It could be typography too as long as it can relate to this present moment. What about rejected adverts? Why tehy had to be banned etc. Is there enough to write 6000 word essay? OR how sexism and sexuality is used in advertising, art work etc and its power of influence? What do you think? Thanks.

What do you think of Miles Aldridge ?
http://www.milesaldridge.com/

Here's an idea – you might want to run a spell check so taht it's not full of mistakes when you print.

Sorry Miss G, I couldn't resist, but it is a useful tip.

Nick Cooke

Banned advertising might be an interesting start point.
The Advertising Standards Authority has some information on their website
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/about/Guided+Tours/Schools+and+Colleges/

However, I’d recommend that you do your dissertation on a subject that you have views on or interest in, if only to keep it from becoming too much of a chore. I also wouldn't worry about your portfolio, a dissertation counts towards your college work but it really needn’t be in your portfolio mentioning the subject in an application letter might be useful but potential employers are unlikely to ask to see it.

Tim

A B.A. Dissertation?

>A B.A. Dissertation?

B.A. – Bachelor of Arts degree
Dissertation – an essay which contributes to a degree

Tim

Does demographic targeting fall under the realm of graphic design?
Surely it is part of marketing strategy, i.e. criteria that is provided to designers.
Certainly, designers and art directors have to implement strategy, but it is not their decision that men drink beer and women wash dishes*.

*except for a small coterie of male celebrity chefs.

**

If you are angry about gender stereotyping, go for it. But there's not much scope for typography there...

What is a subject in the design arena that you are curious about but not very knowledgeable in? The point would be to do your dissertation in some area that will do you the most good. Look for the educational benifit in it.

ChrisL

I would suggest an in-depth exposé of how design students are using on-line forums to avoid doing any real research or come up with their own ideas.

typequake and timd, I think the confusion is that on the eastern side of the pond, there's not a categorical difference betwixt thesis and dissertation. On the western side, thesis is for Masters, and dissertation is for Doctorate, and generally for Bachelors whilst occasionally called a thesis as well (much to the chagrin of Masters candidates, as BA "theses" are rarely more than about 20-25, the average term paper for MA students), it's often called an honours research paper or something to that effect. In HS it's often that or an "extended essay" as I believe the IBO's terminology is.

One thing that has always interested me that you might be able to work in to, especially if you're a fan of RRT or Stylistics/Narratology is perhaps looking at the effect of typeface on readers in books or advertising. Take a genre (thriller novels, beauty product adverts) and examine the fount choices. Back during the vanguardia of Latin America, one of the primary theoretical break-throughs was breaking the quality of the text into three distinct qualities:

• Semantic
• Phonetic
• Graphic

That is to say, while traditionally only the semantic quality had been looked at and/or used for the creation of poetry (phonetic was only used inasmuch as the poetic required, e.g., creating rhyme or rhythm), but by focusing in on the phonetic, for instance, they were able to create poems that superficially had little to no semantic meaning (aka "gibberish") but had a phonetic quality that was beyond anything formerly written. The graphic quality gave birth to the concrete poetry that Latin America is so well known for, but it extends beyond the simple arrangement of the words. (An author that mastered and used all three together is Vicente Huidobro.) For example, in a paper I was writing on electronic poetry, a genre which many established critics are still unsure of, I used Ibarra as my fount, because it was based on old Iberian printing presses. Subconsciously, the readers of my paper, most of whom would be specialising in far older poetry, say, Garcilasso de la Vega, or Góngora, would instantly relate the older "true" poetry with the electronic poetry on which I was writing.

Applying it to modern day advertising or book/pamphlet design could really give you a lot to talk about, and you'd be able to easily fill up 6k words in analyses.

«El futuro es una línea tan fina que apenas nos damos cuenta de pintarla nosotros mismos.» (La Luz Oscura, por Javier Guerrero)

How about combining the two things taht you mention in your second comment, i.e.: "How sexism and sexuality is used in typography."

Now there's a disseratation for you.

>A B.A. Dissertation?

B.A. – Bachelor of Arts degree
Dissertation – an essay which contributes to a degree

Tim
>>

Tim, according to your definition, any written work submitted in the course of BA studies is a dissertation.

Matthew, Babel Fish ain't doing it for me, would you oblige?

"The future it is a so fine line that as soon as we realize to paint it we ourself"

Nick, “The future is a line so fine that we barely realise we ourselves paint it”. It’s from a short film that a friend of mine did that won the Cinexplora film festival in Spain. http://www.laluzoscura.com (mainly images from the film).

«El futuro es una línea tan fina que apenas nos damos cuenta de pintarla nosotros mismos». (La Luz Oscura, por Javier Guerrero)

Wow Matthew, nice line. If Nick hadn't asked you for a better translation, I would have. And congratulations to your pal the film auteur.

Meanwhile back on topic, miss g, haven't we er, had this conversation before at http://typophile.com/node/30770?

You could try reading a couple of the new titles out of AVA books; Visual Communication by Jonathan Baldwin and Lucienne Roberts, and Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design by Lucienne Roberts. Both of them appear to touch on your concerns.

Better to choose the safer option than struggle.

Priceless.

The only other suggestion I can give which has helped me immensely with my thesis (though it's in a totally unrelated field) is to really focus on your prospectus. It'll probably only be a page or two, but if you work out exactly what you want to accomplish and/or say in the paper in your prospectus, then writing the paper will be that much easier.

«El futuro es una línea tan fina que apenas nos damos cuenta de pintarla nosotros mismos». (La Luz Oscura, por Javier Guerrero)

Apologies in advance. This will not be a very constructive post. It boggles my mind that as a second year student, you feel the need to ask typophilers to help with a focus for your dissertation.

In my area of studies (creative writing) you are expected, by 2nd year, to be able to come up with a thesis and direction for your papers on your own. If nothing else, your studies are supposed to teach you to think critically for yourself, not simply execute a paper based on other people's ideas. The hard part is *always* struggling with the direction and focus and logic of what you want to say. You may get through your degree by asking others to feed you the ideas, your teacher might even not have a problem with you doing so, but this practice will not serve you well in the long run.

Sit down, work out a connection or concept or argument you want to make, draw up an outline for your paper, write a thesis statement, and post *that*. You'll get better feedback and you'll be able to say you did the thinking on your own.

K.

Why is this thread in the design section?

Bacause there isn't a ***** **** **** ******** section ;-)