Maryland Institute College of Art

Congratulations to all the 2011 winners of Sappi Paper’s “Ideas That Matter” grants.

Andrew Shea (GD MFA 2010)
Project for the Children’s Tumor Foundation

Mike Weikert (Director, MICA’s MA in Social Design, GD MFA 2005)
Project for MICA’s Center for Design Practice

Silas Munro (MICA faculty)
Project for Housing Works

Inna Alesina is the creator of a unique design thinking process that has been employed in numerous public programs at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City. The museum has created a video and PDF instructions for use by educators.

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.

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!

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

Ann Liu, GD MFA 10, has published a review on Designers Review of Books. Now we know that Ann kept up with her summer reading!

A variety of work produced in MICA’s GD MFA studio will be featured in the forthcoming book FINGERPRINT, available for pre-order on Amazon. Thank you Joe Galbreath for helping get our name out there.

Baltimore’s Daily Business Record reported today on a public-service ad campaign created by a team of Graphic Design MFA students and alumni. Read the whole story at Daily Business Record.

The ads are displayed on 14 bus shelters and 90 bus interiors. They promote Baltimore HealthCare Access Inc., which helps citizens get access to health care and to understand what is available to them.

“We used to only get a handful of calls a week,” said Kathy Westcoat, president of BHCA. “Now, we get about 20 calls a day.”

The campaign was generated by MICA’s Center for Design Practice, directed by Mike Weikert (GD MFA 2005) with Joe Galbreath (2009) and Christina Beard (2011), Beth Taylor (2011), and Supisa Wattanasansanee (2011). The team came up with the slogan “My health is important because I care about my _______. It’s your health. It’s your call,” paired with five different images, representing family, career, baby, future and community.

“The process is research heavy,” said student Christina Beard, 28, who was the photographer on the project. “We were spending a lot of time with the clients and [learning about] what speaks to them.”

“Trying to figure out what language — verbal and visual — would best convey [how they felt],” said Taylor. “We needed to steer away from being heavy handed, condescending or cheesy.”

The campaign also features 716 radio slots. MICA developed the script.

Lauren Adams (GD MFA 2011) has published an essay about the life and times of the typeface Archer on AIGA Voice. She began the piece in Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson’s fall writing course, and now it’s real!

Ryan Shelley (GD MFA 2011) has published a Q&A with designer Rodrigo Corral on metropolis.com. This piece started in Elizabeth Dickinson’s fall writing course. Shelley has delved into how the designer thinks.

The storm of the century (or so they say) hit Baltimore this week. Grad students got plenty of time to focus on their work and experiment with alternative media. Try snow: it’s modular!

(via Elizabeth Herrmann)

MICA GD MFA student Chris Clark has published an info graphic on “The History of Loudness” on NPR.org. Project was developed in Callie Neylan’s course Visualizing Information (Fall 2009).

History of Loudness, Chris Clark

Exhibition identity designed by Wesley Stuckey

The first-year students in MICA’s GD MFA program created a public exhibition at the Maryland Art Place in Fall 2009 on the theme of Instant Messages. The project features a 75-foot-long installation in MAP’s hallway as well as over a dozen works of art and design created by individual students.

MAP exhibition featured on Radar.

>> Read more

Stewonit, fundraising dinner

Andrew Shea, GD MFA 2010, is now a “clogger” or contributing blogger on Core77.com, the industrial design supersite. Shea, who came to MICA with a background in creative nonfiction as well as design and visual arts, has been actively developing his craft as a writer. His posts for Core77 focus on social design and sustainability initiatives. Recent posts address topics such mobile furniture for farmers markets and grassroots fundraising strategies.

GD MFA had a great workshop with Peter Buchanan-Smith last weekend. A whirlwind of productivity struck the studio for 54 hours. We’ll continue to develop the results over the coming weeks.

See more on Flickr photos by Ann Liu.

GD MFA student Virginia Sasser has published a review of Green Graphic Design on Designers Review of Books. This piece was written in conjunction with Elizabeth Dickinson’s Design/Writing/Research course. Sasser concludes, “With Green Graphic Design designers will not only be well equipped to make more sustainable decisions on their future projects, but they will also know how to convey that conscientiousness to their clients and audiences. Dougherty successfully disentangles much of the abstract eco-information floating around today and reinvigorates a weary discussion with excellent, concrete examples.”

CDP team in Hale County, AL; photo by Luke Williams

MICA’s Center for Design Practice pursues real-world projects with not-for-profit clients in Baltimore and beyond. The CDP is directed by Mike Weikert (GD MFA ’06). Here, a team of graduate and undergraduate students, including Ryan Clifford, GD MFA ’09, is at work in Hale County, Alabama with Project M. The Center’s work is discussed in the current issue of Urbanite magazine. Read the full article by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson.

[presentation notes for Richard Stanley's undergrad Branding course]

Inventive Typographic Brand Identities
A brand is not just a logo. Although a word mark or symbol may be at the center of a visual brand identity, designers build systems that extend the visual language to print, the Web, packaging, and environmental applications.
The Express Local packaging, by Haik Avanian
Kunstvermittlung identity, by Lorenzo Geiger
Utrecht City Theater, designed by Edenspiekermann
Gil Vicente identity, designed by Martino and Jaña Design
Thymes packaging, by Duffy and Partners; one brand, many packages
IBM, “Smarter Planet” campaign

Re-Branding and Counter-Branding
Brand New, the blog about corporate identity and visual branding
Softer Soft Drinks
Re-Branding Social Services in the Netherlands
Redesigning the Dollar Bill

I think this is an interesting idea for our Repurpose Project, I wish I could have found it earlier. Multiple meanings and cycles (more than just recycling!). It makes my skin goosebump. It’s clever, and a bit creepy.

http://www.nadinejarvis.com/projects/carbon_copies

Go check it out. It’s worth a look and a read. -Isabel.