Graphic Design Courses
MOTION DESIGN-CRAFTING SEQUENCED IMAGES ON A TIMELINE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Motion can be used as a dynamic and interdisciplinary tool to communicate ideas and narratives that utilize time based media. The intention of this studio class is to equip students with understandings of the mechanics of motion, making and working through analysis and discussion of motion pieces, which they will then use to inform decisions, harnessing motion as a tool for presentation of their work and its documentation as well. Students will navigate motion through the 12 principles of animation, assess moving pictures across different media like live action films, traditional animation, stop motion animation, advertising and motion graphics through diverse screenings. They will also draw on their understanding of time, sequencing, narratives and techniques in their own creative practices. Students will begin with a solid foundational understanding of After Effects, be equipped with essential skills and techniques like working with hand-drawn animation, stop motion and motion graphics using text based-media. As a project focus for the course, students will work on a 45-second motion project of their choice, using vector graphics, kinetic type, or object stop motion. From pre-production to post-production, they will consider processes like storyboarding and sound in creating their visual sequences.
Elective
TYPE IN TIMES OF PROTEST TYPE IN TIMES OF POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Typography is never innocent, and a shape is never just a shape. Its interaction with social and historical context, its inextricable link to speech and thought, and its record of instrumentalization all make type profoundly political. The interdependency between letterforms and written content shapes how we experience the world; type has the power to attack, convince, appease, influence, and inform us. But can type be an instrument of transformation, an agent in promoting positive social change?
This course invites both designers and non-designers to ask how typography and type design influence public perception and participation and will investigate to what extent typographic variation may be a tool for empowerment and advocacy. The class will investigate typographic standards, questions of readability and accessibility, and 'appropriateness' through a series of three main project prompts, which will encourage students to rethink typography in publications, posters, and their own practice. Subsequently, case studies, and readings aim at fostering an open discourse about what typographic variation and disruption of norms can mean in times of protest and how a typographic ‘voice’ can act as an agent for positive change and inclusive world-building.
Discussions will be informed by lectures and readings/works by Angela Riechers, Audre Lorde, L.i.P. Collective, Læ collectiv·f·e Bye Bye Binary, Sang Mun, Beatrice Caciotti, BeOakley, Corinne Ang, Imad Gebrayel, Silas Munro, and Sabiha Basrai. Visual references include the work of Sister Corita Kent; Emory Douglas (and material from the NY Schomburg Center 'Black Power' exhibition); AIDS-era protest graphics of ACT UP; feminist direct-action graphics of the Women's Action Coalition; anti-Vietnam-war material from the NYPL exhibition 'You Say You Want a Revolution' and more.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $80.00
Elective
FIND YOUR VOICE WITH POLITICAL POSTERS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, and that is the level of impact activists aim to achieve when they employ the use of posters in various movements. By looking at posters made for political revolutions and social movements across different cultures, this course will challenge students to engage with critical issues and use visual communication to explore their points of view and find their voices in the social and political realms.
Political posters span across a broad spectrum. They can be about macro-politics such as war/peace, environmental issues, gun regulation, LGBTQ, disability rights, government propaganda, etc. Micro-politics in our day-to-day within organizations such as schools, companies, or other community spaces can also be addressed through posters. Lastly, the personal is political as well. Identities shape the way we experience and perceive the world. This course aims to help students identify what they believe in and to visualize and distribute their message through posters.
Conducted in lecture, seminars, and studio assignments. Students will use typography, photos, and illustrations to create their own compelling posters. We will learn from existing visual heritage and analyze how people tackled difficult topics and supported their causes across a variety of social contexts using the form of the poster. We will look at posters from ACT UP, the Civil Rights Movement, Barbara Kruger, Martha Rosler, Martin Wong, and more. Students will learn to harness their typographic and pictorial skills to address pressing social issues and amplifying underrepresented voices. All majors are welcome.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $30.00
Elective
DESIGN IN THE POSTHUMAN AGE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
The current understanding of what constitutes design is straining at the margins of convention. The reach of design has moved beyond the materiality of objects, to biotechnological matter of chemicals and encoded genetic information, from physical space to code and data. Human beings now live lives that are immersed in design. The designer and their subject share a dialectical relationship, constantly shaping and reshaping each other. The role of the designer, thriving in the world of post-industrial and digital technologies, is thus broader today than ever before-from designing brands and creating personalities, to contriving and manipulating living organisms. Post-postmodernism, pseudo-modernism, supermodernism, digimodernism, are only a few of the many terms trying to describe our current state. Today, we occupy the digital domain as thoroughly as we do physical space. Codes and algorithms have also become signifiers of a new biotechnological paradigm shift, marking the passage into a posthuman epoch by launching us into a virtual space composed of a bright galaxy of screens and digital worlds, creating a symbiotic relationship between our technology and biological selves. As designers, we shape, clash, align, and distort this new space, elaborating a stage for the New Man and the New Woman, and perhaps even the Nonhuman. In this class, we will explore our contemporary condition through visual-research based projects around self-design, speculative design and design fiction. We will use graphic design as a medium to ask questions about ethical concerns emerging from advancements in science and technology. We will develop a new design vernacular incorporating ideas from revolutionary recent developments in genetics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. We will employ machine vision: microscopy, neuroimaging and NASA archives to create new fictional worlds in concert with the life forms around and inside us. This engagement with the sciences will allow us as graphic designers to acquire some fundamental tools that probe fundamental human nature, and help us navigate the posthuman epoch that lies ahead.
