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

Week 1

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 8/25
  • Topic: Introduction, Course Overview – Why Theory?
  • Readings / Media: Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. Princeton Architectural Press, 2009, Introduction, pages 9-15 
  • Assignment: Reading Response 1, Revisiting the Avant-garde
  • Due Dates:  Wednesday, 8/31, 11:59pm

Week 2

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 8/31
  • Topic: Laying the Groundwork for Design Theory, authorship, universality, social responsibility
  • 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)
  • Assignment: Reading Response 2, Semiotics, Ways of Meaning
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 9/7, 11:59pm

Week 3

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 9/7
  • Topic: Semiotics, Signs and Meaning in Communication Design
  • Readings / Media: F.T. Marinetti, “Manifesto of Futurism”; Aleksandr Rodchenko, “Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group”; El Lissitzky, “Our Book”
  • Assignment: Reading Response 3, Manifestos and the Avant-Garde
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 9/14, 11:59pm

Week 4

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 9/14
  • Topic: Manifestos, Movements and the Avant-Garde
  • Readings / Media: Madeleine Morley; Master László Moholy-Nagy Saw Photoshop Coming, 90 Years Ahead of Time (2019), László Moholy-Nagy; Typophoto (1925), Jan Tschichold, “The Principles of the New Typography” 1928
  • Assignment: Reading Response 4, Discussion: Manifestos
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 9/21, 11:59pm

Week 5

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 9/21
  • Topic: Bauhaus Function and Form
  • Assignment: Research Paper 1, Discussion: Bauhaus & Universality
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 9/28, 11:59pm (first draft) and October 5th, 11:59pm (final draft)

Week 6

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 10/5
  • Topic: Choosing a Research Project Topic, Research Project Proposal
  • Readings / Media: Karl Gerstner, Designing Programmes (exc.); Joseph Muller-Brockman, “Grid and Design Philosophy”; Margaret Rhodes, The Swiss Designers Breaking Tradition
  • Assignment: Reading 5, Research Project Proposal due Week 7
  • Due Dates:  Wednesday, 10/12

Week 7

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 10/12
  • Topic: International Style Evolution
  • 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
  • Assignment: Reading Response 6, Research Project Proposal due
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 10/19

Week 8

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 10/19
  • Topic: Mainstream Modernism + American Corporate Identity; Mid-Term Assessment
  • Readings / Media: Paul Rand, Good Design is Goodwill; Steven Heller, Underground Mainstream
  • Assignment: Reading Response 7, Discussion: Branding as Belonging
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 10/26

Week 9

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 10/26
  • Topic: Media as Message; Persuasive Media
  • Readings / Media: Roland Barthes, “Rhetoric of the Image”; Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media (exc.)
  • Assignment: Reading Response 8, Discussion: The Medium is the Message; Persuasive Media
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 11/02

Week 10

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 11/02
  • Topic: Context and Representation; Stereotype in Advertising Media; Visual Rhetoric
  • Assignment: Research Paper 2 Draft
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 11/09

Week 11

Week 12

  • Date Posted:  Wednesday, 11/16
  • Topic: The Digital Revolution & Social Responsibility
  • Readings / Media: Rick Poynor “The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto“
  • Assignment: Reading Response 10 + Discussion: Graphic Authorship & Social Responsibility now and then.
  • Due Dates:  Wednesday, 11/30

Week 13

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 11/30
  • Topic: New Paradigms / Final Research Project Presentation prep
  • Assignment: Discussion: Final Project Research In Progress, Research Project due
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 12/7

Week 14

  • Date Posted: Thursday, 12/8
  • Topic: Research Project Presentations, Peer Feedback, Grade Survey
  • Assignment: Research Project Peer Feedback, Research Journal
  • Due Dates: *Final Project due next class*

Week 15

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 12/14
  • Topic: Wrap up, reveiw Final Research Project Presentations
  • Assignment: Grade Survey, Course Evaluations
  • Due Dates: All work due by Dec 19th
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