GRPH421 / Advanced Graphic Design
Students will visualize information as a cross-disciplinary art form that is rooted in data visualization, the design of infographics through the development of identity systems, interfaces, and publication designs. Each deliverable will embody various form making processes that engage students in the practice of design research. Deliverables will include short as well as long-term field based assignments and collaborative projects. Selected readings, presentations and projects introduce methodologies for working with data visualization: maps, diagrams, charts, timelines, infographics, interfaces, catalogs, directories and video narratives.
Projects will be a result of transdisciplinary research with the UNL’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Nebraska Innovation Campus, and
the Center for Civic Engagement. 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 culture. 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 the use and history of symbolism, graphic design theory and criticism, and design research methodologies.
Students will be creating digital, video and printed material as well as designing proposals for public installations and video projections. Achieving the course outcomes will provide opportunity for students to be innovative, culturally critical and become more careful observers of the world around them.
Themes for Exploration~
Graphic Design + Social Responsibility / Message + System + Identity / Striving for Viability / Designer as Preservationist + Conservationist / Designer as Witness, Ethnographer and Journalist
Learning Outcomes and Deliverables
Participants / Students / Documentation
COURSE SCHEDULE
{T / January 12 }
Show and Tell, Meet and Greet
What do you do that has merit?
WAB 105
Review~
Course Syllabus
Projects, Assignments, Exercises
Production Schedule
Activity Show and Tell
Required Textbooks~
Visible Signs, (Second Edition): An Introduction to Research Methodologies in Graphic Design, by David Crow
Visual Research, (Second Edition): An Introduction to Research Methodologies in Graphic Design, by Ian Noble and Russell Bestley
Resources~
Keeping Track of your Inspiration
Storage + File Sharing / Back up checks
Google Docs for the course
Assigned Essays - Shared Google Doc
UNL DropBox / Turn in Deliverables
Introduce Exercise 01
Signs of Merit / Symbolism and Identity
Design three merit badges that represent yourself. Create icons that represent variations of activities that you enjoy. Choose to illustrate areas of study, belief systems, subjects that are of interest to you. Use the template provided to make initial studies and final solutions. Present your badges to the class on 01.21
“Prepare young people to make ethical choices over their lifetime by instilling in them values.... Program allows young people to examine subjects and determine if they would like to further pursue them as a career or vocation...”
Research online and in your everyday to find symbols that represent values that have merit. What activities, hobbies, actions do you do that have merit? What do you do that deserves recognition and warrants merit? What would you like and hope to do? Look for visible signs, symbols, visual representations of merit around you.
1. Generate a list of personal qualities that have merit.
2. Mind map 5 qualities from the list
3.
Create an image library of signs, symbols, indexes that reference your concepts.
4. Produce at least two full pages of sketches for the badges [template]
5. Organize your research so that you can present ALL of the results from the task to the class on Thursday.
Merit Badge Directory
The Noun Project~ An amazing directory of icons
Assigned Readings~
Visual Research
Introduction
Chapter 01: Why and How?
Chapter 02: Design Literacy
Write an outline of the contents of the readings so that you have conversation points for the class discussion.
{TH / January 14}
Discuss Assigned Readings
Review research
3:00 Candidate for Chair of the Art + Art History Department
Meet with Students (Open Crit Space, RH)
Work on Exercise 01
Signs of Merit / Symbolism and Identity
Have initial studies, sketches, ideation, inspiration ready to present to the class on Tuesday. This is your first major presentation to the group so put your best foot forward and consider the quality of your work and how you will communicate about it. Incoporate three points from the assigned readings into the analysis of your work.
{T / January 19}
Present research and process to the class for review and discussion.
Discussion of assigned readings
Work on Exercise 01
Complete careful color studies for the badges, make them the most attractive they can be. Use this as an opportunity to further develop your Illustrator skills.
{TH / January 21}
In class activity, outlining and discussion of assigned readings. Working in pairs, you will be applying key principles from the reading in Visual Research to the analysis of the visual communications of your own work. Incorporate terminology, theory and methods into your presentation of your results for Exercise 01.
Present Exercise 01 with at least 3 key concepts from the reading.
