Work Category: Graphic Design

In 2024, I was approached by Dr. Eleanor Shonkoff, who sought assistance in developing a bilingual (English and Español) checklist for a community-based research study on pediatric nutrition. Dr. Shonkoff’s research examines the links between parent factors (e.g., feeding practices, stress), child dietary intake, and child obesity risk, particularly within underserved populations facing food insecurity. 

As part of that checklist, we developed a 1-10 linear-annotated graphic scale to represent hunger. The resultant scale uses five iconographic faces paired with ten short descriptive definitions. Our approach to this scale was partially inspired and informed by the well-known and widely adopted Wong–Baker^[1] Faces Pain Rating Scale.

Credits—

• Principal Investigator: Dr. Eleanor Shonkoff, Associate Clinical Professor, Nutrition and Public Health, Merrimack College
• Graphic Design Intern: Josh McCarthy
• Communication Design Research Consultant: Dan Vlahos

_{^[1] The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale was created by Donna Wong and Connie Baker in 1983 to help children effectively communicate about their pain. Once practitioners clearly understood the child’s pain, they could develop a quality treatment and support plan. More at: https://wongbakerfaces.org/us/wong-baker-faces-history/}

One of my last projects at Shepley Bulfinch was collaborating with architect Michael Joyce AIA, LEED AP, to develop a graphic frit glass pattern for the forthcoming LEED Silver Penn Pavilion at Duke University. One thing that made this project special is that Joyce and I are both MassArt alumni. Although we were years apart, we often shared stories and reflections upon our former MassArt Design Professors. Under the direction of Shepley Bulfinch Principal Tom Kearns, FAIA, Joyce and I explored possibilities for the glass through unique prototyping methods.

Years after the project was completed, I ran into Joyce at MassArt in 2017. I was teaching in the Communication Design program, and he was giving a guest lecture titled Narrative Devices. Joyce, who received his Masters in Architecture from MIT, approached me after the talk, and we began to reminisce about the Penn Pavilion project. Joyce recalled our prototyping exercises, which used projection, large format printing, and proportional studies to create the desired “graphic” effect we sought at various distances. Half jokingly, Joyce recalled how staff members watched inquisitorially as we projected images onto a double-height space to visualize the patterns at 1:1 scale.

The new Penn Pavilion marked the first step in a comprehensive scheme to revamp the West Campus at Duke University and is occupied by a variety of restaurants as well as rooms for meetings, courses and conferences. The Pavilion has an extensive glazed curtain walling system with an aluminum frame and boasts panoramic views over the nearby Anderson Woods and the Gothic Quarter. The curved east facade, which is designed to express movement, was fitted with a mullion-less SG facade. As part of an integrated daylight management system, the external solar shading and the special glazing minimize direct sunlight and glare.

According to Archello a website self-described as “the hub between the creative and making industry,” the “entire outer façade (837 m²) has been constructed using SCHOLLGLAS products and ensures a visually homogeneous exterior shell despite the varying requirements dictated by each installation location. The self-supporting façade at the front of the building is particularly impressive.”

Archello goes on to note that, “They were manufactured using modern GEWE-therm® heat-insulating glass, of which individual components are combined using a range of glass refining processes. The products used include laminated safety glass and thermally toughened single-pane safety glass which were subjected to heat-soak testing. In addition to this, a highly selective sun protection coating has been used on the south side of the building to prevent overheating. The special coating has a high light transparency of 65 % while only allowing 34 % of the total energy to pass through. This coating combination ensures maximum daylight penetration into the interior of the room while simultaneously keeping heating of the glass façade to a minimum. A screen-printed stripe pattern has also been applied to some of the glass elements, bringing rhythm and structure to the design of the façade.”

Credits—

• Tom Kearns, FAIA, Principal
• Michael Joyce, AIA, LEED AP, Design Architect
• Robert Peirce, Construction Administration
• Dan Vlahos, Graphic Designer

How did a small New England town become a leading maker of carriages, car bodies, textiles, hats, shoes, and more? How can design help bring this unique story to life? How could such efforts foster identity, support, and place? As part of a multidisciplinary design team, my Merrimack College design students, Dan Vlahos Design, and many others helped shape answers to these questions as we helped bring a new industrial history center into existence.

Starting in 2021, John Mayer, the Executive Director of the Amesbury Carriage Museum, led a fundraising and design effort to transform the ground level of a former mill factory (Mill 2) in Amesbury’s historic Upper Millyard into a lively history-focused community and exhibition space. Mayer’s vision was to make the “community a campus.” While the Industrial History Center (IHC) is indeed used for exhibits and programs, Mayer and his team viewed the entire city of Amesbury as an artifact. Thus, our design efforts were focused on supporting this mission—a contextual exploration of history, community, discovery, and the built environment.

In the Spring of 2020, my Undergraduate Graphic Design III students at Merrimack College embarked upon an experiential, community-based partnership with Mayer and his team. Working with Mayer, my students developed design concepts for signage, activities, promotions, and communications. Following this partnership, in the fall of 2020, Dan Vlahos Design teamed with Anna Farrington Graphic Arts & Design as design consultants to the IHC as they sought to develop a donor recognition system, promotional materials, and signage concepts.

