Jamie Turpin

Originally creating the brain dump of words and phrases down onto my moleskine has left my mind thinking non-stop on what this thesis topic could be. By creating the mind maps and category word lists, I felt my mind wanted to connect the dots as if I was playing a word puzzle. To me, the list exemplified in this post is what I see once I start connecting the words together as in a problem, question and purpose scenario. I’m not saying any of these are correct or incorrect for my thesis topic, but this is sort of what I conclude at this moment as we end things in Unit 2. However, if I need to step back and attempt this task again, I’d definitely be eagerly to do so, this phase of the thesis process turned out to be a very fun brain exercise due to entering into the unknown areas of my mind as I try to discover my thesis topic.

The next step, necessary in my mind was to create sense of my free writing notes. I began by transcribing the words and phrases into a mind map to build upon how they connect, interrelate, or intertwine. This then led me to create a word list so I could group or categorize everything together to build upon a closer relation.

You mentioned messy, well here the mess is! ☺

Giving this exercise another try, definitely directed me to pull every thought out of my mind and on to paper. I think a couple of times I checked the timer to reveal that I was only 5 or 10 minutes into the mix.

Now sitting back in my desk chair and looking over the random words that somehow and someway connect to one another ¬– forms me to feel that the next step that I want to create is a word map of these words or phrases. Perhaps, this will help guide me into organizing my thoughts a little better.

FREE WRITING THOUGHTS

My thoughts have been in motion on how to approach this exercise since our Tuesday evening collaboration course. I’ve already communicated my brainstorming list, but what’s next; I didn’t feel I needed to recreate another mind map at this point, however the words that Professor Field spoke were being regurgitated in my mind, “reference the Problem, Question and Purpose section of Irene L. Clark’s book along with the purpose-oriented questions that follow on the same page.”

As those words echoed in my ear, the momentum was racing in my mind when I finally reached the end of Chapter 4 in Clark’s book. I sat back in my bubble green chair from CB2 and thought to myself, “Where to go from here?” Looking at my brainstorming list that laid in front of me and referencing the folded back page in our thesis book with the purpose-oriented questions highlighted; somehow a little thought cloud bubbled up and instantly it came to me that I should merge the two, just to see if my thoughts go hand and hand with a possible research problem or question.

As I set the timer on my Android phone for 30 minutes and placed my thesis moleskine in front of me to begin mapping my thoughts, my mind and pen seemed to scribble off together. Feeling as if I had sort of a mind block of the world going on around, I couldn’t hear the construction outside any longer, nor our cat wanting outside or in, I just sort of blocked everything out and felt I could focus while the words danced around in my mind. Utilizing my note sketching ability my visual thoughts started to fill up my pages in my moleskine.

REFERENCE
Clark, Irene L. Writing the Successful Thesis and Dissertation. Prentice Hall, 2006.

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FREE WRITING ORGANIZATION
When it comes to being organized and keeping track of my thesis research, I don’t see myself having any issues due to having OCD. (Seriously! – tee hee.) I am an extremely organized person and have great organizational skills for filing, note taking, and keep track of everything in an organized filing system.

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FREE WRITING RESULTS

Exemplified is a preliminary list for getting started with my initial thoughts for my thesis.

Basically, I’m thinking along the lines of an Installation; that intermingles graphic design and interior architecture together in a branded environment – where human behavior, user experience and form + function all play a role.

Preliminary List

In relation to the thesis and where to begin, I looked at several theses outside of the Graphic Design Department with the intentions to gain a different perspective on how to approach my very own thesis.

Starting out with Form Follows Function: Jan Tschichold’s New Typography and Title Designs by Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Pablo Ferro is a thesis written by Oscar E Betancur who received his Master’s of Fine Arts from the Motion Media Design Department in the Fall of 2012. The structure of his entire thesis was very well organized; visuals supported the copy and provided meaning behind his thesis. In the beginning, he called out Acknowledgments, in which I noticed many other theses examples did not. I felt by exemplifying this area, he personalized or added his own voice to his thesis. Betancur’s visuals flowed with the body and were not placed at the very end of the thesis to make it feel disjointed. His overall intent – he did an excellent job intermingling both disciplines, Graphic Design and Motion Design, along with specific history passages to support his analysis.