Deliverables for Exercise 01
1.
Badges printed on 11 X 17, portrait format.
2.
Print the badges and trim them out. Affix them to something that badges would go on and adorn it for documentation. Photograph this for your process book. Print this documentation out for presentation. [11 X 17]
This is an opportunity to learn to stage the presentation of your projects and place your concepts into a context.
UNL DropBox / Turn in Deliverables
Launch Project 01
Assign Readings~
2
Visible Signs, Pages: 06-24
Introduction
COMPONENTS
What is Theory?
Agreement
Portfolio
{T / January 26}
Review Project 01 / Deliverables / In-Class Activities
Map and outline assigned readings in class activity.
The Beholding Eye / Dissection / Deconstruction
Design Process for Project 01 / Due Thursday 01.28
One theme [assigned] and 4 of the 11 systems [listed below]
Explore the intersection with the assigned theme and 4 of the following.
01. Mobility 02. Wellness 03. Nourishment 04. Entertainment 05. Enegy 06. Security 07. Governance 08. Waste 09. Information / Learning 10. Shelter
11. Commerce
For example:
Food and Mobility
Food and Wellness
Food and Nourishment
Food and Security
“Agrarian economics. Dry farming. Engineered waste. Vaporized nutrition. Synthetic flavors. Moral food. How are any of these things a function of design?On the other hand: how could they be anything else?
On February 12, 2016, Design Observer will host a symposium on the relationship between design and food. Held in the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown LA, Taste will feature speakers from across the United States and Europe: we’ll consider the visual evolution of artificial flavor; the historical artistry of mid-century menus; the future of permaculture, the promises of packaging, and the vicissitudes of waste. We’ll look at marketing tactics and distribution platforms; climate change and culinary excess; new economies of scale, old expressions of culture—and everything in between. We’ll eat, drink, and be merry, while raising critical questions about where this is all heading. And we hope you’ll join us.”
{TH / January 28}
Review research / process for Project 01 / Mind Maps + Image matrices
Assignment 01 [50 pts.]
Map your local grocery store, food cooperative, fuel [energy] resources, or water distribution systems.Further explore design research methodologies that will help you determine the concept and content for your postage stamp designs.
Make a map representing your local grocery store, food cooperative, fuel [energy] resources, or water distribution systems. You choose the topic, you design the map. Think conceptually and beyond what a map is supposed to look like.
Exploration of materials, designing off of the computer
Project Passion / Self Initiated Explorations in Typography
Social Media / Demonstration of typographic exploration research methodologies
{T / February 02}
No Class / SNOW Day
{TH / February 04}
Review mapping Assignment. How can this map help you conceptualize a direction for Project 01.
Invite to UNL Box to turn in Merit Badge / Exercise 01 and Assignment 01 / Mapping.
Work on Project 01.
What is your strategy for completing Project 01? Design a timeline for the project. Map out a plan to meet the deadline. [in-class activity]
Organize a concept direction.What do you want to design? What are you visualizing? What do you want to say?
Make ready to show and tell what you are working on and the direction you are going. Prepare inspiration, image library, typology, initial studies and sketches.
Evidence of a few hours of work.
Prepare to present the direction you want to go with your stamp project in a deck format on Thursday, February 11
Reminder: This courses emphasizes “how to think critically, how to write effectively and how to articulate your thoughts with greater clarity.” In order to do this, we will incorporate visual research strategies into our process.
Let the designing of your presentation be an opportunity for you to do more color studies, typographic systems analysis, while learning to communicate clearly about your concept.
Work on Project 01
Assignment 02 / Design a deck!
This deck gives a direct explanation for why your PowerPoint didn’t turn out well: “It’s not the program that sucks, it’s you.” “Right off the bat, the title slide can be taken into offense, and immediately you question it and say to yourself, ‘No I do not, how dare he?!’ — which causes you to click through the remaining 61 slides that build the case that maybe you really do suck and just don’t know it,” Unequivocally says. “Using bold fonts and great contrasting color palettes make this deck stand out from many others who also try to prove the same point.”
{T / February 09}
Work on Project 01 / Assignment 02 / Deck Presentation
Studies for your project solution
Present process and research [a few hours of work]
{TH / February 11}
Present Assignment 02 [50 pts.] - Pitch Presentation / Design a Deck.
Review initial research and ideation for Project 01 in a deck format.
Rubric for Assignment 02
Be prepared. Put the time in to make a professional, advanced level presentation. [evidence of a few hours of work must be presented]
Continue to work on Project 01. Prepare to present a few solid hours of work towards Project 01. Participation grade relys on how much you invest in the project outside of class time.
{T / February 16}
Review collection of printed inspiration. Books from different eras, historial perspectives, traditional print methodologies. Suggestions for resources.
Lars Muller: Who Owns the Water?
THE PHENOMENON OF WATER
Water—the earth’s blood
The earth’s air-conditioning
Water-wheels and conveyor belts
Water is “different”
MAN AND WATER
Water and agriculture
Water and industry
Drinking water/waste water
WHO OWNS THE WATER?
Economics and politics
Privatization
Conflicts
Perspectives
“This book is simultaneously picture book and primer: at once informative, illuminating, disturbing, entertaining, and terrifying.”
Waterkant
Continue to work on Project 01.
Present Visual Studies / Evidence of Visual Research [evidence of a few hours of studio time]
{TH / February 18}
Continue to work on Project 01.
Prepare mock-ups. Print, fold, trim and make a mock-up, even if your design is still in process. Print in black and white and experience your layout in actual size as a 3D object.
Continue to work on Project 01.
Prepare for final presentation on 02.25
{T / February 23}
Assign Project 02
Continue to work on Project 01.
Prepare for final presentation on 02.25
{TH / February 25}
Work on Project 02
{T / March 01}
Project 01 Review
Richards Hall 2nd Floor Exhibition Space
Design the presentation! Include any visual research or supporting visuals to enhance your communications.
{TH / March 03}
Independent Artist
“Saya Woolfalk: World Builder”
5:30-7:00 pm
Sheldon Museum of Art
Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium
{T / March 08}
1.
Review Project 01 / LT Project
2.
AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
Center for the Great Plains Studies
This will be a brief tour to be able to acquire the catalogs for the exhibition. We will return there on Thursday for a more careful study of the exhibition
Since 1965, the AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has fulfilled its mission to “honor and instruct”: honoring the design and production teams whose work furthers a long tradition of excellence in book design, and—through a traveling exhibit and acclaimed annual catalog of selected entries—visually teaching the tenets of good design.
The Book, Jacket, and Journal Show is a juried design competition, open only to AAUP member publishers. Every autumn the call-for-entries is distributed, and each January, the jurors gather in AAUP’s New York offices to examine hundreds of submissions and select the very best examples of book, journal, and cover designs. Jurors are esteemed interior and cover designers appointed by the annual show committee.
Center for the Great Plains Studies
This will be a brief tour to be able to acquire the catalogs for the exhibition. We will return there on Thursday for a more careful study of the exhibition
3.
Collaboratively Tour Innovation Campus / Site of Water for Food Conference
We will take the UNL / Innovation Campus Star Trans Bus / 22
From Henzlik Hall / Vine Street to our destination. The bus departs every 8 minutes
4.
Assign Readings~
Visual Research
Chapter 01,
Case Study 01, Key Concepts: The Designer as Author
Chapter 02, Methods of Seeing: Analysis and Proposition, Case Study 02: Mapping Meaning. Case Study 03, I Love You., Key Concepts: Structuralism and Semiotics
Prepare to have an undergraduate level conversation about your advanced graphic design research. You will be required to engage in class discussion of how this reading is aligned with your own research agenda.
Prepare for a class discussion and review of process work towards Project 02.
Present concepts, direction, research interests, developments.
Review inspiration, research for installation design, exhibition design, the art of participation, experiential design.
{TH / March 10}
Launch Project 02
Exhibition Design: Installation + Displaying Visualizations of Water, Food, Fuel
Exercise 03: Visual Anthropology / Identity / Design Research
Rubric for Exercise 03
Document 2 books in the AAUP exhibition that you find appealing. Typography, cover design, image text integration, text as message etc.
