RISD Graphic Design Curriculum: Sort and Filter

You may select one or more options, then click the “Display courses” button below to sort and reorder the course listings.

These courses are indicative of the graphic design department's offerings, and are not intended to be used for registration purposes. Up-to-date course listings can be accessed via RISD's web advisor system.

Typography I

Sophomore requirement for majors – 3 credits

Fall 2008

Typography I through III (GRAPH 3214/3215/3223) are a sequence of courses that focus on the subject of typography.This sequence covers the fundamentals of typography, its theory, practice, technology, and history. Studies range from introductory through advanced levels. Exercises include: the study of letterforms, type design, typographic texting and composition, layout and page systems, typographic expression and communication, type with image, proportion and grids,hierarchy, legibility, etc.

Taught by:   Krzysztof Lenk   Hans van Dijk   John Kane   Jacek Mrowczyk   Katherine Hughes      

Course #: GRAPH 3214

Graphic Design majors only

Typography II

Sophomore requirement for majors – 6 credits

Spring 2009

Typography I through III (GRAPH 3214/ 3215/3223) are a sequence of courses that focus on the subject of typography. This sequence covers the fundamentals of typography, its theory, practice, technology, and history. Studies range from introductory through advanced levels. Exercises include: the study of letterforms, type design, typographic texting and composition, layout and page systems, typographic expression and communication, type with image, proportion and grids, hierarchy, legibility, etc.

Taught by:   Franz Werner   Bill Newkirk   Akefeh Nurosi   Lucinda Hitchcock   Mark Laughlin      

Course #: GRAPH 3215

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography I

Form + Communication

Sophomore requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

Students will explore and gain understanding of visual logic and to appreciate the design functions of relating ideas, objects, material, and space. Form studies examine organic and constructed elements and aspects of design such as texture, rhythm, form/counterform, contrast, juxtaposition, progression and sequence. Visual skills will be developed to compose as well as to communicate (thought, idea, message). The course balances hands-on methods of observation, invention, and visualization through sketching, computer skills, and photography with critical thinking and problem-solving, leading to the development of a self-directed process.

Taught by:   Franz Werner   Mark Laughlin   Nicole Juen   Donald Tarallo   John Caserta   Susie Nielsen   Amy Kalisher   

Course #: GRAPH 3220

Graphic Design majors only

History of Graphic Design

Sophomore requirement for majors – 3 credits

Spring 2009

Chronological survey of graphic design through slide lectures. The course will study how graphic design responded to (and affected) international, social, political, and technological developments since 1450. Emphasis will be on printed work from 1880 to 1970 and the relationship of that work to other visual arts and design disciplines. In addition to the lectures, the course will schedule a studio section in which design projects are integrated with research.

Taught by:   Douglass Scott      

Course #: GRAPH 3225

Graphic Design majors only

Graphic Design for the Web

Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

The internet has become an essential part of life and thoughtful design is a crucial element in making a website that is accessible, exciting and effective. This course will look at ways of using the most powerful web package on the market: Macromedia’s MX Suite, using Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash to create sites that are interactive, energetic, and visually imaginative.

Taught by:   Brandon Miller   

Course #: GRAPH 3237

Graphic Design majors only

Visiting Designers

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course will involve three or four visiting designers invited from the U.S. and abroad in a series of intensive workshops that combine to make the three credit course. At times the selection of guests are purposely diverse and at other times they may relate to a specific theme.

