* ART 1732a or b, Introduction to Graphic Design  Staff

A studio introduction to visual communication, with emphasis on the visual organization of design elements as a means to transmit meaning and values. Topics include shape, color, visual hierarchy, word-image relationships, and typography. Development of a verbal and visual vocabulary to discuss and critique the designed world.  HU  RP
HTBA

* ART 1745b, Introduction to Digital Video  Neil Goldberg

Introduction to the formal principles and basic tools of digital video production. Experimental techniques taught alongside traditional HD camera operation and sound capture, using the Adobe production suite for editing and manipulation. Individual and collaborative assignments explore the visual language and conceptual framework for digital video. Emphasis on the spatial and visual aspects of the medium rather than the narrative. Screenings from video art, experimental film, and traditional cinema.  RP
M 1:30pm-5:20pm

* ART 1784a or b, 3D Modeling for Creative Practice  Staff

Through creation of artwork, using the technology of 3D modeling and virtual representation, students develop a framework for understanding how experiences are shaped by emerging technologies. Students create forms, add texture, and illuminate with realistic lights; they then use the models to create interactive and navigable spaces in the context of video games and virtual reality, or to integrate with photographic images. Focus on individual project development and creative exploration. Frequent visits to Yale University art galleries. This course is a curricular collaboration with The Center for Collaborative Arts and Media at Yale (CCAM).  RP
HTBA

ART 2743a, Introduction to Typeface Design  Nina Stoessinger

Procedure for building typeface designs on the basis of historical sources. Aesthetic issues presented by single letters and their interrelationships; principles of letterform rendering and spacing, optical mechanics, cultural signals. Use of the type-design program RoboFont to digitize letterforms on screen and turn them into usable fonts. No prerequisites, this course is explicitly for beginning type designers. More advanced students see ART 7443.
F 1:30pm-5:20pm

* ART 2764a, Typography!  Alice Chung

An intermediate graphic-design course in the fundamentals of typography, with emphasis on ways in which typographic form and visual arrangement create and support content. Focus on designing and making books, employing handwork, and computer technology. Typographic history and theory discussed in relation to course projects. Prerequisite: ART 1732.   RP
MW 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ART 2766a, Graphic Design Histories  Geoff Kaplan

This three-part course examines the role of alternative and underground media in the formation of social movements in the United States from the mid- to late 20th century, specifically focusing on graphic design. Our animating question throughout the term is: “can graphic design be understood as a form of activism or protest?”  Looking to histories of graphic innovation linked to diverse social interests (among them, Black power, women’s liberation, queer activism, environmentalism, the antiwar movement, independence movements, etc.), we will study the ways in which collective practices fashion the image of a culture in times of pronounced political change: as a vehement challenge to the dominance of official media and a critical form of self-representation. One goal is to consider the implications of such work in the present, a moment in which corporate media, misinformation campaigns, and algorithmic capitalism has exerted decisive control over public discourse.  HU
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

* ART 3768b, Graphic Design Methodologies  Pamela Hovland

Various ways that design functions; how visual communication takes form and is recognized by an audience. Core issues inherent in design: word and image, structure, and sequence. Analysis and refinement of an individual design methodology. Attention to systematic procedures, techniques, and modes of inquiry that lead to a particular result. Prerequisites: ART 1732 and 2764, or permission of instructor.  RP
F 1:30pm-5:20pm

* ART 3769a or b, Interactive Design and the Internet: Software for People  Staff

In this studio course, students create work within the web browser to explore where the internet comes from, where it is today, and where it’s going—recognizing that there is no singular history, present, or future, but many happening in parallel. The course in particular focuses on the internet’s impact on art—and vice versa—and how technological advance often coincides with artistic development. Students will learn foundational, front-end languages HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in order to develop unique graphic forms for the web that are considered alongside navigation, pacing, and adapting to variable screen sizes and devices. Open to Art majors. No prior programming experience required. Prerequisite: ART 1732 or permission of instructor.  RP
HTBA

ART 3770b, Motion Design: Communicating with Time, Motion, and Sound  Shira Inbar

A studio class that explores how the graphic designer’s conventions of print typography and the dynamics of word-image relationship change with the introduction of time, motion, and sound. Projects focus on the controlled interaction of words and images to express an idea or tell a story. The extra dimensions of time-based communications; choreography of aural and visual images through selection, editing, and juxtaposition. Prerequisite: ART 2765; ART 3768 recommended.  RP
W 3:30pm-7:20pm

