Lucinda Hitchcock

Professor
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RISD faculty member Lucinda Hitchcock
BA, Kenyon College
MA, Columbia University
MFA, Yale University

Lucinda Hitchcock works with graduate and undergraduate graphic design students. She is interested in typography, visual and dimensional language, spatial narrative and book design. She teaches typography, visual narrative, conceptual design and, most recently,Shaping Language, a new course she developed in which students investigate the materiality of the written word across print and digital spaces in both 2D and 3D.

Before joining the faculty at RISD in the late 1990s, Hitchcock worked for studios in New York and New Mexico, taught at the Art Institute of Boston and ran a small letterpress shop in Boston’s South End. In 2000 she established her practice, Lucinda Hitchcock Design, and in 2011 joined award-winning design collaborative The Design Office in downtown Providence.

Hitchcock’s practice focuses on producing books and other printed material for such artistic and cultural institutions as the MFA Boston, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several independent publishers, including Godine and Chronicle Books. Her designs have won numerous awards, and her work has been showcased in Communication Arts, AIGA 50 Books, Print Magazine, Best of New England exhibitions and the American Association of University Presses’ “best of” shows and catalogues.

Hitchcock’s published work includes a piece for the scholarly journal Visible Language (vol. 34, issue 2, 2000), and some of her type experiments accompanied selected student work in the book Type Design: Radical Innovations and Experimentation (Thames and Hudson, 2004), edited by Teal Triggs. Hitchcock was included in the book Women in Graphic Design 1890–2012 (Jovis Verlag, 2012), and she wrote a chapter for the book The Art of Critical Making: Rhode Island School of Design on Creative Practice (Wiley and Sons, 2013).

Courses

Fall 2023 Courses

GRAPH 3226-04 - DESIGN STUDIO 3
Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 3226-04

DESIGN STUDIO 3

Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: W | 11:20 AM - 4:20 PM; M | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Design Center, Room 210 Enrolled / Capacity: 14 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Students are expected to develop personal working methods and interests through more general questions posed by the faculty. Longer-term projects will be intermixed with shorter projects posed by visiting critics. Students should complete the Design Studio track with a developed sense of self, and able to start framing questions and lines of inquiries of their own. End forms will be more emphasized than in Design Studio 1 and 2, in part as evidence that craft and working methods are sufficiently evolved. The twice-a-week format is intended for juniors or advanced designers who have completed the first two semesters of Design Studio or an equivalent design principles track.

Please contact the department for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday. 


Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design

GRAPH 3181-01 - WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 1
Format Workshop
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 3181-01

WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 1
Format Workshop
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-08 to 2023-09-29
Times: F | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM Instructor(s): Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Design Center, Room 701 Enrolled / Capacity: 10 Status: Closed

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

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Graphic Design Students.

Elective

GRAPH 3181-02 - WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 1
Format Workshop
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 3181-02

WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 1
Format Workshop
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-10-06 to 2023-10-27
Times: F | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM Instructor(s): Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Design Center, Room 701 Enrolled / Capacity: 10 Status: Closed

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

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Graphic Design Students.

Elective

GRAPH 3181-03 - WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 1
Format Workshop
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 3181-03

WKSHP: PRE-PRESS AND RISOGRAPH PRINTING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 1
Format Workshop
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-11-03 to 2023-12-01
Times: F | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM Instructor(s): Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Design Center, Room 701 Enrolled / Capacity: 10 Status: Closed

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

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Graphic Design Students.

Elective

Spring 2024 Courses

GRAPH 324G-01 - GRADUATE STUDIO II
Level Graduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 324G-01

GRADUATE STUDIO II

Level Graduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: M | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Bethany Johns, Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Center for Integrative Technologies, Room 502 Enrolled / Capacity: 10 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This studio course is based on the premise that the narrative shaping of information is fundamental to human communication. As active participants in cultural production, graphic designers naturally collaborate within varied areas of expertise, assuming a documentary role in how society views itself. Narrative methods enable us to speak to (and through) any content with a sense of the story it has to tell - visually representing historical, curatorial, scientific, and abstract ideas and events. Students will explore design as a process of storytelling that includes linear and non-linear relationships, with an emphasis on developing formal strategies for multiple approaches to shaping a narrative experience from given as well as self-generated content. Particular emphasis is on sequence, framing, cause and effect, the relationships between elements, and the synthesis of parts into wholes. With text and image, and across media, we employ narrative methods to make sense of complex content meant to be shared and understood.

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


Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design (2yr)

GRAPH 3298-05 - DEGREE PROJECT
Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 3298-05

DEGREE PROJECT

Level Undergraduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: T | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Design Center, Room 210 Enrolled / Capacity: 14 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

The degree project is an independent project in graphic design subject to the department's explicit approval, as the final requirement for graduation for the BFA 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. Graphic Design students on advanced standing who wish to be considered for Degree project in the Fall of their senior year must apply to the department head.

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


Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design

GRAPH 342G-01 - GRADUATE TYPOGRAPHY STUDIO II
Level Graduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Spring 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GRAPH 342G-01

GRADUATE TYPOGRAPHY STUDIO II

Level Graduate
Unit Graphic Design
Subject Graphic Design
Period Spring 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: W | 11:20 AM - 4:20 PM Instructor(s): Lucinda Hitchcock Location(s): Design Center, Room 704 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

The second semester continues the development of typographic practice by exploring the conditions in which type operates: the systems needed to work with varying scales and narrative structures. Students will design large-scale and small-scale work simultaneously; understanding the trade-offs of various formats and contexts. The course also extends basic typesetting into more extended reading experiences. Students will learn to set the conditions for readability by creating order, expressing emotion and making meaning. Students will design and bind a book while understanding how the traditions of the codex relate to onscreen reading. Within the durable form of the book, lies centuries of conventions like indexical systems, footnotes, page matter and more. Students also will become better readers, by engaging with contemporary issues in the field of typography and type design. This is a studio course, so some class time will be used for discussions, most of the time we will be working in class, often on a computer. There is an expectation that students work both individually and in groups and be prepared to speak about their own work and the work of their peers in supportive and respectful ways. A laptop and relevant software are required.


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

Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design (3yr)

Image
RISD faculty member Lucinda Hitchcock
BA, Kenyon College
MA, Columbia University
MFA, Yale University