Month: August 2020

Our first reading assignment consists of a couple short pieces, which can be found via the links below. Your response should be 3-4 paragraphs, which may be typed directly into a post or handwritten in your research journal. If you decide to handwrite please just post an image into a new post.

Here are the readings:

Helen Armstrong, “Introduction: Revisiting the Avant-Garde” from Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field (2009): ArmstrongIntro

Bruno Munari, selected chapters from Design as Art (1966): Munari_DesignAsArt

Here are the questions to which you should respond:
According to these authors, what role should design play in the world today? What distinguishes the field, or fields, of design from other creative occupations? Why should designers concern themselves with unsolvable theoretical questions? What role has technology played in shaping design professions? What role does it play today? What are the most urgent problems designers face today? How, and why, is a designer responsible for solving these problems?

Please post your responses before class on the 14th. And please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or issues. You can send a message through OpenLab or email me: mlange@citytech.cuny.edu

Our first objective for this course, which is sort of just an extension of the first class session, will be to create a short video introduction.

While we are unable to all come together to meet in a single room, we can try to use the resources we do have to create something of that interpersonal experience. The goals for this exercise will be to tell everyone a little bit about yourself, and meet everyone else that you’ll be working with through the semester.

Please record a short video providing the following information:
– The name you prefer to go by
– Where you are filming the video. Be inventive, but wear a mask if done in public.
– How far along you are in school, how long you’ve been attending City Tech, your primary interests in the COMD program
– The best thing that has happened to you since COVID hit NYC. It’s been a very rough year for many of us…let’s hope we can find something positive in it.
– A theory that you have, or have heard recently. This can pertain to anything, and should ideally be impossible to prove. (Mine might be a bad example, you be the judge.)

Video files tend to be large. You’ll probably need to upload to YouTube, Dropbox, Vimeo, etc., then embed the link by clicking the + box, locating video, then selecting “Link”.

Now the most important part of the assignment: Watch all of your peers’ videos! You may need to check back through the next few days if you upload yours right away.

Here is mine. Hope you enjoy: