CSI Concept Map

This How to Process a Crime Scene concept map for the Junior Studio class was aimed at researching and mapping out a concept. The map's function is to instruct and inform the user of the process of investigating a crime scene. We were also required to include two infographics that relate to our overall topic. My concept mostly focuses on the effect of typography in guiding a user to read a document that contains a lot of information. I also wanted to make the infographics simple and clean so that they are easily readable and do not fight for attention against the main portion of the concept map.

Field Guide

 Front side:

Back side:

Relating to Austin, we created a field guide in our Junior Studio class about a subject of our choice. I chose to create my field guide about older, forgotten types of candy and where it can be located in Austin. I decided to design my field guide in laminated cards that mimicked a box of recipe cards. Each card has an image of the packaging, the name of the candy, where it can be located in Austin, an availability rating, a description of the candy, the history of the candy, a recipe to make a homemade version of the candy, an ease of recipe rating, and an image of the candy itself. All 16 of my candies have their own card and all 16 cards fit into a box.

Website Analysis

Before designing our own website, each student was required to analyze and create a poster that critiqued a popular website. We were to select a site from a restricted list that included facebook.com, goodreads.com, craiglist.com, youtube.com, argos.co.uk, current.com, and thedailybeast.com. My analysis focused on the login and sign out pages of facebook, the home page, and a profile with the new timeline feature.

Portfolio Website

The above photo of my website will link to the full functioning website. Each student was asked to create a website in our Interaction Design class. Students were allowed to choose a site to redesign from the list of sites from our previous wesbite analysis assignment, or students could create a portfolio to showcase their own work. I chose to create a portfolio for my work. Each student was restricted to a set of colors and typefaces that were allowed to be used. The only adjustments allowed to the color palette was to edit the opacity, or change the color to a spot color instead of a process color and edit the hue.

My restrictions were to Times New Roman and Verdana, and these colors:

Book Binding: Music Book

Music

This is book three of three for our book binding assignment. It focuses on music in Austin and was hand sewn, glued, and bound. The purpose was to create a book that was non-PDFable, and gave the reader an experience that could not be had by viewing it on screen. The hard covers of these books are covered with a book cloth that I printed different designs on that relate to the information inside.

Book Binding: Art Book

Art

This is book two of three for our book binding assignment. It focuses on art in Austin and was hand sewn, glued, and bound. The purpose was to create a book that was non-PDFable, and gave the reader an experience that could not be had by viewing it on screen. The hard covers of these books are covered with a book cloth that I printed different designs on that relate to the information inside.

Book Binding: Architecture Book

Architecture

This is book one of three for our book binding assignment. It focuses on architecture in Austin and was hand sewn, glued, and bound. The purpose was to create a book that was non-PDFable, and gave the reader an experience that could not be had by viewing it on screen. The hard covers of these books are covered with a book cloth that I printed different designs on that relate to the information inside.

Book Binding

For the second part of our Graphic Design III class, we created books that were non-PDFable, and gave the user and experience that could not be had on screen. These three books were designed to present information about Austin, Texas. Instead of one book, I decided to design three books. Each one focused on one particular subject about Austin: art, architecture, and music. After researching and collecting information, I set the text and images of the books. The only requirement was to include a text by Kevin Lynch, a former urban planner. Each book is printed on a natural colored linen paper, and are hand sewn, glued, and bound. The hard covers of these books are covered with a book cloth that I printed different designs on that relate to the information inside.

East Side Interactive Game

This interactive flash murder mystery game was created to reflect the more dangerous side of east Austin after a class documentation, with certain streets as boundaries. I in no way intend offense to anyone who lives in east Austin or has a different opinion about east Austin. This game allows players to click through different buttons to see "clues" as to who committed a murder in east Austin. At the end, the player can guess who they think committed the crime, and a description will pop up describing why or why not that person is innocent. To see the game at full size, click here.

