Category: Assignment (Page 1 of 2)

As we prepare for our final class session your last remaining task should be to make sure all your work for the semester is posted to OpenLab.

This means confirming that you’ve uploaded:
– Your bibliography for the final,
– A PDF of your presentation,
– Any missing assignments for the semester

With regard to past assignments, the Assignments page on this site should serve as a checklist. (You can click on your own name in any of your recent posts to filter your submissions, then open the Assignments page in a separate tab to cross-reference.) Please email me if you have any questions regarding any assignments.

Looking forward to another great round of presentations. Please be ready to engage with your peers’ presentations, and please let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.

Your poster/slide deck and your bibliography are due on May 11. If you have any questions concerning expectations, requirements, guidelines, etc. please just let me know.

There are 2 items to include in this Week’s Post:
(1) a PDF of your presentation. This should be the same document that you will use for your presentation, exported from PowerPoint, InDesign, or whatever application you used to design it.
(2) your bibliography. This should be a separate document, also saved as a PDF. Remember, in addition to class readings, you must include 10 sources from library databases.

Both of these items should be uploaded as a single Post.

If you would like to pre-record your presentation, please also include a link to your recording in that post. Note: this must be submitted in addition to the PDF of your presentation.

It sounds like we’ll have some very interesting presentations in the next couple of weeks. Please be ready to start promptly at 2:30 on the 11th!

For our final reading assignment you will be responsible for reading two articles from Graphic Design Theory. However, for this week you will decide which ones you would like to read. You may choose from:

Kenya Hara, Designing Design (2007):

Jessica Helfand, Dematerialization of Screen Space (2001):

Kalle Lasn, Design Anarchy (2006):

Ellen Lupton and Julia Lupton, Univers Strikes Back (2007):

Lev Manovich, Import/Export, or Design Workflow and Contemporary Aesthetics (2008): 

Dmitri Siegel, Designing Our Own Graves (2006):

Jan Van Toorn, Design and Reflexivity (1994):

Again, you only need to read two of these essays, but it might be wise to take a glance at all of them. You may find that a couple of them could be beneficial for your final.

THE WRITTEN PORTION for this week will not be a direct response to the readings. Instead, your assignment will be to post (1) “sketches” of your poster and (2) a working bibliography.

You can interpret sketches literally or very loosely. You can include actual drawings, outlines of material, brainstorms of related ideas, relevant images, or a slide deck in progress. You may still be in the early stages of organizing your ideas. But you should establish the direction in which your presentation is headed. And you should be thinking about your own theories regarding the designs in question.

The bibliography can include relevant assigned readings, but it must also include at least 6 outside sources. If you’ve already retrieved 3 library sources for Week 11, you need to add at least 3 more for this week.

Our next reading will be a short essay by Steven Heller, from 2008, entitled The Underground Mainstream. Here is a PDF: 

Note that our response to this text will once again take the form of a new Post in which you write 3-4 paragraphs responding to the text. However, for this one there is an important additional requirement:
You must include 3-4 sources accessed through library databases. You can log onto the library’s website using your CUNY credentials. I find that Jstor and Ebsco ebooks are both great resources, but you should explore a few.

If you have questions about using library resources for conducting your research, a good deal of information can be found HERE.

Here is your prompt:
How, according to Heller, is the concept of mainstream vs. underground relevant in contemporary design? Where do the designs or the designer that you’ll be addressing for your final presentation fit into this dichotomy? What sort of underground designs influenced the work in question? In what ways has the work in question shaped the mainstream? Or how will it do so in the future? Provide full citation information for at least 3-4 sources from the library to support your response.

As per usual, you can type your response into the body of new Post. Please just add your cited sources at the bottom of that post.

The first item to complete for April 13 is your second 2-3 page paper (See Assignment 10a).

Once this is completed there are two new readings for next week. These readings are unrelated to the paper. It is recommended that you complete them after the paper. They are as follows:

Paul Rand, Good Design is Goodwill (1987):

Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour & Robert Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form (1972):

While there is not a written response to these particular texts, you will be expected to discuss them in class on the 13th. Please budget your time so that you can give proper attention to these readings.

The second short paper is due for next class. There are also two short texts to read, listed as 10b. Note: you do not need to submit a response to those texts.

Paper Requirements:
The second 2-3 page paper is a response to Roland Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image. The objective for this paper is to analyze the rhetorical elements of a recent advertisement. The ad should be from a print magazine.

The chosen advertisement must use photographic imagery, and must include text. Begin by describing the image in detail, examining the characteristics of the pictured objects, models, environment, etc., as well as the layout, typography, interaction of forms, image style and composition of the entire ad. Try to identify all of the signs at work in the image.

