Maryland Institute College of Art

The primary concept of my thesis exhibition is to showcase the continual, collective expression of urban communities.  I will create panoramic installation of data showcasing how one-community organizations and their member’s link to one another.

In addition to an organizational panorama I will install a photomontage driven by my research and documentation. These images will highlight the diversity and richness of the people who populate these communities. The panorama can be read as a visual essay with an associated narrative compiled of photographs.

I also want to add a series of community linking poster campaigns. They will contain responses from organizations and people and share how they would define a community group and network based on what they do. Through this lens I can define their role in the network. The grid and photos will together create an endless panorama.

I also want to create a supplementary booklet that will serve as a networking tool to helps communities identify, discover and make connections. It will highlight the featured communities with profiles, bios, and contact information and it will reveal how they link to other organizations.

Most of my thesis is paper bound—two dimensional. My experiments will most likely exist as a compendium of poster series. I think the poster format is something I feel capable of tackling, and in the end, is easily digestible as part of an exhibition. Likewise, in considering a formal thesis as comprised of a series of sets, there is room to change styles, color schemes, and type with more frequency than a book project.

Though my final presentation is poster format, I would like to explore other ways of visualizing data, too. Since information design has become a large domain for interaction and user experience practitioners, I would like to undertake at least one project that utilizes story boarding to illustrate a how a graphic might change over time or exist on the web.

At some point, I would like to take my formal experiments into the three dimensional realm and consider how some some data can be communicated spatially. I am also interested in sound as a conduit for data visualization.

Because I am mired by the specifics of my thesis topic, I am a little wary of projecting ideas about its physical format. I do know, however, that I would like my thesis “delivery system” to be just that: a carefully arranged, methodological system of designs pertaining to my (currently evolving) subject matter. I want whatever form it takes to maintain a coherent and cohesive visual language. I have made a list of vehicle goals below.

I would like to make an artist’s book at some point this year, perhaps of my sketches or informal exercises, or perhaps as an exploration of different design methodologies.

I would like to seek new ways of executing traditional presentation methods for my final exhibition. I know that many of my explorations will be in 2D printed format, but I want to have a reason for every material I use. I want not only to have stunning specifics (illustrations, typography, etc), but a stunning overall exhibition. I hope I can accomplish that.

I would also like to expand my technological sense and online presence through a thesis blog that combines writing and visuals throughout the year. I would like to use this format to have a period during which I conduct and document daily or weekly design and writing exercises.

Writing will be a key component of my thesis. Perhaps, through research and writing, the ideas for the physical format of my thesis will expand into areas yet unknown to me.

My thesis will most likely take many forms. Currently my mind is on the Thesis Exhibit as a great testing space for “Graphic Design as Storytelling”. I am thinking about a large multi banner contextual timeline, coupled with posters containing info-graphics as portraiture/story, combined with film & motion graphics vignettes, perhaps even a soundtrack and even some giveaway swag if the budget allows. This would combine linear and non-linear storytelling devices in one space. Additionally I will have a research blog tracking my process and progress. I am fairly certain that the forms will have my own voice to them rather than attempting to use the vernacular of the time period, yet at the same time drawing on that time period for inspiration. I reserve the right to change any of this after I finish my research phase.

My thesis will take a number of forms—each responding uniquely to the research topic and the content within. This multiform approach would help my thesis and the ideas contained within reach a wider audience, a goal that is important to me. The main vehicle, however, will combine scholarly research and visual interpretations of this research in the form of a book—a form that can deliver information efficiently, while simultaneously responding to it through typography and composition.

This book need not be voluminous or meager, but just enough to present the content in a clear and accessible manner. Through brief passages of text and crafted visuals—images, symbols, icons, diagrams—I hope to bring the user closer to a succinct and intelligible understanding of the role of semiotics in design.

In addition to the book, I will also produce:

1. The Thesis Exhibition
2. A Supplementary Website
3. Published Critical Essay
4. Miscellaneous visual exercises whose content will be included in a variety of printed pieces

Given the nature of my thesis topic, the support materials will all take a minimalist approach in their design and presentation. Clear type, few colors and straightforward visuals are key to a successful execution.

