Maryland Institute College of Art

In Spring 2011, a team of first-year GD MFA candidates developed work for submission to the competition Autism Connects. The goal of the competition was to engage students in research and design innovation around issues in the autism community. Faculty member Brockett Horne guided a team of students in this project aimed at innovative thinking and design research. See more MICA project submissions here.

Out of 126 submissions, two MICA GD MFA students, Noel Cunningham and Cameron Zotter, won top prizes in this prestigious competition, organized by Autism Speaks (the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization) in partnership with Core77 (the leading international information source and advocate for product design). Both students will travel to San Diego, May 12-14, 2011, to present their design concepts at the annual IMFAR Technology Demonstration session sponsored by Autism Speaks.

• Second-Place Winner: Noel Cunningham/weSYNC

Autism Spectrum Disorder affects many different people in many different ways. Because the spectrum is so broad, it is important to evaluate each person’s needs on an individual basis as we determine their care options. It is common for a child with an ASD to have a rigid schedule and work with several different people on a daily basis. Doctors, therapists, and teachers may communicative with the child’s parent regarding their care, but not necessarily with one another.



• Third-Place Winner: Cameron Zotter/Visual Watch

Visual Watch is a time management and picture exchange communication system (PECS) tool designed specifically for people with Autism. The concept tackles two complex issues: Sense/Management of Time and the need for portability of the picture exchange communication system (PECS). With this product, my goal is to increase autistic children’s communication abilities and ultimately to ensure better inclusion into society.

Visual Watch from cameron zotter on Vimeo.

In this project, GD MFA candidates elected to write, edit, and design their own zine. Printing costs were supported by MICA’s Center for Design Thinking.

• Aggie Toppin















• Aviv Lichter









• Aura Seltzer and Jessica Karle Heltzel

A team of first-year GD MFA candidates developed work for submission to a student competition called “Autism Connects,” organized by Core 77. The goal of the competition is to engage students in research and design innovation around issues in the autism community. Shown here are MICA’s submissions.

• Cameron Zotter: Line Up Game

In my research, I have found that it is common for autistic children to line up objects (often very precisely). I have developed a product that aims to harness that behavior to teach better communication skills by improving facial expression recognition, which is a struggle for Autistic children. Line Up is a fun game for autistic children, that harnesses their interest in lining up toys and other objects, to to teach them facial recognition skills that are essential for communication.

Line Up from cameron zotter on Vimeo.



• Cameron Zotter: Visual Watch

Visual Watch is a time management and picture exchange communication system (PECS) tool designed specifically for people with Autism. The concept tackles two complex issues: Sense/Management of Time and the need for portability of the picture exchange communication system (PECS).
With this product, my goal is to increase autistic children’s communication abilities and ultimately to ensure better inclusion into society.

Visual Watch from cameron zotter on Vimeo.



• Rolando Gutierrez: Pictoric

A simple, personalized, visual scheduling and organizational tool which utilizes the portability and syncing capabilities of the iPod and iPad for individuals under the PDD umbrella and their respective aides.

• Noel Cunningham: weSYNC

Autism Spectrum Disorder affects many different people in many different ways. Because the spectrum is so broad, it is important to evaluate each person’s needs on an individual basis as we determine their care options. It is common for a child with an ASD to have a rigid schedule and work with several different people on a daily basis. Doctors, therapists, and teachers may communicative with the child’s parent regarding their care, but not necessarily with one another.

Visiting artist Eric Gunther of SoSo Ltd in Boston led a group of GD MFA candidates in a weekend workshop exploring the possibilities of the ereaders. Participants created concept presentations proposing a variety of tools for enhancing the digital reading experience. Selected projects shown here.

• Alice Hom
• Noel Cunningham
• Eric Mortensen
• Chris McCampbell
• Aura Seltzer

Web typography by Christopher Clark

The GD MFA program is launching our latest book project: a practical and theoretical guide to digital typography called Type on Screen. The book will be published by MICA and Princeton Architectural Press in both a print and an electronic edition. Over the coming two years, GD MFA candidates will produce a variety of studies and exercises in the areas of screen typography and digital book design.

To begin our research, MICA has created four 8-week research fellowships, employing a team of top graduate students in guided research during summer 2011. Fellowship recipients are Chris Clark, Noel Cunningham, Jin Hwan Kim, Cameron Zotter, and Alice Hom. Each research fellow will pursue visual and technical research on one of the book’s core topics: CSS Type, Animated Type, Logotype, or Type + Code. Each fellow is responsible for thoroughly researching a topic; we will hold weekly group meetings to share and critique results. Fellowships supported by MICA’s Center for Design Thinking.

Image from Chris McCampbell's thesis: proposal for an iPad app

GD MFA candidate Chris McCampbell 2011 has won a $1,000 award in a national competition for his thesis work. The grant was awarded by a design firm fittingly called Thesis. “Thesis recognizes the inherent challenge of being a student with ideas bigger than your wallet, so we created a grant program to help make finances less of a barrier to brilliance.”