Make your best attempt to articulate the meaning of the image, using Barthes’ terms. What are the linguistic messages? What are the non-coded iconic messages? What are the coded iconic messages? Identify the denotative and connotative aspects, the use of anchorage and relay, the semantic and lexical components, etc. Consider the effectiveness of the advertisers’ rhetoric, and the ideological metalanguage employed.

This response will be submitted as a 750-1000 word typewritten paper, double-spaced in 12 pt. Times New Roman. Include an image of the advertisement under consideration. All references and quotations, including image sources should be properly cited in MLA format. Upload a PDF of your paper to a new Post on OpenLab before class on the 13th. Please also add an image of the ad you examine in your post (this will allow your peers to see the image without opening the pdf of your paper).

Once again, please note: I am well aware of the versions of this essay that can be found online. Submissions that address the ads examined in those versions (i.e. the chopped up Heinz bottle, the VW porcupines) will not be accepted.

Our reading for next week is Roland Barthes’ 1977 essay, Rhetoric of the Image. Here is the PDF:

As you read, please make note of all important terms (ie. polysemy, linguistic sign, connoted, denoted, etc.), especially if their meaning is unclear.  Also make note of important points that you don’t completely follow. Record a brief list of questions you have concerning the essay. When you’ve completed the reading, drop these notes and questions into a post; this will be your submission for the week.

You do not need to write lengthy paragraphs for this one. Scattered notes are perfectly fine and encouraged.

The second 2-3 page paper, due April 13, will be a response to this article. In this paper, you’ll critically examine a contemporary advertising image in a manner similar to Barthes’ approach. You will be expected to employ the logic and terminology that Barthes uses in this text.

You should begin to consider the advertisement that you would like to address for your essay. It should be a recent full-page print advertisement organized around a single photograph. Please bring ideas to class next week.

Our next reading is from a 1981 essay by the cultural theorist, Stuart Hall. In this article, entitled The Whites of Their Eyes, Hall examines the ways in which mass media have perpetuated racist ideologies. Here is a PDF:

Your post for this reading will be a little different. Instead of writing 3-4 paragraphs, please identify and document 3-4 advertisements in recent magazines, web pages, posters, billboards, etc. where race, ethnicity, gender or cultural identity play a role in shaping a brand’s message.

Note that race, gender and identity can be used in a positive, embracing way, or in a cynical, negative manner; or it may be difficult to tell. The most interesting ads are probably the most subtle.

Post ads that you encounter this week, after completing the reading. And please note that they do not need to be racist or sexist per se. We’ve all seen some of the widely publicized missteps from companies such as H&M, Dove, Sony, etc. …These are all very obvious. They really don’t require critical examination and we really don’t need to see them again. Do not post them.

Look for nuanced ads in which it is clear that the advertising is aware of identity and representation. Try to find ads that show diversity in a productive and celebratory light.

Post phone pics, scans or screenshots of your selected ads with short captions describing the image and the source from which the image was found.

Here are three examples of ads that I have found recently, which I think are very interesting…

Our next reading will be from the media theorist Marshall McLuhan. For this reading, you have two options. Please read one of the following:

The Introduction, Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 from McLuhan’s influential 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. This is a fairly straightforward text. Here is a PDF:

-or-

Selected paged from The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effect, co-created by McLuhan and Quentin Fiore in 1967. This is an experimental text that relies heavily on image-text interactions. Here is a PDF:

Please take a look at both, to get a sense of the material, then choose one or the other to really focus on.

Please consider the following:
McLuhan describes technology and media as “extensions of man.” How do media extend human beings, or humanity in general? What hazards might technological progress bring for individuals and society? If “the medium is the message,” what role can artists and designers play in creating new messages? How is the work of a designer subordinate to the media they use to create or distribute information? 

You also have two options for this response. You can write 3-4 paragraphs. Or you can respond in a “typophoto-graphic” manner, combining images and text.

Our next reading assignment includes 3 texts from designers who employed systematic approaches to their work. They are as follows:

Jan Tschichold, The New Typography (1928): 

Karl Gerstner, Designing Programmes (1964): 

Josef Müller-Brockmann, Grid and Design Philosophy (1981): 

The prompt for this week is an overly simple one:
According to Jan Tschichold, Karl Gerstner, and Josef Müller-Brockmann, How should one design?

For this one you can answer with 3-4 paragraphs, as usual, or you can create a visual response, incorporating text with design elements. If you choose the visual response, use the systematic approach outlined in these texts to create your design, then upload a jpeg or pdf file.