COMD COMD 3503 –Topics in Graphic Design

New York City College of Technology The City University of New York

Department of Communication Design

COMD 3503 – Topics in Graphic Design

Course Description This course explores the role of the graphic designer in the context of contemporary and historic communication design. Topics include: communication design trends, technology's impact in the field, major design figures, and the ongoing relationship between designers from different disciplines. Students are responsible for completing design related research assignments.

3 cl hrs, 3 cr

Prerequisites: COMD 2300

Course Objectives

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES ASSESSMENT

For the successful completion of this Evaluation methods and criteria course, students should be able to:

Define and explain the role of the graphic The students will demonstrate proficiency designer in contemporary visual in written and class assignments. communications.

Demonstrate an understanding of the The students will demonstrate proficiency purpose, use and proper methods of research. in written and class assignments.

Explain the role of signs and symbols– The students will demonstrate proficiency historically, culturally, politically, in written and class assignments. economically, aesthetically, and as popular image. Define and explain the sociology of graphic The students will demonstrate proficiency communication as social and political in written and class assignments. message, as propaganda, as news interpretation, as educational medium, and as cultural and entertainment medium.

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INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES ASSESSMENT

Define and explain the strategy of graphic The students will demonstrate proficiency communication in advertising, business, in creating a corporate identity program product development, media selection, and with all specified elements. global concerns.

Define and explain the psychology of the The students will demonstrate proficiency graphic message: its effects upon behavioral in written and class assignments. phenomena, perception of visual, spatial, and time-sequence relationships, and its impact upon consumer buying decisions.

Explain the role of graphic design on The students will demonstrate proficiency dimensional objects in the market place– in written and class assignments. packaging, labeling, and merchandise presentation.

Explain the the role of graphic design in The students will demonstrate proficiency architecture, interior design, transportation, in written and class assignments. and environmental communications.

Trace the historical origins and uses of The students will demonstrate proficiency illustration and graphic communications in written and class assignments. through the development of printing methods.

Explain the influences of illustration on The students will demonstrate proficiency shaping public opinion in massmarket in creating signage system with all media–magazines, newspapers, children’s specified elements. literature, posters.

Trace the development of photography and explain its influence on shaping public opinion in historical and contemporary media.

Identify 20th Century European art movements and explain their influence on historic and contemporary graphic design.

Identify the Modern Movement in graphic design in America and explain the influence of European emigre artists on post World War II design.

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INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES ASSESSMENT

Identify the New York School of graphic designers and explain their impact on the visual revolution in editorial, advertising, and corporate identity direction in the 1950s and 1960s.

Define and explain global design movements in the late 20th Century.

Define the Post-Modern movement in graphic design and identify its out standing practitioners.

Demonstrate through design assignments the ability to create a unique, personal visual identity.

Demonstrate through design assignments an understanding of historical graphic design movements.

Demonstrate through design assignments the ability to create a graphic

General Education Outcome covered: How the outcome is assessed: Information Literacy Assess through class discussion and The student will demonstrate the ability to written tests if students have developed find proper resources. the ability to find information trough proper resources. Information Literacy Assess through class discussion and The student will demonstrate the ability to written tests if students have developed formulate relevant queries. the ability to formulate relevant queries. Thinking Critically Evaluate through class critique to The student will demonstrate the ability to determine how well students were able to evaluate strengths and relevance of advance their project concepts through arguments on a particular issue. creative, critical and technical decisions. Academic and Professional Reading Evaluate through class discussion and The student will demonstrate the ability to written tests if students absorbed read pertinent information using industry- information from industry-specific specific sources. sources.

Teaching/Learning Method ● Lecture/ Readings ● Demonstrations

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● Project based lab ● Research Assignments ● Blackboard Descriptions

Required Text None

Suggested texts: To be updated.

Attendance (College) and Lateness (Department) Policies: Attendance is taken and is important to success in this class. Both absences and arrival more than 15 minutes after the start of class will be marked. If excessive, the instructor will alert the student that he or she may be in danger of not meeting the course objectives and participation expectations, which could lead to a lower grade.

