Syllabus

PURPOSE OF THIS COURSE

In order to prepare you for the professional designer's need to create visual solutions that are meaningful, purposeful and appropriate to specific audiences and contexts, the purpose of this course is to teach you how to translate verbal concepts and design theory into visual images. This course focuses attention on the process of defining problems, gathering information, and formulating clear, powerful, and persuasive visual statements. Introduction to technological concerns of contemporary graphic design practice, methods of research, idea generation and professionalism will be an integral part of this course.  

You will solve challenging visual communication problems: 

• by formulating a meaningful process of ideation that is based on 

  research and understanding of content. 

• by visualizing proposed solutions and creating prototypes for evaluation. 

DESCRIPTION OF THIS COURSE

Visual Concepts, VISC 204, is a beginning level visual communication course intended to teach you alternative methods of generating both ideas and images. It is intended to provide an opportunity for you to demonstrate your specific ability and approach in solving conceptual and formal problems. During the semester you will be working on a series of projects which will require developing good researching skills, learning to think creatively and improving your problem solving capabilities, including formalization abilities.

 

Basic technology instruction is embedded in this course, you will develop a image-making/reading skills while developing basic skills to hardware and software relevant to the construction/manipulation of type and imagery for visual communication design. 

COURSE METHODS

This course will provide opportunities for students to gain design knowledge and abilities through studio projects and critique presentations. Additionally, lectures, readings, demonstrations, slide presentations, class and group discussions, and personal student meetings will be used.

The projects assigned in this course are intended to teach you to think critically about the visual world around you while building on the visual vocabulary you developed in Design 1 & 2. Beginning exercises explore the characteristics of individual design elements and principles, and later exercises explore the communicative power of using these elements and principles in combination.

To get the most out of this class and grow as a young designer, you need to approach the class work with a serious attitude and a willingness to work beyond just doing what is asked. Push yourself. Visual Communication Design is a very competitive and challenging profession, but for those who find a way to engage with the work and enjoy being challenged, the demands are well worth meeting and the rewards are truly fulfilling. This course is taught with that philosophy as a backdrop. Students are expected to commit themselves and to work hard, every day, not just for better grades but for the enjoyment that the work brings and the growth that comes with it. 

Expected Workload

Throughout the semester you are required to work a minimum of four and a half hours per week outside of classes on your projects. (Many of you will find that you will need to spend even more time per week.) Please be aware that not all project work can be done at home or at your convenience. Please also be aware that expecting yourself to continue to work a full-time or near full-time job (over 20 hrs. per week) will most likely have a negative impact on your grade. Studio course projects require a great deal of time in order to complete. It is very difficult to try and balance both a full-time job and a full load of studio classes.

Critiques

Visual Communication Design does not happen in a vacuum. Clear verbal skills are all important in communicating your ideas to clients and design team members. For all critiques, students are expected to come prepared to present their concepts, discuss how the form of their design supports their concept, and describe how they arrived at their ideas. Providing comment to your peers is a privilege. You will benefit from both giving and receiving feedback—you do not have to “like” another’s work, but you must provide insightful commentary in a courteous manner.

Process Books

The central factor in determining your design ability will your understanding of visual concepts as they apply to assignments. The process of designing and how you got there is as important as any final artifact you make.

Research and multiple ideations are required for every assignment. It is vital to a successful design solution, as well as your development as a design student. All work must be thoroughly documented. 

Note: While the computer will usually be the ultimate tool for production, preliminary work will often be done on paper. Mock-ups, thumbnails and sketches are a way of exploring relationships quickly by thinking and making simultaneously. It allows you to see multiple ideas, compare, and arrive at a point in which to select the “best” example to develop further.

While in the course, you are to keep a blog and keep all process, you will turn in a process book or pdf: documenting your ideas, research, investigations, trials and errors, sketches, tear sheets, brainstorming, influences, etc. 

Review

A review of all projects produced in Visual Concepts (VISC 204) will occur at the end of the 2009-10 academic year. Please keep all work. 

