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Graphic
Design

Authentic
Intelligence

Kate Clark

Where does AI stand in connection with authenticity? How does it apply to the creative process in 2026? Authentic Intelligence is an investigation into artificial intelligence through authentic processes. To define authentic, it is described as “undisputed origin, genuine.” You will be able to see the origin of this thesis through a variety of pieces.

Meta AI was used to make AI generated images that were then printed and ripped into pieces to form a process book of what it was like to use generative AI for the first time. AI is being used for imagery, and has also infiltrated the hiring process of the general workforce. It’s found its way into social media and has made an irreversible impact to the environment. A trilogy of zines displayed is loaded with information about where we can see AI in day-to-day life. I do not use AI in my practices. For this thesis it was important I understand how this tool is expected to be used, as it was the foundation for my investigation. Authentic Intelligence will talk about how we can do our best for our own critical thinking skills and artistic processes without the use of artificial intelligence.

Resonance

Cora Fackert

Music has always been just as important in my life as art, and growing up, the two were completely intertwined. I remember moments of being a stubborn toddler, and the only way my parents could get me to take a bath was for my dad to play the saxophone to calm me down the entire time, or moments where my mom would involve me in her own crafts, such as paper art and crochet. Music shaped how I felt, how I connected to people, and how I understood the world, while art gave me a way to respond to those feelings visually. As I’ve moved through my design education, I’ve noticed that nearly all of my strongest ideas circle back to music in some way. My thesis focuses on using design to show how music is capable of helping create connections between people in simple, approachable, and interactive ways. At the heart of this project is the idea that music is a universal language. People may have different tastes, backgrounds, and experiences, but music often acts as common ground. It starts conversations, builds relationships, and helps people express things they don’t always have words for.

Common Ground

Ella Irving

My thesis, Common Ground, seeks to advocate for climate optimism. The aim of my work is for generations now entering young adulthood to find hope in our future while acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead. I am exploring how to motivate people to feel hopeful using mostly tangible or interactive design. My goal is that through making contact with these pieces, viewers leave with a new perspective to consider. The content of work that I am choosing to make focuses on how to build resiliency in Maine-based communities. In a location that will feel the effects of climate change on both land and sea, it is important to me to show people the positive efforts that are being made to support our communities through these transitions. By taking inspiration from local grassroots organizations, I am hoping to incentivize viewers into participating in groups such as these or taking their own form of personal action. Although we cannot stop all climate change from happening, my thesis defends that there is still a planet, and an abundance of life, worth fighting for.

Green Room is an exploration of cafes and music venues through branding and conceptualization of a space. Focusing on what draws people to spaces and the need for third places as a place to unwind and build community. Third places being a community space outside of homelife or work. The need for third spaces was also intertwined with my love for live music and memories of local cafes from my childhood hosting music based events like open mic nights. This all comes together in the Green Room, a place to meet and bond over music and have a place outside of home and work you can turn to. The center work of the exhibit is the brand identity for Green Room, a system made up of record flowers and art nouveau inspired type. As well as merchandise for the brand (T-Shirts and matchboxes), handmade textiles, signage, wallpaper and books encompassing the full work. The space should invite you in to sit and understand why we need community centered third spaces, and how music can play a role in that experience.

While
Supplies
Last

Molly Lawrence

While Supplies Last is an exhibit and mini-mart. Inspired by a Grub Street article on the ‘shoppy-shop’, a term coined by Neil Shankar, which refers to the phenomena of aestheticized, Instagrammable, boutique grocers, homegoods stores, and lifestyle shops, I designed my own shoppy-shop, designed with the intention of investigating, critiquing, and subverting the subject of aesthetic-based consumerism.

Many of these items, on closer inspection, reveal a second, or double meaning which relates to ideas surrounding overconsumption, purchasing items purely for aesthetic or trend-based reasons, and the effects those acts have on ourselves and culture.

mollylawrence.art

What if a designed object could function not as a guide to presence, but as presence itself? This project includes three books, a glossary card deck, and a daily practice book, exploring how design is experienced through the body. Touch, weight, texture, pacing, and layering shape the encounter, creating space for slowness through tactility. The work grew from making as a form of healing, offering a space to reconnect to the body, to notice the breath, to feel grounded, and to let thoughts come and go without forcing change. These pieces won’t resolve anything. They stay with the reader, a companion in the act of being, inviting presence.

irismartin.art

Sandbox

Daniel Watts

For my thesis I wanted to fully dive into a project that tested my abilities as a designer, thus leading me to creating a magazine on video games that I have called Sandbox. This magazine is a way to mix both my love for video games and my desire to experiment more with longform type and organization. Within this magazine, I have conceptualized four issues, only one being the one I fully developed and perfect bound, that focus on different aspects of games and game development. I want to highlight games and game development because the time and effort put into them is often overlooked, and not appreciated as an art by the average person. My first issue of Sandbox called The Ones and Zeroes issue features two interviews from video game designers here at MECA&D, features on the top games of 2025 with small facts about the development process, and a section dedicated to art made for and about video games from students at MECA&D.    

Good Luck is a conceptual store and collection of boxes, designed with motifs of luck, featuring chances, surprises, and mysteries, with collectibles, mystery boxes, and surprise boxes. This thesis explores gambling or betting on your chances of luck when using the products. Good Luck wishes you good luck on your bet, purchase, and consumption. It is shrouded in mystery and elements of surprise. My work critiques the culture of surprise boxes and their association with gambling and the need to wish yourself good luck. My interest in manifestation, luck, and collectibles was my source of inspiration and the driving force behind my thesis.  

Tea Time

Sam Yusuf

Where are all the East African artists? Tea Time isn’t meant to be educational but rather showcasing an under valued region of art. Not geographically limited to the borders of East Africa but expanding and encompassing its diaspora. This origin point is recently under spotlight particularly in the media with the following terms, “war-ravaged,” “poor,” “criminals,” “garbage,” and “terrorists” coming from our current administration. Rather than framing opinions of a certain region through a eurocentric framework, Tea Time encourages instead to directly seek out sources and consume media outside of the western lens. Tea Time exists as an environment typically seen in traditionalistic East African households, simulating the tranquility of everyday life while consuming East African media both in its historical and contemporary states. This isn’t meant to produce a monolithic image of the East African experience, instead it is to provide a glimpse of the diversity and beauty of East African culture and art.