The Industrial History Center officially opened to the public in October of 2021. At the project’s conclusion, Mayer remarked, “Beyond creating essential design materials, the design team really helped us understand and shape what this could be.” Years after its grand opening, the Industrial History Center has become an essential and beloved local and regional center—offering a host of exhibitions, activities, and programming for all ages.

Credits—

• John Mayer, Executive Director
• Bonnie Brady, Program Manager
• Gregory Colling, AIA, Architect
• BLB Design \ Build, Builder
• Imarc, Brand Identity Design
• Nancy Wynn, Senior Design Advisor
• Anna Farrington, Signage Consultant
• Robert Dennis, Copywriter
• Dan Vlahos, Creative Direction and Donor Systems Designer
• Keith Ragone, Exhibit Designer
• Harrison Markowsky, Graphic and Experience Design
• Kira Kolodziej, Environmental Graphic Design
• David Andrighetti, Interaction Design
• Rylan Benedict, Visual Storytelling
• Amesbury Carriage Museum, Portfolio Photography

Press—

Mayer, John. Looking Forward, Amesbury Carriage Museum, May 2020.

History museum in Amesbury studies how industry in the city has changed, wbur, July 2022.

Amesbury Carriage Museum welcomes warm season with Industrial History Center events, WickedLocal.com, May 2022.

Baker, B. The Amesbury miracle: How a dying mill town went through a vibrant renewal, The Boston Globe, November 2023.

In early 2023 I was asked to develop a promotional campaign for Merrimack College’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) April 2023 Spring Alumni and Friends Event. The event is meant to attract alumni and friends of VPA back to the College to experience the annual student exhibition and theatrical performance.

For this concept, I proposed that we visually showcase senior VPA students themselves. To do this, I proposed that we photograph them individually or in small groups, silhouette the images, and then line them up in several rows at the base of the poster. The headline reads, “Our spring lineup is all lined up.”

During the actual shoot, we asked the students to hold “props” like musical instruments, pennants, art supplies, etc. These full-color images were then converted to grayscale and tinted using Merrimack’s two signature colors (Blue and Gold), which gives the poster a two-color duotone quality.

For years I have been inspired by Steve Frykholm’s iconic graphic design work for Herman Miller. This poster is directly inspired Frykholm’s 1985 Annual Report cover. While I serving as Creative Director for Shepley Bulfinch, I would consistently reference not only Frykholm’s work—but also the design-centered culture he helped establish at Herman Miller. 

Frykholm and Sara Giovanitti’s Annual Report cover featured six rows of employees shot black and white photography. The figures are casually if not whimsically, arranged. A headline on the top right of the report says, “SAY HELLO TO THE OWNERS!” As an aside, Herman Miller is an excellent example of a company that is capitalized through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan or “ESOP.”

Credits—

Graphic Designer: Dan Vlahos
Art Director: Nancy Wynn
Photographer: Colleen Dolan

Can community-based photography alter or contribute to the narrative of a place? Mission Hill: Presence, Absence and Transformation served as the exhibition catalogue for the 2019 community-based photography exhibition of the same name. The photography project was led by Dragan Grujic, the founder of Boston-based INFocus Camera Club. The exhibition opened in June of 2019 and was presented in two galleries located in Boston’s Brigham Circle.

As curator of the exhibition, Grujic assembled a group of local photographers—charging them to see and capture a diverse community that has been undergoing and grappling with dynamic change to its environment, identity, and population for years. As contributing photographer Chris Lovett states in the Forward, “To see Mission Hill is to look beyond the surface, to overlays of space and time, sign and signified, presence and absence.”

Now in its second printing, this 50-page, limited-edition volume showcases various works from the exhibition and includes brief statements from all five contributors. The hard-bound book is printed on acid-free premium matte paper and features an image-wrap cover. Dan Vlahos served as the book designer but was also one of the contributing photographers with the inclusion of his Just Numbers photographic series.

In May of 2022 I was asked to sign copies of this book at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In June of 2022, Mission Hill: Presence, Absence and Transformation was entered into the permanent collection of the Boston Public Library. A copy is also housed in special collections within the Tolle Lege Collection at Merrimack College. Copies of the second edition can be purchased through Mission Hill Main Streets.

Credits—

Contributing Photographers: Dragan Grujic, Kay Mathew, Christopher Lovett, Doina Iliescu, Dan Vlahos
Book Design: Dan Vlahos
Publisher: INFocus

Case Studies—

Arts Engagement for Healing and Transformation in Mission Hill, 2009–2023.

Press—

What’s Happening on Main Streets, Mission Hill Gazette, Walker, October 2022.

How might a monograph for a regional architect be designed sustainably while also expressing the physicality and object quality of the book itself? Chip Dewing, AIA founded DSA (now DSK) with his partner Mark Schmid in 1984 after working together in Boston architectural firms for several years. Over the years, the firm has received several design awards. Chip earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1973.

