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.

What do we mean when we say something is badly designed? Is it illegible? Underdesigned? Does it draw too much attention to itself? Does it have something to do with the designer? The audience? How about good design, what does that look like? Is it clear? Simple? Just right? We often form opinions based on "industry best practices," trends, and social norms that prioritize efficiency in order to achieve maximum profit generation. Bad Design is a part studio, part reading-and-conversation seminar exploring design that doesn’t conform to the standard. The course will challenge (good) design tropes by surveying the histories and systems in which graphic design exists to situate why we may deem design work "bad." We will investigate the role of locality, legibility, plurality, and lived experience in our design work, while taking the stance that design needs to be self-critical to allow for diverse ways of making.

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.

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.

These courses are special topical electives, often taught in new or experimental subjects, and rotate frequently. The following will be offered in fall 2016.

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.