Thank you Thesis, and congrats to Chris!

Alysha Naples is a Visiting Scholar at Hewlett-Packard Labs, where she continues to explore the overlap between print and screen. Previously, she was the Design Director at Blurb, where she made a whole lot of books while designing the application and the website. She has also enjoyed working with Method, AKQA, and Samsung Design America. She received the D&AD Silver award for Interactive Art Direction for her work with Nike. Her ongoing work with Amanda Marsalis Photography has received several awards, including the first place PDN/Nikon Self-Promo Award in 2007. Her work has been exhibited at North Carolina State University, Yale University, and the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, as well as having been featured in Photo District News magazine, Copper Press magazine, and Los Logos. She has been a featured speaker at the AIGA Educator’s Conference and the New York Art Book Fair.

In this weekend workshop with visiting artist Keetra Dean Dixon, designers each worked with an unusual material (chocolate, blueberries, frosting, marshmallows) as the source of experiments with form and image. They misused digital tools (slice, merge, filter, and so on) to derive unexpected results from familiar methods. The project culminated in the design of a “gift” presented to a fellow designer from whom they had surreptitiously stolen something from earlier in the workshop. Shown below is a selection of projects.

• Jessica Karle
• Skye McNeill
• Cameron Zotter
• Tim Hoover
• Aggie Toppins
• Aura Seltzer

Dmitri Siegel is the web art director for Urban Outfitters. He is also creative director of Ante, an annual publication devoted to emerging artists and writers, and Anathema, a magazine devoted to the pursuit of impossible ideas. His work has been recognized by the AIGA, Promax and BDA, and the International Biennale of Graphic Design. He is on the faculty of the Art Center College of Design in the graduate program in criticism and theory. He also teaches at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in Dot Dot Dot, Emigre, Design Issues, Adbusters, and The Morning News. He earned his MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University.

Rob Giampietro is a principal at Project Projects, a design studio in New York. He studied graphic design and literature at Yale University and worked as a designer at Winterhouse, The New York Times Magazine, and Pentagram. From 2003 to 2008, he was cofounder and principal of the award-winning design studio Giampietro+Smith. As a writer, Rob’s essays and design commentary have appeared in Dot Dot Dot, Design Observer, and BusinessWeek as well as in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and on NPR. As a designer, Rob has worked with cultural clients including the Guggenheim Museum, Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, and Knoll, along with nonprofit organizations such as the United Nations, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis & Malaria, and the NYC2012 Olympic Bid.

This project began with a workshop led by visiting artist Denise Gonzales Crisp. The project brief was to design a tool or system that users can implement to create their own content. The final project took the form of concept presentations that illustrate key aspects of the user experience. A selection of final presentations is shown here.

• Jenny Kutnow
• Noel Cunningham
• Eric Mortensen
• Aggie Toppins
• Tim Hoover
• Aura Seltzer
• Jin Hwan Kim
• Aviv Lichter
• Michal Rotberg
• Jessica Karle
• Alice Hom

Twenty teams from eight design schools were challenged to visualize the impact of humanity’s footprint on Spaceship Earth at the inaugural Visualizing Marathon: a 24-hour student data visualization competition. MICA sent fourteen students to New York City to compete in the event. MICA swept the competition, winning first place and honorable mention.

MICA’s winning visualization, “One Day Cause + Effect,” was lauded for its personal narrative and striking design and received the Jury’s top score for ‘understanding’ – the ability to help the reader better understand the impact of humanity’s footprint on Earth. An honorable mention was awarded to MICA’s Team #3 for its coherent analysis of data and effective storytelling in “What Kind of World Do You Want?”

Students in the winning team won not only a super-cool 3D-printed trophy but an iPad for each participant!

Supisa Wattanasansanee and Chris Clark on site at the competition

First Place design: Christina Beard, Christopher Clark, Chris McCampbell, Supisa Wattanasansanee. Download full-scale art at Visualizing.org.





Honorable Mention: Melissa Barat, Bryan Connor, Ann Liu, Isabel Uria. Download full-scale art at Visualizing.org


Design: Wesley Stuckey. Download full-scale art at Visualizing.org.


Design: Lauren Adams, Beth Taylor, Krissi Xenakis. Download full-scale art at Visualizing.org.

GD MFA students and faculty have published a series of books about design in partnership with Princeton Architectural Press. The fourth title in the series, Graphic Design Thinking, will be released in Spring 2011. It was written, designed, and produced by GD MFA students enrolled in the Publishing Workshop course in Spring 2010. A team of GD MFA students was commissioned to complete the project over the summer of 2010, fine-tuning the layouts and typographic system and preparing final edits for publication.

The book is a compilation of techniques for defining problems, getting ideas, and creating forms. The visual examples consist largely of work created by GD MFA students. Graphic Design Thinking explores a variety of design processes and shows the rich range of inquiry taking place among MICA’s GD MFA students, who are working in such areas as social design, environmental graphics, systems design, branding, typography, and logo and icon development.

