Becoming Vegan

My research was over the habits one acquires in order to adopt a vegan lifestyle. It's something I've considered and gone back and forth with. It just so happens that this week, my PETA Vegan Starter Kit came in the mail. This pamphlet detailed how to integrate more vegan foods and remove certain animal products from your diet. It explains that most Americans are eating vegan food already (hummus, spaghetti, salad, fruit pie, whatever) and that any food that is not vegan, can be made vegan.

PETA's focus is on how the vegan diet is sustainable for the world and how compassionate it is. It states that vegan diets save 200 animals per year per person, and save hundreds of gallons of water, considerable amounts of electricity, and generally support a cleaner environment because of the strain of the industrial farming present with the current demand for meat.

It offers one method of habit-changing which is replacing meat and dairy with vegan alternatives such as beans, chickpeas, avocado, mushroom, etc.

CROPPED: graduate art school on time



CROPPED is a game directed towards the KU school of design audience intended to encourage general hilarity among those playing.

When my group began to brainstorm, our ideas were everywhere. We had too many to consolidate. As our group was larger than everyone else's, it became clear that we had too many creative minds so for us, the simpler, the better. 

That simple idea was CROPPED. The object of the game is to graduate on time (cross the finish line first). The game is based on luck rather than skill. 

We kept the process simple in order to keep the game simple. We aimed to be minimalistic both in aesthetics and instructions. 

Generally we divvied up work between members. I was responsible for vectorizing a board which would later be constructed with the laser cutter from chipboard. Each of us in the initial stages developed ideas for cards (design and content) and a board design.

Overall, I'm happy with my group and our game outcome. It's very simple but I think it is a nostalgic tribute to simple board games from childhood that adults can enjoy in its own context.


Chloe's sweet infographics

Chloe's infographic inspired me because it's simple yet conveys information in a very original way. The bar graph is a simple concept but her execution was unique in the way she shaped it and wrapped it to a corner. Her typography was odd but pertained to her concept and her color palette was very harmonious despite having many different colors.

Infographic of chicago police arrest rates



In Chicago, black people have historically been arrested at a rate twice as high as white people. Incarceration rates are similar. Though the black and white populations of Chicago have been almost equal since 1968, a large disparity still exists. Even when crime declined, blacks were still arrested more. The police department of Chicago disproportionately arrests black people which indicates a trend of systematic racism.

This sketch shows data I gathered from police reports from 1960s-2010 police annual reports in Chicago. I input the data into an excel spreadsheet which I then applied to a line graph. I'm going to highlight peaks and valleys of the data to show fluctuations in crime as well as influential events in culture and history as the timeline proceeds. Annotations to the graph will add depth to the raw data.

Full Speech: Jim Carrey's Commencement Address at the 2014 MUM Graduatio...





24:02 And when I say, “life doesn’t happen to you, it’s happens for you,” I really don’t know if that’s true. I’m just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial so that I can deal with them in the most productive way. 24:18

24:18 And you’ll come up with your own style. That’s part of the fun. Oh, and, uh, why not take a chance on faith as well?24:26
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24:37 Take a chance on faith. Not religion, but faith. Not hope, but faith. I don’t believe in hope. Hope is a beggar. Hope walks through the fire, and faith leaps over it.24:29  
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24:57You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world.

Who is speaking? 
Jim Carrey

_ Why was/is the speech important to society? 
This commencement speech is given at an international university to a group of students who will undoubtably affect society

_ Why do you feel in is important or interesting? 
There’s often criticism of millennials that we are too narcissistic or selfish. Carrey interprets this as a good thing, that we are able to interpret life as it happens to only ourselves and our boundless souls so that we may navigate the world with a positive, optimistic outlook.

_ What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?
Carrey is a comedian so it is light-hearted and jovial, but it’s inspirational and uplifting. His message is serious.

_ What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft. Where are there pauses... 
There’s several pauses where the audience claps or applauds Carrey. I’ll have to edit some out for time but I think they add effect. His intonation is often pleading, insisting that the graduation class heed his advice.

_ What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?
His message is serious but life, so I feel like the words such as “beneficial,” “for you,” “fun,” “faith,” should bounce and be inspirational.

_ Is there a call to action? When listening to it what are key/emphasized words? 
His call to action is to rely on faith and not hope. A part of the speech I had to omit for time in the beginning said “As far as I can tell, it’s just about letting the universe know what you want, and working toward it, while letting go of how it comes to pass.” This summarizes Carrey’s idea of faith which he implores the graduating class should have for themselves. Essentially, hope is empty, and faith has weight.

