SIGDS 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.

Type + Image Design

Monday - Friday 06/30/08 - 07/11/08, 9am-5pm

Schedule: 1

Typography in conjunction with imagery poses a challenge for designers and this course addresses these issues through a broad mix of assignments that enables students to improve their aesthetic sensibilities and design skills. Various typefaces are investigated as functioning visual systems and design languages, each one possessing its own organization, proportion, spacing, texture and conveyed meaning. The history of writing systems is presented in daily short slide lectures as a supplement to the studio classes. High-end Power Mac workstations, a hot-metal typeshop, bookbinding facilities, a photo lighting studio and a darkroom are all available to participants. This course is open to professionals and students with introductory, intermediate or advanced levels of experience, with students assigned projects according to their specific skill levels. For additional information, please contact .

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Franz Werner  

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0739-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Lab Fee: $75.00

Web Design

Monday - Friday 06/30/08 - 07/11/08, 9am-4pm

Schedule: 1

This course is a project-based introduction to designing an interactive web portfolio using Flash. With an emphasis on visual concepts and graphic design for the screen, the course is intended for both beginners with basic computer knowledge but no experience in interactive design, as well as advanced students who wish to build upon previous knowledge. Accordingly, an introduction to Flash is provided, while advanced students get advice on how to integrate sophisticated interaction technologies into their projects. Topics covered include preparing existing content for online presentation using programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator with the goal of learning how to combine these tools with Flash to realize successful visual communication. Also covered are an introduction to Dreamweaver, as well as animation and sound for interactive media, on-screen typography, structuring information within a site’s architecture, user experience design and questions of usability and accessibility. Upon successful completion of the course, students create their own web portfolio online. Students are invited to bring the artwork they want to present on their website in digital formats.

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Rafael Attias

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0742-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Lab Fee: $75.00

Visual Design Systems

Monday - Friday 06/30/08 - 07/11/08, 9am-5pm

Schedule: 1

This course looks at the structural dynamics and organizing systems at work in graphic design via module, grid, proportions, symmetry, rhythm, progression, series and pattern. To gain a deeper understanding of systems at many levels, students work on design projects from a holistic perspective that stresses the dynamic relationships between form, content and context. Students observe, research and analyze primary, intermediary and tertiary component structures, as well as build bridges between dissimilar and incongruent systems that make up organic and artificial environments to facilitate and expedite the communication process. Visual research aids the process of selecting consistent visual vocabularies and color schemes, and framing interconnected bodies of visual work, as well as the organization and flow control seen in visual communication systems for wayfinding, diagramming, identification and other information design. Studio work is supplemented with theoretical lectures on aspects of systems design. Some knowledge of and competency in beginning typography and the language of two-dimensional design is helpful.

Note: Students are required to have a digital camera (minimum 3 megapixel) for this course.
While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Dietmar Winkler

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0744-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Lab Fee: $75.00

Poster Design

Monday - Friday 07/14/08 - 07/25/08, 9am-4pm

Schedule: 2

The poster is an inspiring format for graphic designers. This course builds on a sequence of quick exercises exploring unexpected ways to activate two-dimensional space. The studies are then developed into finished pieces where space and message converge to create powerful posters. This hands-on course is designed to challenge the beginning designer as well as the experienced professional.

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Thomas Wedell  

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0731-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Lab Fee: $75.00

Magazine Design

Monday - Friday 07/14/08 - 07/25/08, 9am-4pm

Schedule: 2

The magazine, as a highly accessible print medium, has remained extremely effective at communicating information even in the age of digital media and the web. This course looks at what makes the magazine distinct as a tactile reading experience, as well as what design elements contribute to making it a powerful and efficient medium. Through an analysis of both American and European magazine design, the course examines the use of elements such as systems, navigational devices, typography, illustration and photography, and applies them in practical exercises. On scheduled field trips, students also have the opportunity to meet creative directors working in the publishing industry.

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Ernesto Aparacio  

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0764-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Lab Fee: $75.00

Graphic Design History: Lectures + Studio Projects

Monday - Friday 07/28/08 - 08/08/08, 9am-4pm

Schedule: 3

Following the chronological development of visual communication from the birth of writing systems 5,000 years ago to the 20th century, this course focuses on developments in typography, book and magazine design, advertising and propaganda, logos and corporate identity, posters and printed ephemera, as well as exhibition and information design. Students work on two studio projects: the first integrates design and its historical context, while the second focuses on the work of an important 20th-century designer. Slide lectures are given throughout. The course is appropriate for students, design professionals, and teachers of design or design history, even those seeking a general introduction.

