This is an intensive program designed to test the student's ability to design, organize, and complete a project of his or her choosing.

Enrollment is limited to Senior Painting students. Contact the department for permission to register.

This studio explores bags, wearable objects, and systems of carrying through research, material exploration, and hands-on making. Students will develop projects that begin with a human behavior, personal interest, cultural observation, or functional question, then translate those ideas into full-scale prototypes.

Projects may take the form of a market-ready product proposal, an experimental carry object, or work between those positions. Through making, testing, critique, and iteration, students will learn how ideas move from concept to physical form. The course will include mentorship and selected working sessions with industry practitioners in design, materials, development, and manufacturing. Final work will include a resolved prototype, process documentation, and a concise development package that communicates material, construction, and design intent.

The course combines creative inquiry with the practical realities of bag design and product development. Students will explore textiles, leather, hardware, soft construction, ergonomics, interior space, and the relationship between an object and the body.

This studio will run with industry Mentors from Tumi (luggage company), Victor Sanz, Global Creative Director, and Douglas Davidson from Canvasworker, who served as Senior Design Director at Burton Snowboards, Design Director of Equipment at The North Face, and has designed or consulted for brands like Nike, Apple, Adidas, Lululemon, and Vans. Leslie Fontana will oversee the daily studio classes.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design, MID (2.5yr): Industrial Design

This co-requisite interdisciplinary course qualifies for both Liberal Arts Elective credit (LAEL) and either Non-major Studio Elective credit (NMSE) or Printmaking credit, brings together Black literary and print traditions to inform our understanding of American civil society and, more broadly, democracy and its complex relationship to freedom as a cultural phenomenon. Throughout the course, we will examine a number of central questions:  What is the relationship between concepts of political power and the black archive as a blueprint for liberatory praxis? How can we use ideas of liberation found in black letters to narrate through offset and letterpress print design? What is Rhode Island’s role in these histories and stories of resistance?

Rooted in our local histories of Black resistance and offset and letterpress print craft, the first half of this course will use a lecture and group discussion format to examine the importance of the liberatory imagination in primary source documentation. A core objective is to clarify the silences surrounding oppressive ideology and its promotion of racially repressive phenomena through print culture and political counterframes.

This is a co-requisite course. Enrollment includes both LAEL 3150 and PRINT 3250. Students will receive 3 studio/non-major studio elective credits and 3 Liberal Arts elective credits, for a total of 6 credits.

This course is open to junior, senior, fifth-year, and graduate students. This course is not open for self-registration, please contact Marco McWilliams at mmcwilli@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

This co-requisite interdisciplinary course qualifies for both Liberal Arts Elective credit (LAEL) and either Non-major Studio Elective credit (NMSE) or Printmaking credit, brings together Black literary and print traditions to inform our understanding of American civil society and, more broadly, democracy and its complex relationship to freedom as a cultural phenomenon. Throughout the course, we will examine a number of central questions:  What is the relationship between concepts of political power and the black archive as a blueprint for liberatory praxis? How can we use ideas of liberation found in black letters to narrate through offset and letterpress print design? What is Rhode Island’s role in these histories and stories of resistance?

Rooted in our local histories of Black resistance and offset and letterpress print craft, the first half of this course will use a lecture and group discussion format to examine the importance of the liberatory imagination in primary source documentation. A core objective is to clarify the silences surrounding oppressive ideology and its promotion of racially repressive phenomena through print culture and political counterframes.

This is a co-requisite course. Enrollment includes both LAEL 3150 and PRINT 3250. Students will receive 3 studio/non-major studio elective credits and 3 Liberal Arts elective credits, for a total of 6 credits.

This course is open to junior, senior, fifth-year, and graduate students. This course is not open for self-registration, please contact Marco McWilliams at mmcwilli@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

In this course, students make games from the first week through a series of game jams, building and playtesting a playable game in each one. Students explore game design through the tools and constraints of pixel art. Working within the disciplines of programming game mechanic logic, game art production, and composing 8-bit music will require a broad and technical approach. No prior coding or art experience is required.

Programs like GB Studio for game design, game logic, and visual programming, Aseprite for sprites and animation, as well as music trackers for sound and music production will all be covered. By managing hardware limitations, game design scope, and sprite-based design, students will explore the capabilities of this inherently constrained medium. These efforts will culminate in a playable game printed on a physical Game Boy cartridge that can be played on actual hardware.

This course will also situate this work within the history of pixelated art: A) before video games through works of textiles, mosaics, and other grid-based design tools throughout art history; B) during the birth of video games as a tool of efficient processing and clear communication; and C) up to the present day as an accessible tool of game design for both beginners and professionals in modern video games.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Elective

Sculptural Practices I and II consists of a yearlong introduction to major skill sets that are essential to creating sculpture in a contemporary context. These sets include metal fabrication, woodworking, photography & videography, Plaster Fabrication, Casting & Mold Making, and Digital Modeling & Fabrication. Over the course of the year, students will learn proficiency and safety in all of these technical areas.

