Graphic design is historically a visual language consisting of text and image composed for the purposes of sending messages in print format. The voice of graphic design is typography—structuring and arranging letter forms into visual language. Over the past two decades, new communication formats such as motion and interaction have frequently been related to performance. My intention, however, is to explore how performance can influence typography in two and three dimensions, and even in digital environments.

Thesis (Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Design)--University of Baltimore, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 4).

In 1990, George Gladney looked at 230 of the nation's largest dailies to see the influence of USA Today. He determined a score for each paper by looking at five categories: color; pictures and graphics; trivia and fluff; brevity, capsulization and promotion; and complexity and depth. After he determined scores for each paper, he ranked them and divided them into adopters and non-adopters. Even though two papers scored above USA Today, he found that most newspapers had a long way to go before they would look like USA Today. He also found that chain-owned papers tended more to be adopters than non-adopters.This researcher duplicated his study using 34 papers with more than 50,000 daily circulation in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Using Gladney's scoring system, the papers were given scores according to certain criteria. Some categories were further divided. The trivia and fluff category was divided into celebrity coverage, sports coverage and weather. The brevity, complexity and depth category was subdivided into text six inches or less and summaries, indices and promotions. The complexity and depth category was divided into lead sentence length and the length of the longest page 1 stories.Newspapers were divided into groups: "adopters" and "non-adopters" of the USA Today style. This study found that eight of the 34 papers were non-adopters and five were adopters.Eight papers scored above USA Today. This study showed that neither the adopter nor the non-adopter group had the majority of the newspapers. USA Today fell in between these groups making it part of the norm.There was a correlation between chain-owned newspapers and adopting the USA Today style. This study did not support Gladney's original conclusion that smallercirculation newspapers tended to be more adopting of the USA Today style. As newspaper circulations decreased, newspaper scores did not increase. Larger newspapers were not more resistant to the USA Today style. / Department of Journalism

The design process demands comprehensive knowledge of visual signs and symbols with a focus on visual literacy; it is related to visual syntax, semantics, and the pragmatics of contexts. My work is an interdisciplinary investigation into how designers integrate polysemantic signs into their design process for particular and highly individualized audiences. By analyzing the role of signs in specific contexts across the spectrum of arts, society, literature, and semiotics, a designer's understanding of the cyclical nature of interpretation and reinterpretation in complex environments creates an avenue for cultivating a new schema that provides further levels of interpretations and different access points. By removing elements from their original context, and fusing these elements into new narratives, we implement new meanings and emphasize the value of interpretation.

The design process demands comprehensive knowledge of visual signs and symbols with a focus on visual literacy; it is related to visual syntax, semantics, and the pragmatics of contexts. My work is an interdisciplinary investigation into how designers integrate polysemantic signs into their design process for particular and highly individualized audiences. By analyzing the role of signs in specific contexts across the spectrum of arts, society, literature, and semiotics, a designer's understanding of the cyclical nature of interpretation and reinterpretation in complex environments creates an avenue for cultivating a new schema that provides further levels of interpretations and different access points. By removing elements from their original context, and fusing these elements into new narratives, we implement new meanings and emphasize the value of interpretation.

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.

Thesis. 1977. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / M̲i̲c̲ṟo̲f̲i̲c̲ẖe̲ c̲o̲p̲y̲ a̲v̲a̲i̲ḻa̲ḇḻe̲ i̲ṉ A̲ṟc̲ẖi̲v̲e̲s̲ a̲ṉḏ E̲ṉǥi̲ṉe̲e̲ṟi̲ṉǥ. / Includes bibliographical references. / Sc.D.

Thesis. 1978. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaf 197. / Ph.D.

<p>This essay investigates and compares the readability in two different schoolbooks: Eko Historia (the primary school grade 4-6) and Epos Historia (the upper secondary school). The questions of the survey are:</p><p>- Which differences in linguistic and layout can be found between books meant for the primary school and books meant for the upper secondary school?</p><p>- Are the texts easy to read according to the former research in readability?</p><p>In order to answer the questions structural dimensions as lexicon, syntax, bounds between sentences and narrative voices have been studied. Also the texts disposition and typography have been examined.</p><p>The results demonstrate that the book designed for the primary school has a verbal structure with an explicit vocabulary, lots of verbs and short sentences. A clear narrative voice gives an impression of spoken language. The publication also has many pictures and figures. The book aimed for upper secondary school has, in opposite to this, a typical written language with compounded substantives and long noun phrases. There are fewer illustrations and the layout follows a stringent policy. Moreover a high density of information demands the readers to draw conclusion on basis of prior experiences. If the pupils don’t have such previous knowledge the reading can complicates. In spite of this the book, in doubt, shows several signs of readability, for example simple subordinated clauses and strong bounds between the sentences.</p><p>Accordingly, both similarities and differences can be found between the primary and upper secondary schoolbook.</p>

A gap exists between the fields of visual rhetoric and newspaper graphic design caused by three factors: the historic division between words as communication tools and design as artistic effect, the relative youth of visual rhetoric, and the recent evolution of newspaper design as a visual language. This thesis establishes one bridge between visual rhetoric and newspaper graphic design by defining the rhetorical function of newspaper graphic design. Using case study methodology, this report focuses on the rhetorical role of newspaper design in an attempt to further understand how people extract meaning from the newspapers they read. By engaging readers with various newspaper pages and requiring them to comment on their direct interaction with the content, this research illuminates the role of newspapers' visual elements by exploring the following questions: What role do visual elements (i.e. pictures, graphics, color) play in a newspaper reader's meaning making processes? How do page layout and the presentation of story packages affect a reader's understanding and opinions of the information at hand? / Department of English