Design Incubation Colloquium 11.1: Boston University

Friday, October 25, 2024
9:30AM – 2:30PM
Boston University
808 Commonwealth Avenue

Hosted by Mary Yang and Kristen Coogan, College of Fine Art, Boston University. Design Incubation Colloquium is a part of BUGD’s Design Week.

Keynote: YuJune Park

Thursday, October 24, 2024
5:00PM
808 Commonwealth Ave
Room 410

Colloquium 11.1

Friday, October 25 , 2024
9:30AM–2:30PM
808 Commonwealth Ave
Room 409 and 410

9:30AM–10:00AMCoffee and Refreshments
(4th floor lobby)
Welcome/opening remarks
10:00AM–11:30AMSessions
Design + Translation (Room 409)
Design + Subversion (Room 410)
11:30AM–1:00PMLunch break
1:00PM–2:30PM Sessions
Design + Performance (Room 409)
Design + Methodology (Room 410)

MFA Open Studios

Friday, October 25, 2024
5:00PM


Design Incubation Colloquium Sessions

Design + Translation

Moderators: Kelsey Elder & Liz Deluna

The Design + Translation panel aims to recenter perspectives and prioritize inclusivity by representing a wider range of voices that build design community.

Typography as Racialization: Euro-American Craft and Asian Labor
Chris Lee
Associate Professor
Pratt Institute

Visualizing Faculty Salary Inequity: A Study of Salary Compression and Inversion and Its Impact in Higher Education
MiHyun Kim
Associate Professor
Texas State University

Design + Visual Translation and Cultural Bridging
Shuang Wu
Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech

Drawing Water: A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Representing Water Performance
Eugene Park
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Jessica Rossi-Mastracci & Matt Tierney
University of Minnesota

A Sequence of Multiplicity
Moon Jung Jang
Associate Professor
University of Georgia

Kaithi Script’s Revival: An Intersection of Design and Cultural Inheritance
Anmol Shrivastava
Assistant Professor
Illinois State University

Design + Subversion

Moderators: Ash Yuxuan Wei & Dan Wong

The Design + Subversion panel is a space to critique the status quo through forms of intervention, disruption, subversion, and truth-telling.

Drawn Together: Exploring the Intersection of Image-Making and Community-Building
Grace Preston
Professor
Texas State University

Advancing Design Practices: Assessing the Impact of New Technologies and Sustainable Innovation
Caitlin Lu & Maidah Salman
Graduate student
Boston University

Designing for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Integrating Mental Health Support into UI/UX Design Course
Ting Zhou
Assistant Professor
University of Connecticut

Exploring Identity through Curatorial Practices: Gráfica Latina
José Menéndez
Assistant Professor
Northeastern University

Tatiana Gómez
Assistant Professor
Massachusetts College of Art and Design

In Search of Feminism and Identity in Asia
Wanjing Li
Designer and Artist
Boston University

Design + Performance

Moderators: Halim Lee & Cat Normoyle

The Design + Performances panel engages the senses through action and experience. It encompasses activities that unite communities and ideas.

Design + Computation + Performance + __________
James Grady
Assistant Professor
Boston University

Sensory and Ambient Interfaces
Jonathan Hanahan
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

Accessibility and Creative Authorship in Design Theory Through Multimodal Learning and Metacognitive Reflection
Molly Haig
Adjunct Professor
University of Europe for the Applied Sciences
Berlin, Germany

Dr. Till Julian Huss
Professor
University of Europe for the Applied Sciences

Pedagogical Workshops and Collaboration
Chen Luo
Lecturer
Boston University

Design + Methodology

Moderators: Claire Bula & Camila Afanador Llach

The Design + Methodology panel presents insights on new design tools, systems, and processes found through innovative research frameworks.

User-Centered Design + Generative AI Research Tools: Usability Testing and Implication
Yi-Fan Chen
Assistant Professor
Farmingdale State College

Design + History Methodology Slam
Brockett Horne
Lecturer
Boston University

A New Framework and Database for Exploring Works of Experience Design
Nicholas Rock
Associate Professor
Boston University, School of Visual Arts

Design + Art: Analyzing the Work of Practicing Artists vs. Traditional Designers
Violet Luczak
Associate Professor
McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, IL

Design + Cultural Heritage: The Guano Rug, A Cultural Heritage Under Extinction
Maria Isabel Paz Suarez
Assistant Professor
Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Design + Co-Creation: Engaging Audiences through Cross-Disciplinary Co-Curation
Bei Hu
Assistant Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

Faith and Fiction — The Impact of AI on Spirituality and Design
Nika Simovich Fisher
Assistant Professor
Parsons / The New School for Design

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.3: Tenth Anniversary, St. John’s University

Friday, June 7, 2024
Time: 1:00pm–5:00pm EST
St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus
101 Astor Place, New York, NY

Hosted by Liz DeLuna, Professor, St. John’s University

Presentations will be published on the Design Incubation YouTube Channel after May 29, 2024. This hybrid conference will be held on Friday, June 7, 2024 at 1pm EST at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus.

