During this course, we will explore mobility design through the examination of natural environments, systems, processes, and organisms, with the intent to design a more circular and less harmful human-planet relationship. Students will embark on a creative and rigorous exploration of various biodesign methodologies, including the biomimicry design tools put forth by the RISD Nature Lab, as pathways toward innovative materials, products, manufacturing methods, services, and experiences. These materials and methods will be placed in context to support the Hyundai Motor Group’s research on the future of mobility, creating design solutions that demonstrate our discoveries’ real-world applications and potential impacts.

Particular focus will be placed on advanced research techniques, such as microscopy imaging, 3D scanning, material & process development, quantitative experimentation & testing, consultation with scientific experts, and referencing scientific research.

The advanced studio curriculum and assignments will provide structured support for a deep dive into student-directed biodesign research. Bi-weekly demos build the technical skill set students need, including a further exploration of biomaterials, generative modeling, AI workflows & ethics, additive manufacturing, life cycle analysis, experiment design, public speaking, and product photography. Guest lecturers and reviews will provide bi-weekly feedback and guidance in addition to that of the teaching team. Frequent check-ins support students in their larger research arc, including a focus on broader design frameworks of Design Justice and user interviews. Throughout the semester, students will have the opportunity to have their work reviewed and critiqued by designers and engineers at Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai, Kia, & Genesis). The final outcome of the semester will be students’ documentation and write-up of their research process and outcomes, which will remain in the Regeneration Studio online archive, as well as an advanced and functional prototype. The final review for this course will also include student presentations to design leadership at Hyundai Motor Group.

A close partnership with the RISD Nature Lab and the ID Department will provide access to the expertise and equipment necessary to complete student-driven research topics. This course features a series of guest lectures, field trips, and demonstrations throughout the semester to provide insight into the quickly expanding field of biodesign and regenerative design.

Elective

The objective of Business Principles is for students to understand basic business vocabulary, to explore how design vocabulary and design processes overlap, complement and enhance business vocabulary and processes;  and, to understand how design thinking skills can be used to identify and execute business opportunities. Students will learn how the frameworks that guide business overlap, complement, and enhance design frameworks and approaches. This course seeks to educate students to understand business as a critical design factor - a defining constraint or liberating perspective.

The guiding principle is that design and business are inextricably linked: Design work is intrinsically linked to business and will always be at the service of business, fulfilling the need for an enterprise (profit or non-profit) whose business model is critical to its survival. Design will find new channels, new outlets, through a more complete understanding of business needs and how businesses see opportunity. Design can and should be considered as critical strategic input for business.

Elective

In the NCSS Core Seminar, students explore key issues in nature-culture-sustainability studies, developing an interdisciplinary understanding of the need for integrative approaches to issues including mobility and infrastructure, environmental justice and equity, sustainable food and water systems and the very real present and future of climate change. Beginning with definitions of nature and natural systems, drawn from environmental literature and history, we will dig into questions of what we mean by "culture" and "sustainability". The vitality of the ecologic and social and built environment upon which we all depend will form the core of our investigations. How and where we live matters; in the present Anthropocene, questions of resiliency and adaptation take on ever greater urgency. We will study contemporary conditions with examples from across the globe, with an eye to understanding how innovation and creative practices in art and design impact future planetary health. This course lays the foundation for students pursuing the NCSS concentration. The seminar will include lectures and discussions of readings and case studies. Students may ground their final course project in a topic connected to their own work, relating it to their major or another concentration, in addition to NCSS.

To deepen our interdisciplinary exploration of nature–culture–sustainability studies and to bring both NCSS Core seminar cohorts together, this course includes a shared lecture series (about six sessions per semester). These events will feature guest speakers—scientists, designers, and environmental leaders—who are working at the forefront of research and activism. They will share their insights, experiences, and current projects with us, offering new perspectives to enrich our seminar discussions.

Note: The lectures are scheduled for Wednesdays from 5:00-6:00.

Elective

In the NCSS Core Seminar, students explore key issues in nature-culture-sustainability studies, developing an interdisciplinary understanding of the need for integrative approaches to issues including mobility and infrastructure, environmental justice and equity, sustainable food and water systems and the very real present and future of climate change. Beginning with definitions of nature and natural systems, drawn from environmental literature and history, we will dig into questions of what we mean by "culture" and "sustainability". The vitality of the ecologic and social and built environment upon which we all depend will form the core of our investigations. How and where we live matters; in the present Anthropocene, questions of resiliency and adaptation take on ever greater urgency. We will study contemporary conditions with examples from across the globe, with an eye to understanding how innovation and creative practices in art and design impact future planetary health. This course lays the foundation for students pursuing the NCSS concentration. The seminar will include lectures and discussions of readings and case studies. Students may ground their final course project in a topic connected to their own work, relating it to their major or another concentration, in addition to NCSS.

