The poster has been an archetypal graphic design format since the late 19th century when lithographic printing technology came of age and captured the imagination of artists, bringing their vision into Paris streets. This course will invite you to explore future possibilities and contexts for the poster-as paper and as screen-building on its singular capacity to transform ideas into iconic picture planes; and examining the dynamics of typography and image, both still and in motion. Prompts will progress from individual posters, to sequences, to site-specific installations that explore the potential for interactive discourse in public space. Studio assignments will be supported with presentations and readings about poster history and contemporary poster design.

Elective

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

UI/UX design is the backbone of digital experiences. It shapes how we interact with screens, transforms innovative ideas into intuitive interfaces, guides navigation through complex systems, and creates aesthetic coherence that makes technology accessible and engaging. At its core, UI/UX design bridges creativity and usability, ensuring that digital products are not only functional but also meaningful and enjoyable to use.

This workshop introduces students to the workflow and foundational knowledge of UI/UX design for smartphone applications. Using Figma as the primary tool, students will learn methodologies and tools central to app design, including researching existing forms and functionalities, translating concepts into wireframes, and developing visual aesthetics and navigation systems. In the initial sessions, students will analyze the intuitiveness and patterns of existing apps, critically assess and redefine their functionalities, and explore alternative modes of use. Subsequent sessions focus on redesigning an app by addressing existing frustrations or repurposing its intended use, creating prototypes that challenge standard user expectations, and developing high-fidelity interactive prototypes that integrate navigation and interaction design. No prior experience in UI/UX or coding is required, and coding will not be taught in this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Elective

UI/UX design is the backbone of digital experiences. It shapes how we interact with screens, transforms innovative ideas into intuitive interfaces, guides navigation through complex systems, and creates aesthetic coherence that makes technology accessible and engaging. At its core, UI/UX design bridges creativity and usability, ensuring that digital products are not only functional but also meaningful and enjoyable to use.

This workshop introduces students to the workflow and foundational knowledge of UI/UX design for smartphone applications. Using Figma as the primary tool, students will learn methodologies and tools central to app design, including researching existing forms and functionalities, translating concepts into wireframes, and developing visual aesthetics and navigation systems. In the initial sessions, students will analyze the intuitiveness and patterns of existing apps, critically assess and redefine their functionalities, and explore alternative modes of use. Subsequent sessions focus on redesigning an app by addressing existing frustrations or repurposing its intended use, creating prototypes that challenge standard user expectations, and developing high-fidelity interactive prototypes that integrate navigation and interaction design. No prior experience in UI/UX or coding is required, and coding will not be taught in this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Elective

UI/UX design is the backbone of digital experiences. It shapes how we interact with screens, transforms innovative ideas into intuitive interfaces, guides navigation through complex systems, and creates aesthetic coherence that makes technology accessible and engaging. At its core, UI/UX design bridges creativity and usability, ensuring that digital products are not only functional but also meaningful and enjoyable to use.

This workshop introduces students to the workflow and foundational knowledge of UI/UX design for smartphone applications. Using Figma as the primary tool, students will learn methodologies and tools central to app design, including researching existing forms and functionalities, translating concepts into wireframes, and developing visual aesthetics and navigation systems. In the initial sessions, students will analyze the intuitiveness and patterns of existing apps, critically assess and redefine their functionalities, and explore alternative modes of use. Subsequent sessions focus on redesigning an app by addressing existing frustrations or repurposing its intended use, creating prototypes that challenge standard user expectations, and developing high-fidelity interactive prototypes that integrate navigation and interaction design. No prior experience in UI/UX or coding is required, and coding will not be taught in this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

Elective

Digital text is an interface for so much of our emotive, interpersonal, industrial, and political lives. Language in digital space is inseparable from the aesthetics of automation, network culture, and its origins within computational history. What is the role of a graphic designer in digital space-where language is simultaneously content and code, and exists at such scales that we begin to call it data.

This course will be a laboratory for designers to explore the relationship between computation and language. We will transform text using processes such as paper cut-up, copy paste, autocomplete, crowdsourcing, and Natural Language Processing models. Through projects, we will explore questions like, How does the addition of computational ingredients- networks, automation, randomness, etc- affect the visual form and meaning of language? Who produces digitally-based language, and how?

