Graduating graphic design seniors will showcase their senior theses this December in “Graphic Content.” On display in Rapson Hall's HGA Gallery, the exhibition will run from Monday, December 5 to Wednesday, December 14 with a reception on the final date.
The show will feature thesis projects from 21 graduating students, whose work covers a range of topics. Learn more about the students' being featured and their projects below and see a sneak peek of their work on the Graphic Design Program's Instagram account.
Katie Benedict | Blurred Lines
“Blurred Lines” is a poster series that highlights the double standards and hypocrisies in the music industry, raising awareness and bringing in new perspectives by directly comparing comments and criticisms made about male and female music artists.
Yupha Chang | Passion
“Passion” is a packaging design kit inspired by the Hmong textile aesthetic. It aims to inform and educate people about the Hmong textile known as Batik.
Georgia Crandall | Rebel
“Rebel” is a menstrual care brand with the goal to flip the narrative on menstruation. Periods are often viewed as a taboo topic that should not be discussed openly. The brand Rebel was created to combat these harmful thought processes.
Morgan Frober | Tonic
The mission of “Tonic” is to educate young women on social media, in hopes of spreading awareness about diet culture and enabling users to recognize and gain self-awareness of the content they are consuming.
Jacob Garhofer | So Far So Good
“So Far So Good” is a clothing brand that focuses on combining emerging technology with commerce. Augmented Reality’s opportunity in the retail industry is explored and exhibited through immersive experiences that reimagine the way a brand can exist on social media.
Jamie Goldberg | Crossroads
“Crossroads” is an exhibition about Goldberg's journey identifying as an Asian American adoptee. Caught between two paths of identity, Goldberg is constantly asking questions about their biological heritage knowing they most likely will never know the answers to them.
Taylor Heusinkveld | Feel it Out
“Feel it Out” is about tactile sensory stimulations with a focus on helping young adults control their anxiety in overwhelming environments.
Darin Krone | Vbee
“VBee” is a virtual reality experience designed to demonstrate the educational and immersive capabilities of VR. The experience involves three acts to tell a story about the struggling bee population.
Betty Lee | A Thousand Miles of Memories
“A Thousand Miles of Memories” is a series of illustrations in an interactive, digital 3D space that reimagines and tells the story of the Hmong people through the perspective of a character named Cia Siab.
Ethan Nevalainen | Climate Disinformation
There are very few people left in the world who need to be convinced that climate change is an important issue. “Climate Disinformation” engages the audience in a discussion about the widespread societal disinformation about climate change.
Vivian Nguyen | Oriental Express
“Oriental Express” is a pseudo-restaurant that examines how Asian foods, cultures, and identities are often viewed through a Western lens that paints them as foreign, exotic entities.
Victoria Osterhus | Aloha Aina
“Aloha Aina” is your number one travel learning resource for O’ahu, Kaua’i, Maui, and Island Hawai’i. This project focused on three main goals: raise awareness of Hawaiian culture and history, educate visitors on local Hawaiian legends, and increase visitor activities that are focused on nature and the connection Hawaiian people have to the islands
Dylan Postma | The Old New Way
We live in a world and society that has rapidly evolved and developed—especially in terms of technology. “The Old New Way” examines how designers face the challenge of competing with AI. Now it is the time for designers to prove why we do what we do.
Matthew Runnels | Design and Multilingualism
“Design and Multilingualism” follows the visual design of a simulated cafe brand as it evolves from one language to another.
Cat Saari | Tags and Type
A tag is an artist’s signature, written very quickly with a variety of innovative materials depending on the setting and intended style. “Tags and Type” invites the viewer to see tags not as simple illegible vandalism, but as lettering design that coats the walls, utility boxes, and poles we see every single day.
Eric Sagnes | A Country for Cars
“A Country for Cars” is an exhibition experience that explores topics related to car-dominated travel in the United States. It focuses on conveying the ways in which the American public was first sold on driving and aims to educate viewers on the unethical and unsustainable practices deployed by car corporations and the government
Isabelle Schulenberg | Silence
How much of our sanity has been lost to the mindset that we’re never allowed a moment to rest? “Silence” aspires to reclaim deliberate silence as a foundational part of life.
Alysia Steingart | The Rosta Archive
“The Rosta Archive” examines the evolution of Soviet political propaganda from the early 20th century in an effort to understand its role in enabling the Ukrainian Holodomor genocide.
Hunter Swalve | Oasis
“Oasis” is an idea of pop-up locations in low-income neighborhoods as well as college campus areas to spread the knowledge of food deserts and food insecurity to those without good food resources.
Chia Thao | Happy Girl Rice Brand
“Happy Girl” is a rice brand showcasing a Hmong writing system known as Hmong Pahawh (pa-hau). A relatively new writing system, compared to other writing systems created hundreds of years ago, Hmong Pahawh is slowly gaining recognition in the Hmong community.
Crystal Xayana | Health is Wealth
The objective of “Health is Wealth” is to provide commentary on the United States healthcare system by showcasing personal testimonies and experiences through case studies of Southeast Asian-Americans
Graphic design seniors graduating this summer are hosting a virtual exhibition to showcase their final projects on Friday, August 14. Titled “Fill in the Blank,” the exhibition theme is based around the idea of uncertainty.
Students in GDes 3353: Packaging and Display partnered with a student group from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) last fall to create a brand identity for a proposed tap house on the St. Paul campus.
Help celebrate our students’ hard work by joining the College of Design community for final reviews, exhibitions, and showcases featuring work from across our design disciplines.