Taught by:   Bill Newkirk   Dieter Feseke, Sumner Stone, Eve Faulkes, Luba Lukova   

Course #: GRAPH 3278

Graphic Design majors only

Open Re/Search

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course offers individuals the opportunity to pursue a project or topic of personal interest related to visual design and communication. This may be an interest or activity not offered in other courses, a personal ideal, a unique circumstance, a collaboration of two or more individuals, the groundwork or supplement for one’s degree or thesis project, etc. The work can involve a broad range of curiosities like sustainability, sociocultural activism, public service, criticism, spirituality; the nature of theory; practice and experiment; methodology; technology; interactivity. While similar to an ISP or CSP, the difference in this course are in its objectives to offer a dynamic learning experience: 1) to meet with the instructor both privately and as a group on a regular basis to share insights on each other’s work; 2) to introduce topics of interest and relevance to the group; 3) to stimulate interdisciplinary and interlevel interaction among students (all levels and non-majors are welcome!). With permission of instructor required, it is necessary to receive the approval in writing from the instructor at least a week before registration. A proposal via email () must include a title, a synopsis of the project, the value of this project, and a projection of tasks involved.

Taught by:   Thomas Ockerse      

Course #: GRAPH 3280

Graphic Design majors only

Graduate Studio Elective I

Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This elective will explore the interplay of information across varied interactive structures in the widest sense. We will play along the shifting borders of narrative/database; text/image; public/private; physical/virtual; and most of all author/designer. We will work on and off the computer, investigating the concept of phenomenon, craft, and interactive design. This course will be performative and exploratory, and will encourage you to be active participants in shaping and sharing representation of your work in ways that keep up with your ideas.

While the emphasis in this course will be constructing an online component for your work, there will be opportunities to translate your content through a variety of media over a series of projects. Whether you have no interactive experience or feel yourself a master of the craft, this course will ask you to (re)think the basic premise of interactivity, to play freely within its zones, and to invent your own.

Taught by:   Prem Krishnamurthy   Adam Michaels      

Course #: GRAPH 330G

Graphic Design majors only

Graduate Studio Elective II

Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This studio format elective will provide a forum to test a working method across different formats and media. We will analyze and enact systems of distribution in order to synthesize strategies which address the fluid, de-centered and information-saturated conditions of contemporary graphic design practice. Students will engage the political economies of circulation with projects in both analog and electronic media.

Taught by:   David Reinfurt   

Course #: GRAPH 331G

Graphic Design majors only

Color

Junior requirement for majors – 3 credits

Fall 2008

A series of experiences devoted to the development of the perception of color and its use as a tool for the graphic designer. The exercises test the appearance of color relationships in complex structures, dealing with meaning and examining the appropriate use of color in the context of design problems. We use gouache paint first and will match each color on the computer.

Taught by:   Bill Newkirk   Janet Fairbairn   Heather Quinn      

Course #: GRAPH 3211

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography I

Prerequisite:  Form + Communication

Prerequisite:  Typography II

Prerequisite:  History of Graphic Design

Visual Systems

Junior requirement for majors – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course is a study of the structural and organizing systems at work in graphic design such as grids, modules, proportion, progression, symmetry and rhythm. Design problems will be studied holistically through projects that stress dynamic relationships among content, form and context to gain a deeper understanding of systems at many levels.

Taught by:   Thomas Ockerse   Ernesto Aparacio   Nicole Curran   

Course #: GRAPH 3216

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography I

Prerequisite:  Form + Communication

Prerequisite:  Typography II

Prerequisite:  History of Graphic Design

Typography III

Junior requirement for majors – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course will take up advanced problems of typography, such as: various contrasts, structural and proportional systems, hierarchy and sequencing of text as an image, legibility, critical theory, and some elements of the history of typography in relation to technology and contemporary trends in design. All students coming to this class should be familiar with the typographical aspects of the letter, word and line of text, know about the visual arrangement of a printed page, in both single and sequential orders, and have a practical knowledge of computer typesetting.

Taught by:   Krzysztof Lenk   Hans van Dijk   Hammett Nurosi   Douglass Scott   John Kane      

Course #: GRAPH 3223

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography II

Making Meaning

Junior requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

This course introduces techniques of image making in relation to ways of analyzing and creating meaning in graphic and typographic messages. Aspects of image making, information design, visual narrative and semiotics will be explored in the context of practice and theory.

