Graphic Translations

Talia Bergeron, UMD, black and white study of owl

Talia Bergeron, Graphic Design, UMD

Jen Kettner bee translation black and white study

Jen Kettner, Graphic Design, UMD

Jack Peck, Graphic Design, UMD, Fossa sketches

Students in the Graphic Design Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth were asked to create graphic translations of an animal, bird, or insect. Students were first asked to develop the translation as a black and white form without shading or gradations. The results were turned into a color version and a version to serve as a small icon. Students’ process included drawing and an investigation of potential black and white forms. Accompanying this would be a color study based on the choice of animal and an additional study based on the animal’s environment. The final translation would be used to design either a large building banner or a billboard.

Discussions and critiques involved how graphic translations can produce a unique visual resonance and offer an alternative to when realistic or photographic imagery is not available or appropriate. The creation of the translation offered students a visual means to represent a subject through drawing, abstraction, reduction, and their own interpretations. The graphic elements of point, line, plane, shade, and shadow come into play during their process. These examples portray a multitude of individual approaches not only through the final result, but through the students’ own process of drawing using both hand and the computer.