365 Days in U.S. by Morpheus Chen

CONTENT Design and Technology Parsons The New School For Design Major Studio_Interface 001 - 030 / The Source Map 031 - 060 / Creative & Com Lab 061 - 090 / Major Studio_Narritive 091 - 120

Communication Design Parsons The New School For Design Editorial Design 121 - 150 / Typography and Visual Design 151 - 180 / Advanced Typography 181 - 210 / Corporate ID & Packaging 211 - 240 / Packaging design 241 - 270 / Web Media 271 - 300 Internship at

Taylor & Ives, Inc.

Crexus Investment Corporate 301 - 330 / New York Historical Society 331 - 365

Design and Technology Parsons The New School For Design / Major Studio_Interface / The Source Map / Creative & Com Lab / Major Studio_Narritive / Web Media

001~030

Mental Dérive Mental Dérive is a group project. A dérive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, where an individual travels where the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct them with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience. (From Wiki). In the project, Andy Wallace, Jonathan Baldwin, Shante Pierre, and I tried to use an alien’s perspective to see New York city to express the difference between tourists and nomads.

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Sport Relationship According to the article written by Edward Tufte (2001). there are two targets to be accomplished when presenting much information. First, enlarging the number of dimensions on a two-dimensional paper. Second, enriching data density. Achieving these two targets can let viewers organize and comprehend a great quantity of information more easily and efficiently. As a result, designing Morpheusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Relationship of Sports will try to meet these two goals. The reason why I want to develop a relationship of sports within each one in class is that it can show a pattern and be a tool to let everyone exercise in company with somebody. So, in the practical process, the first step is to find the commons with each other in the course of Interface. After doing some research, I summed up with 8 kinds of sports which everyone plays, and I used colors to differentiate them. In the diagram, every color represents one kind of sport, and the colors assigning to every sports were decided by the color of sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s balls. To realize who the one is you can play with easily, I putted myself in the center of the concentric circle, which means the address of classroom as well, and labeled

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everyone in the diagram by their response about sports. As a result, the persons in the same color area have same preference for sports. To increase the data and add more functions in the diagram, I putted geographic information of sports in the outer concentric circle. For example, in the area of baseball, every location was arranged by the distance from classroom. It means that the location in the inner circle is the nearest one to the classroom. Therefore, viewers can easily check where the location is in the concentric circle to decide which playground is the nearest one. Besides, I designed this diagram for viewers on a flat paper, however, the display of diverse bountiful detail canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work as well as a poster which is meant for viewing from a distance (Tufte, 2001). As a result, this diagram will be an interactive widget working on computer. Viewers can move cursor to make every color area in the concentric circle rotate toward north. And they can also scale the details up by clicking the area on the screen. 1. Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 2001.

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In 5 Days 5 Random Projects The purpose of the project is to challenge student’s creativity to what random is, it needs us to come up with an idea a day and accomplish it in 5 days. My project focuses on finding the connections between subway and random. The first day I found there is only one series number on one railway carriage. Then I took these numbers as coordinates on a two-dimensional plane. Finally I marked every spots and connected the spots with lines in Processing. The second day I used “Subway” as keyword to search on Youtube, and re-

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corded the songs of every searching result. At last, I combined the songs and made a composition. The third day I rolled the dice to decide how far the itinerary is, then recorded every itinerary until I got back to Harrison. The fourth day I took photos of passengers’ hands on my way home, then arranged the photos to make a composition. The poster wants to show that Hands can reveal emotions, they are like facial expressions. The last day I used coin and dice to decide the flavor of my sandwich.

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001~030 detail

detail

detail 細節 detail

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Design is Paying Attention to

Details

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detail detail detail detail

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Design is Paying Attention to What? This is a midterm presentation. I needed to present what we had learnt in half semester. I concluded what I had learnt into a main question: “Design is paying attention to what?“ The first one is “Design is paying attention to details.“ In the Mental Dérive project, we looked critically at an unfamiliar environment , tried to adapt the surroundings, set us free to enter different territories. Finally, we forced ourself to notice everything which is worth to consider and design. As a result, detail is a pretty important element.

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Secondly, from the Micro to Macro project, I forced myself to find the connections between a lot of randomly numbers or objects. Then I tried to make these meaningless connections meaningful. So I realize that connection is also a king point in Design. Last but not least, as I just mentioned, in the project I did much research and collected randomly data to find the meaningful aspect from meaningless elements. Hence, meaning is another key for designing.

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001~030

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Instructional Sets for Strangers The project called â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Instructional Sets for Strangers,â&#x20AC;? it means we need to set an instruction for strangers according to the location we choose. In this project, Yiruo and I chose stairs in a Parsons building at 55 west 13th street because we thought the stairs at Parsons are seldom used because of the elevator. We wanted to set an instruction to encourage people use stairs more. At first, we did some research about how many and when people use stairs. We visualized the information to find the pattern. Then we decided to use stairs as a platform to give people more information about their health. And we used the concept of fortune teller as an incentive to attract people to climb the stairs as some kind of exercise.

