Graphic arts provide the channel for the reproduction of most brand communications. The reproduction tolerances in the graphic arts industry are based on standards that aim to produce visually acceptable outcomes. To communicate with their target audience brands, use a set of visual cues that may include the definition of a single or combinations of them to represent themselves. The outcomes are often defined entirely by their colour specification without an associating it to target parameters or suitable colour thresholds. This paper researches into the feasibility of defining colour tolerances for brand graphical representations. The National Health Service branding was used as a test case borne out of a need to resolve differences between contracted suppliers of brand graphics. Psychophysical evaluation of colour coded navigation used to facilitate wayfinding in hospitals under the varying illuminances across the estate was found to have a maximum acceptable colour difference threshold of 5ΔE00. The simulation of defined illumination levels in hospitals, between 25-3000 lux, resulted in an acceptable colour tolerance estimation for colour coded navigation of 3.6ΔE00. Using ICC media relative correction an experiment was designed to test the extent to which substrate white points could be corrected for colour differences between brand proofs and reproductions. Branded stationery and publications substrate corrections to achieve visual matches had acceptable colour difference thresholds of 9.5ΔE*ab for solid colours but only 2.5ΔE*ab. Substrate white point corrections on displays were found to be approximately 12ΔE*ab for solids and 5ΔE*ab for tints. Where display media were concerned the use of non-medical grade to view medical images and branded content was determined to be inefficient, unless suitable greyscale functions were employed. A STRESS test was carried out, for TC 1-93 Greyscale Calculation for Self-Luminous Devices, to compare DICOM GSDF with Whittle’s log brightness. Whittle’s function was found to outperform DICOM GSDF. The colour difference formulas used in this research were tested, using near neutral samples 2 judged by observers using estimated magnitude differences. The CIEDE2000 formula was found to outperform CIELAB despite unexpected outcomes when tested using displays. CIELAB was outperformed in ΔL* by CIEDE2000 for displays. Overall it was found that identity branding colour reproduction was mostly suited to graphic arts tolerances however, to address specific communications, approved tolerances reflecting viewing environments would be the most efficient approach. The findings in this research highlights the need for brand visualisation to consider the adoption of a strategy that includes graphic arts approaches. This is the first time that the subject of defining how brands achieve tolerances for their targeted visual communications has been researched.

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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.

What are ‘educational typefaces’ and why are they needed today? Do Arabic beginners need special typefaces that can simplify learning further? If so, what features should they have? Research findings on the complexity of learning Arabic confirm that the majority of language textbooks and pedagogic materials lead to challenging learning environments due to the poor quality of book design, text-heavy content and the restricted amount of visuals used. The complexity of the data and insufficient design quality of the learning materials reviewed in this practice-based research demand serious thought toward simplification, involving experts in the fields of graphic communication, learning and typeface design. The study offers solutions to some of the problems that arise in the course of designing language-learning books by reviewing selected English learning and information design books and methods of guidance for developing uniform learning material for basic Arabic. Key findings from this study confirm the significant role of Arabic designers and educators in the production of efficient and effective learning materials. Their role involves working closely with Arabic instructors, mastering good language skills and being aware of the knowledge available. Also, selecting legible typefaces with distinct design characteristics to help fulfil various objectives of the learning unit. This study raises awareness of the need for typefaces that can attract people to learn Arabic more easily within a globalized world. The absence of such typefaces led to the exploration of simplified twentieth-century Arabic typefaces that share a similar idea of facilitating reading and writing, and resolving script and language complexity issues. This study traces their historical context and studies their functional, technical and aesthetic features to incorporate their thinking and reassign them as learning tools within the right context. The final outcome is the construction of an experimental bilingual Arabic-English language book series for Arab and non-Arab adult beginners. The learning tools used to create the book series were tested through workshops in Kuwait and London to measure their level of simplification and accessibility. They have confirmed both accessibility and incompatibility within different areas of the learning material of the books and helped improve the final outcome of the practice. The tools have established the significant role of educational typefaces, bilingual and graphic communication within visual Arabic learning.

The industrial safety posters produced by Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) during WW2 are evidence of a politically progressive, socially engaged and mass-produced graphic communication in Britain. These characteristics allow the RoSPA posters to qualify, by Walter Benjamin’s criteria, as exemplars of Modernist cultural production in the age of mechanical reproduction. The emergence of these images, within the unlikely context of war, is evidence of the social change identified by George Orwell as a necessary condition of victory. Furthermore, the presence of this material, within an English context, counters the prevailing orthodoxy of an English resistance to Modernism. The thesis describes the administrative and technical determinants of the posters, as indicated by the structure of RoSPA, the personalities behind the campaign and the technical expertise of the printers; Loxley Brothers of Sheffield. Quaker and Nonconformist antecedents are revealed to define the values of both administration and printers. The thesis explores the RoSPA posters’ use of Surrealist techniques and iconography and also their appeal to a wider and international Left community. The address of the RoSPA posters to the neophyte industrial worker offers the opportunity, exemplified by the special case of women workers, to project an “imagined community” beyond the normal tribal and class distinctions of British society through “Social Vision.” The RoSPA posters make explicit a connection, within English Modernism, between community, technology, progress and dissent. A catalogue of posters is appended to the thesis. The RoSPA posters reaffirm the progressive, emancipatory and radical quality of the popular experience of the Home-Front in Britain during WW2. The social changes, precipitated by the circumstances of war, of which the RoSPA posters are a manifestation, alter the role of graphic designer in relationship to community through an embrace of technology. The concept of graphic authorship is, in consequence, irrevocably changed.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the formation of identity through dress in virtual environments, and to establish connections between identity, fashion, and virtual reality by means of language and semiology. The notion of identity through fashion in virtual environments is examined, with fashion as a factor in identity formation through dress as analysed in structuralist terms. The virtual aspect is used both as a literal field, i.e. the medium of video games and social networks that involve virtual avatars, and as theoretical testing ground from which to derive new results on the nature of dress and many of the aspects of clothing and fashion. The practical outcome of this research, a video game based on dress and narrative, serves as an applied experiment of the three main themes in this thesis and the relations and interactions between them, as well as a testing tool with which to challenge in a practical way the theories and speculations formed in the thesis. My methodology is based on structuralism and post-structuralism in the fields of linguistics, psychology and anthropology, with particular application to the visual media and virtual reality. I am using a post-structuralist approach as it has been the most dominant discourse of replacing economic and social (power) relations with codes and the interplay between signifiers and signifieds. This, I find, is the most appropriate method for analysing both virtual systems and fashion, because, on an atomic level, they both depend on variables such as words and numbers. The code is therefore the common denominator of both disciplines. Furthermore, both disciplines use narrative for their proper function, video games for their back story and motivation of the player, and fashion for its advertising and promotion, as well as through archetypes and symbols. Fashion in this context works as a catalytic agent between post-structuralist codes in modern media as texts, and video games.

Today’s society is characterised by the production of massive amounts of information— freely transferred—and instant access to knowledge. This current overproduction of data is translated into complex diagrams to enhance the clarity. Nevertheless, it is commonplace in information design practice to find diagrams that are not communicating the intended messages. The act of conceiving the diagram takes place during conceptual design. This can be where misleading analysis and superfluous information organisation actions may lead to ill-conceived conceptual design, and therefore to ill-conceived diagrams, i.e. overloaded, unintelligible and disorganised. Existing tools for conceptual design of diagram creation do not properly meet design practitioners’ needs in that they tend to be excessively time-consuming to implement. This indicates a need for the exploration of new design methods focused specifically on the conceptual design stage of the process of designing diagrams. This practice-led thesis presents one such possible design method, i.e. MapCI Cards, aimed at guiding experienced graphic and information design practitioners in the preparation of complex diagrams. MapCI Cards presents a collection of guidelines that make use of prompts and questions, in order to assist the conceptual design stage of diagram creation. The use of the proposed design method does not guarantee the production of outstanding outputs. The purpose of MapCI Cards is not to create aesthetic design; rather, it is to increase an understanding through guided content analysis and organisation of the information to be conveyed. Lists, draft diagrams, mind-maps and sketches are some of the possible resulting outputs of using the MapCI Cards. In short, the cards assist the development of the conceptual idea of the potential final diagram that will be developed in the prototype design stage. The first stage of this research investigates how complex diagrams organise information, using the London Underground diagram as a case study. Analytical relational surveys are used to explore diagram creators’ decision-making processes. Sets of studies of diagram structures (Walker, 1979a; Tufte, 1983), design processes (Wurman, 1989; Jones, 1992) and information organisation (Wurman, 2001; Shedroff, 2003; Roam, 2008) are examined and combined. After this, the data collected are analysed using qualitative visual methods, and rearranged to develop the content in MapCI Cards. Two pilot workshops are designed as the revising and optimising methods. Then, five self-documentation cases drawn from practising information designers in the UK are conducted to test MapCI Cards within professional practice. The performance of the proposed guided approach to conceptual design is measured through an interpretation model, and key informants’ insights are used to delimit its conditions and limitations.

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This study investigated the use of digital technologies in secondary and post-secondary graphic communication education. Specifically it investigated: 1) the extent to which graphic communication educators utilized digital technologies in conjunction with instruction; 2) how selected factors affected graphic communication teachers' implementation of digital technologies in their instruction; and, 3) how selected factors affected teacher and learner-centered instructional practices. The Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) and "Technology Use Survey" instruments were administered to secondary and post-secondary graphic communication educators via the Web to assess: 1) the frequency of use of 17 different digital technologies; 2) the nature and level of digital technology implementation; 3) current instructional practices; and 4) demographic characteristics. Graphic communication educators (n = 191) responding to the survey utilized a wide variety of digital technologies as part of their instruction. The data indicated that most students in graphic communication classes use computers, page layout software, and the Internet (for accessing digital content) "almost daily." Most graphic communication students were creating and/or editing vector and raster graphics "several times a week." Most graphic communication teachers reported student use of digital still cameras, digital instructional tutorials and the Internet (to solve technical problems) was limited to "several times a month," while most students were creating digital multimedia projects only "several times each year." Most respondents chose "never" to describe students' use of: digital video cameras, digital drawing tablets, creating and/or editing Web pages with a WYSIWYG or HTML editors, digital spreadsheets, digital databases, and digital animations. Findings from this study further indicate graphic communication educators demonstrate high to extremely high skill levels using computers for personal use and implement digital technologies in ways that begin to shift the learning environment from teacher-centered to student-centered, but may not be effectively updating their curriculum to reflect current graphic communication industry workforce needs. / Ph. D.

The thesis titled /Origami in primary lessons/ focuses on the practical use of Origami, especially in arts and mathematics classes. It contains lesson plans on various topics and a detailed reflection of the lessons taught at a primary school.