VA: Senior Project Thoughts

After talking with Tyler about my senior project, I think that the direction I would like to take is something that has to do with board-sports. Only because I am so interested in this field of design and have always been involved in this area of design, and I think that it could keep my interest for a whole semester. I am not sure as to what I want to propose as a Senior Thesis, but maybe it has to do with the relationship of how the board graphic began, and its journey through history and the sports that it is involved. Or even how the aesthetic quality of the graphics for board-sports, how they got to where they are, and where is it going in the future? I just am not sure if this is going to take me into any new territory or its just going to end up being something that has been done before. I am not only interested in the graphic part of this process, but also materials and the building of these products. Are these materials going green? Or are they more toxic than we really know? How do these materials break down over time, and what are their impacts to the environment? How could we use these boards for other things? Science? Water Reports? These are the types of things that keep my interest in this. Are there multifunctional purposes for the sport of surfing, or other board-sports? How can technology help aid these types of scenarios?

Another topic that is still up for grabs is that I would like to investigate how silk screen printing has found its way through history, and what technological advances has challenged this type of printing and why it is still around today? I find it really interesting that something so old can still be found being used by contemporary artsist and also large companies today. What does this type of printing have over digital printing? What are the advantages/disadvantages to this ancient way of printing? How has technology found its way into screen printing? How has technology changed the printing methods? These are the types of things that I could find myself investigating further. How has this type of printing influenced graphic design/designers? Are their design firms that strictly print via silkscreen only? Im sure more thoughts will pop-up with upcoming discussion!