Music and design draw upon innate parallels concerned with the creation and existence of space. By acknowledging the roles of both the visual and the aural in my design process as input and output, I attempt to achieve a deeper understanding of my intuition as a visual communicator. I believe that the visual and aural are linked—existing harmoniously together. The collected works present ever-evolving ideas on visualizing the experience of sound.

While it implies aimless movement, the act of wandering is an act of discovery and can become a search for the unexpected. Wandering, as a metaphor for making, creates opportunities to work in ways where the final outcome is unknown. This can be accomplished by the creation of methods and instructions designed for wandering-the act of discovery. In the field of design, these ideas can be incorporated as methods for making that guide the design process in ultimately unknowable ways, resulting in products that bear little trace of preconception. The role of chance and indeterminacy as methods for relinquishing control and generating narrative are explored in three projects relying on video and interactivity.

Social connection is an essential human need. Personal connections exist at a variety of depths and within different types of relationships. Small daily choices determine the strength of those connections and their impact on our well-being as individuals and as a community. Modern society and technology have altered the speed and channels of connection, increasing communication but decreasing meaningful connection. It is critical to understand how the methods of communication affect the depth of connections. Through a series of participatory graphic design projects, I analyze the strengths and weaknesses of one-on-one, small group and community connections within an established taxonomy of the levels of connection, to identify the factors that contribute to strong social relationships.

In this work, I discuss how global products/ identities are made, transported and consumed, and the inevitable ‘mis-’ in acts of transmission. This research ranges from the miscommunication in languages and linguistics, to the gap between production and consumption. I investigate how things and humans are misread, mispronounced, misfit and mistranslated when they traverse social and cultural borders, arriving at a place in between languages, holding on to and letting go of things that are familiar to neither and both cultures. This work explores diverse media such as publications, videos and installations, and examines how they maybe used to address such contexts as factory production, global trade, circulation and tracking of commodities as well as identities.

Auras is a series of illustrations of Carlos Fuentes’s novella, Aura, a horror love story about memory, obsession, desire, corporeality and immortality. Defying narrative conventions, the story is told through second person. You are the protagonist, Felipe Montero, and are employed by a 109-year old widow to edit her husband's memoirs. Inside the pitchblack house, you fall in love with her beautiful and bizarre green-eyed niece, Aura. The gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion. The story seems to take place within the confines of the widow’s mind. The plot mimics the obsessive, hypnotic quality of nostalgia and memory. Much of my illustrative content and artistic process reflects a personal obsessive nostalgia I have for my grandmother and her life. It is her image, young and old, coupled with the complex and repetitive processes of printmaking, both traditional and current, that inform my illustration and personal interpretation of Aura. My thesis research conculs a series of artistic processes and theories behind image-making that relish the synthesis of new and old. I look at early horror illustration by Harry Clarke and Francesco Goya, and analyze images and practices in early digital graphic design and April Greiman, reappropriated inkjet and woodblock prints (Anselm Kiefer), and my own lasercut woodblock prints.

