SYLLABUS
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As the final course in a sequence of studio courses for Communication Design majors, this one builds on everything learned previously. Apply skills/knowledge learned in researching, developing, evaluating, and refining communications to multi-facetted communication challenges that warrant the design of multiple communication pieces that span diverse mediums (in print and digital platforms) and function as a system; learn how to design for futuring (parts of the system yet to be determined) and for co-design where parts of the system are made for growth through contributions from audiences. This course is required for Communication Design majors in the School of Design.
The subtitle of this course is Designing Communication for Social Systems. The course will look at designing for and with social systems. Our projects will ask: how does communication design operate at multiple scales with a greater awareness of our field’s latent relationships with the social politics and poetics of land, place, and language?
Over the semester, there will be two large projects. Our first project will be on identity design for social systems. In it, you will work to create a flexible identity system for a culturally significant site of your choosing that can work from paper to pixels (multi-format application) and from icon to multi-story (at a range of scales). Our second project will ask you to identify a ‘social issue, cause, or opinion’ that interests you and matters to others. In it, you will work to create a digital experience that will either persuade, inform, or call to action an audience about your topic.
A detailed project sheet will be shared with you at the start of each project. These project briefs can be found on our class website.
You make the studio. I will enthusiastically support and encourage your initiatives, but it is your responsibility to develop your design practice and nurture a rich, dynamic, and inclusive studio community. It is up to you to keep the studio space a space that’s welcoming to all, organized for use, and full of design inspiration and action. I expect everyone to embrace the following attributes, which will serve you well once you graduate. These are reflected in the studio’s learning objectives and assessment criteria.
- Collaborative: Contribute, listen, empathize, and lead. Make compromise and space. Develop interpersonal skills. Recognize what you can contribute and articulate it. See the best in others. Work with peers to articulate and realize collective goals. Get others to shine too.
- Proactive: Make first. Don’t just tell me, show me. Find out, try out, initiate, organize, mobilize, contribute.
- Professional: Be punctual and courteous to those around you. Be present. Be ready. Take responsibility. Consider what you need, especially when asking for feedback or sharing work.
- Passionate: Practice core design and making skills. Experiment with new ones. Indulge your interest. Immerse yourself. Learn to find good all around. Get uncomfortable. Seek new paths.
To build proficiency in visual systems thinking and embodying ideas through clearly articulated design concepts.
To engage in projects that require researching, understanding, and explaining the relationship between design and social systems.
To practice bridging design theory with practical application by engaging with design experiences and prompts that reflect professional practice and contemporary context.
To engage in workflow processes that require the evaluation of the cultural and social impact of design.
To explore different modes and mediums of presentation to craft appropriate strategies to present your thinking and work.
To demonstrate the ability to self-direct and manage yourself in support of the course, work, peer feedback, and in collaborative studio settings.
Grades in this studio will reflect the necessary effort that leads to successful end artifacts. These criteria are weighed equally and should be evident throughout your conduct, participation, and presentation and evident in the documentation of the work you submit following each project.
- Process: the overall strength of your methodology, idea generation, exploration, self-evaluation, and the overall rigor to your approach to the exercise and projects.
- Research: the overall quality of your observations, insights, and your application of this data in your process and outcomes.
- Execution & Documentation: the overall quality of your final ideas, craft, polish of outcome, the clarity of your documentation and its organization, and your ability to present and share your work, research, and ideas.
- Participation: this accounts for your engagement, including your contributions, professionalism, and generosity with your peers, the studio space, the class materials, our TA, myself, and invited guests.
There will be opportunities for feedback on your work in progress and final form. If you have any questions, or if at any point you’d like some additional feedback, please find me before/after class or set up an office hours appointment.
As a studio course, you will be expected to physically produce and print throughout the semester. In the process of thinking through making, you will be required to print both process and final outcomes and may need to use a range of materials (cardboard, foam core, acrylic, fabric, wood, etc…) to execute your vision. You are encouraged to be economical in your printing and resourceful in acquiring and using materials. Plotter prints are expensive and do not necessarily add value to your designs. Sometimes, a nice paper and the studio printer do the job just as well. Consider utilizing tile printing, traditional techniques (risograph, screenprint, letterpress), sharing expenses (for example by purchasing reams of nice paper together), and the fact that FedEx Office does large-scale B/W and Color OCE poster prints for only a few dollars at their self-service kiosks.