The number of books about design for social change and design thinking is quickly increasing. Cameron Sinclair and Emily Pilloton are two prominent designers-turn-authors whose books have been stirring our imaginations with passionate pleas for human-centered design practices. Tim Brown’s new book is one of four about “design thinking” that is featured in Newsweek this month. Graphic designers are not yet part of this conversation, though they want to be included.

Graphic designers are hungry for processes and principles that can ground their practice within design for social change. As a scholarly book, my thesis will fill this void by enhancing the dialog about: the underlying principles that insure that these design projects yield successful results for the communities they serve; innovative design processes that can lead to new and unexpected solutions; and, lastly, community-based funding solutions can help to finance these under-funded projects. In the largest section of this book, I will examine these features in various case studies that I analyze to determine their success in making a positive social impact.

This book requires that I use my writing and design skills along with my research background and my passion to make connections between diverse communities. All of my efforts will help to legitimize graphic design as a rhizome from which meaningful social transformations can sprout, while rallying its practitioners to wield their skills for those in need.

How different users will interact with a website about design theory?

General Public:

For the general public, the design of the website will help legitimize social design. Proper web design layouts will help bring clarity and voice to the message of social change. By allowing the general public to view a variety of design case studies, it will help bring context to the importance of social change and hopefully create public support or government funding for underserved communities.

Underserved Communities:

The underserved community will view the website as a facilitator of their story to a general audience that does not typically interact with them. The volatility of the community’s physical surroundings precludes the general public from any social interaction or communication with them. Through the user interface design, they will see the ease and accessibility of their story to the general public.  Upon seeing the display of their story on the website, they will see the effectiveness of design to tell their story with a dignified and truthful manner.

Designers:

Designers will use the website to help promote their own application of design thinking to create social change. They will be able to post their case studies of their work with underserved communities on the website.  The website case study area will serve as a resource for designers on the discussion of effective social design methodologies, and it also serves as a constant reminder to all social designers that the discussion and application of design thinking is a key communication tool for working with communities. The pragmatic use of design thinking not only engages the underserved community in their own effort, but it allows them see the value of quality design work, design thinking, and the design profession.

THIRD
Graphic designers are turning their attention to the needs of underserved communities in increasing numbers. They realize that their skills can be used to positively affect the world, beyond working for companies that are squarely focused on their profits. However, designers who work for profit use a different mindset than designers who work on initiatives for non-profit organizations. They need to understand the guiding principles that will help their design solutions reach a large audience and will change behavior for the better.

SECOND
Do you want to use graphic design to make a positive impact on the world? An increasing number of opportunities exist for designers to work with underserved communities. However, designing to make a lasting impact in the lives of others is very different from working with companies that are focused on their own success. You need to learn the guiding principles of design for social change in order to effectively motivate people to change their habits and improve their lives.

FIRST
I know graphic designers who want to use their skills to make a positive impact in their communities. They are all very enthusiastic but they are trying to solve complex social problems with traditional design solutions. I think this approach is misguided and believe that more attention needs to be placed on learning the principles that guide design for social change to insure that design solutions can effectively reach large communities.

First

I am eager to explore how communities are connected. I am beginning to meet people everyday in Baltimore City who are linked to each other but do not know it. They belong to organizations that engage music, academics, and cultural heritage as a method to take back their communities. Unfortunately these vital, empowering communities often exist as well kept secrets leaving many without the opportunity to access their many resources. I didn’t even know about them until I got involved. I believe a system must be created to connect these organizations.

Second

Have you ever thought about what would happen if multiple community organizations came together for a single purpose? You would see more participation in open, inclusive dialogue. Essential connections could be formed resulting in social transformation. These communities and individuals can be more informed of their recourses and have access to more constructive opportunities.

Third

Community linking and exchanging ideas excites people. It brings out the best in communities and can capitalize on their collective strengths. It can bring about personal change as a foundation for community transformation. It can lead to new partnerships among individuals of every viewpoint and groups with widely ranging interests and backgrounds.

