* *

*
*
* * *
— mica class of 2025 —

*
GRAPHIC *
DESIGN
* MFA THESIS
GUIDE
* *
*
*
* *
*
* *
 semester 1 semester 2 semester 3 semester 4

thesis
exhibition
opens

baby steps:
the starter
project
yaY!
flow
state!
doubt,
confusion,
plot
detour
thesis
book
!
one
finally more
getting mountain

?
started to
climb

research,
avoidance,
workshops,
& more I did it.
avoidance why do
i feel
shitty?*

starting
over

THESIS ARC Every story has high points and * The creative process has
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
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.
Welcome to your thesis

Dear Designers,

The Graphic Design MFA faculty is here to support you

on your thesis journey!
The thesis process begins with loose ideation and self-
discovery during your second semester at MICA. The
journey evolves in the third semester through active
research, making, and testing. In the fourth and final
semester, the thesis gains focus and clarity through
distillation, refinement, execution, and documentation.
All your efforts along the thesis path are valuable. Some
elements of your journey will apppear in your thesis
exhibition. Many more ideas—and lots of the work you
will make along the way—will find a home in your thesis
book. Also expect some false starts and dead ends. This
ongoing work—and the courage and effort necessary to
put your creativity and capacity on the line—defines the
GD MFA experience. Embracing this experience is why,
we hope, you have chosen this community to support
your development.
Trust yourselves that you will rise to meet your goals.
Special thanks to Ellen Lupton for putting together this
guide, which compiles knowledge learned alongside
our beloved MICA students over years of teaching and
research.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Cole Phillips, Director
Graphic Design MFA, MICA
overview

What is a graphic design thesis?

A thesis project is the primary outcome of most art and

design graduate programs. A thesis is an independent
project exploring a topic, theme, medium, or method
through the eyes of the artist or designer. Unlike scholarly
dissertations, an art or design thesis focuses on creative
work. Graphic design thesis projects take many forms:
—a book or zine collection
—a performance or installation
—interactive media
—a published website
—a typeface or collection of typefaces
—a series of posters, videos, or animations
—a prototype for a digital product (practical or speculative)
—a game or prototype for a game
—textiles, stationery, furnishings, or useful objects
—maps, diagrams, and other data graphics
—a body of work encompassing diverse media
—all or none of the above!
For many artists and designers, a public exhibition is the most exhilarating See page 14,
moment in the thesis process. However, a designer’s total thesis project What is graphic
includes much more than an exhibition. Your thesis encompasses your design research?
research process, written materials, early experiments, sketches, prototypes,
and writing.
The thesis book is the final documentation of your thesis process. This book See page 18,
becomes a source of learning and inspiration for future faculty and students. It The thesis essay
also helps you expand your publication design skills, becoming 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
 Frequently asked questions

“A good thesis How do I know if my thesis concept is okay?

project continues
The best idea is one that excites you and supports your goals for graduate
after you leave
school. It’s natural to feel occasional feelings of doubt, but if you consisently
MICA, giving you
inspiration beyond dread working on your project and discussing your project with others, it's
your time as a time to try a new direction. Don’t stick with a dud!
student. So it’s
Can I switch to a new idea?
okay to identify
parts of your Yes! The thesis is a process of discovery. You can’t evaluate an idea without
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
have more time or you will have to develop your new idea.
more resources.”
—Brockett Horne How do I manage conflicting advice?
You will get a wealth of feedback about your work! Inevitably, you will hear
conflicting opinions from different faculty, peers, guest critics, and 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.

Can I collaborate with others?

Yes! At MICA, several wonderful thesis projects have been produced jointly by
two or three GD MFA students. A collaborative thesis gets extra gallery space.
You may also collaborate with other designers, illustrators, musicians, etc.

Is the thesis exhibition required?

No. Occasionally, unexpected circumstances prevent a student from
participating in the thesis exhibition. Such circumstances (such as mental or
physical health issues) must be discussed with the program director. During
the COVID-19 pandemic, public exhibitions were suspended for two years.

Is the thesis essay required?

Yes! Every student must write about their work in a 1,500+-word essay.

Is the thesis book required?

Yes! Every student will document their process in a thesis book. GD MFA
purchases one print copy. Digital files are preserved by the Decker Library.

Are MICA’s two thesis websites required?

Yes! Every student must provide content for the MICA Graduate Studies
website and the GD MFA program website (micadesign.org).

5
 that’s interesting!