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i -space

Community site With the increasing popularity of the internet, people enjoy building and sharing their social network in the virtual online world. As a result, community sites come with the tide of fashion. People are used to construct their social network in those community sites, such as Facebook, Myspace, etc. However, comparing to real interpersonal interaction, knowing each other in a community site seems to have invisible barriers between users, the barriers make people unable to communicate face to face. Community sites give people convenience, but they deprive of some kind of relationship as well. Interpersonal interaction As an outsider in New York, I found an interesting phenomena about interpersonal

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interaction, people are more willing to talk to strangers than in my country - Taiwan. When people ride subway and have something in common with others, they will open a conversation with the one who shares commons with them. For example, strangers always talk to me about their experiences of driving a scooter if I have a scooter with me. Personal space According to American anthropologist Edward Hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global interpersonal measurements and theory of reaction bubbles in 1966, he introduced that reaction bubbles have four levels, and each one has a radius, including intimate (0.5 m), personal (1.2 m), social (3.0 m) and public (7.6 m) space. Robert Sommer focused on the intimate, personal and social space in his

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book, Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design. He indicated the terms describe an invisible but perceptible security zone or spatial bubble surrounding an individual. In general, now people see the generalized definition of personal space as the combination of intimate and personal space. Information visualization In 21st century, the society is filled with information. There are two problems that need to be solved immediately: 1. Information processing is greatly complicated. 2. Information processing costs a lot of time. Therefore, what people need is not more information, but having more efficient ways to give right information to right audience at right time. According to Robert Hornâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theory, visual language can provide what people really need for absorbing information. He thought visual language had three distinctive elements, they are words, shapes and image, and these elements can be integrated into a communication unit. Their function is to encourage problem-solving, express meaning more fully, and increase speed of understanding. Bluetooth Bluetooth is a open wireless technology. It can exchange data over short distance, in class 2, it can communicate from 0 to 10 meters. In addition, a master Bluetooth device can communicate with up to seven devices in a piconet. The most important thing is that many products have Bluetooth nowadays, including smart phone. So people have already own this useful technology can be used in iSpace project. In 21th century, people are used to build their social network in the virtual world.

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In the real society, people keep their secrets and privacy in the personal space, and interact with each other within their social space. However, with the community site on the Internet, people seem to have a borderless social space, because people can just stay in their personal space and still make friends all over the world. Although the community site has given us an easier way to construct our interpersonal network, it also establishes an invisible wall between personal and social space, because the community site deprives of the opportunities for us to communicate with each other by face to face. As a result, the goal of iSpace project is to encourage people to bring their virtual social network into real society. Based on Robert Sommerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theory, we can expand the function for every level in an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s space and redefines the main audience into the parameters explained below. 1. Personal Space: The information here can be seen by whomever users classify as friends or family. Users can share their daily information except intimate information. 2. Social Space: The information here can be seen by whomever users classify as strangers. Users can share topics or issues in which they are interested and about which they are willing to talk to strangers. To achieve the goal of the project, people need to be convinced to break the wall between personal and social space. But what is the determining factor for people to step out of the personal space, and talk to a stranger in the social space? When people want to make friends with strangers, they like to open a conversation by finding something in common between each other, just like the above-mentioned example. It means that having something

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in common is the bridge for people to connect with each other. Thus, helping people to find something in common with each other easily can be an incentive for people to make new friends in the real society. Because the community site has already built a platform for everyone to share their daily life. So the project is based on the techniques of community site, such as Facebook, Myspace, and to build an add-on to expand the function of community site, and finally people can extend their social network from the virtual world to real society. The mechanism can be divided into two parts, one is the virtual Internet social network, and the other is the real social interaction. In the virtual part, users can create their own space and share information about themselves, and the space consists of two different levels, including Personal and Social Space. In two kinds of space, people can customize their own privacy depending on the type of space. Based on the descriptions and functions of the two levels of space, users can expand their space into the real world. Users can download the app into a smart phone, and set up the “sensing area” for every level of space. When user’s “sensing area” overlaps with other users who enter their real physical space, an alert will pop up on the screen of the smart phone. The alert will show the user about what kind of topics they are both interested in. Topics would include things like music, sports, events, as well as consume needs and discussion topics, such as politics. After choosing a topic, the system will give users more details about the topic by searching on the Internet, and will visualize the information in two ways, including proximate events and proximate locations. For the proximate

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events, users can check every chronological event about the topic they are both interested in. And users can see every location related to the topic in a graphic map of representing proximate real space. Step 01 Customize privacy The instruction will take Facebook as an example. When posting message on Facebook, users need to decide which message can be seen by friends and by strangers. Step 02 Connect to iSpace After connecting to iSpace, users can create their own planet, which consist of “personal space” (the planet) and “social space” (the ring). The system will arrange the messages which can only be seen by friends to “personal space,” and put the other messages into “social space.” Step 03 Set up the “sensing area” Set up the “sensing area” on iSpace, it means users can decide the range of the personal and social space. After setting up, users can export the data to a smart phone. Step 04 Go to the public space Go to public space with smart phone, such as park, station. When user’s social space overlaps with others’, the system will show how many people are in your social space. After choosing the target person, the system will give the topics that user and the target person are both interested in. Step 05 Start a conversation When user decides the topic, if user still has no topics to talk, the system will present the information about the topic by proximate events and proximate locate.

