Design thinking, visual articulation and a love for learning guide my actions as a graphic and interactive designer, a design educator, a cross disciplinarian, and a digital conceptualist. This is a selection of my projects, essays and experiences. To learn more about me please email me or download my design & teaching philosophy and my curriculum vitae.

design research

 professional practice

 teaching experience

»Imaging III: Web
»Fundamentals: Letterform
»Fundamentals: Poster
»Design Camp '06
»Design Camp '05
»Responsibility in Design
»Current courses at KCAI

Instructor for two weeks, Summer 2006


High School Design Camp

At NCSU's Summer High School Design Camp rising juniors and seniors rotate through five design modules for a taste of each design discipline over the course of one week. The graphic design project must be completed in a single day without computers (including instruction, production and critique time).

Project:
This process-oriented project takes students through five stages in order to learn some fundamental design principles of composition, framing, scale, sequence and hierarchy. I ask the students to tell a singular and cohesive story about themselves. Students start the "sketching" process by crafting found image and word collages.

Next, students "re-frame" by cropping the collages into smaller segments. I provided a set of framing tools (in various sizes) and ask students to find compositions that contain contextual juxtapositions and interesting compositions that are dense, sparse, or typographic-centric.

Students incorporate scale and contrast into the process by enlarging the selected composition on the photocopier. Through a process of editing and sequencing, I ask students to select several compositions to best tell their story.

Finally, students can add color for hierarchical emphasis or to help clarify the photocopied image. I have asked students either to produce an oversized magazine (with front cover and inside spread) or make a CD package design with fold out booklet.

»Download Project handout (pdf)

All content (including design, writing and research) copyright Jamie E. Gray, 2007, unless otherwise attributed. Technical advisement provided by agrayspace creative.