First

I am very easily seduced. A beautiful form attracts me like a siren-song. But information design’s come-hither charm is beguiling. That there are multiple stories contained within any set of data is scary. Objectivity: M.I.A.

Information design is really a narrative device—a tool that uses concrete data to tell different stories. So, I want to visualize data that is ultimately about this contrast—perception versus reality—by graphically exploring mental illness.

Second

You see them everyday, most likely at work: charts and graphs, spreadsheets and expense reports. But data doesn’t have to boring. With the emergence of information design as an au courant graphic style, data is spicier and more suggestive than ever.

But beyond being persuasive for the sake of selling something, information design helps you distill meaning. You can get a feel for the bigger picture and glimpse the details, too. The test of information design lies in its ability to challenge your thinking—to reveal new ways of processing information. So then, how do you visualize disorder? Must you translate illness into numerical data?

Third

Data design is almost ubiquitous, especially in the news. Charts, graphs, and visualizations bring certainty and objectivity to a story. But really, this faux science is anything but neutral. Designing with data is a contest between reality and perceived reality—objectivity versus subjectivity. So, given this inherent duality of information design, how can a subject like mental illness be explored visually?

This voice essay is about the work of Geoffrey Chaucer. That is not to say that my thesis will have anything do do with him (though it very well might), but I wanted to be specific when taking an angle on design and literature.

Literature Scholar

Chaucer was a brilliant rebel. He was the first to write important work in English rather than Latin, and he did it beautifully. A pioneer of rhyme royal and the grandfather of iambic pentameter, his stories were witty, raunchy, and wonderfully rhythmic. He was one of the founders of vernacular English language, and an exceptional storyteller and satirist.

Visually Creative Person

Chaucer’s manuscripts were transcribed onto parchment along with with gorgeous drawings and ornamentations. Handwritten Middle English script was intricate, and is hard to read now. His writing exudes antiquity. Plenty of opportunities exist for modern typographical interpretation. It’s interesting how Chaucer was a guinea pig of the printing press post mortem, as William Caxton chose his Canterbury Tales to be one of the earliest books to be produced in England.

Me

I like British literature. Though I wouldn’t call myself a “scholar” on the subject anymore, I enjoy seeing how our language has evolved in its written and spoken usages. Sometimes Chaucer’s language is hard to understand, but there’s beauty in that struggle. Extracting meaning from an ancient dialect, and understanding a complicated narrative in addition, is both a challenge and a reward. I find it surreal to compare the poetic vernacular of the 14th century to modern vernacular. I loved the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. Troilus and Criseyde was one of my favorite works studied in college. As both a designer and reader, maybe I should explore the possibilities of combining literature and design to create something unique.

Third

It doesn’t matter if graphic designers are working on film titles or business cards. Designers are telling visual stories with every problem they solve. Everything from the typeface, to the color, to the form is part of the whole story they are telling. Designers should be studying masterful works of narrative in all their different forms.

Second

You should seek out books, movies, radio programs, plays and even dance productions to inform your sense of narrative, how it relates to your work and the visual voice you give your own graphic design stories. You have the responsibility to understand the story you are telling. You should have a sense of the historical and cultural impact of the forms and type you choose. You should study semiotics and world history. Any knowledge you gain can be used to be a better storyteller, a better designer.

First

I am surprised it has taken me so long to realize that as a graphic designer I am a storyteller. It’s so obvious. I am equally scared and excited to tackle the story of Harry Clawson, to find my own visual language to tell his story as it intertwines with mine. I will try to examine the meaning of every visual choice I make. I hope my voice is equal to the task of telling this story to a new generation.

Third

Semiotics, like graphic design, is a relatively new field—at least in the way it is formally discussed in design circles. Its history can be traced back to the era of Aristotle and Plato, although it was not referred to as semiotics. It is grounded in linguistic theory and has been tethered to academia for far too long. Few have made successful attempts at integrating semiotic study into contemporary graphic design education and discourse, least of all practice. But there has been a growing need for this to change.

