Tasks Due Today
- Meetings
- Research Paper 1 First Draft & Peer Review Printed
- Week 5 Agenda Checklist
This Week’s Topics
- Check-In & Share
- Tutoring / Checklists
- Research Paper Peer Review
- Define your Research Topic
- Research Project & Presentation Outline
- Readings
- Week 6 Agenda Checklist
Check-In & Share
Do you have anything to share from your Research Journal? Add a comment to this post with something you’ve added to your Research Journal recently. Or suggest a track for the playlist on the COMD3504 playlist post.
Tutoring / Checklists
Complete your Research Paper #1 by the deadline and you will have the opportunity to revise it. Challenge yourself to get your paper to a point where it’s ready for submission to the City Tech Writer.
In addition to getting writing help at the Writing Center, the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) tutors are available to you and will provide one-on-one help with your writing for this course. Use this link to schedule an appointment.
Don’t forget to submit your Weekly Agenda Checklist, indicating the tasks you’ve completed. These checklists help you track how well you keeping to your Learning Plan and will help determine your final grade at the end of the semester.
Activities
Below find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities, videos, and assignments.
1. Research Paper Peer Review (30 min)
Today you should have printed the first draft of your Research Paper #1 and the Peer Review Checklist/Rubric provided in the Guidelines. Find a partner, exchange papers, and review your partner’s paper using the Checklist and Rubric. Take 15-20 minutes to review the paper and then 10 minutes to discuss the feedback with your partner. Add notes on an additional page.
*If you didn’t print your paper or prefer to read/comment digitally, share your post/Google doc link with your partner.
2. Defining Your Research Topic (15 min)
“Our identity is abstract and ever-changing. The ways in which we’re shaped by our world can evolve as the world around us changes and we encounter new experiences… With diverse representation comes a wealth of experiences and perspectives that elevate the design industry.”
KALEENA SALES from Extra Bold, Princeton Architectural Press, 2021.
Who are you? What do you care about?
This week we will take a look at the Research Project guidelines again and begin in earnest to define our project topic and outline. Use your Research Project to bring awareness to the issues that matter to you as an individual, as a global citizen, as a designer. In our recent Discussion: Week 3 Manifestos, you shared your own manifesto to define what today’s designer should be thinking about, rebelling against, and acting on. Take another look at what you wrote and reply to someone else’s.
In your Research Journal, you should be collecting your influences, the “stuff” that informs your design aesthetic, and what you believe in. As communication designers, we are always collecting and sampling from the world in which we live.
Nothing is truly original. This video below uses music as its subject to show that we are constantly “sampling” from and influenced by past and present cultures. If you were to collect all your visual, musical, and cultural, “samples” what would your collection look like? Use that collection of influences to help direct your research project topic.
If you haven’t seen it yet (and even if you have), watch Abstract: The Art of Design > Paula Scher to learn how a designer’s 40-year career was influenced by her life, her culture, her city, her passion. Take note of the specific historical, social/cultural, and design influences.
3. Research Project & Presentation Outline – Overview (15 min)
This week you will work in class to start to formulate your Research Project & Presentation Outline. The final Outline will be due Week 8.
Review the Research Project & Presentation guidelines again. The following will help with the development of your Outline.
Create your Research Project Outline in Google Docs with the following content:
- Introduction
In one or two sentences, define your research question or thesis. - Background/Review of the Sources
Explain in detail the topic you are examining. Include a summary of the basic background information on the topic gleaned from your sources/readings review (you can include information from the readings and class, but the bulk should be outside sources). - Rationale
Explain why your research topic is culturally, socially, or politically significant. Include a description of the questions you are examining and why you are exploring this topic. Why is it meaningful to you? - Method and Design
A description of how you will go about collecting resources/data and how you plan to present the information in your presentation, starting with the introduction and ending with a conclusion. - References
List the resources and references you have found so far. Include all references in MLA style.
4. Work in Class (1 hour)
If you have completed fewer than three (3) Reading Responses, please take this time to complete and post Reading Responses 1-4. At the end of class, please share what you’ve completed.
If you are up-to-date on your reading responses, take this time to either work on your Research Paper #1 or your Research Project Outline.
5. Reading #5 for Discussion
Read and annotate this essay for discussion in class and online next week. Add the tags: Diversify Design and Reading Response 5 to your annotations.
Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro, Eye on Design, 2019
Consider these questions:
- What stood out to you the most in this reading?
- How do we change the commercial design field to include a diversity of voices and visions?
- What will the commercial design field and the study of design history look like in 20 years?
Also, check out:
“The Justseeds Open Type Project creates open-access fonts for activists, organizers, and movement designers. Most of the fonts are designed by members of the Justseeds Artists Cooperative, though some have been repurposed and expanded from historical posters and artifacts. The left has a rich history of hand drawn, decorative, and display fonts, a legacy that is tied into the history of sign, picket, and banner making as well as the history of accessible and low-cost printing technologies. The Justseeds Open Type Project hopes to draw upon and expand this design history by creating a library and archive of open access fonts for use.”
And the Noun Project.
“Noun Project is building a global visual language that unites us.”
Resources
Week 6 Agenda Checklist
Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. The due date is Wednesday, 11:59 pm before our next Thursday class. Timely completion of these tasks will contribute to your success in this course.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQzc0DrHMc/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=
https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQCZcmoeNJ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=