Eventbrite Tickets, in-person and virtual attendance:

Agenda

1:00pmLiz DeLuna: Welcome
Evolution in Content Creation: 10 years of The Design Writing Fellowship
Aaris Sherin, Professor, St. John’s University
Cultures of Excellence: Lessons Learned from Eight Years of the Communication Design Educators Awards
Steven McCarthy, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota
10 Years of Design Incubation’s Colloquium Presentations
Camila Afanador Llach, Peer Review Director, Design Incubation
Associate Professor, Florida Atlantic University
1:45pm– 2:45pmResearch Presentations
Navigating Web Accessibility: Lessons Learned from a Community of Practice 
Dannell MacIlwraith, Assistant Professor, Kutztown University 
Mining for Ideas: Collaborative Collages as Spaces of Opportunity 
Anna Jordan, Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology 
Data in Motion: Storytelling with Data and Motion Graphics through a Graphic Design Practice & Pedagogy 
Eugene Park 
Associate Professor 
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 
2:45–3:15pmBREAK
3:15pmOn the Consideration of a Black Grid
Keynote Presentation
Silas Munro, Partner at Polymode, Artist, Design Author, and Design Educator
Practical Tips for Research Success and Remaining Sane
Robin Landa, Distinguished Professor, Michael Graves College, Kean University
3:45pm – 4:45pmResearch Presentations
Federico: Embracing Outside Influences 
Kyla Paolucci, Assistant Professor, St John’s University
Fuzzy Modes, Clear Communication – Radio as a Process, Tool, and Language for Graphic Design 
Matthew Flores, Graphic Design Fellow, School of Design, University of Tennessee-Knoxville 
Revitalizing Symbolic Urbanism: Digitalizing the Vernacular Visual Language of Detroit’s Urban Landscape 
Dho Yee Chung, Assistant Professor, Oakland University 
Old World, New Forms: Extrapolating 19th Century American Wood Type 
Javier Viramontes, Visiting Lecturer, Rochester Institute of Technology

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024 (Hybrid)

Presentations and discussion in Research and Scholarship in Communication Design at the 112th Annual CAA Conference 2024

Recent research in Communication Design. Presentations of unique, significant creative work, design education, practice of design, case studies, contemporary practice, new technologies, methods, and design research. A moderated discussion will follow the series of presentations.

The colloquium session is open to all conference attendees.

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Hilton Chicago – 8th Floor – Lake Michigan (Hybrid)

CHAIRS

Camila Afanador-Llach
Florida Atlantic University

Heather Snyder Quinn
DePaul University

Discussants

Jessica Barness
Kent State University

Liz DeLuna
St John’s University

Dan Wong
New York City College of Technology, CUNY

PRESENTATIONS

A Plural Pedagogy for Graphic Design History
Kristen Coogan
Associate Professor
Boston University

Design Is Not Neutral
Grace Hamilton
Assistant Professor
Baruch College
City University New York

From Bricks to Pixels: The Evolution of Banna’i Kufic
Sajad Amini
Assistant Professor
DePaul University

Convergence of Science and Art to Support Climate Resilience in Central American Smallholder Communities
Qiuwen Li
Assistant Professor
Santa Clara University

Sara Wheeler
Undergraduate Student
Santa Clara University

Designing Dialogue: Leveraging Technology for Cultivating Inclusion and Belonging in Classroom Critique
Jenny Kowalski
Assistant Professor
Lehigh University

Abby Guido
Associate Professor
Temple University

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in an Interdisciplinary, Experiential Course
Denise Anderson
Assistant Professor
Kean University

Analyzing Local Graphic Design History: A Pedagogical Approach
Christina Singer
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Uncanny Ways of Seeing: Engaging AI in Design Practice and Pedagogy
Drew Sisk
Assistant Professor
Clemson University

Sustainable Design Pedagogy: A Fifteen-Week Case Study of Sustainable and Climate Design Methodology and Outcomes

A look at foundational systems thinking.

Maria Smith Bohannon
Assistant Professor
Oakland University

Graphic design as a profession often perpetuates rampant consumerism through the art of persuasion, which is directly at odds with working toward sustainable and ecological discourse. To explore the possibilities of sustainable capitalism and foundational sustainable and environmental design themes, I developed a special topics course to understand and investigate the designer’s role as a climate design activist and sustainable designer. The emphasis of this course will focus on sustainable design thinking, praxis, and ideation with the investigation of green or recycled materials as part of the prototyping process—both print and digital—all in the pursuit of reimagined design futures. 