Second

You encounter meaning on a daily basis. Such confrontations require response, reflection, and interpretation—all intense cognitive processes, yet carried out in a moment. The more you analyze the environment and how you interact with it—the more you begin to detect codes; modes of interpretation that can shift within the context in which you experience them.

First

I can wax poetic about all the ways semiotics is important to the profession of graphic design; how its exclusion from many design curricula is an enormous mistake and prohibits our growth as makers of meaning. I believe that a sufficient model of semiotics that bridges the gap between theory and application does not yet exist. In our current state of technological growth and shifting ideologies, understanding the nuances involved in the presentation of meaning is essential. I believe that an updated model needs to be introduced that is both relevant and accessible to as many people as possible.

This thesis is not comfortable. It is not a patchwork of formal exercises—a security blanket swaddling form. Instead, Data Diving disregards Tufte, objectivity and readability, choosing to celebrate self-expression, storytelling and evidence of its author. The thesis is abstract. Its content harvested from information beyond facts and figures, Data Diving requires formal, conceptual and organizational experimentation. This thesis will not be boring. Its visualizations will not examine only the author’s interests, but will maintain a hook, an appeal, which is universally compelling.

This thesis exists beyond the trappings of paper. Data Diving jumps from the page to visualize its content audibly and spatially. Can sounds summarize data sets? Can spaces transform into information landscapes? The architect of this thesis is not an expert in all media, but will nonetheless attempt to design with data in three and four-dimensional settings.

This thesis is not science. Data Diving does not exist as fact. Information sets may inspire fiction—trompe l’oeil visualizations. Likewise, data may be trivial, seeming insignificant. Though its content can never be truly neutral, Data Diving will avoid being persuasive. This thesis isn’t selling anything.

Data Diving is not clean cut or married to success. This thesis is not a collection of finished pieces, but is a series of experiments. Sketched visualizations, therefore, hold as much validity as calculated computer data models; their prestige is equal.

This thesis is about how things are organized.

My book, Designing for Social Change, will not simply survey heroic graphic designers who work with impoverished communities or the best examples of graphic design for non-profit organizations. Books like these are often beautiful and inspiring but they rarely elucidate the finer points of the design process so that the successes are reproducible and the shortcomings can be avoided. Instead, my thesis will expand the vocabulary of design for social change by examining the details of case studies and by using writing to elucidate the principles that guided each project.

This thesis does not assume that all graphic designers know how to use their skills for the greater good, but it does acknowledge that they have the ability to create massive change. Increasing numbers of graphic design students are becoming interested in social design projects but few understand how this process differs from their practice. My thesis gives structure to the largely uncharted methodology of design for social change and it recognizes that graphic designers may need to utilize unconventional techniques in order to meaningfully impact their communities.

This thesis does not depict a world where graphic designers should sacrifice their own time and money to work pro bono. One of the biggest hurdles facing design for social change is the ability to financially assist organizations and communities that have little or no money. My thesis will identify sustainable funding solutions that designers can use to finance important projects that might otherwise be overlooked.

This thesis is not a case study of a body of design work for a single social cause or program, but will be a research and development project of an online system or Website that allows graphic professionals to efficiently and effectively connect with social causes or programs in Baltimore City.  This thesis does not seek to investigate any particular cause or program; instead, this thesis will involve the investigation of effective workflow models and methodologies of social design collectives that serve social causes. Based on this investigation, a more effective online system that caters to social causes can be strategically designed and developed.

Though this thesis will touch upon the topic of social issues, this thesis is not primarily concerned with imposing a political perspective about these social issues or using the online system as vehicle to promote any political agenda. This thesis will not be about politicizing controversial social policies or their policy makers. Discussion of any social policy will be impartial and will be in the context of understanding the nature of the social issue.

This thesis is not based on a for-profit model. It is not about the creation of a job placement Website to find employment within social work organizations. The efforts contained within the Website will be for a non-profit/volunteer model. It is about making a better conduit for social change by way of design and brings forth discourse of social design and best practices.

