SCAN: Look/See
An Approach to Graphic Design from the
Quick Glance to the Close Examination
MFA Graphic Design Thesis, Rhode Island School of Design, 2007
My Master's thesis addressed the fact that people move through or by all graphic media at varying speeds—spending varying amounts of time with it, obtaining varying amounts of information from it and walking away with varying depths of understanding. Using the metaphor of scanning as a way to structure this thesis, my pieces explored various ways of designing for multiple levels of engagement.
Scanning is not only a fundamental act in the field of graphic design, but it is also central to everyday experience in our culture: we scan, more than we read, text; we scan people as they walk by; we scan whatever scene lies before us—cars on the highway, a room full of people, piles of paper on our desks. “Scanning,” in its most common definition, means “to glance at or over/ or read quickly: as in, to scan a page.” However, the word’s original meaning is “to examine closely.”
Using these polarities in meaning, I created a range of scanning values (dpi/dots per inch) as a metaphor for the different levels that audiences engage with graphic media— from the quick glance to the close examination. This spectrum of definitions—quick glance (72-dpi), survey (150-dpi), search(240-dpi), mechanical scan (300-dpi), close examination (1200-dpi)—served as the framework for my thesis.
At first my observations took an abstract and generalizing turn. I looked at the passengers in masses, and thought of them in their aggregate relations. Soon, however, I descended to details and regarded with minute interest the innumerable varieties of figure, dress, air, gait, visage and expression.
—Edgar Allan Poe, The Man of the Crowd