Selected Pages from Graphic Design Thinking: How to Define Problems, Get Ideas, and Create Form

A signature element of the GD MFA Thesis development process in the fall semester is the creation of a Thesis Scope Diagram. The diagram prompts students to plan and visualize their working process as well as to create an initial overview of their project’s content and reach. The diagram provides an early opportunity to test the visual vocabulary of each student’s thesis.

• Ann Liu




• Supisa Wattanasansanee




• Ryan Shelley




• Lauren Adams




• Elizabeth Herrmann




• Christina Beard




• Chris McCampbell




• Chris Clark




• Beth Taylor




• Wesley Stuckey




• Isabel Uria

First-year students engaged in a series of investigations around the theme of experimental type. After creating typographic interpretations of texts, they were asked to answer the question “What is experimental type?” by visualizing their own statement. The visual exercises were accompanied by readings of texts by Roland Barthes, Peter Bilak, and Andrew Blauvelt.

A selection of works is shown here.

• Noel Cunningham



• Jin Hwan Kim



• Aggie Toppins



• Rolando Gutierrez



• Jenny Kutnow



• Cameron Zotter



• Tim Hoover



• Aviv Lichter



• Abe Garcia



• Skye McNeill



• Clara Kohn Marquez

Twenty teams from eight design schools were challenged to visualize the impact of humanity’s footprint on Spaceship Earth at the inaugural Visualizing Marathon: a 24-hour student data visualization competition. MICA sent fourteen students to New York City to compete in the event. MICA swept the competition, winning first place and honorable mention.

MICA’s winning visualization, “One Day Cause + Effect,” was lauded for its personal narrative and striking design and received the Jury’s top score for ‘understanding’ – the ability to help the reader better understand the impact of humanity’s footprint on Earth. An honorable mention was awarded to MICA’s Team #3 for its coherent analysis of data and effective storytelling in “What Kind of World Do You Want?”

Supisa Wattanasansanee and Chris Clark on site at the competition

First Place design: Christina Beard, Christopher Clark, Chris McCampbell, Supisa Wattanasansanee.





Honorable Mention: Melissa Barat, Bryan Connor, Ann Liu, Isabel Uria.

See more, see it bigger

Sosolimited is an art and technology studio that specializes in interactive environments and multi-sensory design. They create award winning works for clients and galleries around the world. Formed by three MIT graduates with backgrounds in physics, computer science, architecture, and music, Sosolimited operates at the intersection of experience and information.
www.sosolimited.com

Abbott Miller studied design at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. In 1989 he founded the multidisciplinary studio Design/Writing/Research where, in collaboration with Ellen Lupton, he pioneered the concept of “designer as author” undertaking projects in which content and form are developed in a symbiotic relationship. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as a partner in June 1999. Abbott’s projects are often concerned with the cultural role of design and the public life of the written word. At Pentagram he leads a team designing books, magazines, catalogs, identities, exhibitions, and creating editorial projects. Abbott has received numerous design honors, including medals from the Society for Publication Designers and three nominations for National Magazine Awards. In 1994 Abbott—together with Ellen Lupton—was awarded the first annual Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (SEGD) and of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). His work and critical writing has appeared in Eye, Print, I.D. and other publications, and he is the co-author of four books, including the classic Design/Writing/Research: Writing on Graphic Design.

pentagram.com

Jonathan Barnbrook is one of Britain’s most legendary creative designers. The team of designers at Barnbrook’s studio produce innovative books, corporate identities, CD covers, custom fonts, websites and magazines. Clients range from international museums to charitable organizations. The studio has worked and won many awards in the area of motion graphics produced for clients such as the BBC and Grey Advertising alongside producing self-initiated projects. Barnbrook also releases original fonts through VirusFonts, which are used extensively worldwide. Barnbrook’s contribution to graphic design was recognized by a major exhibition at the Design Museum, London in 2007.

www.barnbrook.net/

Tal Leming is a type designer, lettering artist and type technology specialist living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating from Louisiana State University in 1997 he worked for DSI-LA where he specialized in corporate identity and communication design. After his tenure at DSI-LA, he handled brand and promotion design duties at Zoom Design (now Bochanis Rogan Zoom) for a wide array of national and international clients. In 2001 he joined the legendary type foundry House Industries as a resident jack of all trades. While at House, he designed and produced a staggering number of over-inked, hyper-detailed catalogs and advertisements in addition to developing new typefaces for the House library. In 2005 he set out on his own to found Type Supply where he focuses on developing original typefaces and lettering while pushing the boundaries of type technology. Leming’s typefaces have been seen on screens large and small, in magazines and newspapers and on everything from packages to clothing. His work has won numerous awards, most notably his typeface United was included in the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s National Design Triennial in 2003.

typesupply.com
talleming.com