On average, you should expect to spend $100 on printing and materials for this course. Factors that might increase your expenses would include the number of iterations you make and the quality of the materials/printing you choose, which can sometimes exceed the course expectations. Please discuss with me and Jamie if materials or printing becomes a financial concern so we can work together to find reasonable alternatives.
All readings and references will be made available to you via our website, Google Drive, and/or Are.na.
This studio will not use Canvas. Instead, we will use this website, Google Drive, Are.na, and email. This website will be used as a central hub for our class... Bookmark it! The Calendar found on this website shares a broad semester overview. It will be updated before every class to share a detailed plan for that session and a note that outlines the expected work for the following studio. Our Google Drive stores significant class materials like slides and final submission forms. The Are.na will be used to share additional examples, references, and readings. These communication tools are hybrid, like those of a professional design studio. Get in the habit of referencing these tools, and try to check your email daily.
I care about your well-being and am committed to supporting your growth. Please reach out to me, our TA, if you have any concerns, questions, or problems related to the class. I offer office hours for troubleshooting/feedback/etc... in-person and via Zoom. My office hours are T/R from 1-2 pm in MM204a (or B9). To schedule a time (or to request an alternate time), please send me an email. In your message, please offer a few times, a desired location, and a short note about our meeting. Please do not request a meeting during ‘family hours,’ like evenings and weekends. If we are meeting to troubleshoot a technical issue, please send me the appropriate information and/or files as soon as possible so I have time to familiarize myself and better help during our conversation. All emails and messages should be responded to within 48 hours.
This class follows SoD’s attendance policy; five minutes will be considered late, and if you are over 30 minutes late, you will be regarded as absent. Three absences may cause your final grade to drop a letter, as will missing key project milestone presentations or final reviews. Six absences may earn you a failing grade for the course. It is your responsibility to be on time and prepared.
For participation credit in my studios, you must be physically and mentally present during in-class announcements, activities, and discussions. Additionally, you must have the required materials prepared before class begins. Printing during the start of class time or otherwise finishing the expected work will result in final grade deductions. Activities and reviews happen as scheduled. If you don’t show up or are unprepared, they can’t and won’t be rescheduled. Obligations outside of the studio (like carnival, doctor’s appointments, interviews, other school commitments, etc.…) are not an excuse. A schedule overview is provided on this website to help you plan things accordingly.
If you do not intend to attend a class, or if you are running late, please let me know. Not doing so is unprofessional and can be very disruptive. When unexpected situations arise which may impact this studio, always reach out to me and your advisor (Jamie). Life can be messy! Communication is key!
Please review the rest of the SOD Syllabus Supplement for details regarding course requirements, attendance, expectations, inclusion and accessibility, and other important School policies.
At the end of each project, you will be required to submit documentation of your work and written reflection on your process, outcomes, and key takeaways via a Google Form. Begin now the habit of documenting your process, research, curiosities, dead-ends, successes, failures, musings, etc.… and collecting these images, videos, screen recordings, texts, sketches, gifs, etc.… in a dedicated folder. You should make this folder locally and upload a curated selection of images after each project for final submission; e.g., submit the 10-15 images you’d show on your portfolio site.
Managing files appropriately will be critical to your success. I recommend your local folder structure be something like this:
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Setting up and maintaining a backup and archiving strategy for your work while you are at CMU and for future practice is crucial. Operate on the assumption that your hard drive or computer will go down, usually when you least expect it. You will not be excused for preventable loss of data. Consider establishing a so-called three-legged backup strategy: on-site (e.g. portable, external, USB hard drive for nightly backup), off-site (e.g. a constant cloud backup service like Dropbox), and a bootable clone (another physical USB hard drive that you back up once a week, as a clone of your drive which allows you to boot up another Mac — quickly and effortlessly — should anything happen to your own Mac).
I use a portable hard drive (updated working folders every night), work out of Dropbox (which can do TimeMachine-like backups), and use a large stationary harddrive for TimeMachine (backed up habitually every Sunday).