Sculptural Practices II focuses on plaster fabrication, casting & mold making and digital fabrication and is designed to work in tandem with Sophomore Sculpture Studio II. While gaining technical and material knowledge specific to each of these areas, students will also consider how they operate in dialogue with broader ways of making and conceptualizing sculptural projects. Each section will serve as an in-depth introduction to the fundamental ideas within each practice, including artist references, relevant literature, vocabulary, tools and equipment, and general safety protocol.

Students are expected to investigate each skill set through experimentation and research, extending their practice well beyond scheduled class time. It is crucial that students make time outside of scheduled meetings to develop familiarity and confidence with the processes introduced in class. Students will then expand the knowledge from this introductory year into their advanced studio electives throughout their Junior and Senior years.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

Since 2009, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the National Park Service (NPS) have worked to develop a collaborative model for teaching and learning centered on witness trees: long-standing trees that have borne witness to the histories of the places where they have stood. The Project arranges for a fallen witness tree to be shipped from a national historic site to RISD, where, in a joint history seminar and design studio, students interpret the history the tree witnessed and make relevant objects from the tree's wood. In addition to classroom study, the Project variously involves field trips, guest lectures, workshops, demonstrations, and exhibitions of students' objects. Students from all disciplines are welcome.

This iteration of the Witness Tree Project will focus on a 19th-century state-champion Norway Spruce from Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont. The seminar will explore the world of its planter, Frederick Billings (1823-1890), who, as a Gold Rush lawyer, transcontinental railroad president, farmer, and pioneering conservationist, embodied the complex relationships Americans had with nature during a fervent era of expanded settler colonialism and land acquisition. In the studio, students will work with the wood harvested from the Norway Spruce to explore craft and building traditions indicative of this time, such as timber framing and hewing. Students will practice these techniques, and critically make, as a means of understanding and reflecting upon these histories.

This is a co-requisite course. Enrollment includes both FD 2451 and HPSS S732. Students will receive 3 studio/non-major studio elective credits and 3 Liberal Arts elective credits, for a total of 6 credits.

This course is open to junior, senior, fifth-year, and graduate students. Contact the instructor for permission to register.

Elective

It is estimated that since the early 1600’s, North American land in the United States has lost half of the wetland habitat that provided essential areas for wildlife, held water on the land, hydrated soils, and supported vast areas of wetland vegetation. Wetlands provide essential fish and wildlife habitat, supporting rare plants, animals, and birds. Wetlands also store carbon, filter pollutants from water, and retain floodwaters. However, the legacy of viewing marshes and swamps as wasteland, continues to result in the degradation and destruction of many freshwater wetlands by human activity. In this field-oriented seminar students will spend class time within these important habitats, learning to understand them for their varied forms, their biodiversity, and their ability to store carbon and water with the potential of ameliorating on-going climate changes. Through field emersion, students will learn to see the landscape for the evidence it holds of what wetland habitat once was. They will identify the plant species that depend on wetlands for their survival, and will become intimately familiar with the water and soil that support these plant species. Extensive reading will support field observations and conversation in the field. The policies that brought about wetland destruction as well as protection, will be topics covered, along with wetland banking and restoration. Final projects for this class will offer students an opportunity to explore how their studio work can inform salient aspects of these watery worlds.  

Estimated Cost of Materials: $75.00

Elective

This course will deal with advanced woodworking processes, including milling and machinery use, laminate and steam bending, plywood and veneer. Techniques in using natural and synthetic materials connected with furniture will be covered.

This course is a requirement for Junior and Senior Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

This course will deal with advanced woodworking processes, including milling and machinery use, laminate and steam bending, plywood and veneer. Techniques in using natural and synthetic materials connected with furniture will be covered.

This course is a requirement for Junior and Senior Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

This course will deal with advanced woodworking processes, including milling and machinery use, laminate and steam bending, plywood and veneer. Techniques in using natural and synthetic materials connected with furniture will be covered.

This course is a requirement for Junior and Senior Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

This course will deal with advanced woodworking processes, including milling and machinery use, laminate and steam bending, plywood and veneer. Techniques in using natural and synthetic materials connected with furniture will be covered.

This course is a requirement for Junior and Senior Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

This seminar/studio course is centered around a series of invited artists, writers, scientists who work at the intersection of diverse identities and lived experiences to model their specific perspectives on making as a counterpoint to historically euro-centric and monolithic approaches that have burdened glass as a creative medium. Readings, discussions and class activities prioritize issues of identity, culture, gender, race, colonialism - questioning past cannons of making and proposing challenging alternatives. The participatory and collaborative work done for this class is fundamental to our thinking and making community; a willingness to share ideas and make earnest attempts to connect and support one another is central. Our lecturers and HotNights participants set a broad and challenging spectrum of topics which are built on by the research and perspectives of everyone in the class. In each case, we will strive to address topics, discussions and shop time problem solving in a manner that is respectful to all individuals.

Junior Glass Students register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).