Taught by:   Lucinda Hitchcock   Hans van Dijk   Hammett Nurosi   Thomas Wedell   Jacek Mrowczyk      

Course #: GRAPH 3226

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography I

Prerequisite:  Form + Communication

Prerequisite:  Typography II

Prerequisite:  History of Graphic Design

Senior Studio

Senior requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

The core of this course will focus on the pragmatic aspects of graphic design. The objective is to purposely apply acquired knowledge and skills (e.g., typography, color, visual translation, photography and theory) to a set of “real” problems based on a theme. Necessary vehicles for information (such as brochures, printed materials, posters, websites, etc.) will be developed from concept up to production. The course is intended to closely duplicate the actual working context of professional studio situation.

Taught by:   Krzysztof Lenk   Thomas Ockerse   Ernesto Aparacio   Richard Rose   Clifford Stoltze   Stephanie Grey   Alice Hecht   Eva Anderson   Jeong-Hoon Kim   

Course #: GRAPH 3230

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Making Meaning

Setting the Site

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

Degree Project

Senior / Fifth-Year BGD requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

Spring 2009

This is the final requirement for either the BFA or BGD Degree (the course cannot be taken twice for both degrees, and students must enroll according to the degree path). The degree project is an independent project in graphic design subject to the department’s explicit approval, as the final requirement for graduation for either the BFA or BGD Degree. Visiting critics will be invited to review the completed project. Students are only eligible to enroll in this course if all credit requirements for the degree are complete in this final semester and the student is enrolled with full-time status.

Taught by:   Thomas Ockerse      

Course #: GRAPH 3298

Graphic Design majors only

BGD Studio II

Fifth-Year BGD requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

A continuation of BGD Studio I with extensive professional practice-based projects such as identity design, interactivity, packaging, information design, and exhibit design. Students often work in teams and collaborate with sponsors to undertake partnered research projects.

Taught by:   Ernesto Aparacio      

Course #: GRAPH 3241

Graphic Design majors only

Professional Internship

Fifth-Year BGD requirement for majors – 6 credits

Wintersession 2009

The Graphic Design department allows up to 6 credits of graphic design studies as practical internships in professional studios. It is an opportunity primarily recommended for upper-class undergraduates. All internships for credit must have departmental approval (of placement and studio qualification) and are administered according to department guidelines. The assigned faculty from the department administers this course and will present information about requirements during the fall semester. This course is required for the professional degree (BGD), but is not a requirement for the BFA.

Taught by:   Eleanor Kung   Hannah Volfson

Course #: GRAPH 3289

Graphic Design majors only

Graduate Typography Studio I

Graduate requirement for majors – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course covers the fundamentals of typography, its theory, practice, technology and history. Studies range from introductory through advanced levels. Exercises include the study of letterforms, type design, typographic texting and composition, layout and page systems, typographic expression and communication, type with image, proportion and grids, hierarchy and legibility.

Taught by:   John Caserta      

Course #: GRAPH 3214 06

Graphic Design majors only

Graduate Seminar I

Graduate requirement for majors – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This seminar will present a forum for discussion on critical issues in graphic design, including: design’s context within culture and experience; theory and its relation to practice; and current practice and its models. The course will combine formats of lecture, discussion, small groups, and collaboration to explore the porous borders of graphic design thought and making.

Taught by:   Andrew Sloat      

Course #: GRAPH 321G

Graphic Design majors only

Graduate Seminar II

Graduate requirement for majors – 3 credits

Spring 2009

The objective of this course is to assist students in the development of methodologies for exploration, investigation, and construction of a well-designed proposal of thesis work. This seminar provides students with a variety of discursive and exploratory means to identify, locate, reflect on, and develop areas of interest to pursue in the evolution of individual thesis planning, culminating in the presentation of the ‘thesis proposal.’

Taught by:   Hans van Dijk      

Course #: GRAPH 322G

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Graduate Seminar I

Graduate Studio I

Graduate requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

This studio course, as groundwork for the graduate thesis, will emphasize inquiry as a primary means for learning. Through making, reflection, collaboration, and critique, we will explore the underlying principles that design objects require, and synthesize theory and practice as necessary partners in graphic design. We will look at the designer’s role in the process of revealing and making meaning—as an objective mediator, and as an author/producer, integrating content and form across projects as visual expressions of the individual thesis investigation.