Tendo como campo de estudo o Brique da Redenção, um dos mais importantes pontos de comercialização de artesanato em Porto Alegre-RS, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo geral mapear o contexto atual da utilização de identidades visuais por artesãos que ali expõem seus produtos e a possibilidade de inserção do design gráfico junto ao artesanato em ações de comunicação visual. A base teórica aborda o design gráfico vernacular e o institucionalizado, o artesanato, a identidade visual e sua importância para a atividade artesanal. Junto aos artesãos, foram coletados materiais gráficos, nos quais se realizou uma análise dos elementos visuais que representam o nome comercial de seus produtos. Com o intuito de compreender melhor estas identidades visuais, efetuou-se uma análise comparativa com os princípios e normas de composição visual estabelecidas pelo design gráfico institucionalizado. No artesanato, percebeu-se a predominância de linguagem visual vernacular que, para o design gráfico institucionalizado, não é satisfatória de acordo com os padrões tidos como de qualidade. Por meio de entrevistas, buscou-se diagnosticar a percepção que os artesãos têm sobre a comunicação visual de marca, a sua satisfação em relação àquelas que utilizam, bem como investigar se ocorre ou não a participação de profissionais de design gráfico na promoção do artesanato comercializado no Brique da Redenção. Para transcrição, codificação e análise destes dados, os mesmos foram agrupados por temas correspondentes, identificando enunciados em comum e codificando-os. Os resultados apontam uma carência de projetos consistentes de identidades visuais para os artesãos, indicando um rico campo de atuação para o design junto ao artesanato em ações que visem à melhoria da comunicação visual deste segmento. / Having Brique da Redenção as the field of study, which is one of the most important points of handicraft commercialization in Porto Alegre - RS, this study aimed to mapping the current context of the use of visual identities by artisans who exhibit their products there and the possibility of insertion of graphic design along with handicraft in actions of visual communication. The theoretical basis approaches the vernacular and the institutionalized graphic design, the handicrafts, the visual identity and its importance to the handicraft activity. Along with the artisans, graphic materials were collected, in which an analysis of visual elements that represent the commercial name of their products was made. In order to understand better these visual identities, a comparative analysis was done with the principles and rules of visual composition established by the institutionalized graphic design. In the handicraft activity, a dominance of vernacular visual language was perceived, which, for the institutionalized graphic design, it is not satisfactory according to the standards taken as quality. Through interviews, the perception that the artisans have regarding the visual communication of their brand was sought as well as their satisfaction with regard to the ones who use them and investigate if the participation of graphic design professionals occur to promote the crafts commercialized at Brique da Redenção. For transcription, coding and analysis of these data, they were gathered by their correspondent themes, identifying statements in common and coding them. The results point a lack of consistent projects of visual identities for the artisans, indicating a rich field of work for design along with the handicraft in actions which aim the improvement of the visual communication of this segment.

Tendo como campo de estudo o Brique da Redenção, um dos mais importantes pontos de comercialização de artesanato em Porto Alegre-RS, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo geral mapear o contexto atual da utilização de identidades visuais por artesãos que ali expõem seus produtos e a possibilidade de inserção do design gráfico junto ao artesanato em ações de comunicação visual. A base teórica aborda o design gráfico vernacular e o institucionalizado, o artesanato, a identidade visual e sua importância para a atividade artesanal. Junto aos artesãos, foram coletados materiais gráficos, nos quais se realizou uma análise dos elementos visuais que representam o nome comercial de seus produtos. Com o intuito de compreender melhor estas identidades visuais, efetuou-se uma análise comparativa com os princípios e normas de composição visual estabelecidas pelo design gráfico institucionalizado. No artesanato, percebeu-se a predominância de linguagem visual vernacular que, para o design gráfico institucionalizado, não é satisfatória de acordo com os padrões tidos como de qualidade. Por meio de entrevistas, buscou-se diagnosticar a percepção que os artesãos têm sobre a comunicação visual de marca, a sua satisfação em relação àquelas que utilizam, bem como investigar se ocorre ou não a participação de profissionais de design gráfico na promoção do artesanato comercializado no Brique da Redenção. Para transcrição, codificação e análise destes dados, os mesmos foram agrupados por temas correspondentes, identificando enunciados em comum e codificando-os. Os resultados apontam uma carência de projetos consistentes de identidades visuais para os artesãos, indicando um rico campo de atuação para o design junto ao artesanato em ações que visem à melhoria da comunicação visual deste segmento. / Having Brique da Redenção as the field of study, which is one of the most important points of handicraft commercialization in Porto Alegre - RS, this study aimed to mapping the current context of the use of visual identities by artisans who exhibit their products there and the possibility of insertion of graphic design along with handicraft in actions of visual communication. The theoretical basis approaches the vernacular and the institutionalized graphic design, the handicrafts, the visual identity and its importance to the handicraft activity. Along with the artisans, graphic materials were collected, in which an analysis of visual elements that represent the commercial name of their products was made. In order to understand better these visual identities, a comparative analysis was done with the principles and rules of visual composition established by the institutionalized graphic design. In the handicraft activity, a dominance of vernacular visual language was perceived, which, for the institutionalized graphic design, it is not satisfactory according to the standards taken as quality. Through interviews, the perception that the artisans have regarding the visual communication of their brand was sought as well as their satisfaction with regard to the ones who use them and investigate if the participation of graphic design professionals occur to promote the crafts commercialized at Brique da Redenção. For transcription, coding and analysis of these data, they were gathered by their correspondent themes, identifying statements in common and coding them. The results point a lack of consistent projects of visual identities for the artisans, indicating a rich field of work for design along with the handicraft in actions which aim the improvement of the visual communication of this segment.