 This course study will look at foundational systems thinking from environmental design pioneers, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and how designers can successfully implement sustainable methodologies and utilize environmentally friendly materials to craft sustainable solutions today. By identifying and framing complex problems plaguing the world, we can examine the possibilities and challenges in addressing these issues broadly or within local communities. 

As sustainability and eco-friendly solutions are imperative for future generations’ ability to prosper, sustainable pedagogy must become foundational in graphic design education. By adopting sustainable design pedagogies, educators provide future designers with the tools—and understanding of sustainable design history, process, methodologies, and materials—to question capitalist tendencies and develop sustainable solutions.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

The Limits of Control: Nonhierarchical Modes of Making, Decentering the Designer

Exploring the creative networks between graphic designers and their collaborators — human and non-human.

Christopher Swift
Assistant Professor
Binghamton University

“The Limits of Control” is a body of work exploring the creative networks between graphic designers and their collaborators — human and non-human. Inspired by the work and writing of James Bridle, John Cage and Bruno Latour the project examines how the interplay of control and trust in a designer’s relationship with their network of tools (creative, cultural, technological) can be attended to, challenged, and reimagined allows us to break free of the traditional modes and methodologies and begin to explore new possibilities and new ways of seeing and being as graphic designers.

The black boxes which envelop our tools obscure the complexity and scale of the collaborative space we work in. This work makes the invisible visible and removes the designer from their imagined directive podium to be one among many in a creative and collaborative network of active participants full of agency and potential.

Showcasing case studies that demonstrate the tools of a creative network foregrounds their active participation in co-creation. Through coding in various languages new digital tools are created in which the agency of the tool itself is highlighted. These new tools undertake an intentionally nonhierarchical mode of making, decentering the designer’s role. Each study pushes the designer further away from a mode of control with the intent of asking—if there is collaborative care, respect, and trust in the creative design process then what new solutions, what new insights, what new ways of thinking and being may we discover when we look around from our new perspective.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

Graphic Design and Authority: How the Design of Documents and Signage Creates, Endorses, and Authenticates Power Structures

Visual authority can be used to validate any endeavor.

Claire Bula
Adjunct Professor
Boston University

The visual design of all legal and political documents, such as deeds, permits, identification & maps, employ a specific visual language enhancing their power. Design choices relating to layout, typefaces, symbols, embellishments, impressions, white space, signatures/certifications, and materials amalgamate to display power purely through visual appearance.

Because the visual design of a document can confer authority regardless of authenticity, It is important to analyze how visual appearance alone can be interpreted. A visual language of power exists and can instill feelings of hesitation, dominance, or fear leading individuals into subservience or subordination. Visual authority can be employed by true legal sources of power or used as a device to deceive or invalidly show power. Visual authority can be used to validate any endeavor, whether its intent is beneficial and egalitarian or manipulative and oppressive. Designers should be aware of how the use of visually authoritative means have been used throughout history to control, intimidate, and outright steal basic human rights and dignities.

Through multidisciplinary research across history, philosophy, political science, and sociology, I studied the means by which power and authority have been constructed in the United States. In addition, reading design texts and conducting visual surveys of documents employing elements of visual authority led to the creation of a diagram of design elements that create the library for visual language of authority.

In response, I authored a visual essay, designed a poster illustrating visual authority’s form language via personal documents, and printed risograph signage subverting authoritative signage through type and color. This body of work serves to document my research and surfaces questions about how visual authority was developed and how it is employed today.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

Chicano Independent Publication Masthead Design

Made during research visits at university libraries in Texas and California, hubs of the Chicano movement.

Joshua Duttweiler
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Alexandria Victoria Canchola
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

We demonstrate how the design of Chicano independent publication mastheads from the 1960’s and 1970’s in the United States used the visual language of the Chicano community to engage directly with their audience. In publication design, mastheads serve as the reader’s first indication as to a publication’s purpose and credibility. Our analysis of these independent publications is based on observations made during research visits at university libraries in Texas and California, hubs of the Chicano movement. Based on our research, the mastheads used typography, icons, and organization symbols to attract readers in service to the publication’s goals of raising awareness on local issues such as labor inequality and racial violence. The efforts made by these publications not only mobilized their audience to fight for social justice but utilized visual means as a way of uniting their readers toward a cause.

These Chicano publications, not typically referenced in the traditional white graphic design canon, provide an opportunity to learn from past designers in a parallel time of societal unrest and analyze their successful methods of advocacy and activism. The political climate of the time cultivated diverse printing practitioners; far different than the editorial staffs we see today. Activists, many without formal design training, worked to combine text and images into design that would speak to their audience. By observing the evolution of masthead design throughout the Chicano movement we can observe the progress of the publication designers’ skill as they sought to increase their audience and ability to communicate.

