Illustrators increasingly contribute to packaging and object-based design contexts, becoming powerful conveyors of brand vision and personality. This workshop will introduce students to the fundamentals of package design, with a focus on developing both technical proficiency and contextual sensitivity in designing for three-dimensional printed surfaces. Centered on Adobe Illustrator as the primary tool for vector-based design and professional production workflows, the course provides students with hands-on training in creating artwork for packaging across various formats and materials. Students will learn to think beyond flat compositions, exploring how illustration can activate, enhance, and interact with physical form. The workshop will be structured in the form of in-class guided exercises that involve creating dielines, applying artwork to 3D mockups, exploring surface design and patterning, and considering the relationship between illustration, graphic design, and interactivity. It will also compel them to conceptualize packaging in a holistic manner—understanding shelf appeal, incorporating regulatory content, creating typographic hierarchy, or considering nested artefacts like leaflets/instruction manuals. In addition to design development, the course will emphasize production constraints such as material selection, scaling and dimensioning, color fidelity, and the logistics of working with print vendors. The workshop will also require students to engage with the RISD Print Center to develop fluency in print-ready production. By the end, students will have produced a range of physical packaging prototypes for different contexts/objects, gaining appreciation for the relationship between illustration, graphic design and print production. 

Note: students will need a laptop with RISD-provided Adobe Illustrator installed for this workshop.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $50.00

Elective

This interdisciplinary seminar explores art’s transformative impact in the immediate world, considering the possibility of developing and fostering an art practice deeply rooted in reciprocity, sustainability, and ecological repair. We will draw deeply from the lineages of eco-art, sustainable craft, and regenerative agriculture to explore the possibilities of art making as a restorative practice in a changing climate. Focusing on the legacy of earlier artists' (like the work of Nils Udo, Ana Mendieta and Anna Halprin, Richard Long and Hamish Fulton), whose work grew out of the environmental movement of the 1960s, as well as Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Shilling, we will also consider kinship, the histories and philosophies of gardens and landscape art, models of earth-based material research, and explore the work of contemporary artists who draw from natural materials as a way to ground their work in a sustainable future. In addition to exploring the historical precedents other artists have set, students will investigate restorative interventions and deep observation as artistic practice and make site-responsive work in order to foster a deeper consciousness about our interconnectedness with the earth, contemplate artistic methods of ecological repair, and envision art as a means for sustainable living. We will reflect on our engagement with the physical and social environment; what we value and why; and learn to document and record our physical interventions within the literal and figurative landscapes we occupy. Class will travel afield to the instructor's farm to investigate earth connection practices and consider alternative narratives that can be activated through work that celebrates nature as a generative force.

Elective

Violence threatens and impedes human civilization. As the world becomes more connected through high-speed internet, artificial intelligence, and the global economy, people's peace of mind and inner connection may get less attention. Someone who lacks the understanding and practice of peace and nonviolence may resort to violence when conflict arises in our competitive world. Above all, even a single act of violence may cause long-lasting harm to society. But, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, we can choose: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation." Unlike outbursts of violence, peace and nonviolence require creative study, practice, effort, and courage. Thus, the study of nonviolence and peace is emerging as a critically important field of scholarship, research, and training in both academic and non-academic settings. This course aims to provide introductory but crucial knowledge in the field of Nonviolence and Peace Studies. The course focuses on philosophical, social, and psychological factors contributing to violence and the creation of peace and nonviolence, particularly relevant to personal, interpersonal, and global mental health and well-being. Students will learn about ancient and modern nonviolence and peace philosophies and well-known thinkers, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, Maha Ghosananda, and Aung San Suu Kyi. We will also explore nonviolent strategies and tactics applied to social change movements, and contemporary research studies on nonviolence and peace. Course assignments will include applied learning opportunities to personal and community settings of violence and peacebuilding. Students must demonstrate comprehension of fundamental philosophy and practice perspectives of nonviolence and peace. This course employs a cooperative group study format focused on a problem-based learning approach to peacebuilding. The semester will conclude with a group presentation by the students on a selected personal or social issue and its remedy through nonviolent interventions.

Elective

This course seeks to foreground how movement in film and sculpture can explode and redefine viewing positions within immersive installations and cinematic experiences. We will consider how the learning and unlearning of modes and methods within the field of film can bring about a reorientation through spatial, perceptual and perspectival shifts. The expansive field of sculpture can reimagine how movement and gesture are perceived and embodied through site context, materiality, intervention, performativity, and world building. In this course we will construct sets and installations that will engage with time, memory, and performance. We will examine how the process of editing can build meaning both through material transformation and the moving image. Through employing an intersectional and accessible approach to making, we will engage the potential for reorientation in the visual vocabulary in cinema and sculpture.