Tendo como campo de estudo o Brique da Redenção, um dos mais importantes pontos de comercialização de artesanato em Porto Alegre-RS, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo geral mapear o contexto atual da utilização de identidades visuais por artesãos que ali expõem seus produtos e a possibilidade de inserção do design gráfico junto ao artesanato em ações de comunicação visual. A base teórica aborda o design gráfico vernacular e o institucionalizado, o artesanato, a identidade visual e sua importância para a atividade artesanal. Junto aos artesãos, foram coletados materiais gráficos, nos quais se realizou uma análise dos elementos visuais que representam o nome comercial de seus produtos. Com o intuito de compreender melhor estas identidades visuais, efetuou-se uma análise comparativa com os princípios e normas de composição visual estabelecidas pelo design gráfico institucionalizado. No artesanato, percebeu-se a predominância de linguagem visual vernacular que, para o design gráfico institucionalizado, não é satisfatória de acordo com os padrões tidos como de qualidade. Por meio de entrevistas, buscou-se diagnosticar a percepção que os artesãos têm sobre a comunicação visual de marca, a sua satisfação em relação àquelas que utilizam, bem como investigar se ocorre ou não a participação de profissionais de design gráfico na promoção do artesanato comercializado no Brique da Redenção. Para transcrição, codificação e análise destes dados, os mesmos foram agrupados por temas correspondentes, identificando enunciados em comum e codificando-os. Os resultados apontam uma carência de projetos consistentes de identidades visuais para os artesãos, indicando um rico campo de atuação para o design junto ao artesanato em ações que visem à melhoria da comunicação visual deste segmento. / Having Brique da Redenção as the field of study, which is one of the most important points of handicraft commercialization in Porto Alegre - RS, this study aimed to mapping the current context of the use of visual identities by artisans who exhibit their products there and the possibility of insertion of graphic design along with handicraft in actions of visual communication. The theoretical basis approaches the vernacular and the institutionalized graphic design, the handicrafts, the visual identity and its importance to the handicraft activity. Along with the artisans, graphic materials were collected, in which an analysis of visual elements that represent the commercial name of their products was made. In order to understand better these visual identities, a comparative analysis was done with the principles and rules of visual composition established by the institutionalized graphic design. In the handicraft activity, a dominance of vernacular visual language was perceived, which, for the institutionalized graphic design, it is not satisfactory according to the standards taken as quality. Through interviews, the perception that the artisans have regarding the visual communication of their brand was sought as well as their satisfaction with regard to the ones who use them and investigate if the participation of graphic design professionals occur to promote the crafts commercialized at Brique da Redenção. For transcription, coding and analysis of these data, they were gathered by their correspondent themes, identifying statements in common and coding them. The results point a lack of consistent projects of visual identities for the artisans, indicating a rich field of work for design along with the handicraft in actions which aim the improvement of the visual communication of this segment.

No description available.

The aim of this research is to propose ways in which graphic designers can improve the design of commercial signage in Amman, Jordan. A survey of the effectiveness of recent signage regulation in the type and placement of commercial signage has led to the conclusion that regulations alone will not lead to improved quality in the production and siting of commercial signage without multi-stakeholder involvement and the dedicated training of those working in this field. There is a need for practitioners to develop specialised skills and knowledge in sign design, as opposed to applying only generalised graphic design techniques to sign production. Such skills include problem-solving, visual communication methods and competency in the application of the latest multi-media technology. It is proposed that by developing and incorporating sign-design competencies within the graphic design curriculum, practitioners will be better able to work effectively in this field. Following the investigation of the situation in Amman with respect to commercial signage, four related investigations were undertaken in order to formulate a list of recommendations which could be incorporated into an improved curriculum for teaching sign design. The first study investigated the problems caused by poorly designed and situated commercial signage in Amman. The second and third studies investigated urban signage solutions adopted by companies in other parts of the world, namely the global marketing of the McDonald’s brand and the corporate signage of Coventry University UK. The final study was a comparative investigation of graphic design education (with respect to sign design) in Jordan and the UK. Following these investigations, the Delphi technique was employed to elicit a set of 25 competencies for sign design learners, recommended by an expert panel of sign industry professionals and design academics. It is anticipated that the incorporation of such competencies will contribute to the improvements within the sign industry, as designers become better equipped for the task of sign design. Therefore it is anticipated that this research will contribute to the furthering of design practice by identifying the additional knowledge and competencies that graphic designers need to create appropriate commercial signs.