The next thesis that grabbed my attention was FUSION – A BUILDING BRINGING PEOPLE, PLACES, SPACES, IDEAS & TECHNOLOGY TOGETHER written by Jose Gabriel Vilanova who received his Master’s in Architecture. Of the handful that I reviewed, Jose’s really spoke out to me in the manner that his was 137 pages, landscape format and broke out each of his chapters to reflect or to follow the flow of his design process. Within his thesis, he also incorporated case studies along with including an exhibition of his final piece at the end. From a user standpoint, the layout was a little challenging on the eyes due to the gutter being buried amongst the first column running into the second. However, his thesis was very impressive to me, it investigated how public spaces can be understood in a new digital way and draws from the use of public spaces that have already been re-invented in virtual terms and applies them in new architectural typologies. As mentioned prior, his digital 3-dimensional exhibition and storyboards were nicely created and exemplified his thesis from a different angle.

By reviewing these examples and learning some different communication approaches on writing my thesis, I feel I’ve gathered better knowledge on the expectation instead of feeling left behind or in the dark.

REFERENCES
Betancur, Oscar E. Form Follows Function: Jan Tschichold’s New Typography and Title Designs by Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Pablo Ferro. Savannah College of Art and Design Digital Collections. Graduate Thesis Collection >Form Follows Function: Jan Tschichold’s New Typography and Title Designs by Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Pablo Ferro” (accessed Jan. 13, 2013), Web.

Vilanova, Jose Gabriel.FUSION – A BUILDING BRINGING PEOPLE, PLACES, SPACES, IDEAS & TECHNOLOGY TOGETHER Savannah College of Art and Design Digital Collections. Graduate Thesis Collection >FUSION: A Building Bringing People, Places, Spaces, Ideas & Technology Together” (accessed Jan. 13, 2013), Web.

To start off, my name is Jamie Turpin and today I live in Kansas City, Missouri but that could always change tomorrow.

In the fall of 2010, I began the MA program while living in St. Louis, Missouri. The very next quarter of the MA program, I received a career opportunity back in Kansas City. So I packed my weekly bag and lived in 2 cities for 9 months – while working as a full time designer, going to school full time and trying to live everything in between. (Luckily, my significant other cooked my meals and did my laundry.)

At the end of 2011, I began contemplating about the MFA program at SCAD while we planned to stay put at our downtown Kansas City loft for donkey’s years.

In 2012, I kept in focus with completing the MA degree during the summer term while packing up our downtown loft to move into our new lakefront house. During the fall of 2012, I received my acceptance letter into the MFA program at SCAD. At the end of 2012, I said good-bye to my creative coworkers while I tightened up my design backpack of 10 years to confidently leap into the entrepreneur world of freelance.

Looking at my year of 2013; I feel very fortunate to have received a contract with the Kansas City Art Institute to teach part time, established a year planned out of freelance work to survive on, be part of SCAD once again and last ready for everything in between.

Side Note: My prior life was spent in architecture firms in Dallas, Texas and Kansas City, Missouri – doing retail renovations and corporate new construction. I graduated in 2002 from Kansas State University with a 5-year degree in Interior Architecture. I’ve lived in Manhattan, Kansas; Geelong, Victoria, Australia; Dallas, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; and last back to Kansas City, Missouri. I’ve discovered along my journey that I am not a corporate person but support more of the Ma/Pa shops/boutiques, enjoy the laid back cities and prefer local farmers markets to any mass/produced retail box. Growing up as a farmers daughter; my father taught me to support specific values by having the mindset of honesty, support the locals, always work hard and to never give up…today this has helped me reached where I want to be…

Along Great Ocean Road in Australia