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anatomy of a thesis beast

6
 — getting started —

MEET
YOUR
THESIS
BEAST
C ongratulations! You are creating a
graphic design thesis. This guide will
help you learn to love, understand,
and cultivate your Thesis Beast. Will your
Thesis Beast grow up to become a brain-eating
zombie, a shape-shifting werewolf, or a lovable
puppykitten? Yes! All of the above! Your Beast
will eat your brain, so feed it nutritious books,
podcasts, horoscopes, and critical essays. Take
it to museums, galleries, movies, and malls.
Make sure it gets plenty of sleep, fresh air,
exercise, and play time.

7
getting started

The starter project

How do you get your Thesis Beast out of bed and moving stuff to make
around? Let your Beast grow in happy little bursts of Zine
energy. Start with a small, manageable project. Whether Game
your starter project is serious or playful, avoid huge Card deck
expectations. Keep it light! Cultivate joy! Kit
Book
—Choose a project that you want to make
Installation
—Choose a medium that you enjoy (animation, Experience
illustration, lettering, etc.). What do you love doing? Interaction
—Define an outcome that is concrete and manageable App or website
Research dossier
—Consider expanding a previous project
Short animation
—Consider using writing from a liberal arts class Daily practice
—To focus on a technique, such as 3D/4D, AI, or code, 360 video
create experiments around a theme Data visualization
Maps, diagrams
Remember: This is not your whole thesis. This short-term
Brand identity
project may not lead directly to your thesis at all.
Type specimen
Typeface
Tools for making Hand lettering
SKETCHBOOK | Most designers and artists keep sketchbooks for, well, Illustrations
sketching but also for taking notes and brainstorming with lists, mind maps, Poster series
and diagrams.
Motion poster series
ILLUSTRATOR ARTBOARD | Many designers use an Illustrator file as a digital GIFs or memes
sketchbook for a project. Keep adding visual ideas to the artboard. Swatches
Social media posts
of color, form, typography, and imagery can gather here and talk to each other.
The mood is open and casual.
PROJECT BOARD | Seeing your work in your studio environment (at home or
at school) helps keep you inspired and triggers conversations with others. Pin-
up prints, drawings, paintings, found objects, prototypes, and more.
WEB TOOLS | Use Notion, Google Sites, Evernote, or other tools to organize
your stuff and build your knowledge base.

8
 Content aware

Themes and topics Your Thesis Beast is hungry for content. Alas, creating
Sensory design content is hard. You will need to plant and cultivate
Sustainability vibrant, nutritious content for your Thesis Beast. Start
Animal behavior with a theme, topic, question, premise, problem, or
Plant behavior narrative hook. Your subject matter should be interesting
Food (science, culture) to you. Start with a big idea and then make smaller ideas
Language (poetry, that are more specific.
translation, theory)
WICKED PROBLEMS | A massive issue such as climate change, racial injustice,
Writing systems
or the mental health crisis could crush you and your thesis. Make a list of
Decolonial design
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
Generative design to visualizing a problem or telling stories.
Authorship OFFBEAT TOPICS | Your topic doesn’t have to be complex or socially
Feminism significant. A quirky topic such as the anatomy of vegetables, the history of tea,
Queer studies or Baltimore’s native plants can provide unexpected depth.
Gender studies CULTURE AND IDENTITY | Explore your family background, cultural roots, or
Race and bias gender identity. Areas such as street signs, folk tales, decorative traditions, and
writing systems can make fruitful thesis projects.
Future of (money,
books, time travel, VISUAL EXPERIMENTATION | Identify a concrete aesthetic question to
work)
help ground and unify your experiments. Areas to explore include design
Mental health and sculpture, design and music, design and poetry, design and authorship,
Self care multisensory design, AI, generative design, and queer aesthetics. Formal
Humor themes can be very personal.
World-building SPECULATIVE DESIGN | Imagine new approaches to basic human activities
Storytelling such as reading, working, sleeping, cooking, and self-care. Speculative design
emphasizes storytelling and social critique over practical problem-solving.
3D/4D
Speculative desigs can be utopian or dystopian. Imagine the future of
Personal history
museums, restaurants, money, governments, underwear, or travel.
Local history
Design history
Design pedagogy
Cultural history and Read More | speculative design
cultural identity Kersin Pinther and Alexandra Weigand, eds. Flow of Forms, Forms of Flow:
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.

9
getting started

Mapping your habitat

Prepare the ground for your Thesis Beast to germinate,

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!
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?

