interpretation of how brand designs evolved in relation to contextual history it is possible to see the various social, cultural, political and economical transformations that occurred in their life spans. The thesis presents parallel examples of brands that were heavily influenced or even controlled by government in the past and now operate independently. As with the case of Sanjo, the comparative study investigates, and further draws attention to the relationship between the loss of historical memory and the globalization of visual identity. By examining the relevance of archives for addressing identity issues, the thesis shows that current graphic design practices can avoid failing to address historical contextualisation and cultural relevance if, firstly, a great deal of historical and cultural memory is retrieved, secondly, if there is substantial visual and contextual analysis, and thirdly, if the visual elements and histories uncovered are put together in the right context. By considering the possibilities that brand archives present for exploring the symbolic values of objects and generating meaning, this study fills a gap between archival practices and the way many designers and companies are dealing with locally specific brands. It argues that brand archives are key instruments for designers to derive meaning and convey cultural memory into the future, and that visual identity is a channel through which these can be acknowledged, displayed and experienced. The study concludes by suggesting possible approaches graphic designers might pursue to address the issues identified, and it broadens the scope of the directions in which brand archives can be explored through the re-contextualisation of cultural objects.

These typographic and image based designs explore multiple components of design including: legibility, manipulation, communication, and conventionalism with an emphasis on information graphics. Drawing from influences of the Futurist designers and Dadaist typography, I take the mundane details of an object such as a baseball or car to create excessive amounts of visually stimulating graphics. Through this process of gathering detailed information, I take photographs, draw by hand and scan images to fully understand and portray an objects identity until I feel satisfied that the objects visual potential has been exhausted. These personal expressions are combined to form printed material and book designs. These works explore the experimental use of type and image montage to break the rules of graphic design while keeping some of the traditional aesthetics associated with this discipline. My love for detailed subject matter may be seen in my books, The Baseball and 1 (One) which include subject matter from my childhood interests such as rare 1/1 baseball cards.

This research proposes that traditional typographic knowledge does not sufficiently address the design aspects specific to screen typography such as 3D space, motion, time, sound and interactivity, and that traditional design principles require adaptation and expansion for screen. This practice-­led study presents a broad critical review of the emergent field of screen typography spanning screen media technologies, traditional typographic knowledge and contemporary practice. Its findings contribute a definition of the field of practice including an overview of the history, origins and properties of screen typography, a classification of practice areas, and key practical principles used in related screen-­native disciplines such as film-­making, animation and human computer interaction design. Due to the rapidly changing technological environment of the screen, obsolescence is a key concern for this research and highlights the need for sustainable typographic design methodologies not aligned to specific technology. In this context, and following a literature review of traditional design principles, the work of Emil Ruder (1914-­‐1970), a Swiss modernist typographer was identified as distinguishable in the field and particularly relevant to screen typography because of his holistic design approach underpinned by conceptual principles and systematic practical methods. This thesis provides a detailed analysis of Ruder’s methods set out in his book Typographie: a manual for design (1967) and uses the findings to develop an experimental practice methodology for screen typography. The developed methodology sets out a matrix of the constituent parts of typographic design practice that include: typographic elements, typographic properties, and design principles, which can be combined to create practical exercises in screen typography. The practice matrix was evaluated through peer review, then tested and applied in practice to the design of a series of experimental practical samples and online repository type4screen, and to an iPad app of T.S. Eliot’s 1922 poem, The Waste Land.