The New School for Social Research# GPUB 5002-A — CRN#: 3696
Office hours by appointment: [email protected]
Course Description
This course is specifically designed to serve as a broad foundation for students from non-design backgrounds to give form to published content. This is a hands-on studio course that will begin with projects that investigate typography, image, composition, sequence, and order, with the aim to design and publish something that demonstrates a point of view by the end of the semester. Woven through the course will be a discussion of contemporary issues that cross design and publishing through an analysis of contemporary books, magazines, and periodicals across both printed and digital platforms.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, students will be able to: – Articulate the historical and contemporary role of design in publishing content in print and online – Demonstrate comprehensive awareness of design systems, critical thinking, and cultural awareness – Develop platform-independent design concepts – Demonstrate basic abilities to form content through typography, image, layout, sequence and order – Assess and incorporate feedback as part of an iterative design and publishing process – Offer constructive feedback for others’ work
WEEK 1: Introduction to design and publishing August 31
WEEK 2: What is design? & a little history September 6
WEEK 3: What is type? September 13
WEEK 4: What is color? September 20
WEEK 5: What is image and photography? September 27
WEEK 6: What does the internet look like? How to make the internet October 4
WEEK 7: What is AI? What is form? October 11
WEEK 8: What is an idea? October 19
mid-semester evaluation: final project begins
WEEK 9: How to make a booklet, What is validation? What is a prototype? What is a critique? October 25
WEEK 10: What is iteration? + a guest / Drew Campbell November 1
WEEK 11: What is iteration? + a guest / Shira Inbar November 8
WEEK 12: What is iteration? + a guest / Chris Wu November 15
WEEK 13: Individual meetings November 22
WEEK 14: Critique: Iterations/Presentations + a guest / Diana Murphy November 29
WEEK 15: Final Critique with external critics December 6
Required text:
Post-digital Print - The Mutation Of Publishing Since 1894 Allessandro Ludovico
Detail in Typography Jost Hichuli
All readings and project assignments will be posted here.
Some notes.
-
This class is about synthesis. We will be covering theory, method, concept, and technique in equal proportions. It is not a skills-training class.
-
This class will require you to learn how to do a lot of things on your own. In the process, you will learn how to learn on your own, which is more valuable than anything else you learn in this class. You will be asked to do online tutorials and attempt to create things out when it’s not yet proven that you can do it. You’ll do this with help in this class, after which you’ll be able to do anything.
-
You will also document your work and your ideas on a substack blog. If you prefer to keep this private so that it is only viewable in this class, you may make it subscriber-only.
-
Depending on your level of skill and experience, this class will require 3-6 hours of work outside of class. Please schedule yourself accordingly.
-
Approach this class in the spirit of experimentation and learning. You may or may not have the chance again to develop and interrogate ideas in a community of like-minded peers. If you merely make work that is “correct,” all you will do is reinforce that notion.