 We will focus on the performative aspects inherent in both filmic and sculptural practices while keeping these explorations distinct and not in service of the other. Students will learn cinematic technical skills alongside sculptural investigations with materials and installations, and consider strategies used in scenic/theatrical design, dioramas, phantasmagorias, magic lanterns as well as innovative production design for film. Throughout the course, we will consider viewer participation, passive and active audience viewership and interactive sculptural experiences involving the gaze and framing. Learning from alternative ways of creating movement developed in the field of independent cinema, experimental film and video art, students will explore what types of seeing can be developed by these approaches. In addition to in-class collaborative  experiments, students will produce two individual projects, where they will infuse aspects of the themes of the course into their own practice.  

Please contact contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

How we die says as much about us as how we live. As a result, much can be learned by exploring America's changing attitudes toward death and dying, funeral rites, burial practices, and mourning rituals. Part personal tragedy, part communal experience, and part political event, our individual and collective responses to death should be treated as socially constructed artifacts, offering valuable insight into complex cultural, historical, and socio-economic forces. Buried within the American way of death are clues to understanding how this nation's physical, spiritual, economic, scientific, and political landscapes have changed over time. Rituals and practices surrounding death reflect the realities of class conflict, gender politics, race relations, and an increasingly diverse population. So often, deathcare has often been at the forefront of major cultural shifts and national debates over who belongs here, the role of government, the shape of our cities and towns, patterns of consumption, and, more recently, the future of our planet. Growing interest in green burials suggests not only a burgeoning concern with the carbon footprint of human remains, but shifting ideas about our individual legacies and what we leave behind. A discussion-based course, student engagement and active participation are key. Each student will be required to select a portion of the assigned reading to present to the class. In addition, students will work in small groups to craft a 20-minute oral presentation that examines and contextualizes the funeralization practices of a particular segment of the American people. Finally, each student will complete a 5 - 7 page research paper using a combination of primary and secondary sources (to be approved by the instructor) that elucidate and interrogate a specific aspect of the American way of death.

Elective

This practice-driven course equips design students with the foundational tools to navigate the business side of creative work and design practice. Blending entrepreneurial thinking with design management, it offers a designer’s perspective on essential MBA concepts such as value proposition, market fit, customer segmentation, and business models. The course is ideal for students looking to launch their own ventures or pursue leadership roles in the design management field.

The curriculum builds professional fluency through modules on grant writing, client management, portfolio development, and gaining exposure via design fairs and trade shows. Students will learn to communicate the value of their work—and of themselves as creative professionals—to diverse audiences, while grounding their strategies in ethics and sustainability.

Students will engage with applied frameworks like the Lean Canvas, Agile, and the Business Hypothesis Model to articulate assumptions, identify meaningful problems, and test early- stage ideas. Agile methodologies will help students manage iterative, collaborative design processes effectively. Course activities include Pecha Kucha-style business presentations that sharpen communication and pitching skills—crucial for engaging funders, clients, and collaborators. Conversations with guest professionals will offer insider perspectives on launching and sustaining a design venture.

The curriculum also builds professional fluency through modules on grant writing, client management, portfolio development, and gaining exposure via design fairs and trade shows. Students will learn to communicate the value of their work—and of themselves as creative professionals—to diverse audiences, while grounding their strategies in ethics and sustainability.

By the end of the course, students will have built a tested business or studio concept, developed key entrepreneurial and management skills, and crafted a clear, compelling vision for their creative career.

Elective

NASA's Artemis 2025 Lunar mission aims to return U.S. astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 - when the Apollo 17 mission first landed there. This time, it will not be only men making the journey, as NASA has promised a lunar moondust walk for the first woman and the first person of color. As part of this historic endeavor, NASA is redesigning the spacesuit for the first time in 40 years to accommodate Women and meet the challenges of lunar exploration.

Spacesuits, essential for survival in the harsh environment of outer space, are meticulously engineered to shield astronauts from dangers such as radiation, micrometeoroids, extreme temperatures, and dust. An EVA Suit, or Extra-Vehicular Activity suit, is a marvel of engineering and design, essentially a miniature spaceship tailored to fit the human form, providing life support and mobility in the vacuum of space.

