Maryland Institute College of Art

In this project, designers develop an alternative persona for themselves, one that amplifies, undermines, and rediscovers an element of who they are. After creating a biographical diagram of their alter ego, they produce a new work of design in the mode of that person. Graphic design becomes a visual performance.

• Bethany Heck





• Javier Lopez













• Jason Gottlieb





• Kelcey Towell

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

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

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

This project is a response to two essays by Roland Barthes. In “The Death of the Author,” Barthes argues that the “cult of the Author” is a bankrupt tradition that is giving way to a new kind of writing. Meaning cannot be explained, controlled, or guaranteed by the author’s life, psychology, or stated intentions. Furthermore, the “death of the author” is linked to the “birth of the reader,” as literature becomes an open network of quotations, references, and potential uses. Likewise, Barthes’s essay “From Work to Text” describes the breakdown of the closed, perfect “work” and the rise of the open, permeable, unfinished, networked “text.”

Both essays describe a range of aesthetic values that can be expressed through art, design, and typography in endless ways. In place of values such as fixed, closed, complete, authoritative, centered, and deep, Barthes embraces values such as unfinished, open, decentered, marginal, plural, and shallow.
Project details

Find an Amazon page for a book that interests you. Look for a book with rich data. For example, the page for Roland Barthes’s book Image/Music/Text contains dozens of different evaluations of the book from a variety of “readers,” including experts, amateurs, and automated processes. Create a poster using some of data about the book of your choice. Use typography in a beautiful, purposeful, and structured way. Use visual strategies to convey the openness and unfinished character of the Amazon “text,” but don’t just “make a mess.” Don’t try to include all the data. Study the rich range of data and think about what you want to say or do with it. Be selective! Use your choice of data to make a statement. Use this project as an opportunity to develop your typographic persona.

Following are two approaches you might take:
1. Set up a contrast/conflict between expert versus amateur, human versus machine, or individual versus social.
2. Look at how this Amazon entry connects this one book to other books and/or products.

Format: 18 x 24.

Tony Venne, 2008

This poster diagrams the readers’ comments according to their relevance to other readers. How much do readers care about what other people have to say?

Justin Kropp, 2008

This poster tags user comments for and against God/god.

Aaron Walser, 2008

This poster charts all the different prices for a single title.

Kristian Bjornard, 2008

This poster shows how many times the 100 most frequently used words in the book appear on the first page of the book’s text.

Virginia Sasser, 2008

This poster describes what the book is about through readers’ comments.

Project Overview:
Find an Amazon entry for a book that interests you. Create a poster using some of data about the book of your choice. Use typography in a beautiful, purposeful, and structured way. Use visual strategies to convey the openness and unfinished character of the Amazon “text,” but don’t just “make a mess.” Don’t try to include all the data. Study the rich range of data and think about what you want to say or do with it. Be selective! Use your choice of data to make a statement. Use this project as an opportunity to develop your typographic persona.

Selected examples of student work, 2009:

Elizabeth Herrmann

Chris Clark

Lauren Adams

Krissi Xenakis

Supisa Wattanasansanee

Beth Taylor

Project Background
In “The Death of the Author,” Barthes argues that the “cult of the Author” is a bankrupt tradition that is giving way to a new kind of writing. Meaning cannot be explained, controlled, or guaranteed by the author’s life, psychology, or stated intentions. Furthermore, the “death of the author” is linked to the “birth of the reader,” as literature becomes an open network of quotations, references, and potential uses. Likewise, Barthes’s essay “From Work to Text” describes the breakdown of the closed, perfect “work” and the rise of the open, permeable, unfinished, networked “text.” Both essays describe a range of aesthetic values that can be expressed through art, design, and typography in endless ways. In place of values such as fixed, closed, complete, authoritative, centered, and deep, Barthes embraces values such as unfinished, open, decentered, marginal, plural, and shallow.

Content/Message:
1. Set up a contrast/conflict between expert versus amateur, human versus machine, or individual versus social.
2. Look at how this Amazon entry connects this one book to other books and/or products.

Form emphasis: Typographic Grid
1. Use the grid to create a highly ordered, rational, informational design.
2. Use the grid to allow content elements to overlap and intermingle.
3. Use the grid to structure a random process.
4. Use the grid to establish opposing zones of meaning, such as an expert versus amateur, object/work versus text/network, human content versus machine content, or the author versus social systems.
Whatever you do, be sure you have a clear point of view.

Format: 18 x 24

Process
1. Pick a book with rich Amazon content. Pick a book that is meaningful to you and speaks for your interests and passions.
2. Harvest content from Amazon. Be selective. Don’t try to include all the information you find.
3. Create a grid. The grid can be a standard column grid, an irregular grid, or a found grid (the facade of a building? line from an underyling image or photograph?).
4. Use the grid creatively to organize content and create a visually compelling typographic layout. The text need not all be legible, but the design should convey a clear point of view about the content or the nature of print/books/works/texts.

Resources
See some work from last year: 2008 Textuality
Presentation: Experimental Typography and Grids

Schedule
Week One: Develop at least two ideas and post jpegs to Flickr. Include a jpeg of your grid.
Week Two: Create full-size print and bring to class. Coordinate printing with Molly.
Week Three: Submit final files. These must be high-resolution source files, such as packaged InDesign file or Illustrator file. Include fonts; convert fonts to outlines where appropriate

At the end of last semester our last visiting artist Mike Perry came for a long weekend to lead us in our first independently published project. We decided on the theme of Science. What resulted was a 36-page, tabloid format zine print in 3 beautiful colors.

If you would like to purchase a copy you can get it directly from us on-line at : MICA GD MFA PROJECTS

To our advertisers, we will be getting your complimentary copies out very soon. We could not have done it without you.

Banner installed at the Walters Art Museum for the upcoming exhibition Beyond the Compass Beyond the Square, designed for the EDS class. Designed by John P Corrigan, spring 2008.

Adbusters held an international online competition to design a symbol for people who wish to identify with humanity at larger rather than with a national group designation. “Those who have the vision to rise above national and political boundaries still have no symbol to rally under. We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn clichés – that embodies the idea of global citizenship. A symbol that triggers pride and cohesion, whether worn on a backpack, displayed on a door, or flown on a flagpole. A symbol for anyone to declare membership in a growing and vital human cooperative.”

• More details about the competition: www.adbusters.org/campaigns/oneflag

Kit of Parts project by Virginia Sasser

View ongoing work of the MICA GD MFA program.

• Visit our Flickr group!

An army of Joe Galbreath’s paper robots appeared on Minneapolis TV news this week, threatening to overwhelm the Twin Cities.

• watch the news
• visit Pink Hobo Gallery, Minneapolis

Our conference web site is live, thanks to the hard work of the whole first-year team (okay, especially Kristian). Check it out at www.socialstudiesconference.org. Logo designed by Tony Venne.

The web site for our book Graphic Design: The New Basics is live. Special thanks to Viviana Cordova for designing and building the site with Ellen, and to Yeohyun Ahn for the wicked interactive logo. The book, which features work by dozens of MICA students and faculty, debuts at MICA on Thursday, May 1, with a smashing party in the Leidy Auditorium, Brown Center. And it all started right here in the GD MFA studio.

Here’s a gorgeous group shot of us with Laurie, and our work! — Kelley