Elective
UNMAKING STUDIO
SECTION DESCRIPTION
How do designers respond, think about and make for equitable futures? How much do we need to scrap or throw under the proverbial bus (ourselves included)? Unmaking studio is a space that explores possibilities through collaborative experimentation and reflection on how we can design in pluralistic ways. We will intentionally break habits, structures, tools, methods, and models of thought that have become canonized as the way to make Graphic Design. Along the way, we will experiment, at times in collaboration, with a series of prompts that explore analog and digital outcomes — forms, images, stories, languages, publications, the unknown, the emergent — thinking about the stories our work tells about ourselves (our lineages, our choices, and our values), our communities, and how all of this has the potential to radically and joyfully shift how we engage as human beings.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00
Elective
IN MOTION: DESIGN FOR VIDEO AND ANIMATION
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Motion design is a powerful, foundational feature of digital screens. It helps direct the viewer’s attention, present information sequentially, add personality or depth to otherwise static graphics, contextualize interactive elements, and so much more. In this studio elective, students will learn the fundamentals of motion design and explore a wide variety of video and animation techniques. We will look at a wide range of influences and styles ranging from stop motion animation, to film title sequences, to early-Internet Flash animations, to interface design, to contemporary practices for brand identities and social media. Instruction will focus on digital motion design using Adobe After Effects, with additional tutorials in Premiere Pro, audio production, and HTML/CSS for web-based animations. Students will leave the course with a broad overview of the field of motion design and a deep understanding of rhythm, timing, sequence, narrative, and expression.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00
Elective
TYPE + CODE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Type + Code is a studio course in which students combine web programming with variable fonts to create interactive, dynamic typographic experiences. Students will become proficient in code (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and type design (Glyphs) to create original fonts, web specimens, digital articles, and more. This course encourages students to push the boundaries on contemporary type design and find new or underutilized use cases for experimental typography, both as a form of expression and in practical applications. These experiments are supported by readings from a wide variety of influences, including video games, performance studies, and computer science. No prior experience in type design or coding is required.
Elective
WKSHP: LETTERPRESS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop is a four week introduction to letterpress printing. We will work with handset foundry type, wood type and photopolymer plates tocreate finely printed specimens of type and image. We will learn Pantone color mixing and matching and discuss papers and substrates suitable for the process.
Participants will learn to design for the letterpress printing process and prepress techniques for creating successful photopolymer plates. The course will also cover proper Vandercook Proof Press setup, inking, cleaning and troubleshooting.
Elective
WKSHP: LETTERPRESS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop is a four week introduction to letterpress printing. We will work with handset foundry type, wood type and photopolymer plates tocreate finely printed specimens of type and image. We will learn Pantone color mixing and matching and discuss papers and substrates suitable for the process.
Participants will learn to design for the letterpress printing process and prepress techniques for creating successful photopolymer plates. The course will also cover proper Vandercook Proof Press setup, inking, cleaning and troubleshooting.
Elective
WKSHP: LETTERPRESS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop is a four week introduction to letterpress printing. We will work with handset foundry type, wood type and photopolymer plates tocreate finely printed specimens of type and image. We will learn Pantone color mixing and matching and discuss papers and substrates suitable for the process.
Participants will learn to design for the letterpress printing process and prepress techniques for creating successful photopolymer plates. The course will also cover proper Vandercook Proof Press setup, inking, cleaning and troubleshooting.
