Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

Emily Giordano

Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Graphic

Design

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Mark Willie

Graphic Design

A Study of the Father of Polish Poster Design: Henryk Tomaszewski

The main reason for pursuing this STAR research project were the donations from the Lewalski and Fox families. These two collections were gifted to Drexel’s Westphal College to teach students about the history of poster design and the significance of the medium. The motivation to research and organize the Polish Posters was to make it easier for students and faculty to have access to the works and interact with them through a database. The STAR project was finding a way to organize the posters that coincided with previous organizational plans of former STAR students as well as researching the artists and cultural context. The student went about accomplishing this by making data sheets on the data points of works, making a booklet on a specific artist, and photographing posters to update the database for more detail. The results were seen in more data points on the main polish poster artist, a booklet printed for the showcase, a book in the works of being printed for class settings on poster design, and updated images in the online collection for Hagerty Library’s iDEA database. The implications of this are the idea that students, with access to these amazing and important posters, can learn and integrate to their own work.

Alexandra Ballance

Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Fashion Design

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Sandra Parks

Performing Arts

Through the Eyes of Dance

Beijing and Washington D.C. are on opposite sides of the world and have two distinct cultures. What makes them unique and what similarities do they share? What has shaped and influenced today’s culture and how do we experience these two cities? Looking closer, a city’s culture is reflected in its products and its people. Some typical examples of these products are architecture, art, language, fashion, food, and dance. Dance is the focus of this project for two important reasons: first, the significant exposure to dance in the Washington D.C. area for many years; and second, the opportunity to spend two weeks in Beijing at the Beijing Dance Festival, immersed in the city’s modern dance community. Diving deeper, it is clear to see the essence of these two cultures through the eyes of dance. Based on experience and research, this project discusses the comparisons and observations about these cultures. It aims to reveal how dance is a clear reflection of its environment and its society.