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Sustainability Watchdog Introduction Being environmentally conscious is a very basic notion for every person in the 21st century. However, according to cultural differences, the application of environmental protection changes from country to country. Every country has their own way of dealing with the issues of environmental sustainability, such as recycling policies, reducing waste, reusing materials, etc. Some countries work very well with the issue of reducing waste, but people who live in the U.S don’t. For example, people in Taiwan produced 1.1 pounds per person per day in 20081. However, Americans produced approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day. Americans waste unconsciously can be attributed to economic individualism and consumerism. First, economic individualism emphasizes that every individual should make economic decisions freely, and the theory makes Americans not take the impact on others into consideration whenever they

consume. In addition, consumerism, in short, encourages consumption. However, more consumption creates more waste. According to the above, the fact means there are many good models and resources concerning environmental protections all over the world, and Americans need a useful interface to learn more about the information of recycling practices and programs from other countries. If Americans do learn how to reduce waste and recycle, not only the U.S, but also the whole world will benefit from all the information. Furthermore, in Parsons there are many international students coming from different parts of the world, and they are not only all familiar with what their country is doing for environmental protection, but also have distinct perspectives on waste. Consequently, if every international student can share their applications and comments about the environmental protection practice and point of views of waste in their own country, the sharing

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process will collect much useful information for Americans to change their culture of waste, and then make the world better. Because individualism and consumerism prevail in the U.S society, Americans seldom participate the practices of waste reducing and recycling. To let Americans be concerned with the issue of waste, there must be some way to unveil a true fact that most Americans don’t notice, including the impacts of waste on others all over the world and the outcomes that other countries have already achieved in reducing waste. As a result, the object of the project is to build an interface that everyone can share and to co-construct a platform that is full of environmental protection-related information. In conclusion, Americans need to learn more about effective recycling policies and reducing waste from other countries, and the international students in Parsons can offer information about their own recycling practices in their country. As a

result, the goal of the project is to build an interface, which can not only provide a platform to create information about the practices of environmental sustainability around the world, but also give a field that users can search and learn. Context (1) The culture of waste To quote Susan Strasser, “by their trash shall you know them.” According to the quote, we can figure out what kind of culture Americans have from their trash. Basing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s report, the average American produces about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) of garbage a day, or a total of 29 pounds (13 kg) per week and 1,600 pounds (726 kg) a year. The data above only takes the average household member into consideration, and it doesn’t count industrial waste or commercial trash. Comparing to other country, as Taiwan, the average waste a person a day in the U.S is 4 times bigger than Taiwan’s

waste. From the report, we can discover that waste problem is serious in the U.S. (2) Information design In the society filled with information in the 21st century, there are two problems that need to be solved immediately: 1. Information processing is greatly complicated 2. Information processing costs a lot of time. As a result, what people need is not more information, but more efficient ways to give the right information to the right audience at the right time. To satisfy the demands, a designer can be regarded as an information manager, and what designers use to help the audience to understand information easily and efficiently is called “interface.” The concept of interface can cover many aspects, including computer graphics, multi- media, interactive hypermedia, etc, however, interface can be classified into two meanings, one is a piece of hardware, the other is everything the user sees on the

031~060

screen. According to the definition, the interface in the project is the latter, because the project is to deal with the bridge between the information and the users, and then to show the audience the outcomes. After introducing the platform between the information and the users, another question is how a designer can deliver information efficiently and clearly. According to Robert Horn’s theory, visual language can provide what people really need for absorbing information. He thought visual language had three distinctive elements, including words, shapes and image, and these elements can be integrated into a communication unit. Its function is to encourage problem-solving, express meaning more fully, and increase speed of understanding. Discussion The purposes of the international map can be divided into two parts. First, the interface will offer users information and statistic data about the practices of environmental protection around the world, including recycling policies, reducing waste and re-

using materials, etc. However, too much unprocessed information will cause information anxiety for audiences. Therefore, the interface will interpret the information with visual language. Because the main goal of the diagram is to make information clearer and more readable, gathering and providing information, the interface will visualize the information and statistical data and change it into different useful diagrams. Secondly, users can share the practices of reducing waste and post their own comments and point of view about environmental protection at a specific location. When using a map as a sharing interface and commenting forum, there are two advantages for both users and viewers. For one thing, users can not only promote practices of environmental protection wherever he/she is, or complain about the environmental problems, which need to be solved and pointed where the location is, but also give suggestions for a specific place. On the other hand, viewers can learn how people reduce waste or recycle in different countries, and know more about the cultural differences between distinctive countries.

Analysis To build a solid basement for the project in a theoretical perspective, there are three different fields of theory being referred to, including the issue about environmental protection, information visualization and user interface. First of all, it’s important to cite references about environmental protection, since the references will reveal the truth of waste in the U.S, and then explain why the project is needed urgently. Secondly, citing the interface-related papers can introduce the definition and functions of interface. By knowing the characteristics of the interface, the project, as a role of interface, can be designed in a user-oriented purpose. Finally, because there will be much information and hard data about every country’s practices for environmental protection, the authors studying information visualization can give solutions in communicating information to the audience more efficiently. Conclusion We all live in a global village and share limited natural resources. However, the phenomenon of waste has long been cus-

tomary in the U.S, as a result, people need to be provided with different voices here. Therefore, as an international student, this project gives me a chance to express different perspectives about American culture of waste, which Americans seldom notice. Secondly, because there will be a lot of information and statistical data about environmental protection all around the world, the project is an opportunity to learn how to visualize information appropriately and train myself in considering how to find the balance between the resources and limitation. In addition, the goal of the interface is to build a bridge between information providers and users, in the process of building, there are many aspects that need to be considered, including the offering of incentives, techniques, user-oriented design and friendly interface, etc. The abovementioned aspects will interact and place restrictions for each other, hence, to find the best balance is the key in the process of building the interface. Works Cited 1. Taiwan Government Information Office.