In this interdisciplinary course, students will delve into the intricacies of spacesuit design and technology. Leveraging CLO3D, a cutting-edge fashion design software specializing in 'true-to-life' 3D garment simulation, students will reimagine and redesign NASA's next-generation EVA Suit. Through collaborative projects, teams will conceptualize, pattern, and 3D model innovative spacesuit designs, addressing the unique needs of future lunar explorers.

Students will venture into the metaverse, exploring space in virtual reality using Oculus Quest headsets. Immersed in simulated environments such as the International Space Station, taking Space Walks, and viewing images taken by the Hubble Telescope, students will gain firsthand experience of space exploration. Gravity Sketch, a collaborative VR design tool, will facilitate the creation of the Hard Upper Torso (HUT) in a collaborative VR space, integrating soft designs crafted in CLO.

Drawing from critical design methodologies and informed by research, students will negotiate the complexities of spacesuit design, balancing functionality, mobility, and aesthetics. At the culmination of the course, students will present their finalized spacesuit designs to NASA, contributing to the ongoing evolution of spacesuit technology.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Elective

This course, taught by zoological medicine veterinarian Dr. Lucy Spelman examines how we interact with animals-both domestic and wild-and how, in turn, these interactions affect us. Each week we focus on a different species, working our way up the taxonomic tree from corals to gorillas. We study the animal's basic biology, including its anatomy, natural history, and ecology. We consider the role it plays in human society, including as companions, as food, and, as sources of medicine and spiritual inspiration. We study how human activity is affecting its health and the ripple effect on our own health. We explore how agriculture, climate change, emerging diseases, habitat loss, hunting, and trade are driving many species to extinction. In the process, we discover that while many human-animal interactions are positive, many more are problematic, and that although we have solutions for most of these negative interactions, we often fail to implement them. Examples include excessive antibiotic use in cows, the continued loss of wetlands threatening frogs, and, the increasing number of coyotes favored by urban landscapes. We explore some of the underlying reasons for this inaction. In their final project, students identify a problematic human-animal interaction and explore solutions.

This course is designed to encourage you to explore the range of biological complexity in the animal world, the many ways we interact with animals, both domestic and wild, and, the scientific basis of the interconnectedness of health. You will also have the opportunity to explore solutions for problematic human-animal interactions; it is possible to live in balance with animals if we make informed decisions. The material presented will challenge you to learn more about animal classification, zoology, ecology, food animal science, veterinary medicine, public health, and conservation biology. For your final project, you will research a problematic human-animal interaction, explore potential solutions, and create a work of art or design that inspires others to take action.

Elective

Collaborations among and between Asian and Asian American artists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have sought to redefine kinship by exploring the politics of belonging, generational disconnections, and the legacy of the Cold War, and to reimagine what reparation means for the Asian Americas. Through examining artworks and performances by artists and filmmakers who engage with the questions of memory, belonging, militarism, and the formation of reparative kinship -- including An-My Lê, siren eun young jung, Ishiuchi Miyako, Jerome Reyes, Kang Seung Lee, Hồng-Ân Trương, Grace Lee, Apichatpong Weerasetakul, and Patty Chang -- this seminar expands on the discourses of transnational Asia and trans-Pacific Asia, where the history of anti-Asian racism and lingering Cold War geopolitics have become ever more palpable since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students will also critically engage with what “Asian Americas” means when settler colonialism and anti-Black racism continue to fracture our work on ecological decoloniality and make alliances against white supremacy fragile. Initial class sessions establish a theoretical framework, introducing students to interdisciplinary vocabularies and methodologies for addressing the politics and ethics of reparation and representation in art and visual culture. We move on to interrogating specific topical issues in collaborative and individual artworks. Each week centers on a critical topic, drawing together relevant texts and art practices from art history, area studies, media studies, gender and sexuality studies, and film studies to cross-fertilize different approaches and encourage creative and critical thinking.

Students will complete reading and writing assignments and participate actively in class discussion. Students will design and develop their individual curatorial/research project under the guidance of the instructor and write a curatorial proposal based on their research. The course acts as an introduction to the discourse of Asian diasporic art, representation, and artistic collaboration through up-to-date scholarly debates and discourses. It aims to develop a political sensitivity and an analytical sophistication towards representational processes and products in the arts. Students will learn to conduct in-depth research in the interdisciplinary field of the arts and humanities. Students will synthesize interdisciplinary methodologies, develop theoretical frameworks, and apply them to their research and writing.

Elective

The south of France - specifically Provence - is a rich physical and intellectual landscape that engendered various exchanges of art and science. Influential instances include the advancement of color theory via knowledge of light and optics, driven by pioneers such as Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Further advances include optical mixing demonstrated by Paul Signac, and the psychological influences of color and mark making employed by Vincent Van Gogh. All of these breakthroughs involved a crucial scientific concept: perception. 

