Senior Studio, Art 451
Graphic Design Program
School of Art
Ohio University

Fall Quarter '02/03

Tuesdays/Thursdays, 4-7
405 + Lab in 406 + Lecture room 403

Professor Don Adleta
Seigfred 422
740.593.4284

adleta@ohio.edu

Introduction to the Year:

During the Senior year you will examine design in a variety of contexts. The year will consist of:

Fall,

Art 451, will focus on design methods.
Art 469A, will focus on your preparation for the practice through a series of tasks and a DP.
Art 392, Letterpress and Bookmaking is open and could be a venue for your degree project.

December Break,

Continued work on DP, preparation of your book/portfolio and internship.

Winter,

Art 452, will continue to research design methodology through applications
Art 459, Graphic Design Topics is highly recommended, if you have not taken it.
Art 469B, will focus on DP, understanding Information Architecture, your preparation for the practice and the Senior Trip.

Spring,

Art 453, will focus on bringing a closure to your academic pursuit of a graphic design education at Ohio University. This will include the DP, one project based on what you need to fill-out your portfolio, one-day project, tasks and the senior show.

Senior Studio:

The course objective is to secure enough of an understanding of the design processes investigated to utilize them in continued experimentation throughout your work in the practice. It will assure you of your ability to recognize your quality and continue your growth.

We can look at design processing from an aesthetic, a theoretic, a pragmatic or a personal point of view. All are valid. All could be used in a variety of ways within the practice. We have to remember, however, that we are investigating the profession of design, inside the context of education. Thus, one of the department's goals is to present design processing in a variety of ways. You should be prepared with the knowledge of several design methods and the effective use of those methods. This will allow you to select from a variety of methods to solve design problems encountered in the future.

The methods investigated will allow you to realize:

• the idea of 'drawing', with type, with concept, and with technology,
• the interaction of aesthetics and content,
• the process of evolving a visual result through rigorous experimentation, and
• the practical search for clear communication with respect given to the appropriate hierarchy of information and good craft.

The following methods will be investigated during this quarter:

• We will look into a practical method of working to a solution while maintaining an international/corporate tone, through a communication system
• We will build more complex applications utilizing the visually based results of a grid study. (Perhaps this will be in the form of postage stamps.)
• If we have time to experimentation within new media, we will place work and resumes online using methods of Information Architecture (IA) (Or this will be handled by Professor Walsh in the Winter Quarter.)
  
  

Change is essential for all professions. And graphic design is no exception. Our professional cycles have transformed and have reinvented themselves partially as a result of understanding and reacting to our heritage. Embracing and respecting the heritage of design allows a designer to envision new methods. You can therefore begin to understand your contributions that will occur by doing designs.

As a student this quarter, you will be asked to design using a particular method. This method may be different than your personal preference. This experience is not to question your methodology. It is to broaden your exposure to one of the industry's ways of creating a result. The design methodology, which will be applied within this course, finds roots in the international movement. As a designer most of you will need to work with teams of professionals. Observations you will make during the following quarter will prepare you for working in the practice with art-directors and teams.

You will maximize your visual research through rigorous searching. Only by juxtaposing designs next to each other, are you able to determine the relative success through the objective realization of the effect. This concept is universal, regardless of methods.

Often we see design is used arbitrarily as decoration. Designers or non-designers imitating a visual result with no understanding of the methodology to evolve the result only decorate. When working in the practice, there is little time to develop research methods that will often frustrate you to the point of falling into an imitation mode. Through investigations like the communication system, you will create a visual library of self-motivated results that you will most likely refer to during a future endeavor.

Activities that need attention:

• Layout of Studio 406, including:
  • work spaces for everyone,
  • conference table,
  • pin up discussion board,
  • space for an active time line
  • paper samples, Pantone books and reference library
  • Could we make the space a bit smarter? Perhaps no walls and minimal stuff on desks!
• Assignments of desks / lottery method vs. signing up
  • use of ethernet outlets on wall with connection to printers and web
• Help setting up field trips to a paper mill, and a regional e.commerce based design studio.

Office Hours

My office hours will be 2-4 on Thursdays. We will have a 20 minute mid-term meeting to discuss your overall mid-term effectiveness.

© Ohio University, 2002, updated on 7 September 2002, return to top / Attendance/Work/Grading / adleta front door / adleta@ohio.edu