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.

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.

Through a close historical analysis of branding systems, set design, fashion, language and character construction, students will investigate the manner in which Black and African-American identities appear in popular film, television and music. We will compare the visual complexities surrounding cultural representations in shows such as: The Jeffersons, A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Insecure and Lovecraft Country, while also identifying their significance in mainstream culture. We will unpack the ways popular media can guide our visual and material choices and provide a basis for our conceptual thinking and social critique in relation to people, places and objects. In this hands-on-studio course, students will investigate the history of imagery, typography, color and pattern displayed in Black visual culture. Students will be encouraged to develop work across media and explore new tools, methods, and techniques in the creation of digital and print-based responses. As we proceed throughout the semester, we will explore the following questions: What are the photographic and illustrative depictions of Blackness? What is African American vernacular? What are the differences in sitcoms versus serious dramas? How can sound be used to reinforce aspects of representation? What is our understanding of Black identities?

This course looks at the ways that memory and histories are constructed as deliberate experiences through interventions in the archive. We explore how graphic and narrative devices are harnessed to both illuminate and obscure parts of the archive. We look at questions of access and opacity, and press against the notion of the archive as an objective entity. Specifically, this course focuses on two mediums: moving image and interactivity, looking at how the combination of these two subjects can be a potent tool for dynamic storytelling that engages the audience in critical issues such as alternative histories. Primarily, this course will use various video archives, moving from the personal to the collective, as source material for students to explore working in immersive digital storytelling. Students will learn to build their own collections and work with existing archives found in the library or online. At the end of the course, students are exposed to the different processes involved in the creation, reproduction, and distribution of digital content online, responsive design and interactive behaviors. The course encourages students to think about how to combine storytelling, moving image, motion, and interactivity in a design system. Students will learn to identify and integrate interactivity and storytelling to execute immersive design solutions.

This class will look at emergent systems both in research and applications, covering cellular automata, artificial life, and simulations. We will examine how emergent behaviour relates to games and machine learning as well as the natural world. Using examples like pandemics in World of Warcraft, Conway's Game of Life, and Ian Cheng's live simulations, we will model our own agents and examine their behavior in game engines and other platforms.

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.

Why does your work look the way that it does? This seemingly basic, yet difficult and often overlooked question will form the base of a collective inquiry which will take multiple forms, principally, a semester-long discussion of how meaning is made through form in graphic design. We will operate from the basic premise that your formal expression as a designer or artist is an outcome of your positionality as a person. This class will seek to function as a parenthesis from your normal modes of production, asking that you pause briefly to step back and reflect critically on the relation of form to content in your own work. The class is intended as thesis preparation for third year students, but will be of value to any student with an interest in history, research, and the making of self-initiated work.

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, 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.