Senior Glass Students register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This seminar/studio course is centered around a series of invited artists, writers, scientists who work at the intersection of diverse identities and lived experiences to model their specific perspectives on making as a counterpoint to historically euro-centric and monolithic approaches that have burdened glass as a creative medium. Readings, discussions and class activities prioritize issues of identity, culture, gender, race, colonialism - questioning past cannons of making and proposing challenging alternatives. The participatory and collaborative work done for this class is fundamental to our thinking and making community; a willingness to share ideas and make earnest attempts to connect and support one another is central. Our lecturers and HotNights participants set a broad and challenging spectrum of topics which are built on by the research and perspectives of everyone in the class. In each case, we will strive to address topics, discussions and shop time problem solving in a manner that is respectful to all individuals.

Juniors register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).

Seniors register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This seminar/studio course is centered around a series of invited artists, writers, scientists who work at the intersection of diverse identities and lived experiences to model their specific perspectives on making as a counterpoint to historically euro-centric and monolithic approaches that have burdened glass as a creative medium. Readings, discussions and class activities prioritize issues of identity, culture, gender, race, colonialism - questioning past cannons of making and proposing challenging alternatives. The participatory and collaborative work done for this class is fundamental to our thinking and making community; a willingness to share ideas and make earnest attempts to connect and support one another is central. Our lecturers and HotNights participants set a broad and challenging spectrum of topics which are built on by the research and perspectives of everyone in the class. In each case, we will strive to address topics, discussions and shop time problem solving in a manner that is respectful to all individuals.

Junior Glass Students register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).

Senior Glass Students register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

This seminar/studio course is centered around a series of invited artists, writers, scientists who work at the intersection of diverse identities and lived experiences to model their specific perspectives on making as a counterpoint to historically euro-centric and monolithic approaches that have burdened glass as a creative medium. Readings, discussions and class activities prioritize issues of identity, culture, gender, race, colonialism - questioning past cannons of making and proposing challenging alternatives. The participatory and collaborative work done for this class is fundamental to our thinking and making community; a willingness to share ideas and make earnest attempts to connect and support one another is central. Our lecturers and HotNights participants set a broad and challenging spectrum of topics which are built on by the research and perspectives of everyone in the class. In each case, we will strive to address topics, discussions and shop time problem solving in a manner that is respectful to all individuals.

Juniors register for GLASS-4316 (Fall) and GLASS-4318 (Spring).

Seniors register for GLASS-4320 (Fall) and GLASS-4322 (Spring).

Major Requirement | BFA Glass

Sequential art is a thriving global art form whose recent history is grounded in three artistic, linguistic and publishing traditions: Comics, Manga, and Bande Dessinee. This course offers an intensive introduction to their creative possibilities. It will present storytelling and technical approaches that will enhance your ability to work as a writer and artist in the comics industry, as well as in other narrative driven fields. Assignments will take the shape of short form comics (1-8 pages) but students will also learn about writing, developing and pitching longer works such as graphic novels. During class discussions, we will engage in comparative study, identifying unexpected connections with other arts (literature, music, film, animation) while revealing the unique expressive potential of this medium.

Elective

This one-month workshop will explore the creative potential of ZBrush, the 3-D sculpting application from Pixologic. With so many uses, it's difficult to cover ZBrush completely, but by the end of the class you will have a solid understanding of the program, all its component tools and how to customize them and use them in your workflow, whether it's sculpting for game detail, animation, visualization, or rapid-prototyping. This workshop is a one-credit course that emphasizes skills and techniques. This class is part of a group of offerings by the departments of Illustration, Industrial Design and Graphic Design that are offered on Friday afternoons and are open to all students to facilitate cross-departmental enrollment.

Students must register for workshops during the registration period and add/drop regardless of start date of class.

Elective

This one-month workshop will explore the creative potential of ZBrush, the 3-D sculpting application from Pixologic. With so many uses, it's difficult to cover ZBrush completely, but by the end of the class you will have a solid understanding of the program, all its component tools and how to customize them and use them in your workflow, whether it's sculpting for game detail, animation, visualization, or rapid-prototyping. This workshop is a one-credit course that emphasizes skills and techniques. This class is part of a group of offerings by the departments of Illustration, Industrial Design and Graphic Design that are offered on Friday afternoons and are open to all students to facilitate cross-departmental enrollment.

Students must register for workshops during the registration period and add/drop regardless of start date of class.

Elective

This course invites us to imagine new worlds, with their own languages, logics, and lores. Instead of creating artwork determined by the conditions of this world, what might it mean to create new worlds with conditions our artwork demands? What can we say about the real world by creating fictional ones? What worlds would we imagine if they weren’t built in response to oppression and trauma, but rather centered in joy? Rooted in the works of multidisciplinary artists like Rashaad Newsome, Walid Raad, and Jacolby Satterwhite, and of queer speculative fiction authors such as Octavia Butler, Rivers Solomon, and Ursula LeGuin, this interdisciplinary course opens up space for us to imagine, write, animate, film, code, perform, paint, sculpt, and bring into existence these new liberatory worlds.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective