*

*
*

— research notes | 2023 —

GRAPHIC
* DESIGN *

MFA THESIS
GUIDE
*

*
* *

*
 A guide to the thesis process

semester 1 semester 2 semester 3 semester 4 This guide is based on the experience of working with
graphic design MFA students at MICA (Maryland
Institute College of Art). Independent thesis projects are
thesis
exhibition
opens
produced in many graduate programs. Each school has its
own curriculum, research standards, and requirements
for producing exhibitions, publications, written work, and
other deliverables.
We hope that faculty and students in other design
programs will find our guide useful. We welcome your
feedback as we update this booklet over time.
baby steps:
the starter
project
yaY!
flow
state!
doubt,
confusion,
plot
detour
thesis
book
! In MICA’s two-year, 60-credit MFA program, the thesis
process begins with loose ideation and self-discovery
during the second semester. The journey evolves in
the third semester through active research, making,
finally
one
more and testing. In the fourth and final semester, the thesis
getting mountain
gains focus and clarity through distillation, refinement,

?
started to
climb
execution, and documentation.
research,
avoidance, All efforts along the thesis path are valuable. Some
workshops,
& more
avoidance
I did it.
why do
elements of the journey may apppear in a thesis
i feel
shitty?*
exhibition. Many more ideas can find a home in a thesis
book. This ongoing work, and the courage and effort
starting
necessary to put one’s creativity and capacity on the line,
over defines the thesis experience.
Special thanks to Ellen Lupton for putting together this
guide, which compiles knowledge learned alongside our
THESIS ARC Every story has high points and * The creative process has
beloved students and colleagues over years of teaching
low points. Stories include uncertainy, sadness, highs and lows. People often
and false starts as well as triumph, joy, and feel depleted after a period and research.
funny parts. Your thesis experience is a story, of intense activity and
too. It will include thrilling bursts of energy accomplishment.
and draggy periods of doubt and avoidance. Sincerely,
Jennifer Cole Phillips, Director
Graphic Design MFA, MICA
3
overview

What is a graphic design thesis? Frequently asked questions

A thesis project is the primary outcome of most art and “A good thesis How do I know if my thesis concept is okay?
design graduate programs. A thesis is an independent project continues
The best idea is one that excites you and supports your goals for graduate
after you leave
project exploring a topic, theme, medium, or method MICA, giving you school. It’s natural to feel occasional feelings of doubt, but if you consisently
through the eyes of the artist or designer. Unlike scholarly inspiration beyond dread working on your project and discussing your project with others, you
dissertations, an art or design thesis focuses on creative your time as a may want to seek a new direction. Don’t stick with a dud!

work. Graphic design thesis projects take many forms: student. So it’s
Can I switch to a new idea?
okay to identify
—a book or zine collection parts of your Yes! The thesis is a process of discovery. You can’t evaluate an idea without
—a performance or installation project to take on testing and exploring it. Ask yourself early in the process if you are truly
later, when you excited about what you are doing. The sooner you shift course, the more time
—interactive media have more time or you will have to develop your new idea.
—a published website more resources.”
—Brockett Horne How do I manage conflicting advice?
—a typeface or collection of typefaces
You will get a wealth of feedback during your journey! You will inevitably
—a series of posters, videos, or animations hear conflicting opinions from different faculty, peers, guest critics, and
—a prototype for a digital product (practical or speculative) even yourself. Some suggestions won’t work for you. Learn to be open to all
feedback while also owning your project. Remember, it’s your thesis.
—a game or prototype for a game
Can I collaborate with others?
—textiles, stationery, furnishings, or useful objects
Yes! At MICA, several wonderful thesis projects have been produced jointly
—maps, diagrams, and other data graphics
by two or three GD MFA students. You may also collaborate with illustrators,
—a body of work encompassing diverse media musicians photographers, etc. In practice, graphic design is nearly always a
—all or none of the above! collaborative process. Designers collaborate with artists, writers, typeface
designers, musicians, curators, clients, community organizations, and
For many artists and designers, a public exhibition is the most exhilarating See page 14,
individuals to create publications, exhibitions, products, and services. Although
moment in the thesis process. However, a designer’s total thesis project What is graphic
thesis projects typically focus on individual authorship, working with others
includes much more than an exhibition. Your thesis encompasses your design research?
can open your mind. It can also lead to a more rewarding (less lonely) journey.
research process, written materials, early experiments, sketches, prototypes,
presentations, and writing.
At MICA, the thesis book is the final documentation of the thesis process. See page 18,
This book becomes a source of learning and inspiration for future faculty and The thesis essay
students. It also helps you expand your publication design skills. The thesis
book is an impressive design outcome in its own right.