10
thesis habitat

VALUES GREEN SPACE

HEROES | SHEROES | XEROES FORMS

DEMONS NEW TERRITORY

11
keep moving

What to do when you get stuck

BE SPECIFIC THINK INSIDE THE BOX BREAK IT DOWN

Your Thesis Beast will get lost The creative process often Your project isn’t a giant
and confused when wandering stalls when faced with too many mountain; it’s just a pile of rocks.
through a vast, amorphous choices and too much freedom. Break it down into smaller parts.
topic. If you find yourself mired Build a snug little box where A book consists of chapters,
in a blurry mudscape such as your Thesis Beast can eat, sleep, paragraphs, and sentences. An
“time,” “dreams,” or “memory,” and think. Constraints include animation requires a script,
make your topic more narrow limiting the format or focusing style frames, and storyboards as
and concrete to ground your on a particular tool or medium well as the final motion design.
explorations. that you want to experience. Projects have different phases,
such as research, brainstorming,
general specific constraints experimentation, and production.
Format four-second films If learning a new skill is part of
Time Time travel
four-letter words your process, watch a tutorial and
Dreams Nightmares A4 posters try a simple exercise. Map out
Memory Memory form black-and-white the parts of your project to keep
technologies type only it all in perspective.
cookie dough
Medium collage
motion graphics
data graphics

12
DO THE EASIEST THING FIRST ZOOM IN AND OUT ASK A FRIEND
After you break down your Pull back from your topic to see Introduce your Thesis Beast to
project, what will you do first? a bigger picture, or zoom in to a friend. (Your friend might be
To ease your Thesis Beast into discover a quirky detail. If your struggling with a Beast of their
action, start with something topic is elephants, zoom out on own.) Explain what you are
easy. If you have ideas for elephant families or elephant doing, or let the work speak for
three posters, pick one with a warfare, or zoom in on elephant itself. Ask specific questions.
strong, clear message or story ears, toenails, or arm pits. Be vulnerable. Get and give
arc. This will help you test your feedback. Your Thesis Beast will
bigger concept and begin to how to zoom thank you.
establish your point of view. scale Make something much
If you are considering several bigger or smaller than
methods for creating imagery expected
for your project, start with one detail Blow up a tiny detail
that doesn’t require a trip to distance How does your topic
Home Depot or reading a two- relate to other topics?
thousand–page book. What metaphors does
it suggest?
impact What’s the bigger
lesson or meaning?

13
going deeper

What is graphic design research?

A graduate thesis project creates new knowledge. For “Frame

example, your thesis might tell visual stories about a topic narrowly
and explore
or propose a product and service addressing a problem deeply.”
or daily activity. Experimental or personal projects —Jennifer Cole Phillips

explore visual forms and techniques or family narratives.

Design work employs many forms of research (reading,
writing, exploring visual precedents, and conducting user
research) in addition to the making process.

What to read
Complex topics such as climate change, mental health,
or plant biology require reading. If your content is more
personal, explore topics such as queer theory, the science
and culture of memory, or the philosophy of perception.
Ask your instructors and MICA’s graphic design reference
librarian for reading recommendations. Look for:
—Current nonfiction books and scholarly articles
—Journalism in reputable publications (such as The Atlantic, The New
Yorker, and The New York Times in the US)
—Online articles on platforms such as Medium.com. These can be helpful,
but check to see if the text comes largely from other sources.
—Novels, poetry, and essays (old and new)
—Theory and philosophy, including explanations of influential texts
—Texts in your native language
—Texts by women and people of color
—Texts by designers
—Texts by non-designers (mostly)
—Diverse media: TED Talks, recorded lectures, podcasts, films, exhibitions

14
How to read
Reading is hard work—and it’s a skill that you can
improve. Active reading strategies will help you find and
remember useful information:
READ EARLY. Reading will help you understand the shape of your topic, from
the basic facts to burning controversies. Reading will fuel your making process,
too, by warming up your mind for the work ahead.
DON’T READ THE WHOLE THING. Scholarly articles have abstracts. Books
have introductions. Many authors put their best material near the beginning of
the book and the most esoteric stuff at the end. Study the table of contents and
read the chapters most relevant to you.
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!
DIG FOR GEMS. Works of philosophy and critical theory are full of obscure
language and tangled references. Sift through the soil to find poetic gems that
speak to your project.
TAKE NOTES. If you don’t take notes, don’t bother reading. You won’t
remember any of this stuff in two months (or two weeks). Later, you can reread
your notes rather than flipping back through the whole book. Underlining is
not enough. Pro tips for taking notes:
—Screenshots, collected in folders
—Photographs of book pages. Use your phone camera to convert photos
into live text.
—Ebooks. Little-known secret: The Kindle app allows you to highlight
passages. These quotes will be collected automatically in your online
Amazon Kindle account. Wow!
—Notes, consistently collected. For example, put your notes in a single
Google doc, and create more docs as your topic becomes more specialized.
Alternatively, use a tool like Notion to build a structured knowledge base.
—Digital notes are more useful than notes in your sketchbook. Digital
notes are searchable! Handwritten notes are hard to find later, and they are
difficult to sort and rearrange.
—Track everything. Your notes should include author, title, date, publisher,
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.