This course will study these historical science/art advancements immersed in the setting where they took place. Students will then replicate this by learning today’s scientific understanding of the neuroscience underlying perception, and link it to their own artistic practice in the contemporary world.

The course will be based in Aix-en-Provence in collaboration with the Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing (LMSPD). LMSPD curates various programs that engage with the Provence region, and emphasizes the importance of seeing and painting the visible world while contemplating the past. LMSPD has long established cross-cultural bridges between the south of France and the USA, with collaborators including The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, Princeton University Art Museum, and Tufts University.

The curriculum schedule will see each week starting with a guided didactic neuroscience lesson from Nicholas Tolley focusing on biological underpinnings of sensation, choice, and memory - which culminates in a holistic understanding of perception. The following weekdays will combine these themes with pertinent cultural experiences, including site visits connected to Van Gogh and Cézanne, image making and language workshops run by local artists from LMSPD, and lectures from leading neuroscientists from Meta, CNRS Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Aix-Marseille Université, University of Toulouse, and Brown University. 

Students will document their experiences and realizations through a visual research sketchbook. At the end of each week, a group critique is held discussing the integration of science and art, the clarity of visual communication, and the evolution of each student’s artistic research. During the last week, students will create an artist book - a refined culmination of their notes during the entirety of the course. These artist books will be compiled at a later date into one anthology with commentary from the faculty and visiting lecturers.

Registration is not available in Workday. All students are required to remain in good academic standing in order to participate in the Wintersession travel course/studio. A minimum GPA of 2.50 is required. Failure to remain in good academic standing can lead to removal from the course, either before or during the course. Also in cases where Wintersession travel courses and studios do not reach student capacity, the course may be cancelled after the last day of Wintersession travel course registration. As such, all students are advised not to purchase flights for participation in Wintersession travel courses until the course is confirmed to run, which happens within the week after the final Wintersession travel course registration period.

Elective

Transitional spaces are areas that exist between different environments, states, or land uses. Dynamic and liminal, they are shaped by a diverse array of factors, from climate change to gentrification and urban redevelopment. In this 4-week course, students will explore various transitional spaces in Mexico City and its surroundings to create a series of experimental short films that reflect on the evolving nature of these environments, their impact on local communities, and the broader socio-environmental phenomena at play. Simultaneously, they will engage in critical thinking about the changing urban landscape by engaging with readings and films dealing with questions of borders, Third Spaces, human-nonhuman interaction, colonial histories of photography and filmmaking, capitalist and decolonial ideas of time and space, nature of being, and cyborg and other feminist ontologies. 

Born and raised in Mexico City, Associate Professor of Design (EFS) Adela Goldbard has deep roots in the city's artistic landscape. Having developed her career in this vibrant metropolis where she continues to actively engage with its contemporary arts community, institutions, and initiatives. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at prominent venues and galleries across the city, including Casa del Lago, Centro de la Imagen, Poliforum Cultural Siqueiros, and Galería Enrique Guerrero. Goldbard’s extensive connections with artists, scholars, curators, gallerists, and critics in Mexico City will be invaluable for the proposed course, as many would be eager to contribute to its success. The co-teaching by Ijlal Muzaffar will prove invaluable for exploring how change is imagined, controlled and subverted in peripheral spaces. Ijlal holds a PhD in architectural history of modernism in the Global South and has published extensively on politics of Third World development and globalization in the post WWII era. His recent book, Modernism’s Magical Hat: Architecture and the Illusion of Development without Capital (University of Texas Press, 2024) charts how different modes and mediums of imagining change, from architectural design to film and photography, make only certain ways of imagining the past and the future appear natural and viable while erasing all others.

This course is a co-requisite. Students must also register for THAD 1565 - *MEXICO: MEXICO CITY: EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKING AS RESEARCH - SENSING TRADITIONAL SPACES.

Registration is not available in Workday. All students are required to remain in good academic standing in order to participate in the Wintersession travel course/studio. A minimum GPA of 2.50 is required. Failure to remain in good academic standing can lead to removal from the course, either before or during the course. Also in cases where Wintersession travel courses and studios do not reach student capacity, the course may be cancelled after the last day of Wintersession travel course registration. As such, all students are advised not to purchase flights for participation in Wintersession travel courses until the course is confirmed to run, which happens within the week after the final Wintersession travel course registration period.