2010. Recycling and Waste Management. http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=276 12&ctNode=1927&mp=1001 (accessed May 27, 2010). 2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2010. Wastes - Non-Hazardous Waste. http:// www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/index.htm ( accessed July 27, 2010). 3. Strasser, Susan. 2000. Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash. 1 ed. New York: Holt Paperbacks. 4.Horn, R. E.. “Information Design: Emergence of a New Profession.” In Information Design, edited by R. E. Jacobson. Massachusetts, U.S.A.: MIT Press, 1999. 5. Bonsiepe, G. Interface: An Approach to Design: Jan van Eyck Akademie, 1999. 6. Horn, Robert E. Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century. Bainbridge Island, Wash.: MacroVU, Inc., 1998.

Works Consulted Walker, John A. “The London Underground Diagram.” Icographic 14-15 (1979): 2-4. Shedroff, Nathan. Experience Design 1. Indianapolis, Ind.: New Riders Pub., 2001. Kress, Gunther R., and Theo Van Leeuwen. Reading Images : The Grammar of Visual Design. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.

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Infinite Sparkles This work is made by Processing, which is a computer programming software. I use lots of articles to create different patterns depending on how you move your cursor, this make it look like a infinite fireworks. In addition, you can even use the interface to change the quantity, size and color of articles, this leads to a rich diversity.

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The Last Straw The purpose of this project is training our narrative skill. Hence, I needed to surf my memory in the past life, made it a fantastic story. Finally, showing the story with a special visual way. Because I chose a story when I was an intern at news company, I decided to use newspaper as an media to express the story.

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Before/After Professor wanted us to interview with each other, then visualized the information in a special visual way. The classmate I interviewed was Dennis, who was a navy before, so my interview focused on his past in the marine and the future he wants to be. I used a brain to show the interview is because Dennis trained right and left part of his brain in the past and present. The brain as a background shows the interacts between his past and present.

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The Lawn Research

2. Finding the issue

1. Location Introduction

The lawn in the center of Roosevelt Park is unlike the other parks, there are many prohibited signs, written “keep off grass”, and the lawn is surrounded with fencing, which is 55 inches in height. All these signs show that the area positively doesn’t allow people to step in. But there are many important buildings and public spaces built up for people to use all around the lawn at Roosevelt Park, including post office, Harrison Public Library, and play ground, etc. As a result, many people come to Roosevelt park to relax on the benches, and many parents bring their children here to play at the play ground. Although there are many people using the facilities and services at Roosevelt park, the government still keeps people away from the lawn, despite the fact original purpose of growing a lawn is to let people have the opportunity to touch nature. The plot is a perfect field for children to play with or for adults to relax, the lawn is appropriate for everyone to enjoy nature. It’s very rare to find a lawn in a city, and people living in a city are seldom able to breath in nature, even touch nature. It’s a great location to develop for people to

In Harrison, New Jersey, Roosevelt Park is on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Frank E Rodgers Blvd, and the lawn is at the center of Roosevelt Park and by the side of Harrison Avenue. The lawn is about 100 by 120 feet, and there is a fence around the lawn so there is no entrance to it. Stepping inside the lawn is extremely prohibited. If facing the lawn, Harrison Public Library is behind the lawn, the post office is on the left side, and Mother’s Park, the play ground and the monument is on the right side. The post office and Harrison Public Library provide services for the people living in Harrison. Mother’s Park is a very small park, and it’s set up for mothers devoting their love for their babies. The play ground is by the side of Mother’s Park, and there are many parents taking their children to play here. Last but not least, The monument was built up for the soldiers fighting in World War I, the Vietnam War and the Korean War. To sum up, there are many people spending their time at Roosevelt Park. It means there is a need for the government to open the lawn to the public.

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get close to nature. So the issue will be: why the government created the expansive lawn for people just to watch instead of playing on it. 3. Interview and research

ture, then opening the lawn to the public will be the most effective way to make people to commune with nature. To convey the concept, a narrative is needed to emphasize the contradiction.

According to the librarians in Harrison Public Library, the reason why the designer of Roosevelt Park grew the lawn was because residents of Harrison had few opportunities to see the grass and breath in nature. So the designer reserved the area to let people have more opportunities to enjoy nature instead of concrete and bricks. Nevertheless, the government think the lawn would be messed up if making the lawn open to public access or use. Consequently, any activity is forbidden on the lawn. The area is only for organizations to donation trees now.

People like to get close to nature, but the fence is the biggest barrier to keep people away from the lawn. The fence is like a prison keeping all people outside of the area, so people struggle to break the obstacle to touch the grass. On the other hand, if humanizing the grass, the grass seems to be imprisoned in the cage of the fence. The grass is also trying to grow out of the fence and escape from the cage. So that the grass can commune with people, too. As a result, the main idea is that the fence is like a prison, not only to keep people away from the lawn, but also to keep the lawn away from people.