Academic Integrity Standards Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music, inventions, and other intellectual property owe their audience and sources accuracy and honesty in using, crediting, and citing sources. As a community of intellectual and professional workers, the College recognizes its responsibility for providing instruction in information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity. Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and at New York City College of Technology and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion.

Grading 80%–Research and Design Assignments 20%–Final Examination

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Topics WEEK Lecture Topic Laboratory Exercise Homework Assignment 1 Overview: Industry and figures; the role All of graphic designer in contemporary homework visual communications; editorial; assignments publishing; corporate; environmental; to be political and propaganda; packaging; determined point-of-purchase; signage; television; by individual film; interactive multimedia. Designing instructors. for the Internet. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion and reading assignment.

2 Sign and Symbol in Graphic Art: Research emotional, political economic ,aesthetic, Assignment. religious meanings; the role of signs in culture; from symbol to system; the cross and the devil; the cosmos and Medieval man; Chinese symbolism; portrayals of the fantastic; man as a measure; geographic and astrological visualization; the man-tree relationship; expressiveness in script; seal, symbol; Ex Libris; interpreting the cosmological order; the Eighteenth century portrayal; the popular image; hand language; scientific illustration. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

3 The Sociology of Graphic Design Assignment I: Communication: communication and the Ex Libris. Design two social environment; the call to patriotic bookplates: (1) for sacrifice; war, death and devastation; use by a historical propaganda; revolution; repression; figure, and (2) for combatting social evils; interpreting personal use, news; the birth of illustrated news; representative of your toward new concepts in editorial individual design illustration; the language of fashion; style. specialized magazines; comics; education; the avant-garde message; the cultural poster in entertainment; the circus, exhibitions; travel. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

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WEEK Lecture Topic Laboratory Exercise Homework Assignment 4 The Strategy of Communication: art in Continued research advertising; selling cycles and the and design consumer; patterns of choice; the creative development of role; choosing media; Marshall Design Assignment I. McLuhan; television and the global village; indoctrinating desire; case studies–the object symbol; questions of beauty; pharmaceuticals; household accessories; health problems; telecommunications; automobiles; the social campaign. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

5 Psychology and the Graphic Message: Continued the Gestalt school; the laws of development of equilibrium, closure, similarity, good Design Assignment I. continuation; Adelbert Ames,the paradox of perspective; eye and brain; the film and stroboscopic effects; kinetic visualization; time-sequence ideas; color and camouflage; psychedelic color; perception and the spatial field; investigating shapes and patterns; the psychology of trademarks. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

6 Presentation and critique of Design Research assignment. Assignment I: Ex Libris. The Graphic Object: visual identity; packaging; packaging in nature; Japanese packaging; distinguishing the product– the label; evolution of label styles; soft wrapping; boxes; containers for objects; the pharmaceutical product; the bottle; perfume; jars and cans; the shopping bag; the display rack; point-of-purchase; promotional packaging; origami and other folds; assuming an identity; instructional games; graphic clothing; the furnishing object. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

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WEEK Lecture Topic Laboratory Exercise Homework Assignment 7 The Environment and Graphic Art: Design Assignment architecture and graphics; interior II: design–surface and color; the business Graphic Identity office; supergraphics; the role of the art Program for an director; billboards and illuminated signs International Sports and displays; Chinese and Soviet graphic Event (i.e., World art and propaganda; hoardings; graffiti Soccer, French Open and murals; the trompe l’oeil wall; Tennis, Winter playgrounds; facades; walls and Olympics). Design abstractions; supergraphics in the components will industrial landscape; transportation include logo, poster, graphics. Illustrated lecture with and one or more classroom discussion. related pieces–ticket, program, banner, T- shirt, mug, signage, etc 8 Illustration in Editorial and Publicity Development of Communications: functional aspects; Design Assignment contemporary vs. traditional; the II. illustrated Medieval manuscript; German and Italian traditions; early woodcuts; copper engraving; Aldus Manutius; the French Book of Hours; chapbooks; emblem books; Thomas Bewick; William Blake; English book illustration 1800- 1900; Daumier; new printing developments–lithography, chromolithography, steel engraving; the challenge of photography; Winslow Homer; Edward Penfield; the 20th century–children’s books, advertising, editorial; Ambroise Vollard; the influence of women’s magazines; Pushpin Studios; the conceptual image; Polish posters. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