Taught by:   Nancy Skolos      

Course #: GRAPH 323G

Graphic Design majors only

Graduate Studio: Visual Narrative

Graduate requirement for majors – 6 credits

Spring 2009

This studio course is based on the premise that narrative is fundamental to human communications. Digital technology, continuing to transform the fabric of design, facilitates the use of narrative structure (sequence, time, space, etc.). This enables the designer to provide the user with vital experiences using text, sound, image and motion through various media such as film, video, installation, and digital technology. Faced with new options and challenges this design transformation has also brought increased expectations from designers for more diverse knowledge and skills. Like the film director the designer must know different disciplines intimately: the photographer’s framing mind and lighting skills; the musician’s feeling for sound, noise, and rhythm; the sculpture’s vision for mass and materials; the painter’s sensibility for form, color, and composition; the architect’s playfulness with space, time, and sequence; and the writer’s wittiness with words and language. In this context we will examine the unique aspects of visual narrative as a fusion of sight, sound, and time operating in a dynamic environment.

Taught by:   Bethany Johns   Lucinda Hitchcock      

Course #: GRAPH 324G

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Graduate Studio I

Graduate Typography Studio III

Graduate requirement for majors – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course explores communication and structural aspects of typography and experiments with expressive means of using type to enhance meaning. Building on basic skills and knowledge acquired in previous courses, students will work on practical applications of advanced typographic design/systems as well as do a research project that concerns theory. Class discussions and demonstrations will complement the process of solving typographical problems.

Taught by:   Douglass Scott      

Course #: GRAPH 325G

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography II

Graduate Thesis I

Graduate requirement for majors – 6 credits

Fall 2008

The M.F.A. degree requires completion of a graduate thesis. The thesis, as a major undertaking for advanced study and personal development, also assists the student to direct a program of study for an experience that best serves that individual’s interests and needs. The thesis is an inquiry into the process, expression and function of the visual in graphic design. Visual search is the primary means to develop original work in which a thesis argument, critique, or point of view is developed and substantiated. The graduate student is encouraged to go beyond established models and to project his/her unique character in the thesis rather than to evidence vocational training, which is implicit. The productions can involve any medium suitable to need and content. Ultimately the thesis is submitted as a written document supported by visual examples that reveal ideas and insights. Two copies of the document remain with the department. Completion is required before graduation and within the normal two-year period of the program as stipulated by the College.

Taught by:   Hammett Nurosi   Thomas Wedell      

Course #: GRAPH 327G

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Graduate Seminar II

Prerequisite:  Graduate Studio I

Prerequisite:  Graduate Studio: Visual Narrative

Graduate Thesis II

Graduate requirement for majors – 9 credits

Spring 2009

The M.F.A. degree requires completion of a graduate thesis. The thesis, as a major undertaking for advanced study and personal development, also assists the student to direct a program of study for an experience that best serves that individual’s interests and needs. The thesis is an inquiry into the process, expression and function of the visual in graphic design. Visual search is the primary means to develop original work in which a thesis argument, critique, or point of view is developed and substantiated. The graduate student is encouraged to go beyond established models and to project his/her unique character in the thesis rather than to evidence vocational training, which is implicit. The productions can involve any medium suitable to need and content. Ultimately the thesis is submitted as a written document supported by visual examples that reveal ideas and insights. Two copies of the document remain with the department. Completion is required before graduation and within the normal two-year period of the program as stipulated by the College.

Taught by:   Hammett Nurosi   Thomas Wedell   Anne West      

Course #: GRAPH 328G

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Graduate Thesis I

Print and Interactive Production Techniques

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

This course will emphasize on the integration of digital production techniques for print and screen. Working with an array of software programs, students will develop technical and aesthetic skills. Topics covered will include drawing skills, resolution issues, file management, typesetting, offset lithography and its preparation, managing file sizes for the web and interactivity, Macromedia Flash animation techniques and basic ActionScript coding for navigation.

