Hi everyone, my name is Robert and this week I researched graphic design faculty members from various institutions in Ohio.

Here is my XYZ Statement: Investigating Ohio Graphic Design Faculty backgrounds through designing a data visualization to better understand the backgrounds of college professors at various universities. Due to time limitations, I mainly looked at programs that offered a BFA or BA in Graphic Design or were acknowledged for having a fairly well established program.

This project relates to my MFA thesis which is an investigation of the distribution of design talent throughout the United States can be mapped through the cross-examination of various design annuals, books, organizations or associations, census data, the cost of living, and universities.

Some of my research so far involves self-verification theory which  is where “Individuals continuously strive to construct, refine, and defend their identity of themselves. These identities include many characteristics, such as their roles in life, their strengths, their values, their limitations, their beliefs, their reputation, and so forth,” So far, I have found that where you go or went to school, what you want others to think of you, your self perception, and where you are from may possibly affect where you want to work for your first job. The visualization will help individuals who want to become a professor have an understanding of the criteria certain programs are looking for when hiring new faculty members.

Information was gathered via a deep google search. Some of my information was pulled from the websites of the institutions and faculty member’s personal websites. However, most of my information was pulled from “creeping” on Linkedin profiles. In fact, some people looked at my profile multiple times because I had to keep going back to look at their profiles.

Here are the institutions I narrowed my scope down to. Remember, these are programs that result in a BFA or BA in Graphic Design or are know for having a solid design program. Some schools include: The University of Akron, Miami University, Mount Vernon University and Notre Dame College.

Once I narrowed down my school section, I began looking at the education and locations of work of all graphic design faculty members. I only was focusing on education and what city they worked in. I was not focusing on what type of design job that they had.

After all my data was collected, I had a list of 75 professors

that were educated from 76 various institutions

and lived in 86 different cites across the globe.

I then began trying to figure out how to organize this information. I decided to make a list of the steps faculty members took starting with their bachelor’s degree moving to where they currently teach, and where some professors currently work.

Here is my final organization of all my data. There was a max of jobs/locations that individuals took from their bachelors to their current position. Some instructors have taken a max of four location or job changes after accepting their current teaching position.

Once that was organized, I began to figure out how to visualize my data. I decided to go with the right image to show the various journeys all professors. 

Here is a prototype of the visualization.

Here are some close ups. Once I made a couple list regions, I began digitally making the entire data visualization by hand without any programs to quickly make the visual.

Here is the final visualization. Do the the extensive size of the data, I will zoom in so you all can see details.

I found that visualizations like this are extremely beautiful if printed, but you cannot understand what is being show. If done digitally, you can possibly make it interactive to help individuals better understand what you are showing. When done by hand, I have a deeper understanding of some of the commonalities that professors have in various programs and some of the most travelled through cities. This information will be extremely valuable to future professors and help individuals gage if they are qualified for a position.

If I carried this project further, I would first interpret the data to figure out what certain programs are specifically looking for based of location and education. I would then develop and interface so you can click on any city or university to focus on seeing just that data/path. Lastly, this would be interesting to do this to all graphic design programs in Ohio, regardless of what type of degree a student receives.