Syllabus

Course Description/Overview

Why do we communicate visually, and for whom? What methods are there for doing so? And how does one achieve a compelling and well-crafted visual experience? This course introduces students to relationships between ideas and their visualization: understandings that are most typically associated with graphic design, but that are universal to all areas of visual practice.

Students will investigate communicative and aesthetic principles that are applicable across media, and develop strategies for making their creative thinking visible. Through foundational theory, experimentation, observation and analysis, students will engage in a reflective, iterative process of research, ideation, prototyping and presentation. Students will learn how to learn—and how to articulate their learning, both verbally and visually. Most important, they will do so in an environment that is conducive to boldness, joy, and curiosity.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will:

  • Become familiar with foundational aesthetic principles and relationships between meaning, context, form and materiality.
  • Be able to translate ideas into creative, visual work that engages with an audience for the purpose of communication.
  • Begin to explore typography and letterforms both as text (verbal messages) and as visual images.
  • Learn how to work in an iterative and reflective design process (research, ideation, prototyping, and presentation); to carry out a creative process as an individual and as a member of a team.
  • Develop facility with a variety of physical and digital image-making techniques; explore the properties of physical and digital materials; and gain proficiency with analog and digital workspaces and production.
  • Learn to analyze visual works; differentiate between subjective and objective thought; and develop criteria and vocabulary for critique through speaking and writing.
  • Develop a sense of achievement and agency through the quality and craftsmanship of their making.

Assessible Tasks

The course Learning Objectives will be met through the completion of three projects that each addresses theoretical and pragmatic aspects:

Project 01: Form and Meaning

Creation of a visual composition that communicates ideas, themes, and narrative derived from the interrogation of an object chosen by the student. This project introduces students to fundamentals of semiotics: relationships between ideas and visualization.

Project 02: Verbal and Visual

In this project, students explore the fundamentals of typography through a series of studies that include integrating text with imagery and conceiving of text as imagery unto itself. The studies will be organized into a book and used as the basis for a screen-based animation.

Project 03: Integration and Context

The semester’s final project combines prior understandings and positions visual communication as a social act through the design of a public visual experience or installation. The project will be visualized in a proof-of-concept document.

General Semester Timeline

  • Weeks 1 - 7 Project 01
  • Weeks 6 - 12 Project 02
  • Weeks 10 - 15 Project 03

Evaluation and Grading

Each of the projects will be graded independently once completed, during a given class session, with each student receiving a diagrammed evaluation sheet that notes relative strengths and weaknesses among criteria defined at the beginning of each Project.

The evaluation diagram sheet (sample at right) presents criteria on a visual scale that corresponds to traditional letter grades and their respective GPA numerical values defined as standard by the University (outlined on the following page).

Projects submitted on time may be revised for an improved grade; projects submitted late will be graded F until submitted, and may not be revised— the grade they receive will stand.

A preliminary final grade will be calculated from the grades for the three Projects, for which Project 01 will be weighted 20%; Project 02 will be weighted 30%; and Project 03 will be weighted 50%.

This preliminary grade will be adjusted for unexcused absences, and also shaded + or – to reflect your overall performance throughout the semester at the instructor’s discretion.

Grading (The Class)

My general policy for grading is as follows:

When you don't give an "eff", that's when you get an F!

This is to say, if you do the work, you will generally pass the class. If you are looking for a superlative grade, then you must do superlative work.

This includes some, non-zero, amount of subjectivity in grading, but is generally outlined in the assignment descriptions.To facilitate this, you will receive some amount of "je ne sais quoi" points on projects for purely subjective reasons (i.e. a cute cat in a poster), otherwise I will try to retain what objectivity I can in grading based on the rubric of a given assignment.

If you are looking for Purchase College's Grades and Grading Policies you can find them here.

OneDrive

Each student is provided storage space on the University One Drive to keep files and folders related to their course work. This course will make extensive use of the One Drive for sharing weekly work in progress, whether with the instructor and class at large or among smaller working groups.

Materials

Supplies needed at any given time will be outlined on each week’s assignment sheet; most often, however, you’ll need to define the supplies best suited for your goals. Much of our work will be digital, but I encourage you to bring other kinds of making into your design process as you are able.

In general, you must come to every class session with your laptop, which should be running the Adobe Creative Suite, and have access to the associated fonts.

Course Policies

You are expected to be present, in the classroom, at your section’s official start time. Homework must already be prepared and made presentable as outlined on a given homework sheet by the beginning of class; additionally, you must have with you any tools or materials required for in-class work (similarly outlined on the given homework sheet). Work that is not ready will not be reviewed for feedback. You’ll have short breaks between group critiques and other specific acitivities; otherwise, you are expected to be present, engaged, and participating in the discussion or activities for that session.

You must have with you an adequately charged, working laptop with required softaware installed. Use of digital technology (laptops, smartphones) during class time is strictly limited to relevant class activities such as project research and development. Non-relevant activities (random web browsing, use of social media, and texting) are not permitted except during defined breaks; abuse of this policy will result in confiscation of a device until the end of class.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. Absences must be excused [for a valid reason]; unexcused absences will affect your final grade: One unexcused absence will lower your final grade by a full letter; two unexcused absences will lower your final grade by another letter; three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade. Arriving more than 15 minutes late to class, or leaving early, counts as half an unexcused absence.

If you are absent, you will be expected to contact the instructor for information and direction that you missed; to provide work in progress for feedback, if possible; and to have completed work that was due during the class you were absent, as well as any new assignments that are due when you return. It is your sole responsibility to contact the instructor to resolve any absence— the instructor will not approach you to ask you about it.

"Informal" AI Policy

AI is moving incredibly fast, and to my knowledge, attempts to create policies institution-wide have failed. I am implementing the following policies.

  • If I ask "was this made with AI?" don't consider that intrinsically an insult or problem; please answer as truthfully as possible.
  • Understand the imapacts of the tools you are using (if you do) by virtue of the people expanding and funding them.
  • I would strongly suggest you limit AI tool-usage for image-making purposes especially if you are unfamiliar with the software.
  • If you do use AI explicitly to create an image or piece of writing you wholly pass off as your own, it will be treated as plagiarism though, I will give you an opportunity to amend the project where it appears.

Required Statements

I am required to include the following statements in my syllabi. I will mention additionally how to locate this material in class, as well as in the printed syllabi.