As a limited-edition, hard-bound, 109-page volume, Chip Dewing: At Home in the Landscape chronicles and documents the highly contextual work of this contemporary American architect. Dewing’s early design work focused heavily on the renovation of historic structures. Dewing’s later work fuses past architectural styles with more contemporary approaches—while thoughtfully and oftentimes elegantly integrating the projects’ contexts and programmatic requirements. In all cases, Dewing strived to respond to the broader context of the site and its architectural heritage. Regardless of the aesthetics, the projects selected for this book underscore the importance of integrating architecture into its surroundings. As such, the book’s subtitle, At Home in the Landscape, was carefully chosen as an introduction to the projects featured. The book contains several original essays, an Introduction by Mark Schmid, AIA, and 20 projects selected by Dewing, myself and the editor—all completed between 1992–2020. The book is printed on 100# premium matte Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper and bound in a hardcover layflat format. Along with being FSC certified, the paper is acid-free, which ensures the long-term preservation of the book and our environment. The book was printed in the U.S., which reduced the shipping distance and carbon required for transport. The book design was inspired by British minimalist graphic design—most notably the work of William Hall—formed by Hall and Nicholas Barba when they left the architectural studio of John Pawson in 2003. Because the book is printed using on-demand production techniques (versus a larger run), the resources required to produce the book are more accurately managed.

Over the course of his practice, Dewing saw the architectural design profession grow increasingly aware of the tremendous impact a building has on both local and broader environments. While Dewing embraced many tools available to lower a building’s impact, he was keenly aware that unless the design is sited carefully and unless the envelope is detailed properly, any gains toward sustainability may be lost.

In the closing section, there are three big lessons that Dewing shares in an Afterword. The first is to Address the site; the second is to Convey a sense of place, and the third is to Communicate a sense of arrival. Dewing shares these key lessons as he steps away from the firm that he co-founded. With a special focus on addressing, conveying, and communicating—there are certainly lessons embedded in Dewing’s architectural practice and thus the book itself—but moreover, there is a sense of care, attention, and delight. In this way, according to his clients, Dewing helped establish an “ethos” that served to propel the present-day DSK towards a vast mix of architecture and planning projects nationwide.

• Tolle Lege Collection, McQuade Library, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA
• Summer Star Wildlife Sanctuary, Boylston, MA
• Boston Society for Architecture, The Boston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Boston, MA

Credits—

• Edited by: Terri Evans
• Photography: Lauren Stimson, Anton Grassl, Stephen Stimson, Jonathan Levitt, Eric Roth, Mark Doyle, Chuck Mayer, Rick Mandelkorn, Nick Wheeler, Joe Wallace
• Book Design: Dan Vlahos
• Portfolio Photography: Nicholas Paolino

Case Studies—

• Chip Dewing: At Home in the Landscape

The Education of a Communication Designer was my master’s thesis book submitted to The Dynamic Media Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in 2017. This 200 page volume largely documents a series of seven case studies. Each of the seven case studies are also presented as video abstracts—which are listed below.

1. Isabella: A Dramatized Digital Personification, 2015.
2. MetaPieces: An Interactive Art Making Table, 2015.
3. Fingering Randomizer for Bb Trumpet: An Interactive Multimodal Learning and Performance Environment, 2016.
4. The Perfect Character: A Typographic Film Character Creation Tool, 2016.
5. Critiquemate: A System for Exploring Critique Methods and Managing Feedback, 2016.
6. Lecturemate: A Multimodal System for Viewing and Understanding Lectures, 2016.
7. Studiomate: A Peer-to-Peer Help System for Studio Communities, 2016.

The Education of a Communication Designer explores and evaluates new tools, systems, and heuristics for teaching and learning in the arts and beyond. Through these learning experience (LX) design-based investigations, I speculatively re-imagine and re-contextualize the relationship between learners, educators, and peers within a range of learning environments. Drawing inspiration from Professor Gunner Swanson’s essay, “Design and Knowledge in the University and the ‘Real World,’” all seven case studies are guided by a set of four interrelated themes: communication, expression, interaction, and cognition, which according to Swanson represent four broad areas that graphic design could bridge. The book is currently available in the following formats:

PDF Download (Free)
Hardcover ($49.47 USD) from Blurb

Throughout my thesis I continually re-examine “graphic design” and place it in the broader context of “communication design”—a comprehensive field that posits a wider range of media, disciplines, technologies, and applications. Much of the research and inspiration for my thesis is derived from Steven Heller’s 2015 anthology The Education of a Graphic Designer to which the title of this thesis alludes. By replacing Graphic with Communication, I am largely acknowledging a personal shift from the strictly “graphic” (mainly designing visual artifacts) to a wider practice of designing experiences, interactions, and systems. While the experiences, interactions, and systems that I have explored here primarily focus art, design and creative learning, one can easily imagine how these multimodal interactive learning techniques could be used as broader assistive learning tools, or as catalysts for interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.

Credits—

Joseph Quackenbush, Professor, Thesis Seminar I
Lisa Rosowski, Professor, Thesis Seminar II
Jan Kubasiewicz, Professor, Thesis Project I & II