Building Friendly Spaces Process Book

Preface

In planning my subject for the thesis project, I knew I wanted to touch on a topic that is relevant to who I am as an artist. I have a passion for helping others and spreading kindness. My culture is a big part of who I am and I want to make sure everyone feels that they have a place within the creative world. With this in mind, I chose to talk about representation within the field of design.

In this book, I will be mapping out my process from early stages to the very end of my BFA Digital Design thesis.

Building Friendly Spaces

Statistics

“The most common ethnicity among graphic designer/productions is White, which makes up 70.2% of all graphic designer/productions. Comparatively, 10.6% of graphic designer/productions are Hispanic or Latino.” -Zippia

Research

Eurocentric design has been the most widespread design since the beginning of the Bauhaus, 105 years ago. Today, brands like Adobe, Apple and Google commonly employ Bauhaus principles in their designs by keeping things minimalistic, using few colors and expansive whitespace to frame objects. Barnhart (2024) speaks on the impact of the movement saying it, “so radically altered how we view design that, today, it’s a style and philosophy all of its own. It’s also an endless fount of inspiration for anyone working creatively” (para. 2). Eurocentric design is so influential that it is deeply intertwined in the teaching of art and design schools all over the United States and abroad. For good reason, Bauhaus was a huge breakthrough in its time, emphasizing geometric shapes, simplicity, and a careful balance of aesthetics and functionality. It has proven to make beautiful and classic design time and time again. There is a way we can keep the past and share the future of design with everyone. We can push the barriers to accept and teach more forms of design principles from other cultures and countries; taking the principles of design and expanding on them to make new rules and new approval.

Problem

Traditional design can be exclusionary and biased to outside cultures and practices of design, as it pulls from Eurocentric ideals, where design is black and white, either good or bad. Design schools are built on Eurocentric systems with Bauhaus being the most influential school. This has a negative impact on outside cultures as they are excluded by traditional design and considered unprofessional. Arora (2023) mentions that “due to the predominance of European and American male designers, all the up-andcoming artists are exposed to their works. It is their works that are labeled as ‘classics’ and as a consequence, they are the ones who set the tone of wrong and right in the industry. It is quite natural to discredit the works of non-Western artists or the ones produced from poorer backgrounds as ‘crafts’ instead of design” (para. 2). Eurocentric ideals place the design or art forms of other cultures on a lower level than that of their own. This notion of thinking is what presents a barrier in the future of design and poses challenges for those trying to break the boundaries of traditional design. It is important that we as designers shift and allow for new growth and acceptance within the community for people of many different backgrounds to be able to succeed.

Thesis Question

How might the use of print design and digital illustrations be used to help Latinos in the United States feel welcomed and accurately represented within traditional Eurocentric spaces of design?

Mission

This Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) thesis aims to challenge Eurocentric ideals and address representation by creating work that tells minority stories accurately and respectfully while also including cultural motifs. The designs and research will explore questions of whose stories to tell, the limitations of traditional approaches to design, and how different cultures can impact the look and feel of design. Through interviewing individuals of various backgrounds and depicting their stories, a partnership will be made to create a design piece that shares their experiences.

Building Friendly Spaces

Solution

Through the use of print design, I will be sharing the stories of Latin creatives so that other Latinos can feel inspired and encouraged by their stories and individuals outside of the community can have a better idea on how culture impacts design. The outcome will be printed posters and a booklet of the designs, which will include the interviewees’ stories, to be presented at the senior design exhibition.

Method

What better way to influence and empower humanity than an experienced story? A story felt through the multisensory, tactile nature of print design. It is better for design to live in the physical space of the real world than simply on a smooth glass, digital screen. The physical interaction with the item is what draws you in; the story is what makes you keep it in your home.

The interviewee’s stories will be presented alongside an illustration of their portrait inside a printed booklet. Gallery wall will include posters touching on the topic of breaking down design barriers put by Eurocentric ideals.

Building Friendly Spaces

Mentors

Subject Matter Expert

Jesus Acosta

Art Director at Dieste Dallas, TX

Jesus is a Latin graphic designer who has been working in print, packaging, and branding since 2004. He studied graphic design at the University of Texas at El Paso. Jesus has been with Dieste for 16 years, which is an advertising agency for the Hispanic market. He has won many awards including the Advertising Age Hispanic Creative Advertising Award and two Addy Awards.

Jesus has worked on packaging design for Coca-Cola and BIMBO and fun projects like a campaign for the Taco Bell Foundation.

Design Media Expert

Huitzilli Oronia

Branding & Motion Designer Denver, CO

Huitzilli is a Chicana designer that focuses on including human perspectives in her design work. She cares about telling diverse stories and subjects with the art she creates. Huitzilli’s work is vibrant, powerful, and moving in its highlight of important topics. She specializes in brand identity, brand messaging, and 2D motion design.

Mentor Reports

Jesus Acosta

I met with my subject matter expert on Monday, February 12th to discuss my project and goals in terms of Latin representation. Jesus was able to give me in-depth insight into the projects he has done in the past that purposefully and carefully curated advertisements for the Latin community. He also shared his perspective as a Latin designer to how companies should go about advertising to multicultural groups. Jesus gave me advice on how to conduct my artist interviews. We will have another meeting once I have conducted my interviews and am working on my booklet layout.

I contacted my subject matter expert to get feedback on two of my poster designs. Jesus gave me some really in-depth feedback over email. I plan to use his advice to combine the idea of the past and the present in my posters to create an endless flow into one another. This piece of advice is really changing my perspective on the posters, “I think is very hard if not impossible to claim one can do a futuristic design that is completely detached from the past. So how can we represent that connection or gradual evolution like a gradient of colors rather than a harsh line.” I will be working to implement his critique in the final poster design.