Taught by:   Mitchell Goldstein   

Course #: GRAPH 3239

Design as Contemplative Practice

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

The course objectives are to explore the depth of perception and to understand design as a contemplative practice for the unfolding and enfolding of meaning. For this practice we will use semiotics as an intellectual method to probe the mechanisms of meaning; and mindfulness to go deeper into the subject of how meaning unfolds in the design process, and how to enfold meaning in the forms we produce. We will consider how the individual and consciousness play critical roles in the design process to form relationships in complexity, how mindfulness stimulates our intelligence and inner awareness, and how attention helps reveal the nature of authenticity.

Studio work is both assigned and open to individual project interests (dp, thesis, etc.) and the use of any medium. The course, studio based, includes lectures to cover historical, scientific and philosophical interests: theosophy (a modern secular representation of perennial wisdom that deeply inspired many individuals such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, TS Elliot, Scriabin, Einstein, Edison) to help us map out the ground and nature of being; Concretism (spawned by theosophy) in art, poetry, music, bookworks, and performance art; parallel inquiries by Duchamp, Cage, Fluxus, Viola; theories that go beyond the postmodern mind such as the implicate order of wholeness, systems theory, dissonance and indeterminacy. The course requires that students come with an eager intellect, prepared to work hard with a willingness to embark on a journey with open minds to carefully attend to whatever the experience unfolds as meaning enfolds into the work that serves as poetic pillows.

Taught by:   Thomas Ockerse      

Course #: GRAPH 3244

Music Video

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

This course is a continuation of the ideas presented in GRAPH 3252 Photo/VideoGraphics, but that course is not a prerequisite. This course will explore how video design and sound design can be utilized to convey visual narratives. Students in this studio will design a visible language of video-graphic expression. It involves two-dimensional design, three dimensional design, lighting design, and sound design. As a final project, each student will make a short video utilizing techniques learned.

Taught by:   Franz Werner      

Course #: GRAPH 3260

Fee:$60.00

Information Design

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This is an intensive, three week long; four days a week studio class open to all RISD students. Students will experiment with visual presentation of quantified information (like graphs and charts); brainstorming and visual mapping of analyzed problem, and emotional presentation of statistical data (like posters). Lecture’s presentations and reading will support studio work.

Taught by:   Krzysztof Lenk      

Course #: GRAPH 3261

Printed Books

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

A book arts course with emphasis on hand printing and bookbinding. Both form and content, as well as type and image, will be discussed as students design, print and bind their own books. Aspects of layout, typography, paper and book production will be covered, in addition to instruction in letterpress printing, polymer plate printing, pop- up book structures and book binding techniques.

Taught by:   Suzanne Cozzens      

Course #: GRAPH 3263

Graphic Design majors only

Fee:$60.00

Type In Motion

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course will focus on the temporal and sequential aspects of typography, image and sound. Though some of the principles studied in Typography I, II, and III will be reviewed, our explorations will primarily focus on the idea of the sequential organization of information in time and how ideas like pacing, rhythm and progression can influence and shape meaning in both a cognitive (reading, structuring) and interpretive manner.

Taught by:   Hammett Nurosi      

Course #: GRAPH 3264

Graphic Design majors only

TEXTperience/TEXTperiment

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

For those interested in the opportunity to play with type and to experiment with the way visible language is experienced this course is for you! The course starts with introductory assignments to open up the possibilities for experiment. Then, according to individual interests, it moves into an open laboratory atmosphere to experience (= experiment) type as content and its poetic potential for visible language (topics for inquiry can include: de/re/con/struct type; type in planar and dimensional space; type in motion; type as/and image; electronic type; type and materiality, light, sound, speed; question what makes good and bad type; type and indeterminacy). To avoid self-indulgent hodgepodge we will not forget that letters serve the purpose of forming words and that words generally serve a pragmatic purpose to express ideas; and will consider how type can serve that purpose in an integrative way to help frame, engage and inspire the reader/viewer into the depth and breadth of such ideas.

Taught by:   Thomas Ockerse      

Course #: GRAPH 3265

Graphic Design majors only

Web Design

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

Designing for the internet requires a solution that embraces the web as a communication medium while providing for a unique user experience. The goal is to strike a balance between form and function, between visual design and effective communication. This course will cover the latest methods of web design, development, and production including standards-based XHTML, CSS, Javascript and media integration. From beginners to those with more experience, students will learn the most current techniques for planning, designing, building and testing a fully functional website start to finish.

Taught by:   Katherine Harris   Marcos Ojeda

Course #: GRAPH 3271

Poster Design

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course will concentrate on the poster format as a communication vehicle. It will advance your experience with two-dimensional form, your ability to express a strong point of view, and will address relationships between type and image at a large scale. The studio assignments will be supported with lectures about the role of the poster within the history of art and design, international poster design, and future possibilities and contexts for the poster as a form.

Taught by:   Nancy Skolos      

Course #: GRAPH 3272

Graphic Design majors only

Public Art

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course offers the opportunity to discover the many creative and career possibilities in the growing interdisciplinary field of public art. The course is both a a seminar and a studio: there will be several short in-class research assignments, followed by two studio projects. One studio assignment will result in proposals; the final will result in temporary public works sited in Providence.

We will look at the history of public art, pivotal events in that history, and the ways public art practice has evolved. We will explore diverse approaches to making work in the public sphere, and enter into current debates around such issues as defining community, public space, and sitespecificity. We will look at the overlap of public art practice with graphic design, industrial design, sculpture, painting, architecture, and landscape architecture.

There will be readings, videos, and class discussions, as well as time during class for research, presentations, project development, and group meetings. There is a large on-line database for the course consisting of web-sites for artists and organizations, historical events and festivals, readings, videos, a bibliography, competition listings, and other resources.

Taught by:   Janet Zweig      

Course #: GRAPH 3274

Web Design: A Feast for the Eyes

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

The goal of the course is to design browser interfaces and web sites that creatively explore issues of accessibility, “look” and “feel”. We will develop sites for special user groups or for more general audiences. The subject matter involves contemporary issues of culture and society with the intent on improving and enlightening peoples lives. The basics of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets will be covered in this course. Students are expected to have a basic knowledge of Illustrator and InDesign.

Taught by:   Hans van Dijk      

Course #: GRAPH 3281

Graphic Design majors only

Mapping Information

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

Modern websites, online city guides and educational programs on CDs are complex and complicated networks which are weaving together layers of content into a non-linear, interactive narration. To develop new concepts and test working prototypes, designers must collect and structure information and develop an appropriate strategy for hypertext-like narration. In this studio, students will experiment with various methods of organizing and mapping information, and test results in the form of online prototypes. Some experience in Flash is desired.

Taught by:   Krzysztof Lenk      

Course #: GRAPH 3282

Graphic Design majors only

Meaningful Amibguity Within Design and Art

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

For well over one hundred years, designers and artists have abstracted and blurred the distinction between “design” and “art”.

From Matisse’s plush interior for Rockefeller center in New York City; to Josef Albers’ large-scale murals; to Jorge Pardo’s playful environments, to Sonia Delaunay’s hand-printed fabrics and tapestries from the 1920s; to the fabric designs Takashi Murakami recently conceived with Marc Jacobs; one can identify an often overlooked strand in the history of design and art.

The “practice of contemporary design and art” constantly requires the construction of new lineages – new histories – to render and illuminate the interaction between design and art. Since the traditional boundaries between art and architecture, graphic design, film, product design and other disciplines have dissolved in critically significant ways, this studio will trace the rise of the “design/art” phenomenon through active design inquiry. The studio will introduce highly innovative interdisciplinary projects generated by several different—even contradictory—forms of design/art making that contest commonplace assumptions of what design and art are.

Through participatory practice and observation of historical work students will examine multiple theories about the relationship between design and art from the Renaissance perspective to today’s digital culture.

Taught by:   Hammett Nurosi      

Course #: GRAPH 3290

Graphic Design majors only

Design for Publishing

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

The first part of the semester will cover all aspects of designing comprehensive art and photographic books; the use of type on layouts, editing images, space, structure, scale and pacing. Particular attention will be paid to certain elements of the design production, including the visual, tactile and aesthetic qualities of paper, printing, binding, color separation and advanced techniques in reproduction, namely duotone and three-tone in black and white photography. The second part of the semester will be devoted to book design for works of literature and nonfiction, exploring the process by which manuscripts are transformed into printed books, as well as the fundamental methods underlying all successful typographical layouts. Finally, the course will address the translation of literary material into the style and image of the book cover, examining its evolution over the course of the 20th Century.

Taught by:   Ernesto Aparacio      

Course #: GRAPH 3302

Type Design

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course is for students who are interested in designing type. Participants will learn about the decisions that go into spacing, serifs, shape and other details that you never even knew were there by creating your own typefaces. In addition, you will gain fresh perspectives on typography and appreciating existing typefaces.

Taught by:   Cyrus Highsmith      

Course #: GRAPH 3859

Graphic Design majors only

Interactive Text: Interactive Sound and Image Emphasis

Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

The course will have an Interactive Sound and Image Emphasis – In this class students will experiment with interactive text, visuals, and audio composition in the digital realm, placing emphasis on the effect and meaning transformation that occurs when texts are combined with visuals and audio material. Students that are interested in digital illustration, animation, experimental installations and other new forms of digital art encouraged. The student will work on a semester long project, as well as a series of assignments that balance conceptual concerns with artistic expression. Specific examples of contemporary practitioners using text, moving image and sound will be explored.

This course will introduce the student to narrative and nonnarrative experimentation with language in digital space, presented as fine art practice. The student will work on a semester long project, utilizing multiple programs. This class will cover the creation of elaborate imagery and animations with digital tools such as Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and Flash as well as the basics of audio production, recording, arranging and sequencing with programs like Pro Tools / Digital Performer, Ableton Live and other basic analog recording techniques for the production of audio and moving image. The course will balance conceptual concerns related to content and structuring methodologies with artistic expression. Specific aesthetic histories will be explored tracing the use of text in artistic practice including Concrete Poetry, the texts of Kurt Schwitters, Russian Constructivist posters, Fluxus poetic works, The Dada and Surrealist Word/Image, Magritte, Jenny Holtzer, Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger as well as other contemporary practitioners.

Taught by:   Rafael Attias      

Course #: GRAPH 7001

Typography Elective

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the basic concepts, skills and processes of typographical design. Design problems will be assigned to investigate fundamental aspects of typography (organization; proportion; composition; space; texture; rhythm and meaning). Projects will include the design of such objects as letterhead, packaging and poster.

Taught by:   Katherine Hughes   Jeong-Hoon Kim

Course #: GRAPH W322

Introduction to Graphic Design

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

An in-depth investigation of the principles and possibilities of graphic design. Through a series of experimental exercises incorporating drawing, collage, and the computer, students will learn the fundamentals of graphic form, sequencing, image making, communicating visually, and integration of type. Slide presentations and lectures will introduce students to both the history of graphic design and contemporary designers.

Taught by:   Jerlyn Jareunpoon   Moon Jung Jang

Course #: GRAPH W336

Hot Printing

Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Wintersession 2009

A studio course in which you can play with the creative potentials of letterpress, wood and metal type. A chance to create “print-things”, one-of-a-kind prints made from printers’ materials traditionally used to make multiple, identical copies. Use the letter as constructive or a representational element. Test your intuition and spontaneity by bringing printer’s inks to all kinds of papers while exploring patterns, form and counter form, overprinting and more. Bring new life to everyday words and sentences. Imbue letters with new magic and create text with as yet unheard-of meanings. The course also addresses the history and legacy of letterpress and the power of mass production.