Object Analysis

This poster was created to point out different types of design featured on an object. My object, a pint of Ciao Bella Sorbet, had characteristics of International Style, Pop Art, and Arts and Crafts. It also contained San Serif typefaces, different ways to establish corporate identity, and combined photos and illustrations. This last project in History of Graphic Design was suppose to showcase what we learned throughout the course.

Comparison Essay

The Polyglot Bible and Word Bible Designs

By: Emily Pryor

The Polyglot Bible printed by Christophe Plantin and Word Bible Designs by Jim LePage are two comparative interpretations of the bible represented in different design forms.  Plantin’s bible is historical for printing the religious text side by side in five different languages, making it monumental in the design world. LePage’s visual representations of the books of the bible address the biblical text differently. His designs, some of which are controversial, interpret the books of the bible as a whole, and summarize their meaning within a single spread.

Published between 1569 and 1572, Christophe Plantin’s Polyglot Bible was created on a grand scale.  Aiming to print the original text of the Old Testament and the New Testament on a scientific basis, Plantin received support from King Philip II of Spain, who sent him Benito Arias Montano to lead the editing of the bible. Montano is often credited as to the reason Plantin was able to finish designing and printing the bible within so few years.

The holy text is printed side by side in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin typefaces, which are cut to mechanical and aesthetic perfection, marking the advancement of print technology at the time. The distance print technology had come from a little over a hundred years since its invention is vast. The textual apparatus of the book has been fully established, in tact with running heads, page numbers, attribution of authorship, glosses, line numbering, cross references, and multiple other useful elements that are integral parts of the design scheme.

This work tributes Plantin as an intelligent businessman, designer, and printer, as the complexity of the bible’s pages are marked with an artful elegance within the work as a whole. Plantin is renowned for his beautiful and accurate execution with his work. Although, the Polyglot Bible earned Plantin very little profit. King Philip II did, however, grant Plantin with the privilege of printing all of the Roman Catholic liturgical books, such as the missals and breviaries, for the states ruled by King Philip and the office of prototypo-graphus regius.

Approaching the religious text in a different method, Jim LePage’s goal of his Word Bible Designs is to summarize the bible and create a visual representation that encourages viewers to not be intimidated to read the text. As someone who practices religion, LePage admits to reading the bible on and off, and becoming really bored with it, which lead to him wanting to create exciting and engaging designs that portray the text in a different light. As a solution to his lack of self-discipline, LePage believed that if he read the bible with a goal in mind- to create designs based on the message- that he could me more successful. From this, his series of Word Bible Designs was born.

Because this work is a series, it’s important to look in depth into at least one single design. His design for 1 Timothy alludes to the part of the book that speaks about women being submissive to men, along with an entire set of rules that were to be enforced on women. To quote the bible, it states in Timothy 2:11 that, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.” Among the other rules mentioned, it says that women should not braid their hair, nor wear jewelry or expensive clothes. LePage’s design addresses the fact that most people understand that those rules were specific to the culture of the time and not a part of God’s eternal commandments. However, whenever it comes to women submitting to men, it is often preached as if that were one of the eternal commandments.

LePage’s design is meant to grab the viewer’s attention and raise controversy. He is addressing a taboo subject. He is questioning the bible, which even today, can be controversial. His design has the symbol of feminism that encircles the words “1 Timothy”. From the perpendicular lines of the symbol, LePage lets the viewer read it as a “T” by adding a “W” in front and a “F’ behind it. The arrow that leads from the “WTF” to “1 Timothy” immediately says that a disputable subject is being questioned.

Similar to how LePage originally started this project to interest himself in reading further into the bible, his designs are meant to influence others to do the same. The purpose of his attention grabbing representation is to have viewers read deeper into the text, and realize that this commonly misinterpreted verse, in relation to the other rules mentioned, actually refers to prostitutes. Therefore, in today’s world the rules would change, to mean, as LePage says it, “don’t show up to church in a bikini or speedo.”