* ART 3794a, Text, Speech, and Moving Image  Neil Goldberg

This studio course explores the formal and expressive possibilities of language—both as visual text and spoken word—within video art. Through in-class prompts, students generate writing in various styles, including diaristic, free-associative, expository, and lyrical. This writing serves as a catalyst for video material, which in turn informs new writing, cultivating an iterative dialectic between the two. Readings are drawn from experimental memoir, fiction, poetry, and hybrid forms; screenings include single-channel video art, video installation, and experimental cinema. Students engage in regular critiques as they develop a series of short video works, culminating in a final project. Prerequisites: ART 145 or permission of instructor.
W 3:30pm-7:20pm

ART 4768b, Advanced Graphic Design: Ad Hoc Series and Systems  Julian Bittiner

Much of the field of design concerns itself with devising systems in an attempt to create aesthetic coherence and reduce creative uncertainties, seeking efficiencies with respect to time, production and materials. However this strategy always comes up against each individual set of circumstances; the materials and content at hand, a particular cast of collaborators, a given timeframe. There is an element of the ad hoc in every piece of design; a need to improvise, interpret, adapt, make exceptions. A second thematic concern of this class is the exploration of medium-specificity and medium-porosity as they relate to such systems. The course is comprised of a series of interconnected prompts across distinct formats in print, motion, and interactive, at a wide variety of scales. A third and final thread is the cultivation of greater awareness of the evolving social and aesthetic functions of design processes, artifacts, and channels of engagement and distribution, within increasingly complex cultural contexts. Prerequisites: ART 2764 or 2765, and 3767 or 3768, or permission of instructor.  RP
M 1:30pm-5:20pm

ART 7000a and ART 7001b, Preliminary Studio: Graphic Design  Henk Van Assen

For students entering the three-year program. This preliminary-year studio offers an intensive course of study in the fundamentals of graphic design and visual communication. Emphasis is on developing a strong formal foundation and conceptual skills. Broad issues such as typography, color, composition, letterforms, interactive and motion graphics skills, and production technology are addressed through studio assignments.  6 Course cr per term
M 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 7012a, Prelim Typography  Andrew Walsh-Lister

For students entering the three-year program. An intermediate graphic design course in the fundamentals of typography, with emphasis on ways in which typographic form and visual arrangement create and support content. Focus on designing and making books, employing handwork, and computer technology. Typographic history and theory discussed in relation to course projects.  3 Course cr
W 10am-1pm

ART 7110a and ART 7111b, First-Year Graduate Studio: Graphic Design  Staff

For students entering the two-year program. The first-year core studio is composed of a number of intense workshops taught by resident and visiting faculty. These core workshops grow from a common foundation, each assignment asking the student to reconsider text, space, or object. We encourage the search for connections and relationships between the projects. Rather than seeing courses as being discreet, our faculty teaching other term-long classes expect to be shown work done in the core studio. Over the course of the term, the resident core studio faculty help students identify nascent interests and possible thesis areas.  3 Course cr per term
T 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 7123b, Writing as Visual Practice  Andrew Walsh-Lister

This semester-long course supports first-year MFA graphic design students in developing an interconnected relationship between writing, research and practice. Through a combination of independent inquiry, writing prompts, group exercises, readings, guest lectures, workshops and acts of distribution, ‘Writing as Visual Practice’ approaches writing as a fundamental part of a practice. The course offers a space to actively consider the form of writing and to interrogate its role within a wider design practice, oscillating between the interiority of one’s own work or position, and the exteriority of external audiences and sources. In doing so, the course seeks to set the groundwork for independent thesis writing that follows in the second year of the program, and for an ongoing interrogation of broader modes and possibilities of writing, publishing, editorial and design practices at large.  3 Course cr
Th 10am-1pm

ART 7220a and ART 7221b, Second-Year Graduate Studio: Graphic Design  Staff

For second-year graduate students. This studio focuses simultaneously on the study of established design structures and personal interpretation of those structures. The program includes an advanced core class and seminar in the fall; independent project development, presentation, and individual meetings with advisers and editors who support the ongoing independent project research throughout the year. Other master classes, workshops, tutorials, and lectures augment studio work. The focus of the second year is the development of independent projects, and a significant proportion of the work is self-motivated and self-directed.  6 Course cr per term
Th 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 7340a and ART 7341b, Individual Criticism: Graphic Design  Staff