15
Visual research
Visual research includes seeking out precedents for your “The ideal state of
creative work. How have other artists and designers creative work is a
state of flow. You
engaged your topic or worked in your chosen medium? feel challenged and
Conduct visual research with curiosity and respect: stimulated by what
DOCUMENT YOUR SOURCES. To avoid plagiarizing the work of others, you are doing but
not overwhelmed.
always note the sources of the precedents that you collect.
When your project
TRACK YOUR SOURCES. Use bookmarking tools, such as Aren.a and is clearly yet
Evernote, to keep a record of where and when you saw visual works. If you are expansively defined,
using Pinterest, find links that aren’t copies of copies of copies. you will know what
to do next. The ideas
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SOURCES. When you create visual presentations and
will keep coming.”
thesis documents, include the names of the artists who inspired your project. —Ellen Lupton
Their work is just as important to your research as books and articles.
BROADEN YOUR SOURCES. Don’t just look at graphic design. You are
more likely to copy someone else’s solution if you only look at work by other
designers. Expand your vocabulary by seeing as much as possible: painting,
sculpture, movies, crafts, architecture, decorative arts, popular culture, street
art, photography, scientific visualizations, and more.
MAKING IS RESEARCH, TOO. Your experiments with materials, forms, code,
printing, fabrication, and more are active forms of research. Document your
process. Look back at your research for new insights.
nature

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don't turn your back on inspiration

16
User research
User research is an important part of the design thinking
methodology and is especially valuable for designing
products and services. User research can include
observing people doing a task, distributing a survey,
holding a focus group, or conducting a co-creation
workshop. If you wish to conduct user research, plan your
event carefully to create an equitable experience.
CONSENT | Participants in a user study should agree to the process and
understand what you are doing with the research. For example, if you plan
to include quotes from a written survey in a zine or show work from a
creative workshop in your exhibition, will you use their names or quote them
anonymously? Will you share the results of your research with them?
POWER GAPS | Be aware of differences in power. Do you belong to the
community you are studying (such as “international students” or “gen z
consumers”)? If so, you have equal power. If your are outside the community
your are studying, there may be an inbalance of power between you and your
collaborators (such as “maintenance staff at MICA” or “elders living in a care
facility.”) Use inclusive language and processes. Be thankful. Avoid extractive
behavior (taking something from the community without giving back).
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.
DOCUMENTATION | Keep records of your research so that you can refer to
it later accurately. If you conduct a co-creation workshop, take photographs
of people working and what they made (with their consent). If you intend to
credit people for their contributions, keep track of their full names.

Read More | creative process

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention
(New York: HarperCollins, 1996).
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act (New York: Penguin, 2023).
Read More | user research
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

17
going deeper

The thesis essay

The thesis essay lives inside the thesis publication, a “Remember that you
printed, bound book and PDF that serves as a permanent will be discarding
80% of what you
record of each thesis. MICA’s graduate course Thesis create, so when you
Writing supports students in writing this essay. make something that
isn’t good enough
Length: 1,500 words minimum. The essay may be broken for the final thesis,
up and distributed throughout your thesis publication you’re chipping
rather than appearing in a single block. Look at past away at that 80%.”
thesis books to see many different approaches. —Abe Burickson

DEVELOP A COHERENT IDEA ABOUT DESIGN. Try to summarzie your

focus in a compact phrase, such as “World-building as a design process” or
“Designing for neurodiversity.” The essay should express an insight related
to design. Although your topic may encompass ideas from political science,
neurobiology, or some other subject, your essay should highlight your
expertise as a designer in a way that can benefit other designers.
EXPLAIN WHY YOUR PROJECT MATTERS. What is the intellectual purpose
of your thesis? Is your goal to create cultural commentary? Propose a
speculative product? Explore form in a fresh way? Design for user interaction
or participation? Address ethical questions? Design a tool? Illuminate ideas
from another field? Create a design process? Draw attention to a problem?
Contribute to the design discourse?
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
staying well

