This project was inspired by my experiences with how people judge autism. My brother has autism and although it is not severe at all, he still went through the stereotypes that are evident in our culture. I wanted to make something that could represent these stereotypes that people have about autism. I researched and found this list of ‘things you shouldn’t say to an autistic person. I knew I wanted to use these phrases in some sort of way, I just wasn’t sure how at the moment. I though that using die cut typography would be interesting, having that delicacy of the die cut typography would be similar to the delicacy of a person’s feelings. But as I was experimenting I found that these die cut letters looked incredible on a mirror and the message got across very well.

As you are looking at these phrases, you see yourself in them. It represents a self-reflection on yourself that you shouldn’t be saying these things about autistic people, or anyone for that matter. I made the six panels because autism has six letters in it. I made each letter of the word autism stand out on each of the panels. That way when you are reading it, you automatically wonder what these phrases are about, but when you look at it as a whole you really realize what is going on and understand how it relates to autism.

Each panel is 15 inches diagonally representing a common video monitor size. The reasoning behind this is because since my brother has aspergers, a form of autism, and they usually have a special interest, my brother’s special interest is video games. I also created my own 8-bit inspired font relating to the video game idea, and rounded the edges of the mirrors to give it more of a monitor-like affect. The letters that stand out are a blue color because of its relation to autism, the calming affects of it, and it’s also my brother’s favorite color.

For this project I I rebranded The Museum of Science and Industry. Their mission is to inspire the inventive genius in everyone by presenting captivating and compelling experiences that are real and educational. Their vision is to inspire and motivate our children to achieve their full potential in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and engineering. 

I kept the colors of their original logo because I think that they fit well with the museum and what it stands for. The colors are bright and appealing to adults and children. I recreated the logo using a science type font to relate to the science and industry of the museum. With this font I refined it by creating a graph to fit the edges and curves into. Using a graph relates back to the industrial feel, and gives the logo mark a basic structure. I fit the word Chicago on top of the MSI logo and made the ‘O’ the dot of the ‘i’. This ‘i’ can represent multiple things. It can represent an individual person, and it can relate to the word inspire or innovation, in which the mission and vision statement talk about.

You can also see a creation the the website I made for this rebrand here: http://schmink.wix.com/msi-chicago

This is a historical figure poster of Ludwig Van Beethoven. I used a baroque pattern to represent the classical and Romantic time period he represented. The Bodoni poster font also represents the extravagance of that period. It becomes more modern with the Bauhaus style and music staff leading your eyes across the page, and encompassed by a biography of his life. 

AWV is a company called American Warming and Ventilating. They are a company that manufactures standard and custom louvers and dampers to satisfy most every need for intake control, light and heavy city industrial applications, and sophisticated fire-smoke control. Their business represents sophistication, strong leadership, and organization and their products are strong, sturdy, and original.

To modernize AWV's logo I chose to use more structured format similar to what their products are like. I got inspiration from their common heating and cooling vents that they install on the sides of buildings. The diagonal lines represent strength, structure, and an overall organized but simple logotype.

At the beginning stages of my thesis research I investigated and explored autism and how it works. I wanted to promote awareness of the disability and figure out how I could change people’s attitudes towards it. Our minds tend to be close-minded about autism and I wanted to create a new outlook about people living with autism. We often think autistic people are too different, or that they are lesser value of a person. I wanted to showcase that with just a little more acceptance and less judgement this disability can overcome the stereotypes that are associated with it. And that we can work together to realize all of this judgement is wrong.

With this installation I wanted to explore the more informational side of autism. I started off research about autism and found that their symbol of the puzzle piece was very interesting. I then researched the meaning behind why they chose a puzzle piece to represent the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The puzzle reflects the mystery and complexity of ASD. Every puzzle piece is different in some way and this accurately represents the diversity of the individuals affected. The symbol also represents the puzzling condition that autism is and the isolation created through seeing the puzzle piece stand alone.

Through my informational resesarch I found out that 1 in 68 people are affected with autism, I used this number and created an installation with the puzzle pieces. I made the group of 68 represent a random group of people, male and female, of various ages, which relate to the length of each string. These 68 pieces are spray painted with a metallic coating that is closey resembled to that of a mirror. I wanted them to represent a mirror because we often want to change what we see in a mirror, and I want people to realize that we need to change the isolation that an autistic person feels.

I made one of the puzzle pieces slightly different to represent the autistic person. You would only notice the difference if you were really paying attention. The side of one of the puzzle pieces is painted blue, a color often associated with autism. I made it hard to identify this piece because autistic people really aren’t that different from the rest of us.

Autism isn’t a hopless condition, and we have the opportunity to treat everyone equally and have a self reflection on what we say to others and that’s what we should do.

This is a diagram that expresses a huge part of my life: music. This French horn diagram represents 10 years of my musical career. Throughout high school and college I participated in sit down and marching bands. The flowing design takes you through a journey or music itself and my specific moments, music, and travel opportunities through music. 

The Arts Commission of Toledo had a contest for artist designed bike racks. There were certain constraints on size and color, but we had the free ability for the design. 10 bike racks were chosen out of a couple hundred submissions, and my squirrel was one of them. This bike rack is is Jermain park in Toledo, OH.

For this project we had to create a triptych base off of a selected theme of chance, choice, or consequence. Based off of the choice theme I made a triptych of three choices I have made in my life: art (artist's palette), music (treble clef), and dance (ballet slippers). Each idea is resembled in a maze type format, which is suppose to represent the choices in life. Life is all about the good and the bad choices, the dead ends and the finished paths, exactly what a maze would do. It's just up to you to decide your path. These mazes also have a start and end point and can be finished.