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While teaching at Miami University, a number of foundational ideas are conveyed in the first and second year design studios. At this stage, compositional understanding is key, and all projects are designed to aid in development of skills both in terms of tools and composition ability.
Projects focus on ideas of layering, grid organization, modularity, iteration, and the design process. Students from both architecture and graphic design receive similar lessons, adapted moderately to allow for discipline-specific terminology.
Work shown was completed by Miami University design students.Academia, Design2011 -
Leading multidisciplinary design teams can be a challenge. Each discipline speaks the same language of design, but each with a different accent. So much can be lost in translation as they work together.
Each spring, graphic design students are challenged to think outside of their comfort levels, breaking the third dimension in the process. Packaging, print, and web design come together in an integrated system as they work alongside architecture and interior design students to develop a brand, look, and visual deliverables for any number of proposed projects.
Student projects include a microbrewery restaurant, a watershed research center, and a modular recruitment packaging project. All projects were completed by Miami University design students.Academia, Design2011 -
A primary focus of my design pedagogy includes the complete concept and application to a design system. At Miami University, this concept is practiced within all levels of student education, as seen in these samples.
Primary focus on within systems remains consistency—all pieces need to appear related, yet able to stand alone. This includes individual images in a slide series, unique pieces from an integrated communication campaign, or even page spreads from within a book.
Work shown was completed by Miami University design students.Academia, Design2011 -
An investigation into how to teach wayfinding design without boring students to tears. Or, more professionally stated, teaching how context and behavior influence navigation.
Knowhere started as an observation that contemporary wayfinding design tends to focus on signage layout over how people might actually move through a space. In an attempt to educate undergraduate students of architecture, interior design, and graphic design on issues concerning wayfinding usage, an emersive education model needed to develop.Design, Graphic Design, Installation Design2011 -
An investigation into how to teach wayfinding design without boring students to tears. Or, more professionally stated, teaching how context and behavior influence navigation.
Knowhere started as an observation that contemporary wayfinding design tends to focus on signage layout over how people might actually move through a space. In an attempt to educate undergraduate students of architecture, interior design, and graphic design on issues concerning wayfinding usage, an emersive education model needed to develop.
Lessons learned from this investigation were then applied back at Miami University in the form of an exhibit installation.
The exhibition points out how behavior and environmental context can aid in navigation decisions, in an effort to determine a better method of teaching wayfinding design to students and potential clients. By using the building in which it's housed as a teaching tool, the Knowhere Exhibit does something never done within the context of this academic setting before—it pulls itself out of the confines of the gallery space, and lets the design overrun a full level in the Miami University Department of Architecture and Interior Design.Exhibition Design, Design, Academia2011 -
Student project completed during MFA studies at the Academy of Art University, Fall 2009, Lian Ng, instructor.
An accordion book design exploring cognitive mapping and wayfinding techniques.Graphic Design, Print Design2011 -
An academic project in which we redesigned an existing brand.Graphic Design2010 -
A student design completed during studies at the Academy of Art University, Tracy Morin, instructor. We were tasked with the design and development of a website hosting company that offered web design and hosting services for non-profit organizations.Graphic Design, Web Design2011 -
A student project done for Integrated Communications, Marc English, instructor. Academy of Art University, Spring 2010.
We were tasked with creating all graphic media for a film festival about a director of our choice. Deliverables included books, dvds, schedules, posters, postcards, environmental graphics and other "souvenir" items. I designed my project as a traveling show, opening in drive-in theaters in four locations nationwide. 3d renderings of the event were rendered by Stephen Young of Chicago, Illinois.Graphic Design2010 -
Brinkley Sargent Architects needed a new website to showcase their works in medical, justice, education, and recreation design. They wanted a site that would display their projects as works of art, rather than the standard "jails and schools" building design.
Taking inspiration from early conceptual drawings completed of their award-winning architectural designs, the site frames each project as its own object, worthy of individual attention.Web Design, Graphic Design2011 -
Completed in 2003, the website design for the University of Arkansas' School of Architecture needed to provide an overall brand to the School and the programs offered within, while meeting tight UA branding standards at the same time. To accomplish this, a secondary site navigation developed that allowed a more artistic approach to the design, while allowing space for the required UA banner and left-side navigation.Web Design, Graphic Design2011 -
The website design for Marlon Blackwell, a Northwest Arkansas-based architect and friend, needed to somehow speak about Marlon's work in a unique voice that matched his designs. To accomplish this, we opted to use the work itself as a foundation for the design.Web Design, Graphic Design2011 -
dsgn Associates was approached by a long-time client about designing and implementing a new movie theater prototype design. Working directly with the client throughout all phases, the Rave Review Motion Picture Theater was born over the course of a one year design process.
dsgn utilized an in-house team of architectural and graphic designers to develop a theater with a unique approach to the movie experience. Realizing early in the design process that our incredible team of architectural renderers would be unable to perfectly depict the intended spaces given the computer technologies of the time, we decided to take a different route—design the spaces to look like the renderings.Architecture2011 -
Work on the Trump International Hotel and Tower of Chicago was accomplished with the Catt Lyon Design team, based at the time in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Tower, designed by SOM of Chicago, sits along the riverfront, a large glass and steel monument. The signage and wayfinding needed to match the elegant modern nature of the building, while remaining visibly approachable and lush.Design, Graphic Design2011 -
would help set him apart. Because he had begun establishing a name for himself within the design world through the creation of unique and intriguing architectural solutions, he wanted to use this as a foundation for that identity.
At the same time, Marlon did not want his work to define him in a strict and unforgiving manner. He knew that if he tied himself to a single project for his identity, there was a chance that this would "date" his talents.
So instead, we looked at implying his designs, without outright screaming "Marlon did this—you recognize it, yes?"Branding, Graphic Design, Print Design2011