To deepen our interdisciplinary exploration of nature–culture–sustainability studies and to bring both NCSS Core seminar cohorts together, this course includes a shared lecture series (about six sessions per semester). These events will feature guest speakers—scientists, designers, and environmental leaders—who are working at the forefront of research and activism. They will share their insights, experiences, and current projects with us, offering new perspectives to enrich our seminar discussions.

Note: The lectures are scheduled for Wednesdays from 5:00-6:00.

Elective

In the NCSS Core Seminar, students explore key issues in nature-culture-sustainability studies, developing an interdisciplinary understanding of the need for integrative approaches to issues including mobility and infrastructure, environmental justice and equity, sustainable food and water systems and the very real present and future of climate change. Beginning with definitions of nature and natural systems, drawn from environmental literature and history, we will dig into questions of what we mean by "culture" and "sustainability". The vitality of the ecologic and social and built environment upon which we all depend will form the core of our investigations. How and where we live matters; in the present Anthropocene, questions of resiliency and adaptation take on ever greater urgency. We will study contemporary conditions with examples from across the globe, with an eye to understanding how innovation and creative practices in art and design impact future planetary health. This course lays the foundation for students pursuing the NCSS concentration. The seminar will include lectures and discussions of readings and case studies. Students may ground their final course project in a topic connected to their own work, relating it to their major or another concentration, in addition to NCSS.

To deepen our interdisciplinary exploration of nature–culture–sustainability studies and to bring both NCSS Core seminar cohorts together, this course includes a shared lecture series (about six sessions per semester). These events will feature guest speakers—scientists, designers, and environmental leaders—who are working at the forefront of research and activism. They will share their insights, experiences, and current projects with us, offering new perspectives to enrich our seminar discussions.

Note: The lectures are scheduled for Wednesdays from 5:00-6:00.

Elective

In this collaborative studio between furniture design and architecture, students will create furnishings that respond to and engage with the body of work of a significant architectural practice. Students will study the history, cultural influence, and works of a creative practice that encompasses both architecture and furniture. Upon completion of a coordinated field trip to visit the built work of the selected practice, a regional building will be selected as the architectural context for students to respond to. Although the emphasis of the class will be on designing and making furniture, it will operate as an interdisciplinary collaboration between furniture design and architecture students, with each discipline contributing its distinct expertise, skills, techniques, and knowledge. The studio is offered in partnership with Form Portfolios, a local design business that works with the estates of renowned designers to steward their legacies. Representatives from Form Portfolios will contribute their knowledge and expertise in the selected practices and the design industry more generally to support the development of student projects.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16O-yKq_vjwfiPuPCrJhXfykpiuflUQE5/view?usp=sharing to access the syllabus

Elective

Manga, a term that represents a style and tradition of comics and cartooning developed in Japan during the late 19th century, has grown in global popularity over the last few decades. As the artform continues to raise its profile and influence across popular culture—including comics, animation, film, and the academic study of art—many illustrators and scholars are becoming increasingly interested in learning the craft and exploring the unique qualities of manga. What better way to experience the culture of manga and its many intricacies than by traveling to its birthplace, Japan, and studying at an institution that specializes in teaching the artform?

This course will take place in the heart of the manga and anime industry, Tokyo, in collaboration with industry professionals and HAL: College of Technology and Design, a leading arts institution with a comprehensive Manga, Anime, and Illustration undergraduate and graduate program. The program will be led by a team of industry professionals spanning various disciplines related to manga and anime, including graphic novelist Cat Huang (Critic, Illustration).

Participants will engage in a three-week intensive cultural exchange, working alongside student peers at HAL, learning traditional Japanese illustration techniques, researching the wide range of manga genres, and meeting with leading professionals from Japan’s publishing industry. Visits to museums, historical landmarks, and site-scouting locations will provide additional cultural context, and deepen students’ appreciation of the influences that shape manga.

Students will create a four-page doujinshi, or independent comic, as part of an anthology of short stories collaboratively produced by students from RISD and HAL, to be published at a later date. In addition to group critiques, participants will receive feedback from RISD and faculty, as well as invited professionals from the local publishing community.

Registration is not available in Workday. Students must complete an application through RISD Global Summer Studies. A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required for all RISD students. Failure to remain in good academic standing can lead to removal from the course, either before or during the course. Additional information including deadlines and travel costs can be found on the Global Summer Studies website.