_ How does it make you feel? 
I picked this speech because it calms me to know that a lot of my life’s direction is out of my hands. It may freak some people out to think about that, but to me, it removes some accountability. Essentially you can prepare for the future, but you can not plan for it. It reminds me to let go.

_ How do imagine that the audience felt? 
The audience interrupted Carrey with applause countless times in the 25 minute speech. They were no doubt entertained and invigorated by Carrey. 

_ Could there be another interpretation of the speech?
Hearing parts out of context may come across as selfish or narcissistic. In addition, hearing him talk about faith may lead one to believe he’s talking about religion, but he is not.

_ Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech.


Jim Carrey is a comedic actor famous for goofy films like Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. In his later years he took on more serious roles, such as Joel in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Truman in the Truman Show. He is a Golden Globe award winner and a huge proponent of the meditation style of visualization, which is apparent in this speech. 

Influential poster designers




Armin Hofmann
Armin Hofmann is a Swiss graphic designer. He began his career in 1947 as a teacher at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel School of Art and Crafts at the age of twenty-six. Hofmann followed Emil Ruder as head of the graphic design department at the Basel School of Design) and was instrumental in developing Swiss Style. His teaching methods were unorthodox and broad based, setting new standards that became widely known in design education institutions throughout the world. His independent insights as an educator, married with his rich and innovative powers of visual expression, created a body of work enormously varied - books, exhibitions, stage sets, logotypes, symbols, typography, posters, sign systems, and environmental graphics. His work is recognized for its reliance on the fundamental elements of graphic form - point, line, and shape - while subtly conveying simplicity, complexity, representation, and abstraction.





Studio Dumbar
Studio Dumbar is a highly influential Dutch graphic design agency with outposts in China and Korea. Its work has helped shape, not only Dutch, but international design for over three decades. Studio Dumbar describes its work as ‘visual branding, online branding’, meaning that it creates every visible expression of a brand or organisation — offline and online. Its international scope is reflected in its teams, with an average of seven nationalities in Rotterdam alone.
Fragmented, sometimes complex to the edge of chaos, and layered with complex typography, many Dumbar projects caused consternation among advocates of a more ordered aesthetic. But by the late 1980s many European designers were mimicking Studio Dumbar’s approach, causing Gert Dumbar to place a moratorium on these techniques within his firm.



Paula Scher
Paula Scher (born October 6, 1948, Washington D.C) is an American graphic designer, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991. For more than three decades Paula Scher has been at the forefront of graphic design. Iconic, smart and unabashedly populist, her images have entered into the American vernacular. Her style involved bold colors and skewed grid.



Joesf Miller-Brockman
Josef Müller-Brockmann (May 9, 1914 – August 30, 1996) was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He studied architecturedesign and history of art at both the University and Kunstgewerbeschule in Zürich. In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio specialising in graphic design, exhibition design and photography. From 1951 he produced concert posters for the Tonhalle in Zurich. In 1958 he became a founding editor of New Graphic Design along with R.P. Lohse, C. Vivarelli, and H. Neuburg. In 1966 he was appointed European design consultant to IBM.
He is recognised for his simple designs and his clean use of typography (notably Akzidenz-Grotesk), shapes and colours which inspire many graphic designers in the 21st century.
Müller-Brockman was author of several books on design and visual communication.




Herbert Matter
Herbert Matter (April 25, 1907 – May 8, 1984) was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photomontage in commercial art. The designer's innovative and experimental work helped shape the vocabulary of 20th-century graphic design.
Born in Engelberg, Switzerland, Matter studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and at the Académie Moderne in Paris with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. He worked with Adolphe Mouron CassandreLe Corbusier and Deberny & Peignot. In 1932, he returned to Zurich, where he designed posters for the Swiss National Tourist Office and Swiss resorts. The travel posters won instant international acclaim for his pioneering use of photomontage combined with typeface



Branding Has Become Oppressive

A brand is more than a simple logo or color scheme. Abbot Miller does not believe in the association of brand with design. According to Miller, brand is the company's reputation, while the visual aspects are considered to be the identity. He frequently discusses how design is a variable process and produces variable experiences depending on the subject and medium. The experience is the vital component, and it's important that the designer immerse herself in the subject's elements to create a complementary experience for the subject at hand.