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

Fall Quarter '03/04

Mondays/Wednesdays, 1-4
404 + Lab in 405 + Lectures 1-2 in room 501

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

December Break,

Continue your work on the DP, preparation of your book/portfolio and do an internship.

Winter,

Art 452, will continue to research design methodology through applications with Professor Asher. Experimentation within new media using methods of Information Architecture (IA)
Art 459, Graphic Design Topics with Professor Nulf is highly recommended, if you have not taken it.
Art 469B, will focus on your preparation for the practice. We will place work and resumes online using methods of Information Architecture (IA and the Senior Trip Professor Adleta will be the professor of record.

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, and the senior show among other actions. Professor Cue will be the professor of record for this quarter.

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. Plus we will discuss practical issues such as free-lancing, associated working conditions and how to bill.
• A One-Day Project
• We will evolve a complex design application by either researching the visual results of a grid study, creating a series of stamps, or redesigning the U.S. currency. To determine the direction, we will be looking at several portfolios within the next few weeks.
  

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, which will occur in the future.

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 foundations of the international movement.

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. In addition, when working in the practice, you will have little time to develop research methods, which 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 reference during future endeavors.

Activities that need attention:

• Layout of Studio 404, room functions must include:
  • work spaces for everyone,
  • conference table,
  • pin up discussion board, could be optional
  • the letterpress/bookmaking class will need to remain in 404 until we can relocate it, therefore studio spaces will have to be clear for security reasons and the work environment required for the first project. This is due to dedicating our teaching classroom to your lab (December electrical)
  • space for the official hard copy time line
  • paper samples, Pantone books and reference library
  • Could we make the space a bit more designed? Perhaps by pitching out some of the junk furniture!
  • Class coordinator needs to orchestrate and make sure these functions have been addressed by Wednesday AM
• Assignments of desks / lottery method vs. signing up after layout is complete
• Help setting up field trips to Xpedex, a printer, a paper mill, a regional based design studio and eCommerce.
• Updating tasks by incorporating last year's post-mortem reports

Office Hours

My office hours will be 4-5 on Mondays. We will have a 20-minute mid-term meeting to discuss your overall mid-term effectiveness.

© Ohio University, 2003, updated on 4 September 2003, return to top / Attendance/Work/Grading / adleta front door / adleta@ohio.edu