Both Plantin and LePage represent the bible in different ways, but ultimately accomplish the same goal. Plantin, who takes a more direct approach, translates the bible in an accurate, thorough method. His precision with his typeface choices and printing accuracy reflects this approach. Comparatively, LePage addresses the text in a more imaginative manner, taking hold of his viewer’s attention by designing exciting and engaging pieces of work. Both designers planned their versions of the bible so that anyone could read the text. Plantin, using translation, made the text available to people who spoke on of five different languages, while LePage purposefully made a design for each book of the bible that would grab attention and encourage people to read the bible. Plantin’s can be credited with making the text readily available to anyone who spoke either of the five languages in which the bible was printed. He helped make the text readable for more people. LePage also accomplishes this by creating designs that give a summary of each book of the bible upon first glance. And, with his engaging designs, it can encourage people similar to LePage himself, who get bored with reading the bible, to become more interested in it again. Plantin helped spread the religious text in the 1500s, and LePage is accomplishing the same task, only in a different manner, today.

Another similarity between Plantin’s bible and LePage’s Word Bible Design are their use of typography. Plantin was very meticulous with his typesetting when printing his bible, only hiring the best artists of the time to help cut them to perfection. His also took his type decoration very seriously. By being so precise with his typography, Plantin’s Polyglot Bible eventually became a milestone for typography during this time. Similarly, LePage’s careful use of typography is also a vital part of his interpretation of the religious text. In the 1 Timothy design, Lepage uses a handwriting typeface to show that the reader is who will question the word of the bible. The use of this handwriting font makes the viewer feel like it is acceptable to question the text, and the typeface using looks similar to how someone would annotate a book. This careful choice helps the design achieve his goal, similar to how Plantin’s precision affected his work positively.

For our written assignment in History of Graphic Design, students were asked to select two similar documents to compare and contrast in a well designed and well written essay. I wrote about the similarities and differences in Christophe Plantin's Polyglot Bible and Jim LePage's Word Bible Designs. Image are included for reference.

Beginnings of Photography Presentation

Beginnings of Photography

In History of Graphic Design, students were asked to create a presentation that covered an important event, person, of movement that influenced the world of Graphic Design. The idea behind the presentation was to gain knowledge about the history of Graphic Design and present that knowledge to the class. By the end of all presentations, the class as a whole gained a lot of knowledge about Graphic Design. The presentation was to be 8-20 minutes long and a well designed slideshow.

Buttons

After studying different art and design movements, each student selected one movement and designed a series of buttons to be given out at the Blanton Museum of Art. My buttons were designed under the International Style and mimics work by three key artists that worked with International Style. The buttons were to be handed out for five weeks at the museum. I designed one new button for everyday the museum is open, and color coded the buttons by the week. On Thursday, the museum is free, so I designed three buttons featuring the three designers all of the other buttons are inspired from.

Kitchen of Meaning

Our Kitchen of Meaning project was to promote an imaginary gallery exhibition. Each student designed a poster that was 18x24 inches and based the design of the poster from the meaning of an assigned word. My word was "hyperbole", therefore my poster was designed in mimic the definition of hyperbole: obvious and deliberate exaggeration.

Instructional Design

fittedsheets
The Instructional Design project required students to creatively redesign the instructions of a simple task. To instruct people how to fold a fitted bed sheet, I designed a 6x7 booklet with a fifties style theme. The booklet is meant to be a chapter of a greater book that tells the reader how to do other simple tasks.

TASA Book

Our final project in Advanced Typography was to create a book for the TASA Conference. There were several restrictions to this project including: two spot colors of choice, images shot by an unknown person, a low quality paper, and a large amount of uneditable text written by an unknown person. Majority of the project focused on how to organize and present all of the information in a clean and clear way, despite all of our restrictions. The TASA conference focused on being environmentally friendly, which I used as inspiration for my color choices.