By understanding the role and unity of the visual language of independent Chicano newspapers, we encourage designers, historians, and students to further investigate the design semiotics of community-focused publications both within its historical context and contemporary practice.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Design: A Diachronic Investigation Into the Word ‘Design’

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Nathan Matteson
Associate Professor
DePaul University

This project looks at the changes in the meaning of the word ‘design’ throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ‘Design’ and its cultural impact have changed significantly between the advent of typographic printing and the 21st century. Understanding these transitions is compelling in its own right, and may allow us to anticipate future developments.

This investigation relies on ‘word embedding’, which has become widespread in the field of natural language processing. Word embeddings convert texts into quantities with each word represented by a multidimensional vector of real numbers. They have seen use in a range of applications including sentiment analysis, language translation, and, happily, investigating semantic change of words over time.

A comparison of the changes among the semantic neighbors of ‘design’—the words that are ‘close’ to design in this multi-dimensional vector space—provides insight into what we mean when we say ‘design’. Early results suggest that two significant shifts have occurred.

  • During the late 19th century, design’s semantic neighborhood moved away from words like ‘plan’, ‘arrangement’, and ‘interpretation’ towards ‘mechanism’, ‘device’, and ‘apparatus’.
  • The neighborhood was further displaced during the mid-20th century by the likes of ‘model’, ‘construct’, and ‘prototype’.

What might be behind these supposed changes in meaning? Perhaps it suggests that design reinvents itself in response to disruptive technological changes, if one assumes these time periods correspond, respectively, to the industrial revolution and the nascent digital age. More investigation is required—performing analyses over other words and corpora—before any useful conclusions can be drawn.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

Radical Characters: Studying Graphic Design and Typography through Chinese Characters (Hanzi)

The relationship between design and culture in the Chinese and Chinese American community

Mary Y Yang
Assistant Professor
Boston University

Radical Characters is a study group and curatorial project that explores the relationship between design and culture in the Chinese and Chinese American community. Each project seeks to decentralize the design canon and to co-build history and community by initiating dialogues through educational experiences. Looking beyond Western design pedagogy, Radical Characters studies Hanzi as a point of inquiry to learn, innovate, and study graphic design from a non-linear approach. Radical Characters looks to projects such as Decolonising Design and the People’s Graphic Design Archive that model methods for challenging practice, pedagogy, and contributions to the design field. The first project was “Radical Return,” an exhibition that draws inspiration from the Chinese character 回 hui, which means to return, to turn around, to circle or to reply. An international call for submissions prompted participants to use 回 as a grid—visually and conceptually—to consider a path they seek to retrace as Chinese or Chinese American designers. Thirty-six Chinese and Chinese American artists and graphic designers were selected to exhibit their graphic work simultaneously at Boston University Art Galleries and IS A GALLERY. The designers’ work accompanied with statements and additional commissioned essays were published in a bilingual catalog. The exhibition opened up a collective space for designers to explore the concept of return through language, typography, cultural traditions, identity, and design history. Radical Characters acknowledges that the works by no means form a complete picture of the multifaceted and complex narratives experienced by Chinese and Chinese American designers, but rather shape an in-progress collection site for building knowledge through the exchange of graphic design and culture. The exhibition presents a framework for a design curatorial process that instigates cultural dialogue among the participants and offers alternative ways for exhibition-making and the exhibition design process.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

Slowing Production, Increasing Socio-Political Context: Beyond “Spreading Awareness” in the Design Classroom

A feminist base motivates us to engage questions around power relations, knowledge production, and systems of violence

Becky Nasadowski
Assistant Professor
University of Tennessee at Chattanoo
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In recent years, many universities have embraced “diversity” with oblique statements of support. Related, design educators have rightfully sought strategies for inclusive pedagogy, increasing representation and working toward ensuring the classroom is comfortable. But inclusive is not synonymous with anti-racist, which requires antagonism and a reckoning with the pervasive inequities baked into our different fields and methods, the university, and our social relationships and histories.

In this presentation, I will provide an overview of my studio-seminar course Politics and Ethics of Design, where a feminist base motivates us to engage questions around power relations, knowledge production, and systems of violence. A substantial reading list frames sustained conversations on the politics of race, class, and gender as it relates to the field of design, creating a critical foundation for design practice. Select topics include data feminism and counter cartography, the designer’s role in constructing notions of citizenship, the limits of empathy in design thinking, and the neoliberal entanglement of work and passion. 

By providing an anchor through reading and conversation, I ask design students to consider in their studio practice urgent questions: How do we respond to historical omissions? How do we interface with social movements? How do we act with an awareness of history that complicates liberal concepts of empathy as paramount? If we want students to engage power and sincerely explore what an anti-racist practice and education look like, then we need to fully engage in how design has traditionally played—and continues to play—a role in bolstering social inequity.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.