Make notes in your sketch book on why you find those selections attractive, inspirational or appealing.
Organize this in your process book.
Documentation from the course
Please add to this folder. Let's make it collaborative and useful for all.
{T / March 15}
work on Project 02.
Review Exercise 03: Visual Anthropology / Identity / Design Research
{TH / March 17}
work on Project 02
{T / March 22}
Spring Break / No Class
{TH / March 24}
Spring Break / No Class
{T / March 29}
Presentation on Building Books
Assign Project 03 - Book Design
Building Books
The Process of Advanced Graphic Design
Pause.
Celebrate our accomplishments and what lies ahead.
Integrating Project 01 into Project 02, 03
Publication Design / Creating a design artifact
Authoring content / Building Books + Exhibition
Philatelic project at Nebraska Innovation Campus / Water for Food
New from Unit Editions – The Archive Series
The Archive Series is a bibliographic celebration of graphic design archives and collections. The first title in the new series is devoted to the design of postage stamps. Sourced from the collections of stamp design experts Iain Follett and Blair Thomson, the book celebrates the brilliance of postage stamp design from around the world.
Project 02
Process, models, prototypes, drawings, concept development, ideation
Audience analysis
Production Calendar
6 classes before we
install AND
8 classes to work on the book
{TH / March 31}
work on Project 02
Identity for the Exhibition?
Naming it.
Typographic Lock-up Activity
Social Media / Outreach Strategy
Working Title:
Water, Food, Fuel and the Changing Environment
An exhibition of ......
Water for Food / Innovation Campus Exhibition Updates
Hierarchy of Decision Making
1. Water for Food Conference Designers / Organizers
2. Innovation Campus / Outreach Contact
3. Tetrad Property Management
Preservation of the Historical Significance of the NIC / Rennovated an historically significant building from the turn of the century and we need to be protective
of how we interact with it. Leave no trace. Damage nothing. Honor the historical signficance of the space and materials used. We as designers, who are speaking about human’s impact on the environment, need to be particularly aware of how this exhibition impacts the facilities, audience, participants and organizers of the event that our exhibition will coincide with.
[Water for FoodConference / Nebraska Cattleman's Ball in June]
4. UNL Alumni / Foundations
5. Spreetail / E-commerce Start Up Tenants
5.
Collaboration with Typography II
6.
Hunger campaign / TedX Youth
7. Long term installations
8. Short term installations - requires tech maintenence and management during open hours.
How much time do you really have to do
want you want. The limitation of time, materials, energy.
Work on Project 03 / typographic systems / grid / page layout / studying books for inspration
The library! Study the parts of the book.... including the spines.
TONIGHT!
Humanities on the Edge Lecture Series:
John Durham Peters (Pr of Communication Studies, U Iowa)
"Do Clouds Have Meaning? On the Relation Between Media and Nature"
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Sheldon Museum of Art
5:30 p.m.
Those who advocate an expansive understanding of media often face the objection that the concept loses meaning if applied too broadly. This talk takes seriously the idea that clouds are a medium as a way to test this objection. Often considered to be the most arbitrary and nonhuman thing possible, a careful reading of clouds reveals them to be subtle and complicated as sources of meaning. Although many voices in the western tradition have enforced a ban on reading clouds as meaningful, that ban is in urgent need of being lifted in an era in which the atmosphere is increasingly an object of technical knowledge and manipulation. Probing how clouds mean opens the question whether human beings are the only source of meaning.
{T / April 05}
work on Project 02.
Individual Meetings
Book project process
Link to working document of design statements, titles, etc.
Turn in proposal / strategy / mock up of what you would like to install.
I am meeting with
Tetrad / NIC / WFF facilities and organizers tomorrow. I will need a clear presentation of your work that explains how you propose to hang and remove your work without a trace and without damage to the facility.
The goal is to gain the official approval of the proposed installations so we can go forward with gathering materials and assembling our installations.
friendly reminders~
KEEP THINGS SIMPLE
Minimum use of materials / reuse / repurpose / recycle.
Be kind to people and work
hard... mindful of our actions.
{TH / April 07}
work on Project 02.