Read More | visual arts research

Dirk Vis, Research for People Who (Think They) Would Rather Create (Eindhoven,
NL: Onomatopee, 2021).

4 5
 that’s interesting!

wh
a t ’s
— getting started —

client stuff
int

pe
er
ple

r
e
as

so
st
MEET
ur

na
ing
es

l
?

st
uff
s
r rie school stuff
wo
wishes
ies

d
b
ob

foo
YOUR
ns st h
not
io i m uff
ak
e

THESIS
itera
tions
BEAST
C
pro
ing

tot
yp
ad

ongratulations! You are creating a

es

w
re

pizza

ri
tin
pres
enta

g
tion

mista
kes
s
graphic design thesis. This guide will
help you learn to love, understand,
good stuff
tha
t th
and cultivate your Thesis Beast. Will your
las ing fr
Thesis Beast grow up to become a brain-eating
ps

t ye o
ar m
ho
rks

zombie, a shape-shifting werewolf, or a lovable

wo

ack
feedb

puppykitten? Yes! All of the above! Your Beast

pizza

will eat your brain, so feed it nutritious books,

cid y
ts

extras
ac app
en
h

oh, i fo
rgo
I made t t
hat podcasts, horoscopes, and critical essays. Take
it to museums, galleries, movies, and malls.
Make sure it gets plenty of sleep, fresh air,
pu
bli
ca
tio
n

n
io

exercise, and play time.

bit
hi
ex

anatomy of a thesis beast

6 7
getting started

Finding ideas Content aware

How do you get your Thesis Beast out of bed and moving stuff to make Themes and topics Your Thesis Beast is hungry for content. Alas, creating
around? Let your Beast grow in happy little bursts of Zine Sensory design content is hard. You will need to grow and cultivate
energy. Start with a small, manageable project. Whether Game Sustainability vibrant, nutritious content for your Thesis Beast. Start
your project is serious or playful, avoid huge expectations. Card deck Animal behavior with a theme, topic, question, premise, problem, or
Keep it light! Cultivate joy! Kit Plant behavior narrative hook. Your subject matter should be interesting
—Choose a project that you want to make
Book Food (science, culture) to you. Start with a big idea and then make smaller ideas
Installation Language (poetry, that are more specific.
—Choose a medium that you enjoy (animation, Experience
translation, theory)
WICKED PROBLEMS | A massive issue such as climate change, racial injustice,
illustration, lettering, etc.). What do you love doing? Interaction
Writing systems
or the mental health crisis could crush you and your thesis. Make a list of
Decolonial design
—Define an outcome that is concrete and small App or website smaller issues that fall inside it. Do these smaller topics connect to your own
A.I. life? Do they intersect with graphic design? Often, graphic design is best suited
Research dossier
—Consider expanding a previous project Generative design to visualizing a problem or telling stories.
Short animation
—Consider using writing from a liberal arts class Daily practice
Authorship OFFBEAT TOPICS | Your topic doesn’t have to be complex or socially
Feminism significant. A quirky or local topic such as the anatomy of vegetables, the
—To focus on a technique, such as 3D/4D, AI, or code, 360 video
history of tea, or Baltimore’s native plants can provide unexpected depth.
Queer studies
create a portfolio of experiments around a theme Data visualization
Gender studies CULTURE AND IDENTITY | Explore your family background, cultural roots, or
Maps, diagrams
Give yourself space to start out with some short-term Race and bias gender identity. Areas such as street signs, folk tales, decorative traditions, and
Brand identity
projects taht may not lead directly to your thesis. Future of (money,
writing systems can make fruitful thesis projects.
Type specimen books, time travel, VISUAL EXPERIMENTATION | Identify a concrete aesthetic question to
Typeface work)
help ground and unify your experiments. Areas to explore include design
Tools for making Hand lettering Mental health and sculpture, design and music, design and poetry, design and authorship,
SKETCHBOOK | Most designers and artists keep sketchbooks for, well, Illustrations Self care multisensory design, AI, generative design, and queer aesthetics. Formal
sketching but also for taking notes and brainstorming with lists, mind maps, Poster series Humor themes can be very personal.
and diagrams. SPECULATIVE DESIGN | Imagine new approaches to basic human activities
Motion poster series World-building
ILLUSTRATOR ARTBOARD | Many designers use an Illustrator file as a digital GIFs or memes Storytelling such as reading, working, sleeping, cooking, and self-care. Speculative design
sketchbook for a project. Keep adding visual ideas to the artboard. Swatches emphasizes storytelling and social critique over practical problem-solving.
Social media posts 3D/4D
of color, form, typography, and imagery can gather here and talk to each other. Speculative desigs can be utopian or dystopian. Imagine the future of
Personal history
The mood is open and casual. museums, restaurants, money, governments, underwear, or travel.
Local history
PROJECT BOARD | Seeing your work in your studio environment (at home or
Design history
at school) helps keep you inspired and triggers conversations with others. Pin-
up prints, drawings, paintings, found objects, prototypes, and more. Design pedagogy
Cultural history and Read More | speculative design
WEB TOOLS | Use Notion, Google Sites, Evernote, or other tools to organize Kersin Pinther and Alexandra Weigand, eds. Flow of Forms, Forms of Flow:
cultural identity
your stuff and build your knowledge base. Design Histories between Africa and Europe. Transcript-Verlag, 2018.
Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and
Social Dreaming. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013.