Elective

Transitional spaces are areas that exist between different environments, states, or land uses. Dynamic and liminal, they are shaped by a diverse array of factors, from climate change to gentrification and urban redevelopment. In this 4-week course, students will explore various transitional spaces in Mexico City and its surroundings to create a series of experimental short films that reflect on the evolving nature of these environments, their impact on local communities, and the broader socio-environmental phenomena at play. Simultaneously, they will engage in critical thinking about the changing urban landscape by engaging with readings and films dealing with questions of borders, Third Spaces, human-nonhuman interaction, colonial histories of photography and filmmaking, capitalist and decolonial ideas of time and space, nature of being, and cyborg and other feminist ontologies. 

Born and raised in Mexico City, Associate Professor of Design (EFS) Adela Goldbard has deep roots in the city's artistic landscape. Having developed her career in this vibrant metropolis where she continues to actively engage with its contemporary arts community, institutions, and initiatives. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at prominent venues and galleries across the city, including Casa del Lago, Centro de la Imagen, Poliforum Cultural Siqueiros, and Galería Enrique Guerrero. Goldbard’s extensive connections with artists, scholars, curators, gallerists, and critics in Mexico City will be invaluable for the proposed course, as many would be eager to contribute to its success. The co-teaching by Ijlal Muzaffar will prove invaluable for exploring how change is imagined, controlled and subverted in peripheral spaces. Ijlal holds a PhD in architectural history of modernism in the Global South and has published extensively on politics of Third World development and globalization in the post WWII era. His recent book, Modernism’s Magical Hat: Architecture and the Illusion of Development without Capital (University of Texas Press, 2024) charts how different modes and mediums of imagining change, from architectural design to film and photography, make only certain ways of imagining the past and the future appear natural and viable while erasing all others.

This course is a co-requisite. Students must also register for IDISC 1565 - *MEXICO: MEXICO CITY: EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKING AS RESEARCH - SENSING TRADITIONAL SPACES.

Registration is not available in Workday. All students are required to remain in good academic standing in order to participate in the Wintersession travel course/studio. A minimum GPA of 2.50 is required. Failure to remain in good academic standing can lead to removal from the course, either before or during the course. Also in cases where Wintersession travel courses and studios do not reach student capacity, the course may be cancelled after the last day of Wintersession travel course registration. As such, all students are advised not to purchase flights for participation in Wintersession travel courses until the course is confirmed to run, which happens within the week after the final Wintersession travel course registration period.

Elective

This class evolves around an exploration of identity, social identity and fashion, and how clothing might assume responses not only for the wearer but for the audience too. Although some say that appearances are vain, they are also a way for us to divulge and communicate much to the world. Many of our encounters remain in the domain of the visual and there is rarely time or space to facilitate getting to know a person. Looking and seeing therefore, can oftentimes generate assumptions based solely on appearances. These assumptions can be derived from an individual perspective, but more often than not, are formed and dictated by culture and stereotypes.The class will explore individual and social identities through wearables and how ‘They’ relates back to each of us/you. Identity, alter ego and ego will also be investigated as a means to examine the interactions that emerge via visibility and invisibility. Some of the questions that will be explored through research, discussions and collaborative activities.

• Who am I?

• Who would I like to be?

• How might clothing create a mask for a persona?

• How might I construct ideas of myself?

• How might clothing become a means to facilitate an altered experience and/or presence?

The course Sophomore Design: Identity/Identities incorporates 4 stages within the development of the course work and is taught by 2 different faculty that guide and support the progression of work from and within their unique expertise. Each Stage of the course builds of one another consecutively covering the areas or research, concept development, design principles, exploration in 2D and 3D developments and performance.

The course works to open students to experimental and alternative ways of making and presenting a garment, existing outside of industrial standards of mass produced fashion. It aims to unpack and disrupt no- tions of power in the fashion discipline, by allowing students to form an Alter-Ego that empowers them with the communication of their vision and the celebration of their identities.

Alter-Ego

“An alter ego (Latin for “other I”, “doppelgänger”) means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person’s normal or true

original personality. Finding one’s alter ego will require finding one’s other self, one with a different personality. The altered states of the ego may themselves be referred to as alterations. A distinct meaning of alter ego is found in the literary analysis used when referring to fictional literature and other narrative forms, describing a key character in a story who is perceived to be intentionally representative of the work’s author (or creator), by oblique similarities, in terms

“Beyoncé further explained that Sasha Fierce came about in an effort to separate her timid personality from her stage-slaying persona, giving her the courage to be free and seductive while performing. “Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and when I’m on the stage,” - Beyonce on Oprah 2008.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Apparel Design Students. 

Major Requirement | BFA Apparel Design