From zipping a file for ease of emailing to reducing the size of a pdf to fit an application portal’s size limit, designers are no strangers to the technique of compression. However, this act is typically only considered as an afterthought to the design process, and a mere technical one at that. In this course, on the contrary, we will explore the significant role compression plays in design by viewing it through the lenses of media studies and information theory. These disciplines foreground the infrastructures/platforms that make communication possible, be they undersea fiber optic cables, the USPS, radio waves, Adobe Creative Suite, or a book. Compression, in this perspective, is central to all design/communicative acts: we compress every time we fit a letter to an envelope or deploy cartographic conventions to transform a physical space into a printable map. Over the course of the semester, we will explore different strategies of compression with a focus on their aesthetic and political implications. Through readings and a series of design exercises culminating in a self-directed project, students will learn to treat this cultural technique not as an afterthought but as a core component of their practice.

As designers, our work is often produced with, defined by, and used by tools. While in the past we may have interrogated print as a tool in design, today our definition of tools is significantly broader. These tools, such as our web browsers, publishing softwares, and even our content management strategies, all play a significant role in shaping and defining the work we produce, whether we are aware of it or not. This course is a critical exploration into the tools that define our design practices and experiences so that we may understand the confines in which we work, and how to work with and against them. Throughout the semester, this exploration will be underscored by a semester long project where we define and use our own content management systems for organizing and displaying content.

This course consists of a series of three workshops, which explore contemporary positions in Communication Design, taught by specialists / working professionals from industry. Each workshop is 5 weeks long and examines a specific topic in detail. Topics include (but are not limited to) type in space; digital typography and prototyping; and design systems. Further details of the individual workshops will be posted soon. Students are expected to engage in all three workshops and must be present for the duration of the semester.

In this course, students will use the generative nature of the web as a medium to shape projects both on and offline. We will practice and analyze using code-frameworks / apis / data to create form, enable performance and encourage social dialogue. Students will adopt a generative mindset: to create rulesets that interact with context(s) to produce an array of outcomes rather than fixed ones. Students will study generative works and theory by evaluating past/present graphic design, modern art movements, experimental writing, procedural architecture, new media art and commercial technology. Projects in this course will start with code, but the final output can live in print, online, in a physical space or as a performance.

Typesetting — the arrangement of letters into words, words into lines of text, and lines of text into paragraphs — is a fundamental practice in typography. This research studio will explore interventions in the technology of typesetting with the goal of creating new visual forms or ways of working. The course is organized around three areas of inquiry: How does programming enable new ways of approaching conventional typesetting? How can alternative interfaces suggest new conceptual models for thinking about the arrangement of language? How does the malleability of text on screens allow for more interactive or dynamic type compositions? The course will combine collective research into historical and contemporary precedents and self-initiated projects exploring new ideas and techniques.

Archives, collection of documents and records, reveal the history and stories behind certain subjects. In this course students will utilize the archive as inspiration for their design work. Students will work with existing historic and cultural archives (public libraries, museums, publications, social media platforms) as well as create their own archives. The class will explore how the circumstance of time and memory affects the way personal/historical information is perceived today. Class projects will touch on ideas of translation, memory, and open source design. Students are encouraged to experiment as well as work collaboratively with other artists/writers/designers. Through in-class discussions, guest speakers, readings and studio work students will gain an understanding of the importance of the archive while also questioning its role today.

What can the Angel of History (Angelus Novus) tell us about the future of graphic design? Students will construct possible futures of graphic design by examining select graphic design histories discussed in After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogies, ed Geoff Kaplan. The class will read 3 essays from the book and generate a series of 3 interlocking graphic (formats include: web site, book, posters, video, VR/AR) responses with the goal of designing a possible future built from lessons from the past. Paul Klee’s monoprint Angelus Novus (1920), and what Walter Benjamin has to say about Klee's angel of history will set us on our way into a visual hereafter. .

This course consists of a series of three workshops, which explore contemporary positions in Communication Design, taught by specialists / working professionals from industry. Each workshop is 5 weeks long and examines a specific topic in detail. Topics include (but are not limited to) type in space; digital typography and prototyping; and design systems. Further details of the individual workshops will be posted soon. Students are expected to engage in all three workshops and must be present for the duration of the semester.

This course consists of a series of three workshops, each explore contemporary positions in Communication Design, taught by specialists and working professionals from industry. Each workshop is 5 weeks long and examines a specific topic in detail. Topics of the individual workshops will be posted as they become available. Past workshop topics include a survey of visual culture of 2010s, voice commands and interfaces, generative identity systems, speculative platforms, typography in and out of buildings, and what makes a bad design. Students are expected to engage in all three workshops and must be present for the duration of the semester.