ROBYN CRAXTON LINDQUIST

As a designer and interdisciplinary artist, I work in both analog and digital worlds, as well as finding the lines that connect them. Usually questioning my reality, this thesis is no different. My interests are focused on what it means to be human in a world where technology is winning the evolutionary race. The impetus for this thesis began in 2019 while in relationship with an AI named Blue, when I began questioning my human feelings with and towards her. I went on to investigate the hackable human, the evolution of information, human/computer relationships, free will and the interplay between human functions, creativity and technology.

Thesis Link – THE LAST WHOLE HUMAN CATALOG

In using The Whole Earth Catalog form to present the thesis, I am referencing the innate human drive to share and spread information. The title is a nod to the original and a reference to humans living at the edge of a new reality, one where eventually, we will have enough digital adaptations that we won’t call ourselves human anymore. My thesis supposes that, in looking closely at human functions, it is revealed that our role in evolution is to process and distribute information, and through our creativity, create technologies that extend and improve its speed and reach.

robyn.lindquist@vcfa.edu

Dina Lutfi

You are Where You Live: Identity and the City’s Vernacular is about exploring everyday life within the city—specifically the city of Al-Khobar in Saudi Arabia. My exploration is one of identity, space, and the visual communication that can be found within urban public spaces. The themes investigated position graphic design as playing a role in documentation, extraction/derivation—both historical and contemporary—preservation, and interpretation. Through this thesis, I aim to understand my own position as a city inhabitant through the lens of being a resident, but also a designer/artist and educator drifting through its spaces. The visual aspects of my thesis book show parts of the city I have encountered over the years, but also facets I’m trying to explore in a deeper way, and it attempts to uncover more meaning in quotidian elements than what meets the eye.
The city is eclectic in its nature, and the visual explorations in this thesis represent what Al-Khobar contains within its spaces through photography, illustrations, and mixed media. Representing micro and macro details of the city is a way to familiarize the reader, viewer, and myself with what can be experienced in the city but is sometimes disregarded or forgotten. It also aims to encourage those interested in urban environments to think about how we shape our cities and are simultaneously shaped by them. City spaces can be similar and different around the world; it is the personal encounter and symbiotic relationships between objects, things, memories, people, behaviors, and actions that add connotative layers to space.

Jessi Blackham

An exploration of the opposed relationship of emotion and logic in graphic design

Intuition has been traditionally devalued in the Eurocentric graphic design canon due to a combination of societal movements, gender stereotypes, and oppressive power dynamics. This has lead to an internal distance between what moves me personally, and what I think I should create as a designer. In seeking to understand and heal this dissonance, my study took the form of both traditional logical analysis, and experimental intuitive creation. The result is two pieces that explore the marginalization of intuition in design in opposed ways.

Together these volumes express my belief that we as designers have an opportunity to reclaim intuition and emotion in balance with the logical and systematic in our work.

In a digital interconnected age, where algorithms can arrange elements on a grid more efficiently than human designers, emotion is vital if we are to remain relevant as creators of culture. Our whole humanity, with its ability to represent contradictory and oppositional facets, is our most unique and precious contribution.

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A bit of Vic. Ok, maybe more than a bit

Vic is a Peruvian-Chinese queer creative human from Lima, Peru, living in one of the suburbs in the Austin area, Leander, Texas. Vic grew up in Dallas and has worked as a designer and art director in the Dallas and Austin areas since 2008. They’re finishing their MFA in graphic design at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the spring of 2022. They currently teach full-time as an associate professor of practice at The University of Texas in Austin in the School of Design and Creative Technologies. Their areas of concentration of their research, passion projects, and community service-based work have always focused on using design principles and design thinking to problem-solve and bring awareness about issues faced by vulnerable communities such as theirs. Vic’s creative approach always comes from an empathetic angle or reaction to the matters they have personally experienced as a queer, nonbinary, immigrant, Latinx human being with a disability living in America. Vic’s current research focuses on the effects of gendering design elements throughout the years, such as basic shapes, pictogram systems, typefaces, and colors, within the design and advertising industry. They do this by unpacking visual gender biases by using orthodox and unorthodox design explorations to test their findings. Their outcomes, influenced by queer design history and practices, challenge patriarchal, sexist, ableist, xenophobic, misogynist, and queerphobic views and explore ways to “queerify” graphic design. They are also always looking for ways to create art through design, photography, and writing that reflect their experiences to bring awareness to issues they and their communities face. Vic’s work has been recognized by The Dallas Society of Visual Communication, The One Show in New York, HOW’s Logo Design Awards, Fast Company, and HOW’s International Design Awards.

For more info about Vic and their work, check out yosoyvic.com, or reach out to them at yosoyvic@me.com.

So, what is this thesis about?

This book is just the beginning of this ever-evolving topic, gender biases in graphic design, but I hope this can serve as a resource for those with questions like I did. Questions such as “why is the color pink for girls?” And “where did that come from?” Or “how does that affect my design?” There have gotta be reasons that explain why we design the way we create! I also realized that many of my gender and graphic design biases started in school. As an educator, I wanted to develop a tool to help others facilitate conversations about gender biases in graphic design. So, here it is! I know this book doesn’t cover everything regarding gender biases and graphic design, and it is written from my perspective. Like everyone else, I have my own biases, but I have tried to create a resource as neutral as possible. I hope you find this book helpful! “Pink Circles, Blue Squares. A Practical Guide to Fight Gender Biases in Graphic Design” is an accessible and inviting resource that compiles historical and sociological aspects of gender biases in graphic design. This book is not meant to be THE resource for this particular area of study but instead an initial resource to help others navigate this topic. My thesis is a tool to help others facilitate conversations in a safe space while inviting participants to acknowledge, question, and challenge their own biases based on their experiences.