Because the area is positively prohibited to any activities, the working area will only be the fence and the pavement around the lawn. Additionally, the project must to restore this area as beautiful and clean as it used to be after removing all the installations, and do the best to avoid interfering with pedestrians. So that it’s more likely to convince the government to let the project be set up.

Developing Purpose The goal of the project is to convey a message: the lawn was built up for people to have the opportunity to get close to na-

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Inspiration (1) Grass Sculptures Mixed media artist Mathilde RousselGiraudy made a set of grass sculptures which were made of wheat grass grown on soil molded on recycled metal. To quote the artist: “The natural world, ingested as food becomes a component of human beings. Through these anthropomorphic and organic sculptures made of soil and wheat grass seeds, I strive to show that food, it’s origin, it’s transport, has an impact on us beyond it’s taste.” The artist used grass sculptures with different figures to convey his idea. It’s a great idea to combine the

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grass and human beings. (2) Grass Flip-flops A doughnut maker, Krispy Kreme, came up with the “grass flip-flops” idea. Krispy Kreme tried to use the grass flip-flops to heal those “stuck-in-the-office-blues” by providing workers the chance to feel lawn beneath their bare feet all day long.

Solution The main message the project wants to convey is that the fence is like a cage not only to keep people away from the lawn, but also to keep the lawn away from people. Thus, the project will try to generate ideas in two directions: 1. The grass is struggling to escape from the cage; 2. people are eager to get onto the lawn. First, to convey that the grass is struggling to escape, the main concept is to humanize the grass, give the grass personality, and create an image of trying to get away from the cage. For this purpose, the project came up with two ideas. The fist idea is to put footprints, which are covered with grass, to simulate that there is an invisible grass man trying to run away from the cage. The idea refers to the mixed media artist Mathilde Roussel-Giraudy’s work. At the beginning of idea generation, simulating different people’s figures with grass is the project’s original grounded idea to develop. However, big grass sculptures will block pedestrian’s way if setting the grass sculptures on the pavement. Hence, the project tried to find another easier way

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to represent human beings’ figure. Finally, footprint is the ultimate decision. The second idea mainly refers to the grass flip-flops mentioned before. Different sizes of flip-flops will be put right in front of the “keep off grass” sign. The grass flip-flops convey a very clear message that it can provide people a sense of “mini nature,” so the installation tries to use grass flipflops as a metaphor to give people an opportunity to step on the grass with their bare feet, to feel the touch and the texture. Additionally, the installation also tries to convey an ironical message: is this the only way to touch the grass and feel nature, despite the fact there is a expansive lawn nearby? Secondly, to communicate that people are also eager to break the barrier to step on the lawn, the main plan is to use the image of people struggling to get into the grass to show people’s desire. The struggling image will be only the shape of a person’s body in black, that is silhouetted. The reason is that the boards are easy to be removed after displaying and they won’t interfere with pedestrian. There will not be any texture or details on the image. The images are some silhouettes of different figures in action, like jumping over a fence, crawling, etc. Then, the images will be printed out on foam boards, cut out and pasted on the rungs of the fence to show people are trying to move across the fence to reach nature.

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Communication Design Parsons The New School For Design / Editorial Design / Typography and Visual Design / Advanced Typography / Corporate ID & Packaging / Packaging design / Web Media

The Ink Magazine

121~150

The purpose of Editorial design is to teach students how to design layout for a magazine all by ourselves. The theme the instructor asked us to do is divided into three parts: people, things, and objects, and we needed to design at least covers, spread, content page for each theme. My magazine is talking about tattoos between eastern and western culture. The logotype means â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inkâ&#x20AC;&#x153; in Chinese.

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Social Symbol This project is to find or create a symbol to express the activity in our social life, then design different kinds of fonts for the symbol you choose, I finally decided to use “XD“ as my original idea to develope. “XD” is an emotion used on the Internet to express laughing very hard, verbally dictated as dying laughing or laughing very hard. In addition, there is another definition, it means not know whether to laugh or cry. In addition to create different fonts, we still need to choose one font as a element to design a poster.

Typography & Visual Design Instructor: Noah Hilsenrad | Student: Morpheus Chen

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A n emotion used on the Internet to express

laughing very hard, verbally dictated as dying laughing or laughing very hard. In addition, there is another definition, it means not know whether to laugh or cry.

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PIXEL FONT Morpheus Chen N00184384

PIXEL FONT PIXEL FONT Morpheus Chen Numbers N00184384

Morpheus Chen N00184384

Numbers

10 X

Pixel Font This project is to create a type. I want to use type as a metaphor to simulate the shadows of buildings in a big city to create a solid and digital atmosphere. I tried to fix some details to keep these characterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s readability. It means reader still can tell even when the character scale down.

