***The following schedule is subject to change. Refer to the Weekly Agenda posts that are linked here for up-to-date content.***

Week 1

  • Date Posted: Monday, Aug 30th -12am
  • Topic: Introduction, Course Overview – Why Theory?
  • Readings / Media: Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. Princeton Architectural Press, 2009 (excerpt)
  • Due Dates:  Sunday, Sep 5th – 6pm

Week 2

  • Date Posted: Monday, Sep 6th -12am
  • Topic: Laying the Groundwork for Design Theory
  • Readings / Media: Hall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics, Laurence King Publishing, 2012 (Chapters 1 & 2); Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics (excerpt)
  • Due Dates: Friday, Sep 10th at 11:59 pm & Sunday, September 12th, 6 pm

Week 3

  • Date Posted: Monday, Sep 13th – 12am
  • Topic: Language, Linguistics, Symbols, Signs
  • Readings / Media: F.T. Marinetti, “Manifesto of Futurism”; Aleksandr Rodchenko, “Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group”; El Lissitzky, “Our Book”
  • Due Dates: Friday, Sep 17th at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Sep 19th, 6 pm

Week 4

  • Date Posted: Monday, Sep 20 – 12am
  • Topic: Manifestos, Movements and the Avant-Garde
  • Readings / Media: Walter Gropius, “The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus”; Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, “Typophoto”; Herbert Bayer, “On Typography”
  • Due Dates: Friday, Sep 24th at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Sep 26th, 6 pm

Week 5

  • Date Posted: Monday, Sep 27 – 12am
  • Topic: Bauhaus Function and Form; Research Paper 1
  • Due Dates: Friday, Oct 1 at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Oct 3, 6 pm

Week 6

  • Date Posted: Monday, Oct 4 – 12am
  • Topic: Choosing a Research Project Topic
  • Readings / Media: Karl Gerstner, Designing Programmes (exc.); Joseph Muller-Brockman, “Grid and Design Philosophy”; Jan Tschichold, “The Principles of the New Typography” 
  • Due Dates:  Friday, Oct 8 at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Oct 10, 6 pm

Week 7

  • Date Posted: Monday, Oct 11 – 12am
  • Topic: International Style Evolution; Research Project Proposal due Week 8
  • Readings / Media:  Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures by Madeleine Morley; Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro; Design Gets More Diverse by Alice Rawsthorn
  • Due Dates: Friday, Oct 15 at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Oct 17, 6 pm

Week 8

  • Date Posted: Monday, Oct 18 – 12am
  • Topic: Mainstream Modernism + American Corporate Identity; Mid-Term Assessment
  • Readings / Media: Paul Rand, Good Design is Goodwill; Steven Heller, Underground Mainstream
  • Due Dates: Friday, Oct 22 at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Oct 24, 6 pm

Week 9

  • Date Posted: Monday, Nov 1 – 12am
  • Topic: Media as Message
  • Readings / Media: Roland Barthes, “Rhetoric of the Image”; Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (exc.)
  • Due Dates: Friday, Nov 5 at 11:59 pm & Sunday, Nov 7, 6 pm

Week 10

  • Date Posted: Monday, Nov 8 – 11:59pm
  • Topic: Context and Representation; Stereotype in Advertising Media; Visual Rhetoric
  • Due Dates: Research Paper 2 due Week 11 Sunday, Nov 14, 11:59pm

Week 11

  • Date Posted: Monday, Nov 15 – 12am
  • Topic: Post-Modernism
  • Readings / Media:  Katherine McCoy and David Frej “Typography as Discourse” 
  • Due Dates: Sunday, Nov 21 at 11:59 pm 

Week 12

  • Date Posted: Monday, Nov 29 – 12am
  • Topic: The Digital Revolution & Social Responsibility
  • Readings / Media: Rick Poynor “The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto“
  • Due Dates: Sunday, Dec 5 at 11:59pm

Week 13

  • Date Posted: Monday, Dec 6 – 12am
  • Topic: New Paradigms / Final Presentation prep
  • Due Dates: Discussion Due: Sunday, Dec 5 at 11:59pm
    *Final Project Due December 14*

Week 14

  • Date Posted: Monday, Dec 13 – 12am
  • Topic: Research Project Presentations, Peer Feedback, Grade Survey
  • Due Dates: *Final Project and all work due Sunday, Dec 19th 11:59 pm*

Week 15

  • Date Posted: Sunday, Dec 19 – 6pm
  • Topic: Wrap up
  • Due Dates: Grade Survey, Course Evaluations and all work due Sunday, Dec 19th 11:59 pm
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