Huitzilli Oronia

With my industry expert, we met also talked over email about my poster designs. Huitzilli recommended that I create my own illustration systems of symbols to represent diversity and use this to contrast black and white shapes. She also suggested the idea that I originally had for my book cover, which is to redesign Bauhaus posters with my own spin on them. I will incorporate this feedback in my final poster designs as well.

Building Friendly Spaces

Timeline

February

• Before February 7- Contact and establish SME/DMEs and complete research

• Before February 14- Create list of interviewees and contact them about interview availability. Begin working on interview structure and questions. Meet with mentors to discuss thesis and my plans.

• February 14- Progress Report due.

• Before February 21- Work on research paper intro and outline for paper. Start draft of process book. Run the interview questions by mentors to get their feedback.

• Before February 28- Plan printing size and layout for booklet. Begin conducting interviews. Write body paragraphs for research paper. Work on plan for gallery installation layout.

March

• Before March 6- Complete research paper draft. Finish artist/designer interviews. Start working on portrait illustrations. Have process book mostly done.

• March 8- Content for Alum Website due.

• Before March 13- Be more than halfway done with portrait illustrations.

Continue to add to process book. Start designing cover for booklet.

• March 13- State of Research Paper Due, Gallery Installation Rough Draft Due, Process Book Rough Draft and Progress Report Due.

• Before March 20- Booklet rough draft complete.

• Before March 27- Finalize booklet and make sure it is ready to print.

• March 27- Gallery Needs and Gallery Installation Proposal due.

April

• Before April 3- Send process book and booklet off to print.

• April 3- Process Book PDF due.

• April 10- Thesis presentation form sign up.

• April 17- Sign up for practice presentation.

• April 19- Gallery label information.

• After April 20- Practice, practice, practice presentation.

• April 26- Gallery Installation.

May

• Thesis Project due.

Posters

Cultura

For this poster, I had the idea to use a popular Bauhaus poster and put my own stylistic twist on it, influenced by my Latin culture. The Bauhaus is a pillar of graphic design and can be built off of to showcase more representative experiences.

Poster for the 1923 Bauhaus Exhibition in Weimar, Germany, by Joost Schmidt. Collection of Bauhaus Archiv Berlin/Heritage Images, via Getty Images

Past Meets Future

In this poster, I wanted to touch upon how the past and the future cannot exist without one another and in order to move forward as designers, we must not forget the past, but rather use it to build new avenues. I drew a an Ancient Greek sculpture of a woman and had it blend into a portrait of a young Afro Latina with color and vibrancy. Flipping the Eurocentric past on its head to make way for representation in the future.

Celebration

This is a quote that I said during my interview with Paulina. It stood out because it really captured the message of my project and research findings. I utilized my hand lettering skills for this typographic poster.

Building Friendly Spaces

Interviewees

I interviewed a total of six Latin creatives that all had various backgrounds and creative titles, were of different age groups, and located all across the United States.

Partner/Creative

Portrait Illustrations

Conclusion

In essence, breaking away from Eurocentric design opens pathways for exploration of expression and growth of the artform. Instead of focusing on how culture and other demographic groups make us similar, we should highlight how we are distinct. Design that celebrates all of us, our differences, our flaws, our successes, is the art form of who we are as humans.

Building Friendly Spaces

The gallery piece created for this thesis exhibition includes three posters sized at 24 x 36 inches and a vinyl decal sized at 8 x 1.5 feet on the gallery wall. The shelf holds the 8 x 10 inch artist stories booklet and 7 x 7 inch process book. Takeaway items for the viewers include business cards and stickers placed in a small plastic container.

Installation Proposal

Building Friendly Spaces

Bibliography

Arora, N. (2023, March 16). Decolonizing Design: Acknowledging the Embedded Colonisation in Design Industry. BBR Digital. https://bbf.digital/ decolonising-design-acknowledging-the-embedded-colonisation-in-designindustry

Athavale, S. (2022, October 14). Defying Eurocentric Norms In Graphic Design. The University of Texas at Austin. https://advertising.utexas.edu/ news/defying-eurocentric-norms-graphic-design

Barnhart, B. (2024, January 2). The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Bauhaus Design. Linearity. https://www.linearity.io/blog/bauhaus-design/

Saunders, J. (n.d). 5 Reasons Representation in Media Matters. Black Illustrations. https://www.blackillustrations.com/blog/representationmatters-5-reasons-representation-in-media-matters

Wiltz, A. (2019, March 19). Breaking Barriers in Design. Medium. https:// modus.medium.com/breaking-barriers-in-design-9044e3729256

Zippia. (n.d.) Graphic Designer/ Production Demographics and Statistics in the US. https://www.zippia.com/graphic-designer-production-jobs/ demographics/

College of Arts & Media

Thank You!

amazing faculty members that encouraged me and believed in my creative vision:

Michelle Carpenter

Stephen Schaf

My design mentors for your wisdom and guidance:

Jason Henderson

Jesus Acosta

Huitzilli Oronia

To my wonderful husband Nik, who supported me through college. For encouraging me to take risks and never give up.

To my lovely twin daughters, Kali & Camille, for inspiring me creatively with their imagination and joy.

To my parents Jason & Yvette, my siblings

Amaris & Jeremy. For always believing in me even when I doubted myself. For your kind words and endless support. Love you all.

To view more of my creative endeavors, please visit my online portfolio: www.bearnose.art