10 X

Uppercase Letters

Uppercase Letters 10 X

10 X

8X 10 X 10 X 8X

Uppercase Letters Lowercase Letters

Uppercase Letters Lowercase Letters 8X

8X 8X

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V I S ULowercase A L DLetters E S I G N

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Kua Fu Chasing the Sun Kua Fu Chasing the Sun is one of the earliest famous fables in China. It talks about the legendary story of Kua Fu who aspired to catch up with the sun. In ancient times, there lived a group of mighty giants deep in the forests in the north and Kua Fu was their leader. At that time, the world was desolate and uncultured, infested with vipers and beasts. Kua Fu kept hanging the ferocious snakes he caught on ears for decoration, or grabbed them in hands waving proudly. In a year when the weather was extraordinarily hot, the plants were scorched, the rivers were dried and people were suffering from the intense heat of the sun. Kua Fu swore to catch the sun and tame it to serve for all. The sun moved fleetingly in the sky, while Kua Fu chased it like wind on the ground. When he shook off the dusts in his shoes,

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the dusts became a hill; he used three stones to support his boiler when he was cooking, and the stones later became three mountains. He caught up with the sun finally after nine days and nights. However, the sun was so scorching that he felt thirsty and tired and went to the Yellow River and the Wei River to quench his thirst. But the water from these two rivers was not sufficient to satisfy him and he decided to go to the Great Lake to drink its water. Before he got there he died of thirst on the way. Before his death, Kua Fu cast his walking stick away, and the place it fell off immediately grew a huge lush peach forests. The forests were flourishing all year round, which provides shades and peaches for the passersby and hard- working people to quench thirst..

V I S U A L

D E S I G N

151~180

The Matrix This project is to find a movie and capture a piece of its script, and then use typography to create the atmosphere and the plot. I chose The Matrix and tried to show the most important conversation between the two main characters: Neo and Morpheus.

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V I S U A L

D E S I G N

181~210

Akira Kurosawa VCD/DVD Akira Kurosawa is one of the most important directors in Japan. In this project, I chose Kurosawa as the target to design DVD covers. I wanted to combine eastern and western culture, as a result, I used Chinese calligraphy as a background image, and Japanese objects as a symbol, like katana, flag, etc, to emphasize the Japanese style. As to the typography, I used serif type to create an tradition, classical image, like Garamond, Palentino and Didot. The Chinese calligraphy is used to create an atmosphere according to different films. For four DVD cover I made a connection between them. Every symbol are all cropped more or less to focus on some details and highlight the tension, but all texts follow a grid system

A D V A N C E D

T Y P O G R A P H Y

181~210

3D model

3D Model

Seven Samurai

shot in 1954

黑澤

Sound Track

Complete Motion Picture Collection

Music CDs

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Seven Samurai

AKIRA KUROSAWA

Akira Kurosawa

The Throne Of Blood

Record Of A Living Being

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

01 Seven Samurai 02 Record Of A Living Being 03 Dreams 04 The Throne Of Blood 05 The Lower Depths 06 Ran 07 The Bad Sleep Well 08 Yojimbo 09 Sanjuro 10 High And Low 11 Red Beard 12 Dodes' Kaden 13 Dersu Uzala 14 Kagemusha 15 Ikiru 16 The Hidden Fortress 17 Voice Of Kurosaw

Dreams

A gang of marauding bandits approaches a mountain village. The bandit decides it is best that they spare it until the harvest in several months. A villager happens to overhear the discussion. The news leaves the villagers divided about whether to surrender harvest or fight back against the bandits.

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

They go to the village elder, who declares that they should fight, by hiring samurai help defend the village. Some of the villagers are troubled by the advice, thinking that samurai are expensive to enlist and to believed to lust after young farm women, but realize they have no choice. Since villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village elder tells them to "find hungry samurai."

Akira Kurosawa's treatment of King Lear, it is a story of greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji has decided to step aside to make room for the younger blood of his three sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, the Lord's only wish now being to live out his years as an honored guest the castle of each of his sons in turn.

Dreams

shot in 1990

Seven Samurai

shot in 1954

Sound Track Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Besides, I wanted to make the form of music CD’s booklet simulate the shape of a katana, so I angled the top edge of the booklet and make it can be unfolded. As for the layout, I followed a grid system and made all rags Record Of A Living Being be perfect rags. Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Seven Samurai

AKIRA KUROSAWA

Complete Motion Picture Collection

Dreams

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

They go to the village elder, who declares that they should fight, by hiring samurai to help defend the village. Some of the villagers are troubled by the suggestion, thinking that samurai are expensive to enlist and believed to lust after young farm women, but realize they have no choice. Since villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village tells them to find hungry samurai.

CD 1

The Throne Of Blood

The Lower Depths

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Dreams

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Rashomon

King Lear, it is a story of greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hidetora Ichi has decided to step aside to make room for the younger blood of his three sons, Jiro, and Saburo, the Lord's only wish now being to live out his years as an honored guest the castle of each of sons in turn.

Ran

shot in 1985

The final version comes direct from the woodcutter, as the only witness , but by then he is no longer a reliable witness. All versions are told to a ribald new commoner as they wait out a new rainstorm in the ruined gate at the city limits of Kyoto, a damage ruin identified by a sign as Rashōmon. "The Peach Orchard." The same young boy encounters the spirits of the peach trees that have cut down by humans.

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Rashomon unfolds flashback as the four characters, the bandit Tajōmaru, the samurai's wife , the murdered samurai , and the nameless woodcutter, recount the events of one afternoon in a grove. The first three versions are told by the priest, who was present at the trial as a witness, having bumped into the couple on the road just prior to the events. Each of these versions has a response of "lies" from the woodcutter. The final version comes direct from the woodcutter, as the only witness , but by then he is no longer a reliable witness. All versions are told to a ribald commoner as they wait out a new rainstorm in the ruined gate at the city limits of Kyoto, a ruin identified by a sign as Rashōmon.

