November 18, 2010

November 09, 2010

IxDA Media Labs Final Project

   If you are unaware, the popular social network, Facebook, requires every new user to provide his/her "sex" during login.  There are two options: Male/Female.  Facebook claims that this selection provides accuracy for their wall posts in order to be grammatically correct.  For example, before a wall post could have looked like this: "John Deere changed their profile picture," with 'their' being grammatically incorrect.  Now the post will say either: "John Deere changed his profile picture," or "John Deere changed her profile picture."  This, however, is only one aspect of what I intend on exploring.
   Another aspect to this change in Facebook is that based on your "sex" selection of either male or female, each user is given a gender-specific avatar with the sex/gender relationship as male/man and female/woman.
   Therefore, I am proposing a project that explores the social constructs of both sex and gender that questions this new form of media: social media and social networking and how this 'new' form of media reinforces very traditional constructs of sex, gender, and their relationships to one another.
   The following images are only sketches of a future interactive project that will be exhibited on the second floor of the Brown building of the Maryland Institute College of Art campus from December 2, 2010 to December 7, 2010.

100% Male

75% Male, 25% Female

50% Male, 50% Female

75% Female, 25% Male

100% Female
Concept: To explore social media/social networking and to question their influence of the socially-constructed generalization of gender/sex relationships.

Graphic Design: The Mark (the logo)

October 4, 2010

Objective: To combine two random words brainstormed with a partner in an in class exercise and create a conceptual mark from those two paired words.  It was tasked to make one black and white version and one color version.

Word Pair: Milk & Arrow


With this project I produced a literal depiction of the words to focus on simplicity.  The mark is meant for a variety of conceptual ideas from the viewer, for the mark has no one meaning, but is rather up to the viewer for interpretation.

Graphic Design Book Cover Design

November 1, 2010

Objective: To create three very different conceptual designs for one book title.
Title: Norton: The Racing Story

Concept: Going back in time, as the book does, to review the past championships of Norton Racing.  Norton Racing was notorious for its victories and this cover conceptualizes the history of their winnings.

 Concept: This book cover provides a classic image of the Norton Motorcycle Gas Tank.  The colors are predominant colors of the British Motorcycle brand and this cover also emphasizes the beauty of Norton's original logo and that typeface.

Concept: Denim masking tape, and sharpie marker are the materials that compose this particular book cover.  The concept behind this design is to go back in time before racing was highly commercialized as it is today.  This cover represents a time before there were flashy race gear, well-designed leather jackets and suits, and a time when racing was just that.  With this cover, I hoped to create the rawness of racing from the past.