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Douglass Scott  

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0778-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Lab Fee: $75.00

Action/Reaction: The Dynamics of Time-Based Design

Monday - Friday 07/28/08 - 08/08/08, 9am-4pm

Schedule: 3

Time and motion are elements that add an exciting dimension to graphic design. Pioneering designers such as Saul Bass exhibited this with his creation of motion title sequences for Man With a Golden Arm, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and Casino. In addition, artists like Man Ray and Hans Richter explored the expressive potential of the medium of time itself. This course provides students with a foundation in time-based media—its unique characteristics and potential for visual storytelling. Through a series of brief exercises, students first utilize still images to increase their sensitivity toward and understanding of motion. Students then learn how to create the illusion of motion, how to combine two images to create a third synthetic image, and how sound alters a message. Topics such as photography, image making and image aesthetics are also covered. The final project consists of storyboarding and then producing an introductory sequence to an existing film or music video, or creating an entirely original work. Finally, a field trip to studios and museums and a guest lecture further augment the course. This course is geared to both beginning and advanced students as well as professionals interested in motion graphics. No previous software experience is necessary.

Note: Students are required to have a digital camera (minimum 3 megapixel) for this course.

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Taught by:  Donald Tarallo

Prerequisite: None

Course #: 2008/WK-0794-01

Credit Option: Undergraduate, Non-Credit

Tuition: $1,850.00

Design Theory Workshop: Unfolding Meaning

Monday, Tuesday + Wednesday 07/07/08 - 07/09/08, 9am-5pm

Schedule: special

Communication has become increasingly difficult to design in our rapidly changing social and media-dependent environment. Such changes have demanded more from designers than merely operating from intuition. Accordingly, this workshop offers an introduction to the principles of semiotics as a system of logic by which design serves to communicate. Semiotics, to paraphrase C. S. Peirce, is a logical system to help us analyze how “meaning” is formed. As such, semiotics can greatly enhance a designer’s ability to understand complexity and interrelationships. In fact, semiotics can become an indispensable tool in applying media, in improving the quality of design, and in establishing the user experience. Lectures, case studies, discussions and practical studio assignments demonstrate semiotics as an invaluable working tool for both the evaluation and generation of design solutions.

These two non-credit advanced workshops on design theory (Unfolding Meaning and Enfolding Meaning) encourage participation by graduate students, professional designers and design educators. At the core of the workshops is the theoretical content Professor Ockerse has gathered and developed over the past thirty-five years and shared with his students at RISD and in workshops elsewhere. Feedback from past participants identifies this experience as guaranteed enrichment-either as food for design inquiry for graduate studies; as a preview of graduate study for prospective students; or as an inquiry into design for all practicing designers or design educators. For all participants, this “meeting of minds” at diverse levels of experience is a unique opportunity to exchange views, gather feedback and engage in a stimulating discourse. For additional information, contact Thomas Ockerse at .

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media

Participants enrolled in both design theory workshops (Unfolding Meaning and Enfolding Meaning) pay a discounted rate of $1,500. Early enrollment is highly recommended

Taught by:  Thomas Ockerse  

Prerequisite: Participants must be educators, professionals, college seniors or graduate students in the field of graphic design.

Course #: 2008/WK-0715-01

Credit Option: Non-credit

Tuition: $795.00

Design Theory Workshop: Enfolding Meaning

Friday, Saturday + Sunday 07/11/08 - 07/13/08, 9am-5pm

Schedule: special

This workshop probes more deeply into those studies examined in Unfolding Meaning. Here semiotic principles transform into practical methods for design as the interface for communication. Whereas the first workshop is focused on design and the logic of relationships, this workshop explores how the depth of perception (consciousness in its various forms) plays a critical role in forming relationships that include both the logical and illogical. We explore the process awareness plays to both unfold and enfold logical meaning, and how to stimulate intuition and insight in the search for design innovation. Lectures, case studies and practical studio assignments expand this semiotic landscape to introduce seemingly disparate yet intimately related issues that help create truly inspired design, including: such theories as visual narrative, the parallax view, systems theory (pattern, wholeness, David Bohm’s implicate order, and the web of life), and why such principles as indeterminacy, chance, and continuity necessitate design as a contemplative practice vs. being understood as merely a rational, logical activity.

These two non-credit advanced workshops on design theory (Unfolding Meaning and Enfolding Meaning) encourage participation by graduate students, professional designers and design educators. At the core of the workshops is the theoretical content Professor Ockerse has gathered and developed over the past thirty-five years and shared with his students at RISD and in workshops elsewhere. Feedback from past participants identifies this experience as guaranteed enrichment—either as food for design inquiry for graduate studies; as a preview of graduate study for prospective students; or as an inquiry into design for all practicing designers or design educators. For all participants, this “meeting of minds” at diverse levels of experience is a unique opportunity to exchange views, gather feedback and engage in a stimulating discourse. For additional information, contact Thomas Ockerse at .

While computer labs are utilized for each SIGDS course, students are encouraged to augment the studio experience by bringing their own laptops and storage media.

Participants enrolled in both design theory workshops (Unfolding Meaning and Enfolding Meaning) pay a discounted rate of $1,500. Early enrollment is highly recommended.

Taught by:  Thomas Ockerse  

Prerequisite: Unfolding Meaning or instructor's approval. Participants must be educators, professionals, college seniors or graduate students in the field of graphic design.

Course #: 2008/WK-0757-01

Credit Option: Non-credit

Tuition: $795.00