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

Illustration is visual communication: meaning made visible. Visual thinking, the creative process by which all successful illustration is developed, constitutes the development of an articulate images through thorough, iterative exploration of ideas. This class emphasizes process over finish, idea over application and significance over style-exploring both ways of seeing and ways of showing. Coursework will encourage conceptual invention and application fundamental to an understanding of what the practice of illustration is and can be. The object of the course is to strengthen the students' inventive talents and interpretive skills - and thereby to augment their ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity, eloquence and power.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

The convincing depiction of form in three-dimensional space is one of the great conceptual and philosophic breakthroughs of Western art. In this class, the first half of the sophomore drawing sequence, our main focus will be the study of form in a spatial context. We will use observational and projected systems of perspective in construction of our images. Emphasis will be placed on exploration of conceptual and physical viewpoint, effective composition and convincing light and shadow to shape expression, engage the viewer and create a unified pictorial image. The class will promote acute observation of existing spatial situations, the invention of convincing imagery from imagination, and the successful integration of the two. Exposure to traditional and contemporary drawing masters and practices will provide inspiration for experimentation, personal expression and artistic growth. A series of perspectival studies will build into longer projects integrating observation and invention and concerns for figure and ground. Students will come to grasp the elegance and power of perspective as an approach to drawing, tempered with an awareness of its limitation and alternatives. Several black and white media in addition to charcoal (mixed media, collage, monoprint, caran dache, pastel, etc) and various ways of working (line weight, cross-hatching, additive, subtractive) may be explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

The convincing depiction of form in three-dimensional space is one of the great conceptual and philosophic breakthroughs of Western art. In this class, the first half of the sophomore drawing sequence, our main focus will be the study of form in a spatial context. We will use observational and projected systems of perspective in construction of our images. Emphasis will be placed on exploration of conceptual and physical viewpoint, effective composition and convincing light and shadow to shape expression, engage the viewer and create a unified pictorial image. The class will promote acute observation of existing spatial situations, the invention of convincing imagery from imagination, and the successful integration of the two. Exposure to traditional and contemporary drawing masters and practices will provide inspiration for experimentation, personal expression and artistic growth. A series of perspectival studies will build into longer projects integrating observation and invention and concerns for figure and ground. Students will come to grasp the elegance and power of perspective as an approach to drawing, tempered with an awareness of its limitation and alternatives. Several black and white media in addition to charcoal (mixed media, collage, monoprint, caran dache, pastel, etc) and various ways of working (line weight, cross-hatching, additive, subtractive) may be explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

The convincing depiction of form in three-dimensional space is one of the great conceptual and philosophic breakthroughs of Western art. In this class, the first half of the sophomore drawing sequence, our main focus will be the study of form in a spatial context. We will use observational and projected systems of perspective in construction of our images. Emphasis will be placed on exploration of conceptual and physical viewpoint, effective composition and convincing light and shadow to shape expression, engage the viewer and create a unified pictorial image. The class will promote acute observation of existing spatial situations, the invention of convincing imagery from imagination, and the successful integration of the two. Exposure to traditional and contemporary drawing masters and practices will provide inspiration for experimentation, personal expression and artistic growth. A series of perspectival studies will build into longer projects integrating observation and invention and concerns for figure and ground. Students will come to grasp the elegance and power of perspective as an approach to drawing, tempered with an awareness of its limitation and alternatives. Several black and white media in addition to charcoal (mixed media, collage, monoprint, caran dache, pastel, etc) and various ways of working (line weight, cross-hatching, additive, subtractive) may be explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

The convincing depiction of form in three-dimensional space is one of the great conceptual and philosophic breakthroughs of Western art. In this class, the first half of the sophomore drawing sequence, our main focus will be the study of form in a spatial context. We will use observational and projected systems of perspective in construction of our images. Emphasis will be placed on exploration of conceptual and physical viewpoint, effective composition and convincing light and shadow to shape expression, engage the viewer and create a unified pictorial image. The class will promote acute observation of existing spatial situations, the invention of convincing imagery from imagination, and the successful integration of the two. Exposure to traditional and contemporary drawing masters and practices will provide inspiration for experimentation, personal expression and artistic growth. A series of perspectival studies will build into longer projects integrating observation and invention and concerns for figure and ground. Students will come to grasp the elegance and power of perspective as an approach to drawing, tempered with an awareness of its limitation and alternatives. Several black and white media in addition to charcoal (mixed media, collage, monoprint, caran dache, pastel, etc) and various ways of working (line weight, cross-hatching, additive, subtractive) may be explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration

The convincing depiction of form in three-dimensional space is one of the great conceptual and philosophic breakthroughs of Western art. In this class, the first half of the sophomore drawing sequence, our main focus will be the study of form in a spatial context. We will use observational and projected systems of perspective in construction of our images. Emphasis will be placed on exploration of conceptual and physical viewpoint, effective composition and convincing light and shadow to shape expression, engage the viewer and create a unified pictorial image. The class will promote acute observation of existing spatial situations, the invention of convincing imagery from imagination, and the successful integration of the two. Exposure to traditional and contemporary drawing masters and practices will provide inspiration for experimentation, personal expression and artistic growth. A series of perspectival studies will build into longer projects integrating observation and invention and concerns for figure and ground. Students will come to grasp the elegance and power of perspective as an approach to drawing, tempered with an awareness of its limitation and alternatives. Several black and white media in addition to charcoal (mixed media, collage, monoprint, caran dache, pastel, etc) and various ways of working (line weight, cross-hatching, additive, subtractive) may be explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Major Requirement | BFA Illustration