Setting the Site

Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Sophomore – 3 credits

Spring 2009

Graphic designers are visual communicators who study the ins and outs of designing the navigation of a page, a book, a poster, even an exhibit. Graphic designers work to direct a users eye in navigating 2-dimensional spaces. But how do we direct the navigation of a three-dimensional space and consider its inherent meanings and social complexities? How do users read a city environment, a wooded lot, a street corner, a park bench, a donut shop shaped like a coffee cup? How do built and natural environments impress their inherent narratives upon the consciousness of the reader—the viewer—the user? And how can we, as designers of visual communication, use our skills to design meaningful and well-considered 3-dimensional interventions in ways that address social, historical, or culturally important issues? Students in this class will investigate metaphorical, formal, and pragmatic aspects of working with type, narrative, concept and meaning in three-dimensional environments. From within the context of graphic design and visual communication, we will 1) design graphic/text elements in three dimensions, 2) investigate the alteration of existing spaces through the insertion of text, 3) address practical and theoretical issues pertaining to the relationship between narratives and the spaces we move through and 4) design a project which addresses narrative and message and the way graphic form and texts can be introduced in existing environments. We will look at and consider memorial design, park design, interactive experiences, and public/installation art. The course will include a field trip, readings, model making, and spatial/installation projects and documentation.

Taught by:   Lucinda Hitchcock      

Course #: GRAPH 3274

Graphic Design majors only