kristen coogan

MFA thesis students develop multiple, concurrent projects that collectively articulate their visual language and critical methodology. These projects are research-driven and studio-based, encouraging sustained inquiry into personally relevant subject matter.

The MFA thesis culminates in three primary components: a published book that documents and contextualizes the work, a dedicated website that extends its digital presence and accessibility, and a publicly presented exhibition that formally introduces the completed body of work to an audience.

Students produce a publication that documents and contextualizes 100 distinct influences that inform and shape their identity as visual artists. These influences may include artists, writers, filmmakers, cultural movements, personal experiences, historical events, or other visual and intellectual references that contribute to the development of their practice.

The project emphasizes research and editorial design, requiring students to critically examine their influences while developing clarity in visual organization and conceptual framing.

Graduate students worked in pairs to research and produce visual biographies of one another. Each collaboration resulted in two complementary formats: a printed poster and a short-form video.

The project required students to conduct interviews, gather visual and archival materials, and translate biographical narratives into clear visual frameworks. Emphasis was placed on research methodology and on denotative and connotative form-making.

Students began by conducting in-depth research on a single color, examining its historical origin, etymology, material provenance, and methods of production. Their investigation also addressed the color’s symbolic associations across cultures, its psychological and emotional connotations, and its traditional and contemporary applications in art, design, industry, and media.

Drawing from their research, students developed two complementary outcomes: one analog and one digital project. The analog component emphasized material exploration, process, and physical form, while the digital component extended the inquiry through screen-based or interactive formats. Together, the projects translated historical and conceptual research into visual and experiential form, demonstrating the relationship between theory, materiality, and contemporary practice.

Students selected and researched an iconic poster, examining its historical context, designer, cultural impact, visual language, typography, composition, and production methods. The research phase required critical analysis of the poster’s formal qualities and its relevance within design history.

Following this analysis, students produced fifty distinct redesigns of the selected poster. Each iteration explored variation through shifts in hierarchy, typography, composition, scale, image treatment, color, and conceptual framing.

After completing the iterations, students developed a content-specific visual framework to present the entire series. This final archive unified the fifty redesigns into a cohesive collection, demonstrating skills in sequencing, structure, consistency, and editorial organization.

The Unknown Project is a structured, low-risk and high-ambiguity assignment intended to cultivate experimentation, self-direction, and discovery. The project framework provides minimal prescriptive guidelines, intentionally creating open conditions in which outcomes are not predetermined.

Students identify and pursue a line of inquiry that is unfamiliar to them—this may involve exploring a new medium, subject matter, methodology, community, skill set, or research approach. Emphasis is placed on process over product, encouraging risk-taking, iteration, and reflection without the pressure of a fixed formal result.

Throughout the project, students document their investigation, decision-making, challenges, and discoveries. The culmination of the assignment is a self-designed object that functions as both artifact and record of the experience. This object translates the process into a tangible form, demonstrating how uncertainty, experimentation, and reflection contribute to creative development.

This collection features a series of information design projects in which students translated complex and/or quantitative data into clear, visually structured formats. Each project required students to research, analyze, and synthesize dense information—such as statistical data, systems, processes, timelines, or multi-variable comparisons—and transform it into accessible visual communication.

Students employed a range of strategies including data visualization, diagramming, mapping, charting, and hierarchical structuring. Emphasis was placed on accuracy, clarity, legibility, and the relationship between form and content. Projects demonstrate careful consideration of scale, typography, color systems, labeling conventions, and visual logic to ensure that information is both precise and comprehensible.

Together, the collection highlights students’ ability to distill complexity, identify patterns and relationships within data, and construct visual frameworks that support analytical thinking and audience understanding.

Students conducted independent research on an under-known or under-represented design discourse that exists outside or at the margins of the dominant Western design history narrative. Areas of inquiry could include overlooked movements, practitioners, geographies, methodologies, or cultural frameworks that have received limited institutional recognition or scholarly attention.

The research process involved gathering primary and secondary sources, analyzing historical context, identifying key contributors and artifacts, and evaluating the social, political, and cultural conditions that shaped the discourse. Students were expected to critically assess gaps in existing narratives and articulate the significance of their chosen topic within a broader design history framework.

The project culminated in a 100-page editorial publication that curated and synthesized their findings. The publication required the development of a clear editorial structure, visual system, typographic hierarchy, image sequencing, and citation framework. Through this format, students demonstrated their ability to translate rigorous historical research into a cohesive, designed artifact that contributes to expanded and more inclusive understandings of design history.

The Amsterdam Design Workshop immerses BU students in the Netherlands’ internationally influential design culture through direct engagement with designers, studios, museums, and archives. The experience centers on investigating the Dutch design landscape and its impact on contemporary visual culture, connecting students with a wide spectrum of practices ranging from established studios to experimental collectives.

Since 2013, the initiative has fostered sustained relationships with more than 100 collaborators, including studios such as Karel Martens, Irma Boom, and Thonik, as well as experimental practices like The Rodina and MainStudio. The program positions BU Graphic Design within a global design dialogue while expanding students’ exposure to diverse perspectives, methodologies, and critical approaches to contemporary design.

This collection presents a range of motion graphics projects produced by students working in time-based media. The projects demonstrate foundational and advanced approaches to animation, sequencing, and temporal storytelling across digital platforms.