Tips for living creatively

It is hard to stay healthy during grad school. Listen to

signals from your mind and body, and know when to slow
down and take a break. Don’t let your Thesis Beast fall prey
to oppressive expectations. Worrying about whether your
concept is big enough or smart enough can prevent you
from getting started at all. Staying stuck at the edge of your
project causes more mental pain than jumping in and doing
the best you can.
MAKE | Print, draw, cut, paste, fold, paint, diagram, map, record, vectorize,
generate, animate, interpolate, extrapolate.
MOVE | Take a walk to free up your brain (and your Beast). Or, take a shower.
Because, stinky.
SLEEP | Pause. Rest. Recover. After spending time apart, you and your Beast will
treat each other more kindly.
REPEAT | Don’t rush to the finish line. Revise, redo, refresh, and regurgitate.
SHARE | Talk to your friends about your Thesis Beast. Let the Beast eat their
brains for a while.
RELAX | It's never too late to stop worrying about your Beast.
MOOD SWINGS | You and your Beast will have highs and lows. Follow the curve.
It’s okay to walk away and do something else.

19
the legal stuff | updated 12.4.2023

Intellectual property guidelines

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and using
them as your own. Synonyms include copying, piracy, theft, stealing, and
cribbing. Plagiarism includes:
— Claiming that you created someone else’s writing or visual art/design.
— Getting someone else to write part or all of your essay.
— Submitting as exclusively your own, written or visual work created jointly
by a group in which you participated. (Just credit the group.)
— In a written essay, failing to cite a source that is not common knowledge.
— In a written essay, failing to put quotation marks around an author’s words.
— In visual art or design, directly copying (cut and paste) another person’s
work, or closely recreating another person’s design.
— 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
reference to the author directly in your text.

CITING YOUR RESEARCH

Every GD MFA thesis book should include sources for your research. These
sources may take the form of have footnotes, endnotes, and/or a bibliography.
— Footnotes are references to a book, article, or website; a footnote appears
on the same page as the relevant text.
— Endnotes are references gathered at the end of your essay or at the back of
your thesis book. Footnotes and endnotes are numbered; they include author,
title, publisher, date, web address, etc.
— There are several conventions for footnotes and endnotes; you may follow
any convention you like, as long as you are consistent.
— Every concept, quotation, data set, or fact that is not original to you or isn’t
considered “general knowledge” should have a footnote or endnote.
— A bibliography is a list of all the books, essays, blog articles, and websites
that were important to your research. You don’t need to connect these to
specific ideas in the text. Your bibliography should appear at the end of your
thesis book. A bibliography is also titled “References” or “Works Cited.”

20
— Direct citation on the page. If you choose to present a beautiful quote from
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.

VISUAL SOURCES AND REFERENCES

You will be looking at work by other artists and designers and assembling
examples that inform your own practice (precedents or inspiration).
— At times, you may assemble these sources in a presentation, formstorming
document, moodboard, or your final thesis book.
— 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
images in your project are original to you.
— Credits should include any available information: creator, client, date,
and source s(uch as museum collection, Getty Picture Archive, etc.). Full
information is not always available. Do your best!
— Any image you use should be credited: photographs, illustrations, data
graphics, etc. Credits can run small if needed.

WHEN IS IT ACCEPTABLE TO USE AI IN YOUR WORK?

Academic policies on this matter are evolving quickly. Please reach out to
faculty if you are uncertain. Students and faculty can discuss individual use
cases together and help create a robust and fair policy.
— YES, you may use AI in a critical, experimental, self-aware way to generate
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,
“Illustration by Midjourney.”
— YES, you may use AI tools such as ChatGPT to ask technical or fact-based
questions, just as you use Google searches in your research and design process.
— YES, you may use AI tools such as ChatGPT to create dummy text for a
project, but you must disclose the source of the text. For example, “Text by
ChatGPT.”
— NO, you may not use AI to create texts or visual forms that you claim to be
original visual work or original writing and research.
— NO, you may not use AI in place of citations. Citations must include names
of authors and publications and/or links to authored online articles. Where
appropriate, you may cite an AI tool (such as ChatGPT) as your source. Include
the your prompt in the citation.
— Avoid using AI to research opinions or interpretations of literature,
philosophy, art, legal issues, public health policies, or any other subject that
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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.
— Check AI responses for accuracy and bias. You are responsible for the
content of your work.

PUBLISHING YOUR WORK BEYOND MICA

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 U.S. 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.
Eileen MacAvery Kane, Ethics: A Graphic Designer’s Field Guide, 2010.
Eric Schrijver, Copy This Book: An Artist's Guide to Copyright (Eindhoven:
Onomotopee, 2019).

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one cell
two cells
shapeless blob

too big to fail

life cycle of a thesis beast

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