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. Work (even when unfinished) must be  displayed during critiques in order to receive a grade. Late work will be lowered one full letter grade for every day that work is not turned in. A student will be given a project grade of “F” for any project that is never submitted. 

Students are required to attend class. Please be in class on time and remain for the entire period. Please turn off your pagers and mobile phones. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class period. Three “late” marks will equal one absence.  A total of 3 absences will be allowed for any reason. It is your sole responsibility to discover what happened during any class you missed. If it is necessary for you to be absent from class for more than 3 days for any reason including medical condition, you should withdraw from the class.

  

In the event of any absence, students are still responsible for obtaining all information & materials from the class period and completing all assignments on time. It is your sole responsibility to find out about any new work assigned during your absence. Any readings that are distributed during your absence will be left for you in an envelope attached to my door. Do not ask me for any handouts. 

Academic Conduct

Please adhere to the  rules as listed in the student disruptive conduct policy found at: http://www.studenthandbook.ku.edu/codes.shtml

Disabilities

Students needing special assistance or accommodation should contact the KU Academic Achievement & Access Center office at 864-4064. They are located in room 22 in Strong Hall.

Plagiarism

Is copying someone’s work or taking somebody’s idea and trying to pass it off as yours and will result in penalties as outlined in the KU student code of rights and responsibilities. 

GRADING SCALE

Excellent (A+ 98–100%, A=94–97%, A– 90–93%)

Good (B+ 87–89%, B= 84–86%, B– 80–83%)

Average (C+ 77–79%, C= 74–76%, C– 70–73%)

Below Average (D+ 67–69%, D= 64–66%, D– 60–63%)

Failing (F 59% & below)

Completing the minimum requirements outlined on an assignment sheet qualify as “C” level (or average) work. The degree and quality of effort with which a student engages in the different criteria (above or below the minimum requirements) for each assignment determines how well they do.

 

Your overall performance in this class will be evaluated based on the following criteria: 

EVALUATION CRITERIA  

Design theories and practice-based knowledge  

  

• introductory understanding of communication design theories that respond to the cognitive, social / cultural, technological and physical characteristics of audiences and contexts.

Process and Methodology

• understanding and applying formal design process to identify and solve communication problems, including the skills of research and information gathering, analysis, generation of alternative solutions, prototyping & testing and evaluation of outcomes.

• student demonstrated substantial engagement with the subject.

• developing an idea across time and sustaining work through progression and refinement.

Communication and Participation Skills

• student demonstrated professionalism by using class time effectively, managing time outside of class and preparing for each class period.

• professionalism in communicating effectively through oral and written presentations; communicating ideas clearly and concisely.

• student demonstrated professionalism by meeting deadlines (final and intermediate), demonstrating and communicating progress and preparing work for review.

• professionalism in discussions and critiques; providing feedback and responses to peers in a courteous manner and responding to relevant issues pro-actively.

Conceptual and Creativity Skills

• goodness of fit: the appropriateness of form to content (concept) and contexts (audience + cognitive, social, cultural, physical human factors).

• inventiveness: the originality/engagement of the designed object formally. aesthetics.

• visual organization/principles: the relationship between elements in the composition. 

• image sensitivity: the control of variables specifically: cropping, connotation, denotation, juxtaposition and fusion in achieving legible and expressive visual meaning.

• typographic sensitivity: the control of variables specifically: typeface, weight, spacing, proportion and size in achieving legible and expressive verbal/visual meaning 

• motion sensitivity: the control of kinetic variables specifically: path, area, direction, weight and speed in achieving legible and expressive visual meaning.

• time sensitivity: the control of temporal variables specifically: pacing, duration, sequence, montage, transition, arc and proximity in achieving legible and expressive visual meaning.

• audio sensitivity: the control of sound variables specifically: choreography, synchronization: parallel/counterpoint, contrast and dominance in achieving legible and expressive visual meaning.

Technology Skills

• hardware/software appropriateness: using the right tool for the job: completing the work with quality AND completing the work efficiently