8 9
getting started thesis habitat
Mapping your habitat

Prepare the ground for your Thesis Beast to germinate, VALUES GREEN SPACE
sprout, and flourish. Dig some holes, turn over some soil,
and unearth a few demons. This process will help you find
a thesis project that serves your needs.
VALUES | What matters most to you in your design work? Do you want your
work to be useful, inclusive, personal, healing, intellectual, or beautiful?
Although you may care about all these things, pick two or three values that feel
most important to you.
HEROES | SHEROES | XEROES | Who are the artists, designers, writers,
ancestors, thinkers, and comrades who inspire you? Name the people who have
shaped your design work and creativity. Do the people on your list all come
from the dominant art and design canon? Who else do you want to learn about?
DEMONS | Dig for some demons and let the purifying sun shine upon them!
HEROES | SHEROES | XEROES FORMS
Who are these creatures that stop you from doing what you want to do? Your
triggers and causes might include anxiety disorder, time management woes,
financial worries, family stress, and self-doubt. Naming your demons won’t
make them go away but can diminish their power.
GREEN SPACE | What keeps you well? Cultivate the good: friends, walking,
cooking, pets, etc.
FORMS | Sketch some shapes, lines, letterforms, and textures that express
your point of view. Think about an artist who inspires you, your favorite house
plant, or a walk in the woods. Are you drawn to hard or soft shapes? From
memory, what does the lowercase a in your favorite font look like?
NEW TERRITORY | What new skills, media, techniques, or content areas do
you want to try out? Where can the thesis project take you? Try to picture your
thesis exhibition 10 months from now. What will you see there? What will your
portfolio look like? How will you get there?
DEMONS NEW TERRITORY

10 11
getting started mind map
mind mapping
Choose ONE content idea and create a mind
map of related concepts, issues, products,
user scenarios, potential design outcomes,
and more.

12 13
going deeper How to read
What is graphic design research? Reading is hard work—and it’s a skill that you can practice
and enhance. Active reading strategies will help you find
and remember useful information without getting lost
and overwhelmed:
A graduate thesis project creates new knowledge. For “Frame
narrowly READ EARLY. Reading will help you understand the shape of your topic, from
example, your thesis might tell visual stories about a topic
and explore the basic facts to burning controversies. Reading will fuel your making process,
or propose a product and service addressing a problem deeply.” too, by warming up your mind for the work ahead.
or daily activity. Experimental or personal projects —Jennifer Cole Phillips
DON’T READ THE WHOLE THING. Scholarly articles have abstracts. Books
explore visual forms and techniques or family narratives. have introductions. Many authors put their best material near the beginning of
Design work employs many forms of research (reading, the book and the most esoteric stuff at the end. Study the table of contents and
writing, exploring visual precedents, and conducting user read the chapters most relevant to you.
research) in addition to the making process. DON’T TRY TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING. An abstract or introduction
explains the main argument. The rest of the text offers detail and evidence.
Look for the big picture!
What to read
DIG FOR GEMS. Works of philosophy and critical theory are full of obscure
Complex topics such as climate change, mental health, language and tangled references. Sift through the soil to find poetic gems that
or plant biology require reading. If your content is more speak to your project.
personal, explore topics such as queer theory, the science TAKE NOTES. If you don’t take notes, don’t bother reading. You won’t
and culture of memory, or the philosophy of perception. remember any of this stuff in two months (or two weeks). Later, you can reread
Ask your instructors and MICA’s graphic design reference your notes rather than flipping back through the whole book. Underlining is
not enough. Pro tips for taking notes:
librarian for reading recommendations. Look for:
—Screenshots, collected in folders
—Current nonfiction books and scholarly articles
—Photographs of book pages. Use your phone camera to convert photos
—Journalism in reputable publications (such as The Atlantic, The New
into live text.
Yorker, and The New York Times in the US)
—Ebooks. Little-known secret: The Kindle app allows you to highlight
—Online articles on platforms such as Medium.com. These can be helpful,
passages. These quotes will be collected automatically in your online
but check to see if the text comes largely from other sources.
Amazon Kindle account. Wow!
—Novels, poetry, and essays (old and new)
—Notes, consistently collected. For example, put your notes in a single
—Theory and philosophy, including explanations of influential texts Google doc, and create more docs as your topic becomes more specialized.
—Texts in your native language Alternatively, use a tool like Notion to build a structured knowledge base.

