MELANIE MCQUADEDESIGN • ARTICULATED

BOOK REDESIGN • tea ceremony

Many times an artist will have to rework pieces that have already been created. The book redesign project allowed students to create a new vision of an existing book. Instead of design and printing the whole book, however, the professor required that a sample of pages be presented in a way that the reader could get a feel for how the book would flow if completed.

I chose an informational book about the Japanese tea ceremony. It was filled with beautiful photographs and thorough information, but it was not designed in a way that invited the reader or catch his or her attention. A tea ceremony is a slow and artful display that, in it’s original book, was not showcased. The redesign, however, demonstrates the pacing and Zen atmosphere a participant would feel in the actual ceremony. Photographs are now paired with words that describe and reference them. Tools and tea are shown in full splendor to highlight their uses and their place within the ceremony. Printed on cotton letterpress paper, the warmth of the ceremony is brought through with the light brown tones.

“slow and artful display”

FONT POSTER • reflective typeface

In graphic design, typography is an essential skill, but most designers do not delve into the art of creating type themselves. A guest professor at the university gave her students the opportunity to create a typeface. Her method was to give students a word and have them base the font off of the word and its interpretation.

This typeface was developed with the word “reflection” as a jumping off point. Each letter was designed as if it was being reflected in a pool of water, but instead of showing an exact image of the letter reversed, the bottom half is rippled. This was a legibility choice so that the typeface could be understood more clearly. The letters were created individually in Photoshop then transferred into Illustrator for a vector image. It was this image was placed in FontLab and resized with proper kerning space assigned.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is

constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

- Charles Dickens ”“

resonate150pt

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Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

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As Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

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ADVERTISING • walnut creek ranch

A professor presented our class with an opportunity to brand and promote his ranch. Working in groups, a brand and collateral was created and presented in a client/designer interaction. These are magazine ads I created to introduce Walnut Creek Ranch to local consumers. Our tag line was “you don’t know local ‘til you taste it”, and my job was to interpret this tag line and play with words about the products that this ranch has to offer. The ranch prides itself on treating their animals humanely and being very organic.

I chose the wood grain as a background as if it were taken on the side of a building at the ranch. This brings it closer to its roots and enhances its credibility as being local. I also wrote the copy on the advertisements to be witty and informational. The humor draws the reader in, and the informational copy explains how the ranch takes care of their products.

Free range chickens expand their diets from just feed to grass and insects that are included in their natural diets. This

helps boost their immune systems and creates a healthier chicken for you to enjoy.

PUBLIC TYPE • animalism

In the world of humans also lives the world of animals. Man made homes are created for feathery, scaly, and fury friends alike. Animalism is a book I can claim the rights to every part. The writing, photography, and the design are my own work. From start to finish, this book of public typography was my interpretation of the work of man made animal habitats.

I started my journey in the Kansas City Zoo where I documented animal description, park maps, and decorations. The zoo has its own style for each animal location, but it still had a unifying typography with the rest of the park. Pet World is a locally owned pet store in Lawrence, ,KS. Unlike the larger retail stores of PetCo and PetsMart, Pet World is home to a larger variety of animals. It also has a larger variety of type since most of it is handmade. The Humane Society, too, has its own distinct look and feel. Unfortunately the animals in cages overwhelm any homey feel Lucida Sans attempts to bring to the pet biographies. Typography colors each of the animal venues, but the way in which it is formatted and presented is documented through the way I saw it through my camera.

Public Typography:

AnimalismMelanie McQuade

ADVOCACY POSTER • light pollution

Inspired by the Graphic Imperative exhibition at the Spencer Museum of art, the goal of this project was to raise awareness of a self chosen issue by creating a poster that demonstrates the problem and the solution. Instead of attempting to gain more awareness for over exposed issues, I chose a more subtle problem that more and more people are beginning to recognize.

The International Dark Sky Association was founded in 1988 by Dr. David L. Crawford and Dr. Tim Hunter to address the growing problem of light pollution. Their mission “is to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environ-mentally responsible outdoor lighting.” Light pollution is defined by any adverse effect of man made light. It is commonly referred to as urban glow. Recently, scientists have been studying how light from buildings or light posts strays too far from designated areas at night actually disturbs the sleep cycle of humans. This disruption can cause many complications in the daily lives of those affected.

In an effort to stop light pollution, IDA attempts to first, raise awareness of the issue, then promote policies that stop too much excess light from escaping its designated location. This poster attempts to catch the essence of bright light and uses word play to bring the viewer closer to glean more information.

PACKAGING • wavelength

Not often are we given the chance to create a product from our imaginations, but it is even more rare to have the opportunity to package that product as well. Wavelength is an in-home laser hair cutting system that allows users to connect to web content through a usb connection and download personalized hairstyles that will then be transferred onto their own hair. Of course this is highly futuristic and unlikely, but this project allowed for immense creativity as everything was made-up. The packaging itself, however, had to be realistic and appeal to males and females who would spend the money on this product. The project also gained life in a website and style cards that consumers could pick up from any place that sold hair products.

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.”

– Bo Bennet

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– Bo Bennet

MASK • peacock headdress

This mask was created as an interpretation of a radiant pea-cock. The felt was dyed colors that matched but exaggerated the colorful feathers that are common to the birds.

Each felt piece was made by hand, starting from wool to fully felted fabric. Then, the separate sections were joined with col-orful thread and beading for ornamentation. The tail of the headdress is nuno felting of wool and silk gauze. This is an abstraction of the peacock’s splendid tail.

Working with textiles in a 3D environment allows artists to fully visualize and art piece and be involved in the majority of the process. This experience has allowed me to grow as a designer because I can design pieces that are interactive and include a physical experience.

LETTERPRESS • useless law compendium

Letterpress may seem as if it is a dying or ornamental art, but in design, an old technique is the way to solve a new problem. This book was an exercise in executing letterpress typography while also creating graphics and illustrations out of linoleum.

As a short compendium of useless laws, this book strives to highlight the most outdated and bizarre commandments of the law. It also includes humorous illustrations depicting the decree of the law.

MAGAZINE • verge

Verge is a magazine that embodies urban sophistication in the form of a lifestyle and fashion magazine. It is for young creatively inclined individuals who are looking to break into the professional world. Focusing on ages 22-26, the target audience are those who have graduated, or will be approaching college graduation. They are looking for resources to expand their personal and professionallives. By offering information on events, music, and other interestswe will help expand the minds of these people in their personal lives, concurrently Verge provides professional advice on attire appropriateness, budgeting, and even how to make your social networking tools “professionally friendly.”

The goal is to infuse our readers with culturally relevant information on trends, so that they are not only in-style, but focused in Fashion. We incorporate different “vintages” (decades from which fashion inspiration is drawn) into the design style and content. This inspiration was drawn from the life cycle of fashion, a trend is born, lays dormant, then has a tendency to come back in style. So, instead of just showing attire that appears “vintage” we hone in on specific fashion trends and find what they are inspired by and what culturally relevant issues guided this trend. This exploration on different “vintages” of clothing will be used as supporting information for editorials and possibly features. Our remains on content that supports the life our readers are seeking. We help through fashion, entertainment, budgeting and general lifestyle interests.

As a collaborative project with three other classmates, teamwork, leadership, delegation, and compromise were valuable skills that were gained during the entire process. The assignment was to create a cohesive magazine with an eight spread article and advertisements that supported the concept.

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