A gang of marauding bandits approaches a new mountain village. The bandit decides it is best that they spare it until the harvest in several months. A villager happens to overhear the discussion. The news leaves the villagers divided about whether to surrender harvest or fight back against the bandits.

shot in 1990

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

They go to the village elder, who declares that they should fight, by hiring samurai to help defend the village. Some of the villagers are troubled by the suggestion, thinking that samurai are expensive to enlist and believed to lust after young farm women. Since villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village tells them to find hungry samurai.

Some of the villagers are troubled by the suggestion, thinking that samurai are expensive to enlist and believed to lust after young farm women, but realize they have no choice. Since villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village elder tells them to "find hungry samurai."

Ran

01 Seven Samurai 02 Record Of A Living Being 03 Dreams 04 The Throne Of Blood 05 The Lower Depths 06 Ran 07 The Bad Sleep Well 08 Yojimbo 09 Sanjuro

High And Low

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Dreams consists of dreams based on Kurosawa's own, throughout his life. "Sunshine Through The Rain" - A young boy is told not to go out on the day, because that's when the foxes hold their wedding procession. "The Peach Orchard" - The same young boy encounters the spirits of the peach trees that have been cut down by heartless humans. "The Blizzard" - A team of mountaineers are saved from a blizzard by spiritual intervention. "The Tunnel" - A man encounters the ghosts of an army platoon, whose deaths he was responsible for. "Crows" - An art student encounters 'Vincent Van Gogh' and enters the world of his paintings. "Mount Fuji in Red" - Nuclear meltdown threatens devastation of Japan.

King Lear, it is a story of greed, a lust for p and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hid has decided to step aside to make room younger blood of his three sons, Jiro, and the Lord's only wish now being to live out as an honored guest the castle of each of s

A gang of marauding bandits approaches mountain village. The bandit decides it is they spare it until the harvest in several m A villager happens to overhear the discus news leaves the villagers divided about w to surrender harvest or fight back against t

Because I wanted only focus on Kurosawa in the project, so I tried to make the music CD be consistent with previous DVD covers. As a result, I tried to apply the elements in the DVD covers to the music CD’s booklet. I still used the concept of slash to make the graphics stronger and more consistent.

黑澤

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

They go to the village elder, who declares that they should fight, by hiring samurai to help defend the village. Some of the villagers are troubled by the suggestion, thinking that samurai are expensive to enlist and believed to lust after young farm women. Since villagers have nothing to offer any prospective samurai except food, the village tells them to find hungry samurai.

Ran

Music/ Nihon Daigaku Duration/ 03’35’’ Publisher/ Onyomi kanji

Rashomon

shot in 1950

"The Blizzard" A team of mountaineers are saved from a blizzard by spiritual intervention. "The Tunnel" - A man encounters the ghosts of an army platoon, whose deaths he was responsible for. "Crows" - An art student encounters 'Vincent Van Gogh' and enters the world of his paintings. "Mount Fuji in Red" - Nuclear meltdown threatens devastation of Japan.

CD 2 10 High And Low 11 Red Beard 12 Dodes' Kaden 13 Dersu Uzala 14 Kagemusha 15 Ikiru 16 The Hidden Fortress 17 Voice Of Kurosaw

Ran

shot in 1985

181~210 DreamWork Present:

blue velvet eraserhead elephant man

Akira/David Exhibit Poster

Dreams Ran Rashomon

I chose David Lynch as another director, and I still wanted to focus on the meeting of western and eastern culture. As far as I concern, David Lynch’s films give audience a weird, mysterious atmosphere, but compared to Lynch, Akira Kurosawa’s films show a clear image. As a result, I blurred everything about David Lynch in the poster to make a contrast between the two directors. However, I used sanserif type to show Lynch, because he is more modern than Kurosawa. Additionally, because I have a strong impression of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, I wanted to use katana as a concept to connect Kurosawa and Lynch. Finally, I used the slash of a knife to be another symbol to make the relationship between them.

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04/23/2011 18:00 - 21:00

181~210

3D Model

Envelope Back

Akira/David Exhibit Invitation For invitation, I still wanted to use the slash of a sword as a related concept. So I angled many things to be a metaphor of a slash, like the envelope, layout, etc. Additionally, my original idea was to emphasize the meeting of western and eastern culture, and I tried to push my idea forward to focus on the differences between these two culture, so I decided to use black and white as a basic concept to be my color coding. On the other hand, I tried to change the format of reply envelope. The guests can only use the original invitation as a reply mail and send back to the organizer.

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Envelope Front

181~210 3D Model

Invitation Front

Akira/David Exhibit Invitation

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Invitation Back

181~210

Akira/David Exhibit Invitation A D V A N C E D

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Reply Mail

211~240

This class only contained a big project, and the project last to the end of the semester. We need to design a corporate identity system for a big supermarket in U.S called BuyLo. The primary spirit of this company is to provide customers lower price than other supermarkets. Hence, designing the logo needed to show the prices here are extremely low. I chose orange and magenta as primary color to design the logo to create a relaxing and young atmosphere. For the secondary color, I chose light green.