Limited to M.F.A. graphic design students.  3 Course cr per term
HTBA

ART 7443b, Advanced Typeface Design  Staff

Like other art forms, typeface design responds to aesthetic ideas and currents, as well as functional, technological, and linguistic contexts and constraints. What does it mean to define a useful, original design brief for a typeface, and how can typefaces — understood as systems of recombinable letterforms and spaces — respond to design intent while honoring their intended functionality? This course explores articulating and evaluating design concepts for original type; researching, and working with, potential reference material; and bringing design ideas to life across a consistent and convincing set of original letterforms, while evaluating the work according to its intended usage. Aimed at intermediate typeface designers with some experience drawing and spacing type, the course focuses on building a consistent typeface design that responds to an original brief defined in consultation with the instructor. The course is taught using RoboFont, but is open to existing users of other font editors.  3 Course cr
M 2pm-5pm

ART 7445a, T for Typographies  Julian Bittiner

Part methodological, part historical, part experimental, this studio course investigates contemporary Latin-based typography with an emphasis on craft and expression. Typography is not the dutiful application of a set of rules; however, both inherited and emerging conventions across various geographies and media are closely examined. Students learn to skillfully manipulate these conventions according to the conceptual, formal, and practical concerns of a given project. Supported by historical and contemporary writing and examples, assignments aim to develop observational and compositional skills across a variety of media, oscillating between micro- and macro-aesthetic concerns, from the design of individual letterforms to the setting of large texts, and everything in between. The course includes a short workshop in lettering, but the primary focus is on digitally generated typography and type design. Experimentation with nondigital processes is also encouraged. Students develop an increasingly refined and personal typographic vocabulary, customizing assignments according to their skills and interests.  3 Course cr
M 10am-1pm

ART 7450a, Localhosts  Bryant Wells

Through a series of workshops and projects, students in Localhosts will create a web server using a single-board computer and provide instructions for a browser using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Students are expected to develop a research and content strategy related to a topic of their choosing, culminating in unique and situated web-based works.  You will be asked to consider the following: Where can a website go? What is a website made of, and how can it relate to its setting (the computer it lives on, the surface that renders it, its author, its viewer)? Prior coding experience/exposure is recommended, but not required.  3 Course cr
W 3:30pm-6:30pm

ART 7454b, Code and Interfaces  Alvin Ashiatey

This course invites an in-depth examination of the digital tools that are integral to the graphic design practice. It is common for designers to default to industry-standard software, which can inadvertently narrow creative exploration. Our goal is to go beyond the usual limits by finding new ways to use current technologies, linking different tools together, and maybe even creating our own custom digital tools. We examine the technologies we currently use and search for new, maybe even unconventional, methodologies for creation and knowledge production. The course is structured around a series of lectures, group discussions, and hands-on workshops and culminates in a substantive project. This course does not require a background in software development, merely a willingness to engage with new media in novel and inventive ways. The workshops in this course cover a range of tools and techniques, including p5.js, Processing, Drawbot, InDesign Scripting, Web Scraping, OpenCV, and natural language processing. These sessions are designed to provide hands-on experience and enhance students' digital toolkit.  3 Course cr
M 10am-1pm

ART 7462b, Exhibition Design  Staff

Students enrolled in this studio course have the opportunity to develop creative strategies that bridge physical and digital spaces, fostering dialogue, discovery, and new modes of audience engagement. Enrolled students have the opportunity to conceptualize and produce unifying visual concepts, visual direction, and communication methods, culminating in a final installation that embodies a multilayered exhibition approach. Technical workshops are offered in class introducing students to digital programs and tools that can integrate into both physical and digital exhibitions. Assignments and prompts are given throughout the course, guiding students through the necessary process of bringing an exhibition to life. Engagements and visits to regional cultural institutions form part of the learning experience. This course is co-taught by two faculty members teaching a module each.  3 Course cr
W 10am-1pm

ART 7477a, Situated Scaffolds  Anna Craycroft

This course is a material interrogation of how to use, adapt and create structural supports for display. Over the course of the semester we will experiment with a range of methods and materials that situate graphic design within physical contexts. We will study models found in our daily lives, through exhibition visits, from visiting lectures. Students are expected to bring their own references for discussion and inspiration, each generating a sourcebook for ideas and techniques over the course of the semester. Together we will share ideas and resources, building towards collaboration when applicable.  The coursework requires students to experiment with and apply the scaffolding methods using their own work and design practice. The semester is broken into three units of focus - each four classes in total. Each unit will include: examining models (either on site, with guest visitors, or in slides), & material experimentations in class, to culminate in final presentations and group critique. Students will work alone or in teams to problem solve material solutions for each thematic framework.  3 Course cr
M 2pm-5pm