—Texts by women and people of color —Digital notes are more useful than notes in your sketchbook. Digital
notes are searchable! Handwritten notes are hard to find later, and they are
—Texts by designers difficult to sort and rearrange.
—Texts by non-designers (mostly) —Track everything. Your notes should include author, title, date, publisher,
—Diverse media: TED Talks, recorded lectures, podcasts, films, exhibitions and web link.
KNOW WHEN TO STOP. Every text is connected to other texts, creating
an infinite web of potential sources. Reading too much will prevent you from
focusing on your own ideas and making your own work.

14 15
Visual research User research
Visual research includes seeking out precedents for your “Every big project is User research is an important part of the design thinking
creative work. How have other artists and designers just a bunch of little methodology and is especially valuable for designing
projects. Instead
engaged your topic or worked in your chosen medium? of viewing your products and services. User research can include
Conduct visual research with curiosity and respect: thesis as a giant observing people doing a task, distributing a survey,
DOCUMENT YOUR SOURCES. To avoid plagiarizing the work of others, mountain to climb, holding a focus group, or conducting a co-creation
break it down into
always note the sources of the precedents that you collect. workshop. If you wish to conduct user research, plan your
little boulders and
TRACK YOUR SOURCES. Use bookmarking tools, such as Aren.a and plateaus. Go bit by event carefully to create an equitable experience.
Evernote, to keep a record of where and when you saw visual works. If you are bit until you get to CONSENT | Participants in a user study should agree to the process and
using Pinterest, find links that aren’t copies of copies of copies. the top” understand what you are doing with the research. For example, if you plan
—Ellen Lupton
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SOURCES. When you create visual presentations and to include quotes from a written survey in a zine or show work from a
thesis documents, include the names of the artists who inspired your project. creative workshop in your exhibition, will you use their names or quote them
Their work is just as important to your research as books and articles. anonymously? Will you share the results of your research with them?

BROADEN YOUR SOURCES. Don’t just look at graphic design. You are POWER GAPS | Be aware of differences in power. Do you belong to the
more likely to copy someone else’s solution if you only look at work by other community you are studying (such as “international students” or “gen z
designers. Expand your vocabulary by seeing as much as possible: painting, consumers”)? If so, you have equal power. If your are outside the community
sculpture, movies, crafts, architecture, decorative arts, popular culture, street your are studying, there may be an inbalance of power between you and your
art, photography, scientific visualizations, and more. collaborators (such as “maintenance staff at MICA” or “elders living in a care
facility.”) Use inclusive language and processes. Be thankful. Avoid extractive
MAKING IS RESEARCH, TOO. Your experiments with materials, forms, code,
behavior (taking something from the community without giving back).
printing, fabrication, and more are active forms of research. Document your
process. Look back at your research for new insights. SHARED EXPERTISE | Acknowledge the expertise of your research
collaborators. Designers often see themselves as experts while seeing users
and communities as people who need help. Be humble.
nature

muse

DOCUMENTATION | Keep records of your research so that you can refer to

ph

scie

me
movies
ot

et it later accurately. If you conduct a co-creation workshop, take photographs

nce
og

ums

ne of people working and what they made (with their consent). If you intend to
ra

