Detailed schedule

Intro

Projects

• Start Sense mapping
• For Friday, go on a walk for Sense mapping. Bring in the sketch map with your field notes. (You should always be working on projects on your own, through the due date.)
• In Friday’s class, work on creating a more polished version of your sense map, with studio/small group critique.

Photograph to Photoshop; Illustrator

Topics

• Photoshop intro
• Illustrator intro
• Bezier curve exercise (exercise file, ZIP)

Projects

• Work on Sense mapping in class on Tuesday (continue work on your own)
• Final critique for Sense mapping (due Friday)
• Start Graphic translation (see Blackboard)
• For Friday, produce 12 rough sketches of your object for Graphic Translation. Explore position and angle, light/dark areas, reflections and shadows, the shapes the object makes, and details. Do this by hand. Drawings can be quite imperfect.

Reading

• Alissa Walker. Why I Write About Design Now. Good Magazine, May 22, 2010.
• Optional: start reading Graphic Design: The New Basics. The book covers key ideas in visual communication and image-making, illustrated with exemplary student projects. The material will improve your work for this class, make you a better designer, and enhance your employability, but you are accountable to yourself for doing and scheduling the reading.

You need to know how to use the Mac Finder

• Do you know how to manage files and folders on a Mac? (Do you know what the Finder is? You should.) If you have the slightest doubt, start working through sections two and three of the Lynda Computer Literacy for Mac course. (Log in through AU Library/MyAU).

Studio

Projects

• Graphic translation: create one line version of your object in Illustrator (for Tuesday)
• Continue work in studio on Tuesday
• Work on project on Friday

Reading

• Shea, Andrew. Designing for Social Change: Strategies for Community-Based Graphic Design. New York, N.Y.: Princeton Architectural P., 2012. 111–123. Using graphic language to reach street vendors and to advocate for public interest design. [On Blackboard.]

Software tutorials

Work through these tutorials if you find that you need to develop your software skills. There is no due date; choose as much or as little as you need in order to support your project work. (We will be using Illustrator much more than Photoshop.) Sign in through LinkedIn Learning—see the AU Library if you need help.

• Illustrator basics
• Photoshop basics

Typography

Topics

• Typography (Tuesday and Friday)

Projects

• Studio/small group critiques for Graphic Translation (Friday)

Reading

• Matthew Butterick. Typography 2020: A Special Listicle for America
• If you want more background on Illustrator, look at the Lynda Illustrator tutorial (log in through AU Library/MyAU).

Illustrator tip

• The Bézier Game coaches you through increasingly complex drawings that use the pen tool

Type hierarchy

Topics

• Type hierarchy

Projects

• Final critique for Graphic translation (Friday)
• Start Type flyer (introduced in class on Tuesday)

Reading

• Tip: if you would like more practice with drawing tools, try bezier.method.ac.
• Norton, Peter D. Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 2011. 65–69. How automotive interests created the concept jaywalking through a publicity campaign, redefining the street from being a shared space to as a place for motor vehicles alone. [On Blackboard.]

Grids and alignment

Topics

• Grids + alignment
• Type collage/composition exercise

Projects

• Studio time for Type flyer

Reading

• “First Things First 1964.” Image of original spread.
• “First Things First 2000: a design manifesto.” As published in Emigre #51.
• Poynor, Rick. “First Things First Revisited”. Emigre Magazine, 1999.

Color

Topics

• Color
• Color exercise

Projects

• Final critique for Type flyer (Tuesday)
• Start Data visualization

Reading

• Working File, Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic (podcast w. transcript)

Data visualization

Topics

• Data visualization
• Data visualization exercise

Projects

• Studio/critique

Reading

• Anacostia Rising

Studio

Projects

• Studio

Reading

• Cairo, Alberto. The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication. Hoboken, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2016. 41–65. Thinking about excellent data visualizations, working from the hockey-stick chart that describes the climate emergency. [On Blackboard.]
• The Data Visualisation Catalogue (read: bar chart, line graph, multi-set bar chart, dot matrix chart, pictogram chart, illustration diagram, donut chart, and histogram)

Type + image

Topics

• Type + image

Projects

• Studio/critique

Reading

Choose one:

• Should the United States Save Tangier Island from Oblivion?
• High Tide in Dorchester(Watchable in its entirety on Vimeo.)
• Or one episode of Sinking Cities, a PBS miniseries about climate adaptation in Miami, London, Tokyo, and New York.

Posters

Topics

• Posters and scale
• Poster history

Projects

• Final critique for Data visualization (Friday)
• Start Issue poster

Interaction

Topics

• Interaction design

Projects

• Studio/critique

Reading

• 99 Percent Invisible, Norman Doors (article/video)

Design ethics

Topics

• Design ethics

Projects

• Studio/critique

Reading

• Monteiro, Mike. Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It. San Francisco, Calif.: Mule Design, 2019. 53–70. The need for ethics in design practice. [On Blackboard.]

Studio

New design practice

Topics

• New design practice

Projects

• Semifinal critique for Issue poster