Maine College of Art & Design 
BFA Graphic Design 
Degree Projects 2024


&
Graphic
Design

Pho X Faux

Zachary Lennett

This project reflects my process of grappling with my complex identity as a Vietnamese transracial adoptee. Grounding my research in the history of Pho, a traditional Vietnamese noodle dish whose origins are inextricably linked to Western colonial influence in South Asia, I trace and find parallels between the dish’s evolution in the West, my own story, and the story of the Vietnamese people.

As a graphic designer, I find myself perpetually working at the intersection of visual and cultural identity. I look Asian but I was raised in a white family in Maine. As a result, I often don’t know where I fit in; I feel like I’m faking who I am and there is no “real me”. This was as true when I visited Vietnam as it is in the US. Similarly, there is no definitive Pho. The dish’s ingredients and flavors change depending on its context.

Through posters, data visualization, video, projection mapping, and augmented reality, this project uses a variety of media to create an immersive environment that navigates the complexities of race, ethnicity, food, and belonging. I aim to communicate my experience as an Asian American designer who is discovering how to design for myself while exploring this complex and personal topic.

Pho X Faux: 2024 BFA Thesis zachlennett.com

 



Prompt

Griffen McKinney

For my collage series Prompt, I cultivated a daily making practice where from January to April of 2024 I made at least two collages per day. Each collage is guided by the content of a prompt written by myself and then translated to a visual collage. I wrote around fifty prompts for a high volume of results. Each prompt is organized by the month in which it was made. This is to illustrate a chronological timeline structure. I’m presenting Prompt as a graphic design thesis because I used design elements like hierarchy and texture for the construction of the collages. This was to utilize my design skills in an experimental creative process. I’m using the word prompt as a noun for the title to emphasize how important the writing of the prompts was to the design of the collages. I’m also using the word as an adjective to highlight how time spent on a collage would affect the outcome of the composition. 



Rumination

Sophie Chu
  
sophiezoe.com  
@sophiezoesSophie Chuoneil is a graphic design major with frequent multidisciplinary exploration. Her current work aims to bring attention to the choices people make regarding consumption and rumination, highlighting its more cyclical and impulsive implications. She explores how design is a form of communication, therefore dictating how and what we consume. Her work aims to encourage a more mindful practice of consumption in media, food, and environment through purposeful decisions in design of any form.

Sophie Zoe (Sophie Chu-O’Neil) is a senior studying graphic design at Maine College of Art & Design. She is from Queens, NY and hopes to be able to travel between New York and Portland in the years post graduation. Her work uses various mediums such as textiles, wood, ceramics, code, and more ranging different topics of exploration. She aims to one day return to school to get her MFA, hopefully implementing cooking or teaching into her career further down the line.





2,600 Touches

Jackie Heanssler

My ideas started flowing when I spent some time away from a screen. I began to question why I was so hooked on scrolling through social media, and what I was actually seeking satisfaction from. Perhaps I thought that I was missing out on something, and that the next post would fulfill my expectations and allow me to put my phone down. That is of course, never the case. So, for my thesis, I settled on the idea of interaction and communication working hand in hand, and that the connection between me and the content I was consuming was the driving force behind my fixation on screens. I have always found print based media like books, and different paper textures to be compelling because of the tactile experience you feel when interacting with it. I began to wonder whether it was possible to find the same satisfaction away from the screen, and instead, with print based media, in hopes of finding out why screens are so invasive in my day to day life.


55 Clifford St.

London Cambra

I am the fifth generation of my family to live in our home. Growing up, I was constantly aware of just how many people had once occupied this space through the marks they left behind. My thesis project is to create design objects that pay homage to the journals, photos, and memories that have made this little white cottage so special. To best represent all the different archives within my home I have created 4 separate design projects. The first is the My House book, which compiles all of Memere's journals and notes from 1920 to 2022. The second is the Memere’s Fudge packaging which represents the staple food of every party at Clifford Street. The third is the accordion book Perennials which pairs photos of recurring events in the house. The last project is The Floor Plan which is an augmented reality footprint of each floor of the house. Users can click on icons within the footprint of the house to bring up photos of that location. My thesis is a gift to my house, a celebration of all the lives shaped by its walls.




Echo

Abigail Stevenson

 Greek mythological stories have been around for over 2,700 years. They are classical pieces of art that tell stories of Greek civilians, Gods, Goddesses, and mythical creatures. More importantly, if you strip away the powers the Gods have, the half human half animal hybrids, the multi-headed creatures and the magic, you have humans interacting with animals and nature in the most recognizable and fundamental ways. The essence of these stories is to teach lessons about growing up, interpersonal relationships, love, and the changing of weather and seasons. Because of this, these stories are applicable to even present day struggles people might be facing. One of my goals in my thesis is to bring these stories into a modern light through my designs, to hopefully encourage a new audience to interact in these tales and perhaps find comfort in the stories they could potentially relate to.
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Chromatic

Mood

Samuel Cook

 Colors are connected to emotions, so do we feel the same colors? Chromatic Mood evolved around that question and from exploring the complicated emotions and phenomena that didn’t have a name until they were coined in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Between the psychological effect of colors to their business benefits, there are many sources that try to dictate how you should feel about a color. It’s easy to go with the commonly agreed upon answer, but being complex beings with complex emotions it is way more likely that you have some sentiment for one color or hatred for another. These are some of the real driving forces for this project as it evolved. Emotions need to be felt, sometimes we need a call to action, a sense of urgency, or a feeling of comfort during difficult times that doesn’t find its root in simply being happy, sometimes we need the bad feelings to appreciate the good feelings better. Explore the real and raw, vulnerable colors of emotion. 
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Graphic Design Program
Maine College of Art & Design
522 Congress Street, Fl 3
Portland, Maine

@mecagd



BFA Class of 2024
London Cambra
Sophie Chuoneil
Samuel Cook
Jackie Heanssler
Zach Lennett
Griffen McKinney
Abigail Stevenson
Program Faculty
Peter Alfano
Mary-Jo Valentino
Amy Parker
Steve Bowden
Kiana Thayer