This thesis is not a simple documentation of one community space, but rather the bonds and connections that are created across multiple community spaces and how they intersect. Vibez Gallery and community space, and various community organizations, will serve as a backdrop to demonstrate how one community space connects multiple networks and how those community networks work together. In addition, other models for effective community networking will be brought into the forefront and explored.

This thesis is not about designing cool posters for cool people. Instead it intends to use design as a tool to help community networks link, and to showcase the impact that many of these community organizations already have in Baltimore City. I hope illuminate how these different networks connect and the concrete positive effects these networks have had on the city.  Linking will make them and others aware of their environment and their collective strengths. The desire for dialogue and interaction must and will be heightened. This thesis will not showcase separation, rather a means of inevitable connection.

This thesis will not focus on one individual story but will give attention to multiple partnerships. This thesis will not only feature a body of artists, designers, dancers, musicians, educators, and students whom all exist within this community, but how their individual roles have helped to create positive change.

This thesis is not a documentary on World War II, or of the exploits of the 101st Airborne in Normandy and Holland. It’s not a chronological history of the life and death of S/Sgt. Harry Clawson. Yet it will take a great understanding and a depth of knowledge of these topics, especially the life of Harry Clawson, for this thesis to be succesful. This thesis isn’t an attempt to create an episode of the “Battlefield Detectives” or of “Unsolved Mysteries.” It isn’t about creating something for publication or broadcast. This thesis isn’t a travel journal, even though it must have travel and memoir to be effective.

This thesis does not attempt to appease family members with a glowing “hero” story. It isn’t about aggrandizing the history of Harry Clawson, it is about the search for truth.  It’s about trying to tell that truth in a compelling way through the lens of personal perspective. It is a journey to find Harry for myself, it’s a journey of self discovery wrapped in a quest to connect to the past and finding a voice to tell that story.

This thesis isn’t about the validation of design research—such endeavors are past needing validation—but, it is an experiment in design research process using reading, writing, and creating, enhanced with experiencing and documenting. This thesis isn’t an experiment in new form making. It is an experiment in the process of doing what has been done by humans since the beginning of all time—telling stories. Graphic design is storytelling.

This thesis will not simply be a formal, methodological graphic design study. I will be deeply immersing myself in design form, theory, and structure along the way, but I will not be drowning in it and neglecting a purpose. This thesis will be an interpretation of old English literature through the lens of design, in an attempt to communicate the language in a visually and typographically compelling way.

This thesis is not meaningless or unapproachable. It will convey texts in ways that evoke tone and texture, both visually and linguistically. While my goal is to make beautiful design work, it is also to serve as an interpreter of ancient writings from a modern perspective. This involves a philosophical approach to the way the text is treated, and a creative approach to conveying it in a new way that glorifies the language as well as the design.

This thesis will be more than just a series of posters with classic texts on them. It will be more experimental. It will comprise whatever design methods and vehicles that seem necessary to enliven the language and narrative structure. Perhaps this will come by using design to build a comparison, or “graft” the texts to a completely disparate discourse or idea.

This thesis is not a comparative analysis of dyadic (French) and triadic (American) semiotics. It is not an exposition of semiotic theory’s role in the realm of aesthetics, nor is it a catalog of interpretations. This thesis will serve as an exacting attempt to understand and dissect not the entire history of semiotics, but rather the ideas of the two most predominant progenitors of modern semiotic theory: C.S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure.

And while my topic is perhaps more academic in nature than it is visual, the results shall be a balance of both. This is not just a path in which I can attain acclaim from peers and superiors, but rather a personal endeavor that I hope will prove fruitful in its goal to contribute something of importance to the design community as a whole. As a practitioner of graphic design and an admirer of academia, I feel it is my responsibility to give back and help move our profession forward.

This thesis is not a show-and-tell—it is an investigation on the function of semiotics in graphic design today and a chance to provide a more articulate model for understanding the significance of semiotic theory and the need for closer study of the topic within graphic design. It is my hope that my thesis can play a small part in helping to bridge the widening gaps that exist between academic research, design education, and graphic design practice.