w
pe
p
hy

op credit people for their contributions, keep track of their full names.
read le
a no
vel
read about ar Read More | user research
t
Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers, Convivial Toolbox: Generative
Research for the Front End of Design (Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, 2012).
Deana McDonagh, “Design Students Forseeing the Unforeseeable: Practice-
Based Empathic Research Methods,” International Journal of Education through
Art 11, no. 3 (2015), —> doi:10.1386/eta.11.3.421_1

don't turn your back on inspiration

16 17
going deeper staying well

The thesis essay Tips for living creatively

At MICA, a thesis essay lives inside the thesis “Remember that you It is hard to stay healthy during grad school. Listen to
publication. This printed, bound book and archival PDF will be discarding signals from your mind and body, and know when to slow
80% of what you
serves as a permanent record of each thesis. create, so when you down and take a break. Don’t let your Thesis Beast fall prey
The essay length at MICA is 1,500 words minimum. make something that to oppressive expectations. Worrying about whether your
By keeping the required length short, we encourage
isn’t good enough concept is big enough or smart enough can prevent you
for the final thesis,
students of many language backgrounds to excel in this you’re chipping
from getting started at all. Staying stuck at the edge of your
endeavor. Some graduate program require a longer and away at that 80%.” project causes more mental pain than jumping in and doing
more scholarly essay. —Abe Burickson the best you can.
MAKE | Print, draw, cut, paste, fold, paint, diagram, map, record, vectorize,
generate, animate, interpolate, extrapolate.
DEVELOP A COHERENT IDEA ABOUT DESIGN. Try to summarzie your
focus in a compact phrase, such as “World-building as a design process” or MOVE | Take a walk to free up your brain (and your Beast). Or, take a shower.
“Designing for neurodiversity.” The essay should express an insight related Because, stinky.
to design. Although your topic may encompass ideas from political science,
SLEEP | Pause. Rest. Recover. After spending time apart, you and your Beast will
neurobiology, or some other subject, your essay should highlight your
treat each other more kindly.
expertise as a designer in a way that can benefit other designers.
REPEAT | Don’t rush to the finish line. Revise, redo, refresh, and regurgitate.
EXPLAIN WHY YOUR PROJECT MATTERS. What is the intellectual purpose
of your thesis? Is your goal to create cultural commentary? Propose a SHARE | Talk to your friends about your Thesis Beast. Let the Beast eat their
speculative product? Explore form in a fresh way? Design for user interaction brains for a while.
or participation? Address ethical questions? Design a tool? Illuminate ideas RELAX | It's never too late to stop worrying about your Beast.
from another field? Create a design process? Draw attention to a problem?
MOOD SWINGS | You and your Beast will have highs and lows. Follow the curve.
Contribute to the design discourse?
It’s okay to walk away and do something else.
USE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE TO ENGAGE YOUR READER. Your essay
should feature a question or challenge. You could describe a childhood
journey, a personal struggle or transformation, or a problem you have faced.
If you are designing a speculative product or prototype, write about the
product’s impact on a potential user. If you conducted user research, share
these stories. Such stories can be short—from a few sentences to a few
paragraphs. Use structures such as the Hero’s Journey or the Narrative Arc
to intrigue your readers.
REFERENCES. Give credit to the scholars, writers, designers, artists, and See page 20,
others whose ideas influenced your thesis project. These references give Intellectual property
credibility to your work and protect you from plagiarizing. References may guidelines
take the form of footnotes, endnotes, inline credits, or captions. You are
encouraged to follow the Chicago Manual of Style for citations.

18 19
the legal stuff | updated 12.4.2023 — Direct citation on the page. If you choose to present a beautiful quote from

Intellectual property guidelines

an author floating on the page as its own element, you can credit the author’s
name directly with the quote. Include a full reference in your bibliography,
unless the quote is extremely common, such as a Shakespeare play.

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM? VISUAL SOURCES AND REFERENCES

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and using You will be looking at work by other artists and designers and assembling
them as your own. Synonyms include copying, piracy, theft, stealing, and examples that inform your own practice (precedents or inspiration).
cribbing. Plagiarism includes: — At times, you may assemble these sources in a presentation, formstorming
— Claiming that you created someone else’s writing or visual art/design. document, moodboard, or your final thesis book.