Students will create projects through a range of expressions, including but not limited to websites, printed objects, and readings-out-loud. Students will be supported if they want to pursue project work through HTML/CSS, p5.js, RiTa.js, Twine, Scratch, or NLP engines like GPT2. As part of this class, we will also discuss the ongoing relationships between computation, reading, and writing in a social context - transcription workers, human computers, web moderators, and so on. Basic HTML, CSS and/or programming experience is helpful but not required.

Elective

This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of motion graphics, as well as the implementation of video, and sound design. Students will learn a variety of motion graphics software, such as Adobe After Effects and Premier, as well as studio tools like Ableton Live, and/or other audio-visual programs. Students will learn how to capture, manipulate, mix and optimize audio visual material for final production and implementation. Through a series of in-class and multi-week assignments, students will create animated projects that include motion design real-world assignments, as well as experimental exercises, with the goal of exploring intersections between graphic design, story telling, visual composition, and the realms of rhythm and sound. Adobe After Effects will be the primary production tool for this class. Each student will propose a long term project, this project will be developed throughout the semester and presented as the final project for the class. In addition to our software tutorials, there will be a series of short weekly lectures to review specific histories, and also current practitioners who are using motion graphics and sound to create works in the worlds of design, fine art, and performance.

Elective

Building on a collection of texts at the intersection of language, identity, and societal conditioning, this course examines the extent to which typography can engage in world building and the production and dissemination of proposals for alternative systems. Through a series of parallel assignments including reading, writing, and making, we will individually and collectively explore different strategies and mediums through which we can activate a multitude of voices and approaches that comprise our complex world of many worlds.

Elective

This course is for students who want to explore or further develop their understanding of typography. It will cover the study of letterforms, type classification, legibility, organization, and hierarchy, along with text applications, grid systems, and page layout. Typography will be examined as a means of communication and as a medium for experimental expression. Projects may include various studies that address text at both micro and macro levels and the creation of posters, signage, and publications. Systematic versus intuitive learning methods, or programming, will be introduced. 

Elective

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.

From Letterpress to Inkjet: this workshop will offer the students a unique opportunity to connect the dots. Two technologies more than 500 years apart will inspire the students in finding either harmony or discord. Neither is proven wrong. Students will be introduced to the Type Shop through the techniques and procedures for setting and printing metal and wood type on the Vandercook proofing presses. Engaging in this historic craft, newly developed skills will be transformed into contemporary results. The students will unite the digital with the analog technology, for example by feeding a letterpress print through the inkjet plotter or to digitize hot metal type. The options are endless. Specifications on paper selection will be discussed and samples of letterpressed books will be shown for inspiration. Any such targeted integration of science and art goes beyond the sheer structural and aesthetic qualities of given product. But as regards graphic design "product," it must contain the conscious integration of the human factor, technology, and aesthetics to prove effective.

Elective

From Letterpress to Inkjet: this workshop will offer the students a unique opportunity to connect the dots. Two technologies more than 500 years apart will inspire the students in finding either harmony or discord. Neither is proven wrong. Students will be introduced to the Type Shop through the techniques and procedures for setting and printing metal and wood type on the Vandercook proofing presses. Engaging in this historic craft, newly developed skills will be transformed into contemporary results. The students will unite the digital with the analog technology, for example by feeding a letterpress print through the inkjet plotter or to digitize hot metal type. The options are endless. Specifications on paper selection will be discussed and samples of letterpressed books will be shown for inspiration. Any such targeted integration of science and art goes beyond the sheer structural and aesthetic qualities of given product. But as regards graphic design "product," it must contain the conscious integration of the human factor, technology, and aesthetics to prove effective.

Elective

From Letterpress to Inkjet: this workshop will offer the students a unique opportunity to connect the dots. Two technologies more than 500 years apart will inspire the students in finding either harmony or discord. Neither is proven wrong. Students will be introduced to the Type Shop through the techniques and procedures for setting and printing metal and wood type on the Vandercook proofing presses. Engaging in this historic craft, newly developed skills will be transformed into contemporary results. The students will unite the digital with the analog technology, for example by feeding a letterpress print through the inkjet plotter or to digitize hot metal type. The options are endless. Specifications on paper selection will be discussed and samples of letterpressed books will be shown for inspiration. Any such targeted integration of science and art goes beyond the sheer structural and aesthetic qualities of given product. But as regards graphic design "product," it must contain the conscious integration of the human factor, technology, and aesthetics to prove effective.

Elective

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

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

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

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.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Graphic Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design (3yr)

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.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graphic Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design

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.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graphic Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design

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.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graphic Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design