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)

Chronological survey of graphic design through slide lectures. The course will study how graphic design responded to (and affected) international, social, political, and technological developments since 1450. Emphasis will be on printed work from 1880 to 1970 and the relationship of that work to other visual arts and design disciplines. In addition to the lectures, the course will schedule a studio section in which design projects are integrated with research.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Graphic Design, MFA Graphic Design (3yr)

How does one artfully navigate a creative landscape in CG character and environment design despite the deluge of derivative art and industry homogeneity? This class challenges students to swim against the current, to create a character and setting design that is unique and amazing. Sessions will be a balance of critical thinking, through ZBrush instruction, studio work and class critique. Critiques will focus on the inventiveness of the character and environment, the credibility of essential form, legibility of the designs and their suitability to the narrative outline.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $25.00

This course fulfills the Computer Literacy requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

This course emphasizes the mining and contextualization of one's own work as a nexus for growth through the active, ongoing and evolving consideration of your own studio practice as a topic of study in itself. This work will spring from and shed light on your creative intuition, processes and outcomes in a way that will helps you to communicate your work to others through language. In turn, it is hoped this voicing of essential components of your work will help streamline your practice and expedite your artistic production.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $25.00

Major Requirement | MFA Illustration

What is the curatorial imperative? By incorporating curation into studio practice, artists understand the context for placing new combinations into the world. Collecting, archiving and critical analysis of source material will develop a philosophy of stewardship. Central questions about printmaking as a crucial core for many disciplines that incorporate the relation between matrix and formed object, layers, reversals, positive and negative and replication of original and appropriated media will provide a structure. The state of print publishing, art fairs and current curatorial literature will inform ongoing discussion.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Printmaking Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Printmaking

This course continues from Textile Seminar I and focuses on issues in the professional textile field, such as the effect of production parameters and end use on design decisions. While helping students become more familiar with the wide ranging textile market, from traditional work to the most highly innovative, this course aims to provide an awareness of how one's personal expression fits in to this context. Lecturers include professionals from the field, who advise on the studio work required in this class.

Please contact the department for permission to register. This course is a requirement for Graduate Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Textiles

This spring, I was invited to create a childlike tabletop game for a meeting with a subcommittee of the Providence Children’s Museum Board to help them gather insight for the museum's future offerings. The meeting was both fun and functional. The experience inspired me to propose this studio, where we will explore creating fun products, experiences, and/or services that use playfulness as the source of purposeful achievement. A certain delight arises when we engage in serious activities that evoke youthful wonder.

Students will begin the semester with a few off-site field studies, including a visit to the Children’s Museum. Students will define their final project and choose between a solo or group project. The course will begin with a short solo project, followed by a short peer-collaborative project, and then a longer final project. A goal of the semester is to explore and document the practical use of AI tools in the development process to determine “Best Practices” for designers in general.

Students will create and co-create three projects during the semester, with the emphasis on thoughtful documentation of their design process. These projects will be research-based, with students conducting primary user and market research and documenting and responding to user feedback. I read a quote on LinkedIn recently, which was something like: “Designers aren’t passed over due to lack of work in their portfolio, but rather a lack of good reasoning in their design process.” I believe that when we work as much on the process as we do on the product, we create a stronger presentation. I plan to invite guest critics with expertise in storytelling and in putting theory into practice. There will be a studio documentation booklet, which is a collection of each student’s individual document.

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

This course adds another layer of engagement to the MFA Sculpture curriculum in relation to the work done in Grad Studio and Advanced Critical Issues. The class will be divided into two six-week sections taught by a visiting critic and visiting curator. Through these distinct perspectives, students will develop a deeper understanding of the many roles that the artist can play in society in conjunction with gaining knowledge of professional practices within the fine arts field. Additionally, this course will consider the ways that art is displayed, viewed, contextualized and experienced and how visual art can influence contemporary thought and conversation through the history of curation and exhibition-making.

The course will consist of lectures, discussions, group critiques and one-on-one studio visits. The first half of the semester will focus on professional practice and consider each student’s practice through the lens of relevant historical and contemporary artists. Course content will include discussions about maintaining post-graduate art practices, application processes and cultivating thriving creative communities. The second half will focus on curation with emphasis placed on current trends and shifts in artistic and curatorial production, theory, and criticism. Students will examine a range of curatorial practices and consider case studies of artist curated shows.

The class will also develop a proposal for a potential group exhibition to occur post-graduation. Both sections will involve the topic of exhibiting works in various spaces such as galleries (artist-run, for-profit, university, etc.), museums and alternative art organizations.

Enrollment is limited to 2nd-year Sculpture Graduate Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Sculpture

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

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

Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

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

Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

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

Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

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

Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

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

Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture

Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00

Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.

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

Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture

The goal of Independent Drawing Projects is for students to develop a distinct, carefully conceived, and self-directed body of works through a process of investigation, critical assessment and production. Through a rigorous studio practice, students are expected to identify and develop their own conceptual interests and material approaches. Individual and group critiques support, facilitate, and intensify this process. While drawing concentrators will be given priority, interested students outside of the concentration and beyond the sophomore level may take this course.

For the drawing concentrator, the work created for the Independent Drawing Project serves as the culmination of the Drawing Concentration program.

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.

All Landscape Architecture graduate students at RISD are required to submit a Thesis Book that is the culmination of the work undertaken in the Advanced Design Research Studio (Thesis). The Thesis Book class is designed to support the written and graphic component of the Thesis Book. The course will provide resources to support the framing and reflection of the thesis work through writing. In addition, the graphic layout of the book will be used as a tool to help structure the inquiry into student's thesis topics.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

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

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

This studio course is designed to help students slow down and become more contemplative with their photographic practice. This darkroom based course will give students ultimate compositional control as they learn to use the large format camera. Topics covered will include using the view camera's tilt, swing, shift and rise movements to control focus, perspective and image shape. Student will also learn film exposure techniques and advanced black and white printing controls. Later in the course students will be introduced to large format digital scanning and printing workflows.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $500.00

Elective

This studio course is designed to help students slow down and become more contemplative with their photographic practice. This darkroom based course will give students ultimate compositional control as they learn to use the large format camera. Topics covered will include using the view camera's tilt, swing, shift and rise movements to control focus, perspective and image shape. Student will also learn film exposure techniques and advanced black and white printing controls. Later in the course students will be introduced to large format digital scanning and printing workflows.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00 - $500.00

Elective

Throughout history, the natural environment has been a subject of charm and awe for the artist, from the delicately painted frescoes in ancient Roman homes to the 16th century, when the landscape transcended the role of 'background', and gained momentum as a sublime subject in its own right. This is a course on the history of techniques, concepts, possibilities, and purposes in landscape painting. The class will encourage exploration of landscape as sublime subject, as metaphor for human experience or as the battleground for politically charged debate of environmental issues, among other possible approaches. Students will work on location and in studio, learning approaches to plein air painting as well as incorporation of references in the construction of natural environments.

Elective