Taught by:   Elana Wetzner   

Course #: GRAPH W344

Fee:$50.00

Graduate Visiting Designers

Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This graduate-only Visiting Designers course is a three-credit elective and enrolls up to 15 students, and provides contact with the visiting designers through an intensive workshop format. The course covers the 12 week semester period. The course objective is to provide graduates contact and interaction with a range of national and international designers involved in the professional practice and public discourse of graphic design. While the emphasis is on typography and print, these designers actively explore a range of visual form. Each workshop will consider what provokes, inspires, and informs your working methods.

Taught by:   Bethany Johns      

Course #: GRAPH 329G

Graphic Design majors only

Research & Application: Identity Design

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

This course will involve the design of an identity system (e.g., symbol and/or logo type and sample applications) for an organization or product to be assigned.

Taught by:   Ootje Oxenaar      

Course #: GRAPH 3227

Graphic Design majors only

Printing Words

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Spring 2009

The relationship between language and art will be explored. Early pattern poems, Italian Futurism, Dada, Constructivism, Fluxus and concrete poetry are studied and incorporated as inspiration for your own experimental works. We will continue investigating words as images, discussing perimeters of composition, texture, rhythm, meaning and message. Utilizing large wood type, students hand-set typographic compositions that will be printed in limited editions on the letterpress. Visual poems, broadsides, manifestos, posters, ransom notes, mail art and collages will be created. The final project develops into a hand-bound specimen book of these printed words.

Taught by:   Jan Baker      

Course #: GRAPH 3249

Graphic Design majors only

Fee:$75.00

Photo/Videographics

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course will explore how video design and sound design can be utilized to convey visual narratives. Students in this studio will design a visible language of photo- and videographic expression involving two and three-dimensional design, lighting design, and sound design. As a final project, each student will make a music video utilizing the techniques learned. The works of video artist Michel Gondry will be used as the “text book” for this course.

Taught by:   Franz Werner      

Course #: GRAPH 3252

Graphic Design majors only

Fee:$60.00

Concrete Books

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course uses the book to explore a range of visual phenomena and personal experiences, and how these serve to express and stimulate various levels of consciousness (sense, emotion, thought, and inspiration). Via the constant production of bookworks we will question convention and habit, experiment, stimulate poetic insight, inquire into the nature of design as a contemplative practice (mindful design), and pursue the poetic experience of the artifact. We will especially look into Concretism (cf. van Doesburg, Kandinsky, Arp, Max Bill and others): the theory that seeks out the beneficence of intelligence from the artist, artifact and user; its influence in poetry, music, and performance art; and parallel inquiries by individuals and groups like Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Fluxus and other avant-garde interests that go beyond the “post-modern” mind from conceptualism to dissonance and indeterminacy to the implicate order of wholeness.

Taught by:   Thomas Ockerse      

Course #: GRAPH 3255

Graphic Design majors only

Exhibit Design

Junior, Senior, Fifth-Year, Graduate Elective – 3 credits

Fall 2008

This course will study the presentation of information in a designed environment: the exhibit. The theme, context, and conditions of this exhibit will be assigned. Study emphasis will be on integrative communication activity of all elements involved, e.g., time, space, movement, color, graphics, 3-D forms, objects, instructions, text, and constructions.

Taught by:   Douglass Scott      

Course #: GRAPH 3273

Graphic Design majors only

Prerequisite:  Typography II

Graduate Thesis and Open Re/search

Graduate Elective – 6 credits

Wintersession 2009

This course is for graduate students in graphic design to work independently on research or work that applies to their graduate thesis (preparatory or advanced). Thesis work is considered supplemental and not a substitute for the required courses. The instructor serves an advisory role in all projects. Students can register for three or six credits and must submit accordingly a written proposal for work planned and criteria for evaluation. Course meetings are arranged individually, or with the group as needed.

Taught by:   John Caserta   Achim Wieland      

Course #: GRAPH W320

Graphic Design majors only