DESIGNERS
The current group of Honours students present a wide variety of skills,
styles and techniques in their projects. The projects themselves encompass everything from learning aids for children to a design critique application.
Below are a collection of brief bios on the exhibiting designers, providing a little more insight into the individual and their work.
Anna Hill
Hi everyone, I’m back! One major difference, student loan = $6500 more than this time last year, yay!
For my honours project this year, I focused my thesis around on-going research conducted
within Computer Graphic Design at the University of Waikato looking at children’s onscreen
reading material. Observations over the summer of 2009/2010 found reading material used on
Interactive Whiteboards in New Zealand schools may have the ability to be improved through
consideration of text presentation, hence the title of my research Does typography influence children’s
ability to read from Interactive Whiteboards?
Ben Bartels
Cringe culture is a social campaign that targets binge-drinking culture amongst New Zealand’s teens. The campaign features three promotional posters, a sticker and a website. The material utilises a counter culture aesthetic which has been developed to effectively communicate with today’s youth. The aesthetic has been heavily influenced by a personal appreciation of retro skate and hot-rod graphics, with my dissertation allowing for this appreciation to be taken further.
Ben Hallahan
In Formation is the implementation name of research into the incorporation of the principles and methods of hypertext to enhance the presentation and navigation of statistical information. The findings are applied to a printed collection of interchangeable cards exploring every minute of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as dozens of summaries, aided by a comprehensive search function. The result is a collection of unique cards that can be explored at will to find out more about your favourite player or team. To find out more come and check out the book and wall chart at the exhibition!
Eli Peters
Realism in film is a contentious issue because what is real when it has become edited, digitized, manipulated, tweaked, directed and/or staged? Realism is the aesthetic choice, it is the artistic expression and it is the representation of the known that allows us to engage in film. After all, all the information we have is contained within our own memories and includes the fabricated conjurations of film. These "never-before-seen" things are only just the accumulation of known elements, just like Superman's Achille's heel - Kryptonite is only just a glowing green rock.
Kapil Lad
Hey, my name is Kapil and for my honours project I am looking at 'How mobile technology can be used by Graphic Designers, as a form of promotion'. I have chosen this topic as it carries on from what I undertook in my undergraduate degree project. The topic interests me as I have found the mobile media is fast becoming one of the most popular mediums that individuals interact with.
I hope you enjoy the effort that I have put into the project and find out how the mobile media is a viable new medium for graphic designers to promote themselves on.
Kerrin Meek
Hi, my name is Kerrin. I have been researching about how designers use social networking sites to collaborate design process. For my project I have designed an application for designers to collaborate, with such features as a voting system where their friends can vote on images to a commenting system where the designer gets full critique of their work. www.kerrinmeek.co.nz
Leona Tian
I am Leona Tian, a web and graphic designer. From my previous work experiences, I realised it was very important for web designers to keep up to date not only with web build skills but also design skills. Therefore, I decided to complete an honours degree with the major research of the dissertation topic: Visual Trends in Web Design from 1999 – 2009. In the upcoming exhibition, I will display 3 different styles from 3 time periods, which are the years 2003, 2006 and 2009 for a cake website concept called ‘Delicaci Cakes' based from my dissertation research and findings.
Sarah Middleton
I am interested in using design to improve social conditions within our community. My research is based on investigating how to combine the digital storytelling movement with social advertising in television commercials. I chose the theme of transgender acceptance for my project as I have friends in the transgender community. I am amazed by the courage transgendered people have in order to take on such large amounts of prejudice on a daily basis.
When I'm not trying to change the world I enjoy surfing, playing Final Fantasy, volunteer work and day dreaming about unicorns.
Shane Bradstreet
Hi there! I’m Shane, and this year has been an interesting experience. My honours subject endeavours to combine two areas I am passionate about; design and music. Often you will find me browsing CD racks in various music stores, and during my visits to these stores I have always been frustrated by the lack of understand you can siphon from the design of an album cover. Thus, I have been investigating if;
CD cover design can effectively communicate the music genre of the CD to potential buyers? If so, what visual forms and conventions enable such a communication? How might understanding these help graphic designers find a visual language for musical genres?
Todd Cantley
Hi, my name is Todd. For my honours dissertation, I looked at how psychedelic art from the late 1960’s has inspired contemporary music advertising design. For my implementation I am doing a cross media release for a band in Auckland called the welfare mother who have strong influences from the psychedelic era. I will be making a expansive CD cover, Record cover, poster and website.
Zilei (Cherry) Lin
Alive again in the museum
For my honours project, I am investigating the benefits of museum displays. I am using Central Stories Museum in Alexandra as an example to do this project. I chose this topic because Alexandra is a small town in South Island; therefore, Central Stories Museum does not receive the same amount of funding as our bigger museums in New Zealand. My goal is to improve the butterfly static display in Central Stories Museum, to make the museum more attractive. I feel it is of great importance that the butterfly display becomes more effective.
