***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, 1/25
  • 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, 2/1, 11:59pm

Week 2

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 2/1
  • Topic: Laying the Groundwork for Design Theory, authorship, universality, social responsibility
  • 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 2, Manifestos and the Avant-Garde
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 2/8, 11:59pm

Week 3

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 2/8
  • Topic: Manifestos, Movements and the Avant-Garde
  • Readings / Media: Madeleine Morley; Master LĂĄszlĂł Moholy-Nagy Saw Photoshop Coming, 90 Years Ahead of Time (2019), LĂĄszlĂł Moholy-Nagy; Typophoto (1925), Jan Tschichold, “The Principles of the New Typography” 1928
  • Assignment: Reading Response 3, Discussion: Manifestos
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 11:59pm

Week 4

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 2/15
  • Topic: Bauhaus Function and Form
  • Readings / Media: Karl Gerstner, Designing Programmes (exc.); Joseph Muller-Brockman, “Grid and Design Philosophy”; Margaret Rhodes, The Swiss Designers Breaking Tradition
  • Assignment: Reading Response 4
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 2/22, 11:59pm

Week 5

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 2/22
  • Topic: International Style Evolution
  • Assignment: Research Paper 1
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 3/1, 11:59pm (first draft) and 3/8, 11:59pm (final draft)

Week 6

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 3/1
  • Topic: Choosing a Research Project Topic, Research Project Outline
  • Readings / Media: Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro
  • Assignment: Reading 5, Research Paper #1 Final Version
  • Due Dates:  Wednesday, 3/8, 11:59pm

Week 7

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 3/7
  • Topic: Mainstream Modernism + American Corporate Identity; Mid-Term Assessment
  • Readings / Media: Steven Heller, Underground Mainstream
  • Assignment: Reading Response 6, Research Project Outline due
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 3/15, 11:59pm

Week 8

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 3/15
  • Topic: Semiotics, Ways of Meaning
  • 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 7, Midterm Assessment
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 3/22, 11:59pm

Week 9

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 3/22, 11:59pm
  • Topic: Media as Message; Persuasive Media
  • Readings / Media: Roland Barthes, “Rhetoric of the Image”
  • Assignment: Reading Response 8
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 3/29, 11:59pm

Week 10

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 3/29
  • Topic: Context and Representation; Stereotype in Advertising Media; Visual Rhetoric
  • Assignment: Research Paper 2
  • Due Dates: First Draft is due 4/5, Final Draft is due 4/19

Week 11

Week 12

  • Date Posted:  Wednesday, 4/26
  • 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, 5/4, 11:59pm

Week 13

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 5/3
  • Topic: New Paradigms / Final Research Project Presentation prep / Discussion: Final Project Research In Progress
  • Assignment: Research Project due
  • Due Dates: Wednesday, 5/10, 11:59pm

Week 14

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 5/10
  • Topic: Research Project Presentations, Peer Feedback, Grade Survey
  • Assignment: Research Project Peer Feedback, Research Journal
  • Due Dates: *All Research Project Presentations due next class*

Week 15

  • Date Posted: Wednesday, 5/17
  • Topic: Wrap up, review Final Research Project Presentations
  • Assignment: Grade Survey, Course Evaluations
  • Due Dates: All late and revised work due by 5/22
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