— Getting someone else to write part or all of your essay. — Always credit visual references to the best of your ability. If you don’t credit
these works, readers/viewers of your work can mistakenly believe that all the
— Submitting as exclusively your own, written or visual work created jointly
images in your project are original to you.
by a group in which you participated. (Just credit the group.)
— Credits should include any available information: creator, client, date,
— In a written essay, failing to cite a source that is not common knowledge.
and source s(uch as museum collection, Getty Picture Archive, etc.). Full
— In a written essay, failing to put quotation marks around an author’s words. information is not always available. Do your best!
— In visual art or design, directly copying (cut and paste) another person’s — Any image you use should be credited: photographs, illustrations, data
work, or closely recreating another person’s design. graphics, etc. Credits can run small if needed.
— Restating another author’s exact idea, but changing the words, is called
paraphrasing. It’s okay to paraphrase IF you include a footnote, endnote, or a
WHEN IS IT ACCEPTABLE TO USE AI IN YOUR WORK?
reference to the author directly in your text.
Academic policies on this matter are evolving quickly. Please reach out to
faculty if you are uncertain. Students and faculty can discuss individual use
CITING YOUR RESEARCH cases together and help create a robust and fair policy. Below is MICA GD
MFA’s policy as of January, 2023.
Every GD MFA thesis book and/or essay should include sources for your
research. These sources may take the form of footnotes, endnotes, and/or a — YES, you may use AI in a critical, experimental, self-aware way to generate
bibliography. ideas, forms, and text, but you must disclose your use of AI and track your
process by noting the name of any AI products you have used. For example,
— Footnotes are references to a book, article, or website; a footnote appears
“Illustration generated by Midjourney.” Create an archive of screenshots of all
on the same page as the relevant text.
AI-generated images. Create an archive of all AI-generated texts that serve a
— Endnotes are references gathered at the end of your essay or at the back of significant role in your research.
your thesis book. Footnotes and endnotes are numbered; they include author,
— YES, you may use AI tools such as ChatGPT to ask technical or fact-based
title, publisher, date, web address, etc.
questions, just as you use Google searches in your research and design process.
— There are several conventions for footnotes and endnotes; you may follow
— YES, you may use AI tools such as ChatGPT to create dummy text for
any convention you like, as long as you are consistent.
a project, but you must disclose the source of the text. For example, “Text
— Every concept, quotation, data set, or fact that is not original to you or isn’t generated by ChatGPT.”
considered “general knowledge” should have a footnote or endnote.
— NO, you may not use AI to create texts or visual forms that you claim to be
— A bibliography is a list of all the books, essays, blog articles, and websites original visual work or original writing and research.
that were important to your research. You don’t need to connect these to
— NO, you may not use AI in place of citations. Citations must include names
specific ideas in the text. Your bibliography should appear at the end of your
of authors and publications and/or links to authored online articles.
thesis book. A bibliography is also titled “References” or “Works Cited.”

20 21
— Avoid using AI to research opinions or interpretations of literature,
philosophy, art, legal issues, public health policies, or any other subject that
is subject to misinformation. ChatGPT produces many errors related to such
questions. Always be wary of AI content and back up any facts or ideas you
uncover with citable research.
— Be prepared to show your work process if a client, peer, or faculty member
asks if you generated your content or visuals with AI. Be aware that detector
software is available to identify the presence of AI-generated material.

PUBLISHING YOUR WORK BEYOND GRADUATE SCHOOL

If you want to publish your work in a competition, publication, or website, you
should request permission from the creator for any image, song, or photograph
that you have used in your work.
Some uses of another person’s artwork are considered “fair use.” In the
U.S., some uses of copyrighted materials are allowable without seeking
permission from the creator. Examples of fair use in the United States include
commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and
scholarship. See also https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.htm
Fair use provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of
copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor test.
1. The purpose and character of the use: nonprofit and educational are
generally okay. “Transformative” uses are those that add something new.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work. Reusing factual work is more likely to
constitute fair use than reusing creative works such as fiction or paintings/
drawings
3. The amount and importance of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole; using less is better than using more.
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
copyrighted work. It is not fair use to create a competing product.

READ MORE | INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Jess Zafarris, “Graphic Design Copyright Laws: Inspiration vs. Infringement,”
How, August 29, 2016. one cell
two cells
Eileen MacAvery Kane, Ethics: A Graphic Designer’s Field Guide, 2010, shapeless blob
Eric Schrijver, Copy This Book: An Artist's Guide to Copyright (Eindhoven:
Onomotopee, 2019). too big to fail

life cycle of a thesis beast

22
Graphic Design MFA Thesis Guide 2024
Maryland Institute College of Art
Edited by Ellen Lupton
Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz
Design Chair