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P A C K A G I N G

211~240

C O R P O R A T E

I D

P A C K A G I N G

211~240

C O R P O R A T E

I D

P A C K A G I N G

241~270

Julius Fireplace Matches The professor pretended to be a fireplace matches client, and students must to satisfy him. He wanted us to use his lovely dog â&#x20AC;&#x153;Juliusâ&#x20AC;&#x153; as the logo of the matches. Besides, the matches need to show the specialties of Julius. I used matches as background and put Julius on the top of the box to be the logo. Plus, when users open the match box, it looks like Julius opens his mouth to let people take matches.

P A C K A G I N G

D E S I G N

241~270

Parsonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ammonia The purpose of this project is designing the label for Parsonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ammonia. This label must to show all the information, including lemon flesh, all purpose cleaner, etc. Besides, this project also trained our ability to render the appearance of the bottle.

P A C K A G I N G

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241~270

Candy

B DY BAG

B DY BAG B DY BAG

Candy

Candy ROTTEN APPLE ROTTEN APPLE ROTTEN APPLE

Gummy

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Gummy

P A C K A G I N G

N SE BLEED N SE BLEEDGummy

In class, all students discussed and finally decided three kinds of tricky candy, including Nose Bleed, Rotten Apple, and Body Bag. I chose long PVC bag as my package. According to the name of the candy, I separately drew bleeding nose, apple with worm on it, and someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body with open chest and belly. Besides, I exaggerated the appearance and painted with some vivid colors to attract people to purchase.

N SE BLEED

Tricky Candy

Packaging Packaging Design

Morpheus Morpheus Chen

241~270

James Bondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Cologne This project needed us to choose a celebrity and design a whole set of cologne for him/her. I chose James Bond as my target. Because James Bond always wears nice black suit and carries a cool gun, I tried to use black as primary color to design everything, including logo, cologne box, shopping bag, etc. For the bottle of the cologne, I simulated the shape of a bullet. Besides, there is a window on the side of the bottle, users can tell how much cologne left.

P A C K A G I N G

D E S I G N

271~300

DecisionMaker Description

1) Type in the choices you need to decide.

Life is all about decision-making. DecisionMaker is a mobile application for smartphones, able to help you make the best decision precisely, rationally and most importantly, it meets your need.

2) Create a category you are considering, and list its importance from 1 to 10. 3) For each category, decide both choicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; importance by scoring from 1 to 10.

Communication Objective

4) Then the decision comes out based on comparing the total scores.

DecisionMaker is a mobile application for all smartphone users. Users can easily score alternative choice by different categories. There are only four steps to use DecisionMaker.

The progress can be saved and loaded so that users can modify the categories and values at any time to make sure they make the best choice.

Description

Life is all abou a mobile applic you make the and most impo

Communicatio

DecisionMake phone users. W score alternati There are only

1) Create a ca list its impor 2 )For each ca importance 3) Then the de comparing t

The progress users can mod time to make s

BGM by SoundJay.

W E B

M E D I A

Taylor & Ives, Inc.

Internship / New York Historical Society / Crexus Investment Corp.

crexus

301~330

investment corp.

crexus investment corp.

crexus crexus

investment corp. investment corp.

CREXUS Logo Annaly is a big estate company in U.S. They have many branches, the project is to rebrand the old CREXUS logo. The original Logo focused on the “X“ character, however, the owner of the company thought “X“ means “cancel“ or “forbidden“, so they wanted us to find a new way to show they’re customers are commercial buildings. Besides, the logos of their other branches all use shield as background, therefore, I had to put logo in the center of the shield. My idea emphasized on creating a commercial building, and simplized it as simple as possible to increase it’s readability when it scale down.

crexus investment corp.

Original Logo

crexus crexus investment corp.

investment corp.

crexus investment corp.

crexus crexus investment corp. investment corp.

crexus

investment corp. investment corp.

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I N V E S T M E N T

C O R P O R A T E

crexus investment corp.

331~365

Buzz Card New York Historical Society Museum is one of the oldest museums in New York. However, few people have been to this museum before. As a result, museum wanted to redesign all the coporate identity system, and reopen on November 11 in 2011. Before reopening clients wanted to sent buzz cards to inform receivers there will be a big opening for New York Historical Society Museum. Besides, clients wanted to send buzz cards separately in three times to keep receivers remember this big event. Therefore, I used buzz card as a media to show puzzles, and every puzzle will show a number, when people solve all puzzles, the answer will be 11:00 am. 11/11/2011.

NEW

YORK

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

MUSEUM

331~365

Floor Map There are four floors and many different kinds of exhibitions in New York Historical Society Museum. In this floor map, I used different colors to represent different kinds of rooms and exhibitions. Besides, there are two kinds of map, one is horrizontal, the other is vertical. And they are all four-folded. On the back of the map, it provides basic information about everything in New York Historical Society Museum.

NEW

YO R K

H I S T O R I C AL

S O CI E T Y

M US E UM

331~365

Shopping Bag New York Historical Society Museum needed us to design a shopping bag for the gift shop. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have much budget for this project, therefore the colors are used on the shopping bag are no more than three colors. Becasue the client hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t decided yet while I was an intern, the shopping bags on the right side are all my proposals.

NEW

Y O R K

H I S T O R I C AL

S O CI E T Y

M US E UM