Elective
WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop will use Risograph printing to combine practical prepress skills with experimental form-making. The aim of the workshop is to teach students to consider the craft and value of well-planned files to produce high-quality outputs that can be replicated and shared. By focusing on the Risograph printer students will work within a series of technical constraints that will require creative solutions as well as a strong understanding of this particular printing process, color, paper, and file preparation.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00
Elective
WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop will use Risograph printing to combine practical prepress skills with experimental form-making. The aim of the workshop is to teach students to consider the craft and value of well-planned files to produce high-quality outputs that can be replicated and shared. By focusing on the Risograph printer students will work within a series of technical constraints that will require creative solutions as well as a strong understanding of this particular printing process, color, paper, and file preparation.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00
Elective
WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop will use Risograph printing to combine practical prepress skills with experimental form-making. The aim of the workshop is to teach students to consider the craft and value of well-planned files to produce high-quality outputs that can be replicated and shared. By focusing on the Risograph printer students will work within a series of technical constraints that will require creative solutions as well as a strong understanding of this particular printing process, color, paper, and file preparation.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00
Elective
WKSHP: STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop is an introduction to the methods involved in studio photography for designers with an emphasis on lighting-bringing objects to life by articulating their shapes and surfaces with various lighting sources: soft/hard, direct/reflected, focused/diffused, etc. Additional attention will be given to digital file preparation and printing. Throughout this workshop, students will explore the use of DSLR cameras, lenses, exposure meters, and related equipment to create original images of selected 3D objects.
Elective
WKSHP: STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop is an introduction to the methods involved in studio photography for designers with an emphasis on lighting-bringing objects to life by articulating their shapes and surfaces with various lighting sources: soft/hard, direct/reflected, focused/diffused, etc. Additional attention will be given to digital file preparation and printing. Throughout this workshop, students will explore the use of DSLR cameras, lenses, exposure meters, and related equipment to create original images of selected 3D objects.
Elective
WKSHP: STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This workshop is an introduction to the methods involved in studio photography for designers with an emphasis on lighting-bringing objects to life by articulating their shapes and surfaces with various lighting sources: soft/hard, direct/reflected, focused/diffused, etc. Additional attention will be given to digital file preparation and printing. Throughout this workshop, students will explore the use of DSLR cameras, lenses, exposure meters, and related equipment to create original images of selected 3D objects.
Elective
GRADUATE FORM I
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This 3-credit studio course will teach design fundamentals to the elective non-GD major students entering the field of Graphic Design from other disciplines, and will feature in-class instruction which may include 2D and 3D form basic principles of color; image-making from photography, drawing, collage, etc. point and plane / figure and ground exercises; sequencing and exposure to various formats, etc.
Please contact the department for permission to register.
Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design (3yr)
DESIGN STUDIO 1
SECTION DESCRIPTION
In the first two semesters of a two-year studio track, students will come into contact with issues and questions that face the contemporary designer. Students will engage with and develop methods to take on these questions: search (formal and intellectual), research, analysis, ideation, and prototyping. Projects will increase in complexity over time, sequenced to evolve from guided inquiry to more open, self-generated methodologies. Some examples of the questions students might work with are: What is graphic? or How are tools shaped by contemporary culture, technology, and convention? or How is a spatial or dimensional experience plotted and communicated? These questions will be accompanied by a mix of precedents, theoretical contexts, readings and presentations, technical and/or formal exercises and working methods.
Please contact the department for permission to register.
Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design
DESIGN STUDIO 1
SECTION DESCRIPTION
In the first two semesters of a two-year studio track, students will come into contact with issues and questions that face the contemporary designer. Students will engage with and develop methods to take on these questions: search (formal and intellectual), research, analysis, ideation, and prototyping. Projects will increase in complexity over time, sequenced to evolve from guided inquiry to more open, self-generated methodologies. Some examples of the questions students might work with are: What is graphic? or How are tools shaped by contemporary culture, technology, and convention? or How is a spatial or dimensional experience plotted and communicated? These questions will be accompanied by a mix of precedents, theoretical contexts, readings and presentations, technical and/or formal exercises and working methods.
Please contact the department for permission to register.
Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design
DESIGN STUDIO 1
SECTION DESCRIPTION
In the first two semesters of a two-year studio track, students will come into contact with issues and questions that face the contemporary designer. Students will engage with and develop methods to take on these questions: search (formal and intellectual), research, analysis, ideation, and prototyping. Projects will increase in complexity over time, sequenced to evolve from guided inquiry to more open, self-generated methodologies. Some examples of the questions students might work with are: What is graphic? or How are tools shaped by contemporary culture, technology, and convention? or How is a spatial or dimensional experience plotted and communicated? These questions will be accompanied by a mix of precedents, theoretical contexts, readings and presentations, technical and/or formal exercises and working methods.
Please contact the department for permission to register.
Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design