GRPH421 / Advanced Graphic Design
Objectives / Learning Outcomes~
Develop abilities in design production and problem solving while engaging in advanced design practices
Develop a methodology for a design process driven by research.
Engage in collaboration with UNL’s Center for Innovation, The Water for Food Institute, and the Center for Civic Engagement as well as other disciplines and field experts to understand visual communication design as having the ability to provide knowledge and social capital.
Study the complexities of visual information as it relates to form, structure and context in order to gain a better understanding of how meanings are constructed.
Gain awareness to the variances in the way information can be “read” and understood through the visualization of form and content.
Explore innovation in technologies, problem solving strategies and questions of content through rigorous study using a variety of tools and media.
Consider the role of the graphic designer in creating social change or designing for the social good.
Course Deliverables
4 Exercises [25 pts. each] - 100 pts.
2 Assignments [50 pts. each] - 100 pts.
3 Projects [100 pts. each] - 300 pts.
1 Process Book Binder [100 pts. each] - 100 pts.
Participation - 100 pts.
Course Total = 700 pts.
All exercises, assignments, readings, quizzes and activities are intended to contribute to the success of your visual solutions for the projects and will enhance the over all quality of your visual communications.
Exercises [25 pts.]
Exercise 01
Signs of Merit
Exercise 02
Site / Place / System / Image Matrices
Exercise 03
Participate in an event on campus that relates to your research.
Exercise 04
Give life to your research [Make a dummy or macquette of your book]
Assignments [50 pts.]
Assignment 01
Map your local grocery store, food cooperative, fuel [energy] resources, or water distribution systems.
Assignment 02
All Hands on Deck!
Design a presentation deck to pitch your concept and direction for Project 02.
Projects [100 pts.]
Project 01
Food, Water, Fuel / System + The Future
Design systems to communicate about one of three themes, food, fuel, water and its relationship to climate change. Visualize information about a chosen topic and design a system of icons, symbols, illustrations that communicate visually in an artful manner. Mappa Cibi et Aquae
Project 02
Language, Culture, Identity
Learn to be careful observers of a public and private site and then communicate visually about your research.
Site investigation. Exploring public vs. private environments. Building a visual presence while leaving no trace. Design a group exhibition of advanced graphic design artifacts at Nebraska Innovation Campus during the Water for Food Conference.
Project 03
Publish a book of your processes, experiences and discoveries.
What did you learn and how did you learn it? Design a publication that visualizes your design process. Design a publisher’s mark for your book to represent your identity as an author, designer, typographer, and publisher.
Process Book [100 pts.]
Keep an organized record of your research, ideation, developments and evolution.
Participation [200 pts.]
Get involved, be present. Read the suggested texts. Read them again. Think. Process. Reflect. Prototype, observer, refine.
Get into it!
Themes for Exploration~
Graphic Design + Social Responsibility / Message + System + Identity /
Striving for Viability / Designer as Preservationist + Conservationist
/ Designer as Witness, Ethnographer and Journalists
Design Research
The Water For Food Institute
The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska
Projects will be a result of transdisciplinary research with the College
of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and UNL’s Innovation Center. Projects will be design-research based and will be a result of a systems-oriented approach. Students will be mapping, charting, diagramming, illustrating, and visualizing information about the future of food. Various publication design projects will guide students through visual research processes and will produce print and digital collateral for visual communications. Identity design projects will help students gain a further understanding of symbolism and graphic design theory and criticism.
Students will be creating digital, video and printed material as well as designing proposals for public installations and video projections. The course outcomes will provide opportunity for students to be innovative, culturally critical and become more careful observers of the world around them.
The projects present readings, exercises and prompts to students to spark research, discourse, and explorations culminating in graphic design artifacts visualizing these themes and systems. This work started with a view of human systems–and its relation to food, fuel, water– around the following themes:
Mobility
Wellness
Nourishment
Entertainment
Energy
Security
Governance
Waste
Information
Shelter
Commerce
Information
These systems are highly interconnected, and can be characterized by the flow of physical resources and related services into, out of, and within the bounds of the society. More specifically, students explored how water is related to food production, distribution, processing, manufacturing, disposal etc. From here students developed designs both technical and poetic as a means to stimulate thought around these complex issues and their deep connection to our lives and well being. They visualize as a means to provoke or inform about the future, problems, utility, sustenance, desire, and fear–to name a few.
First Things First Manifesto, 2000
Installation systems
stacyasher@unl.edu
stacyasher.com