BYU-Idaho Graphic Design Alumni

When I was a kid I was afraid of EVERYTHING. You name it, I was probably afraid of it at some point; heights, thunderstorms, the dark, kidnapping, elevators (thank you Doogie Howser M.D.) earthquakes, flying, fires, and giant meteors, just to name a few. My own fears created an interest in other people’s fears; I always wanted to know if my fears were” normal.” Recently, I started thinking about what brought on these fears as a child (and what I’d say to Doogie if I ever met him).

I set out to find what children are actually afraid of these days and why. With the help of several teachers and many students, I collected data from which “Scaredy Cats” emerged. Each child was given a piece of paper. On the front they were to draw what they were afraid of, and on the back  write why they were afraid of what they drew on the front. From these results, I created posters representing only five of the fears found in the study. Each poster is a visual graph of a statistic for one particular fear. From far away the visuals may not seem too scary, but get a little closer, and you may be faced with your own childhood fear.

[gallery]Deciding what to do for the BFA was half the battle. I chose to do an experiment to design one tomato sauce package in one day for fifteen days. The purpose of this project was to discover my design process, how long it takes to complete each step, to figure out if there is a limit to quality design solutions, and to stretch myself in a way that I had never been stretched before. Every day I kept track of the time spent in each phase.

In the end I discovered that I could come up with a package in one day. The hardest part was to stop after 24 hours because I wanted to keep pushing the design until it was good enough to sell. The more packages I designed, the more ideas I kept having. In the beginning I spent more time in the research phase than at the end because the subject didn’t change, and because there were some days I had a design I couldn’t get out of my mind until I made it from the sketches and research I had done previously. Overall the majority of my time was spent in the production phase.

These are the statistical results:
Time spent researching: 5 hours and 38 minutes
Time spent sketching: 29 hours and 59 minutes
Time spent in production: 95 hours and 3 minutes
Total time spent on th 15 packages: 130 hours and 40 minutes

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Shadow is such an interesting topic, but it is easily missed. Shadows exist in our lives everywhere, but we may not even look at them. This Exploring Shadows Exhibition is hoping to create a time for an audience to see shadows as objects.

The Shadow topic comes with my observing things in Rexburg. At first, i viewed things more objectively. I saw flowers, trees, leaves, sunsets and i tried to take pictures of them. I loved to take pictures because it is a way for me to record my life and blessings. However, about 1 year ago, i started to feel the subject matter was missing. One day i was in my room, and the lights came in the window.  The shadows in my room at that time were so pretty. Since that time, i have started to see another side of the objects. and Shadows are all that I see.

But why shadows? Why do they intrigue me? When my teacher asked me about this question, i really thought so hard about it. It comes to my personal feeling of the way i view myself. As a human being, i am viewed as an object at the first sight. However many personality and understanding can be found from observation later on. It is like shadows. I like to see my shadow as big, tall and stretchable. The shadows appear in various ways. They are changeable and interesting. They have hard edges and soft edges. They can be created and re-created.

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Hello everybody, it is great to be able to finish the show and share some of the work with everyone here. I have always been fascinated with propaganda, whether wartime or advertising related. To give you an idea of what my project was trying to accomplish, I will explain my process.

I spent a long time gathering information and eventually picked three topics to use: Global Warming, Air Pollution, and the Job Stimulus. Each topic was given A) A single set of quantitative information, B) A poster campaign in support of that topic, and C) A poster campaign in opposition to that topic. The catch was that the same info was used for both B and C, to illustrate how easy it is to skew information and support a given agenda, all the while never technically telling a lie.

This is the artist statement I put on the center podium for all to read before looking at my work:
The goal of the Propaganda project is to shed light on the ways accurate quantitative information can be skewed in order to achieve almost any conclusion desired by the person presenting the information.
By telling half-truths, one may easily mislead an uninformed audience.
This project is meant to encourage you, the audience, to take action to inform yourself, rather than let media feed you answers.
In times when political, environmental, or economic topics are so important and yet don’t have one simple answer, it is your own responsibility to be informed.

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Hello Alumni! I thought I would contribute to this blog by posting my final BFA project. I hope to share some valuable insight and knowledge I’ve gained through this experience.  In this book my aim is to draw a new map. A map that represents the culture and food cuisine of china and its peoples. Beyond the food is a metaphor (title of the exhibit) to explain that while we eat, there is more to it, more information, more to be heard, seen, and felt. I’ve not traveled to China, and perhaps that is my biggest downfall in this project. So the information in this book/show has been garnished and research through people, books, and time. I am now currently looking to start an exciting new career in Print, Web, Identity, and Packaging design. My family is willing to relocate as needed. If you know of a job oppurtunity or company that would fit these descriptions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at: Cory Burbidge | Cell - 208-757-1977 | website - coryburbidge.com | Email - me@coryburbidge.com
 

When I first began this project it started off as a love for food in general. I began by researching various Chinese restaurants and establishments in today’s culture. Eventually I came to realize I needed to experience the cooking experience for my self. I determined that I would need authentic as possible to alleviate the replacements and substitutions that we generally refer to as the Americanization of food. Through an acquaintance of my wife at BYU-I, I was introduced to Shen Lei, a college professor of Chinese. I came to realize that Shen Lei was the driving force and source for most of my information, she represented the culture, the food, the people, and to a certain extent the land. She could tell me more about life in china than I could ever hope to get on my own through books. So you could say that this book is alive. Alive with food and the people that helped it to become that way.

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