Exercise 04 - Build a macquette [3D] and a storyboard [2D] for your book [Project 03]
{T / April 12}
work on Project 02.
Review layouts / macquette [dummy] for Project 03 - Book Design
Exercise 04 - Build a macquette and a storyboard for your book. 2D / 3D
{TH / April 14}
Work on Project 02
{T / April 19}
Begin Installation at NIC
Water for Food Seminar / WATER in Jordan and Syria
{TH / April 21}
Continue to install at NIC
Project 03 / Substitute: Submit documentation from the exhibition at Nebraska Innovatin Campus / Water for Food Conference.
[10 - 15 high quality images. These are to be used for your portfolio and for PR purposes for the GD Web site and the Art + Art History Department's promotions.]
100 pts.
Note~ This is a substitution for the book project.
{T / April 26}
Water for Food Conference
Reception / Designer Presentations
Guest Reviewers / Audience of the Water for Food Conference
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Required.
Document people engaging in your installation.
{TH / April 28}
Last day of class.
Present documentation of Project 02 / NIC Installation and recap your process. State your thesis for the project and what the outcomes were.
NIC documentation Review / Turn in.
SUMMER BREAK.
Introductory Readings~
What is trandisciplinary research?
Transdisciplinary research is a new field of research emerging in the ‘knowledge society’, which links science and policy to address issues such as environmental degradation, new technologies, public health and social change. Through transdisciplinary approaches, researchers from a wide range of disciplines work
with each other and external stakeholders to address real world issues.
Readings
Walking Off the Big Apple with the Situationist International
Terms
Landscape (all possible meanings)
Palimpsest (sequence occupancy)
Additional Resources
Eric Fischer’s Map Imagery
Timeline Atlas
US Geological Services
Water Resources in the United States
Can you guess how many baths you can get from a rainstorm?
Visit the USGS Water School Activity Center and find out.
Infographics in 3D / Ashley Ryba / UNL BFA
Wolfram Alpha - Let it visualize information for you.
“Both drought and flood are on the rise, and Alex Prud’homme, in this fine new account, helps you understand why. We’ve taken the planet’s hydrology for granted for the 10,000 years of human civilization; that’s a luxury we can no longer afford.”
- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet; founder of 350.org
“By illuminating the central issues -- water quality, water quantity, ownership, waste, infrastructure -- through the tales of individuals who wrestle with them, Alex Prud’homme makes a vast and desperately serious topic flow beautifully through the rocks and hard places that our planet is caught between”
- John Seabrook, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Flash of Genius
“The problem of water quantity, quality and use are upon us. Alex Prud’homme’s book identifies some of the culprits, including us inattentive citizens and the combination of regulations and markets needed to make clean water usable and available in the Twenty-first Century. This book should wake you up.”
- William D. Ruckelshaus, EPA Administrator under presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan
Typography
Typeface for ARUP Thought Piece
Quicksand by Andrew Paglinawan
KQED / Documentary about Northwestern Students and WATER
“We just want to make great products,” declared Steve Jobs in 2008. Two years earlier, however, he told NBC News, “If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year.” Greatness, it seems, has a short shelf life.
Every year, Americans get rid of more than 300 million computers and electronics — and recycle almost none. Ultimately, recycling doesn’t completely solve the environmental problem, anyway. When a computer is recovered, typically only the basic materials are salvaged, while the precious metals in the energy-intensive circuitry are destroyed. So the challenge has less to do with the efficiency of production than it does with the frequency of it — not how we produce things, but how many things we produce, and how often.
Free Range Studios
The Meatrix
The Story of Bottled Water
A Drop’s Life
Making Visible The Invisible
by Stuart Mckee
Can designers and scientists teach each other how to express new concepts in text and image?
Group field trip to the Nebraska State Capitol to observe the designed world and hunt for visual communications that communicate ideas about an individual’s merit and the values our government upholds. Learn about the ideologies of H.B. Alexander
First Things First Manifesto, 2000
Why social justice needs a design studio.
Reflective Documentation
(What is the point?)
Interdisciplinary approaches to design education
stacyasher@unl.edu
stacyasher.com