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WEEK Lecture Topic Laboratory Exercise Homework Assignment 9 Photography–The New Communications Continued Tool: origins; the camera obscura; the development of camera lucida; photography’s 19th Design Assignment century inventors–Joseph Niepce, Louis II. Daguerre; daguerrotypes; William Henry Fox Talbot; photogenic drawings; Sir William Herschel and the negative; The Pencil of Nature , 1844; calotypes; application to printing; photoengraving; the stereogram; defining the new medium; Hill and Adamson; Julia Margaret Cameron; Matthew Brady; Eadweard Muybridge; photography and the American West. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

10 Origins of Modern Graphic Art: Research assignment. Consequences of the Industrial Presentation and Revolution; urbanization; mass critique of Design production; new commercial structures; Assignment II: popular art and the poster; early French Graphic Identity masters–Jules Cheret; Lautrec; Villon; Program for Bonnard; Japanese International Sports influences; developments in fin-de-siecle Event. England and Scotland–Beardsley, the Glascow, Charles Rennie Mackintosh; Art Nouveau; American links–Will Bradley, Edward Penfield; the Vienna Secession; Joseph Hoffman and the Wiener Werkstätte. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

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WEEK Lecture Topic Laboratory Exercise Homework Assignment 11 20th Century European Movements: the Design Assignment influence of modern art– III: Booklet on a 20th Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism; Century Design Apollinaire; Marinetti; Tzara; Movement. Each Photography and Modernism; Russian student, or student Suprematism and Constructivism; team, will be Malevich; El Lissitzky; Rodchenko, de assigned a specific Stijl; the impact of the Bauhaus; Laszlo movement so that all Moholy-Nagy; important design Herbert Bayer; the Isotype movement; periods are development of the modern map; Dutch represented as a class graphic design; Piet Zwart; H.N. project. Werkman. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

12 The Modern Movement in America: Research and Lester Beall; the influence of European development of immigrants–Erte, Dr. M.F. Agha, Alexey Design Assignment Brodovitch, Joseph Binder; the WPA III. Poster Project; Walter P. Paepcke and the Container Corporation of America; A.M. Cassandre; WW II and the post-war years; Herbert Matter; Ladislav Sutnar; design for science and technology; Herbert Bayer, Will Burtin. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

13 The New York School: Paul Rand; Alvin Continued research Lustig; Bradbury Thompson; designing and development of for film–Saul Bass; George Tscherny; the Design Assignment editorial design III. revolution–Otto Storch; McCall’s, Harper’s Bazaar; Henry Wolf; the new advertising–Doyle, Dane, Bernbach; new typographic expressions–Gene Federico, Herb Lubalin; corporate identity and visual systems–CBS, the CIBA design program; Chermayeff & Geismar; the XIX Olympiad design system; the Federal Design Improvement Program; transportation signage systems. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion.

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WEEK Lecture Topic Laboratory Exercise Homework Assignment 14 Global Dialogue: Postwar graphic design . Final presentation in Japan–Yamashiro, Kamekura, and critique: Design Tadashi, Yokoo; French design–Massin; Assignment III, British contributions– Fletcher, Forbes, Booklet on 20th Gill; Swiss design–Muller-Brockmann, Century Design Hoffmann; the demise of mass audience Movement. periodicals; art direction for specialized periodicals. Post-modernism: Steff Geissbuhler; Wolfgang Weinert, April Greiman, Kenneth Hiebert, Kit Hinrichs. Illustrated lecture with classroom discussion. Review and summary of course

15 Final exam.

Bibliography To be updated.

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