design is a [vcd] story — what’s your story?
In AY 21/22, I developed a frame-like mark for the School of Visual Communication Design, based on the concept of visual communication design as a storytelling lens or frame with which to view the world and the idea that a degree at VCD becomes part of the life-story of an individual. The frame asks potential and current VCD students to consider their own story, charting their own career path when they make the choice to study in VCD. The tagline was ‘Design is a good story, what’s your story?’. The frame was intended to work layered on top of other materials for flexibility, and the visual approach of framing was also used to create a thank you card I designed for the school to use and on stickers and other branded elements. The identity used a typeface called Zeitung from Underware type foundry, which harks to the Swiss typographic tradition at Kent while updating and modernizing it. We created stickers from this mark as well as manufacturing a polymer plate for use in letterpress printing. I also designed a custom folder to house our promotional materials using typefaces created in my Typeface Design class by our alumni and utilizing this identity approach. Each folder was laser-cut individually at the KSU Design Innovation Hub and letterpress printed, hand-scored, and folded, by graduate student, Danielle Dunne in collaboration with Prof. Bob Kelemen.
