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Intro

Projects

• Start Project 1 (link to the assignment page on Canvas)
• Secure any materials you’ll need for the Intro project.

Intros

• For Thursday, introduce yourself on Miro Critique board 1 (password is on Canvas )

Observing

Monday

• Bring in an example of successful or unsuccessful design. (Bring in an object.)
• Design exercise

Thursday

Projects

• Bring two photographs of a person for Project 1
• Work in class

Reading

• Look through six projects at Cooper Hewitt National Design Triennial: Nature
• Point, Line, Plane (NB2 32–).

Color

Monday

• Color

Thursday

Projects

• Studio/critique for Project 1
• Send in the names of three possible designers for your Designer presentation (form to come)

Reading

• Axios, The 2020 campaign gets colorful (one-minute read about colors in 2020 presidential campaign materials)
• Color (NB2 80—)
• Transparency (NB2 154–)
• Gestalt Principles (NB2 98–) or Figure/Ground (NB1 84–)

From class

• Color (PDF)

Illustrator

Topics

• Mon: Scanner, printing
• Thu: Illustrator demo

Projects

• Mon/Thu: Studio/critique for Project 1

Reading

• 99% Symbolic, at 99 Percent Invisible (read the article, and if possible, listen to the podcast)

Technology

Start working through the LinkedIn Learning Illustrator tutorial. (The AU Library provides instructions on how to get access to your LinkedIn Learning account.) If you have extensive experience with Illustrator, contact me about whether you can skip the tutorials.

Tech demos

This week:

Illustrator basics (~20 min. runtime)

• Welcome
• Installing
• Walkthrough setup
• Walkthrough

Basics

• Interface
• Toolbox
• Panels
• Panning/zooming

Selections and basic line tools (~12 min. runtime)

• Selection
• Direct Selection
• Drawing basic shapes
• Line tools

Topics

• Thu: Shadows and perception exercise

Projects

• Mon: Final critique for Project 1
• Thu: Start Visual translation. Bring in objects. Begin sketches and light/shadow studies in class.

Reading

• Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type, Letter (size, scale, type classficiations, type families, caps and small caps, and mixing types) and Text (tracking, line spacing, and alignment)
• Work through the Bézier Game, which will help you gain control of the pen tool and drawing curves.
• Rhythym and Balance (NB2 48–)
• Hierarchy (NB2 128–)

Tech demos

Color and strokes (~20 min. runtime)

• Color models
• Swatches
• Global Swatches
• Stroke attributes
• Variable width strokes

Drawing (~13 min. runtime)

• Pen tool
• Curvature tool
• Improving paths
• Pathfinder

Typography exercise

In class

• Mon: Typographic variations exercise
• From class: Type slides

Projects

• Continue work on Graphic translation. Move your drawing process into Illustrator.
• Be sure to bring drawing materials to class.

Reading

• I’ve also uploaded a video that walks through how to add a tracing image in Illustrator.

Tech demos

Organizing projects (~10 min. runtime)

• Layers basics
• Targeting objects
• Guides
• Artboards

Alignment, stacking, and transformations (~9 min. runtime)

• Aligning objects
• Stacking
• Transform tools

Responsible design

Topics

• Illustrator tracing exercise (see tracing template [ZIP])
• Responsible design

Projects

• Continue work on objects

Reading

We’ll be discussing the reading in class on Thursday.

• Either First Things First 1964 (text version) or First Things First 2020
• Chappell Ellison, Can Designers Save the World Without Creating More Stuff?
• Read Dieter Rams’ ten principles (on Design Museum site)

I’ve also uploaded a video that walks through how to add a tracing image in Illustrator.

Tech demos

Type (~12 min. runtime)

• Area type
• Characters
• Paragraphs

Raster images (~6 min. runtime)

• Placing
• Embedding
• Cropping

Studio

Projects

• Studio on Monday
• Start research for Information

Reading

• 99% Invisible, Ubiquitous Icons (listen to podcast episode or read transcript, and review images in article)
• Grid (NB2 186–) (this week or next)

Typography

Topics

• Mon: Type exercise

Projects

• Mon: Finish Visual translation
• Mon: Start on concepts for Information. For this class, prepare an outline of the text content you’d like to provide, a preliminary list of sources, and several images that you might use. Post to this project’s Miro board (see announcement for the invite link).
• Thu: Studio/critique for Information

Reading

• Billy Fleming, Design and the Green New Deal in Places Journal
• Look at visual essays from the 2022 AIGA Design + Writing Fellows.

Type + image + layout

Topics

• Mon: layout and sketching

Projects

• Mon: studio for Information project
• Thu: studio for Information project

From class

• Poster examples

Reading

• Thomas Thwaites, How I built a toaster from scratch (video w. transcript)
• Excerpts from Bonnie Siegler, Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America (on Canvas)

Posters

Topics

• Mon: Posters

Projects

• Thu: Turn in Information (final critique to follow)
• Thu: Start Poster

Reading

• Twenty Thousand Hertz, Ta-dum! It’s Netflix (listen to episode or read transcript)
• Rules and Randomness (NB2 248—)

Studio

Projects

• Mon: Show concepts for Poster
• Thu: Studio/critique for Poster
• (Design and Build Lab workshop is rescheduled)

Reading

• Layers (NB2 140—)

Data / Design and Build Lab workshop

Monday

• Studio/critique
• Data visualization

DaBL on Thursday

Workshop at the Design and Build Lab (East Campus, Don Myers Room 101)

Reading

• The Correspondent, How maps in the media make us more negative about migrants
• Diagram (NB2 214–)

Sustainable design

In class

• Bring in an example of a piece of design that demonstrates notable choices, successful or unsuccessful, for sustainability

Projects

• Thu: In-progress critique for Poster

Reading

• The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps. by Vox/99 Percent Invisible (6:49 video)
• Yevette Perullo, The Wicked World of Packaging, with background on packaging issues and a few compact case studies

Last class

Projects

• Mon: Semifinal critique for Poster
• Mon: Studio