ART 132a 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 145b, 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 184a, 3D Modeling for Creative Practice  Alvin Ashiatey

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
WF 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 264a, Typography!  Staff

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 132.   RP
MW 10:30am-12:20pm

ART 266a, 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
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

ART 294b, Technology and the Promise of Transformation  Staff

Inherent transformative qualities are embedded within technology; it transforms our lives, the way we perceive or make art, and conversely, art can reflect on these transformations. Students explore the implementation of technologies in their art making from pneumatic kinetics, bioengineering, AR, VR, and works assisted by artificial intelligence—modes of production that carry movement, degradation, and displacement of authorship. The student practice is supported by readings, independent research, and essays on diverse artists and designers who make use of technology in their work or, on the contrary, totally avoid it. This course is a curricular collaboration with The Center for Collaborative Arts and Media at Yale (CCAM).
W 3:30pm-7:20pm

ART 368b, 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 132 and 264, or permission of instructor.  RP
F 1:30pm-5:20pm

ART 369a 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 132 or permission of instructor.  RP
HTBA

ART 468b, 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 264 or 265, and 367 or 368, or permission of instructor.  RP
M 1:30pm-5:20pm

ART 469a, Advanced Graphic Design: Interpretation, Translation  Henk Van Assen

A probe into questions such as how artists can be present as idiosyncratic individuals in their work, and how that work can still communicate on its own to a broad audience. Concentration on making graffiti, i.e., the design of a set of outdoor marks and tours for New Haven. A technological component is included, both in the metaphor of designing outdoor interaction as a way to learn about screen-based interaction and in the final project to design an interface for a handheld computer. Prerequisites: ART 264 or 265, and 367 or 368, or permission of instructor.  RP
Th 8:25am-12:20pm

ART 710a and ART 711b, Preliminary Studio: Graphic Design  Barbara Glauber and Scott Stowell

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
F 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 712a, 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
M 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 714a and ART 715b, All Design Considered  Henk Van Assen

This two-term course meets with Prelim Graphic Design students on a regular basis to discuss different areas of graphic design, explore modes of practice, and help evaluate a student's work made in other studio classes. Through group discussions, lectures and readings, and individual desk critiques, we investigate different methods of thinking and making. We simultaneously explore the work of others and each student's own development as a graphic designer. Additionally, several field trips are organized to visit design studios and other places of design production and research to encounter and assess various methods of generating work in the context of visual communication. In the spring term, a few self-initiated projects are added to the aforementioned to formally and physically explore some of the content investigated during the fall.  3 Course cr per term
Th 1:30pm-4:30pm

ART 720a and ART 721b, First-Year Graduate Studio: Graphic Design  Nontsikelelo Mutiti

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.  6 Course cr per term
T 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 723b, Writing as Visual Practice  Dena Yago

This semester-long course supports first-year M.F.A. graphic design students in establishing an individualized relationship between writing and their design practice. Here we examine writing as a creative form that weaves throughout the work. The course sets the groundwork for students to consider how they will develop a unique form of thesis writing but goes beyond this to consider writing as a fundamental element of their practice: as a form of engaging both the external world through interviews and criticism and negotiating one’s interiority through embodied writing practices. This course incorporates a range of inputs, including guest lecturers, screening materials, and group exercise.  3 Course cr
M 2pm-5pm

ART 730a and ART 731b, Second-Year Graduate Studio: Graphic Design  Andrew Walsh-Lister, Julian Bittiner, and Nontsikelelo Mutiti

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.  3 Course cr per term
Th 1:30pm-5:30pm

ART 738a and ART 739b, Degree Presentation in Graphic Design  Andrew Walsh-Lister, Julian Bittiner, and Nontsikelelo Mutiti

For second-year students. Resolution of the design of the independent project fitting the appropriate medium to content and audience. At the end of the second term, two library copies of a catalogue raisonné with all independent project work are submitted by each student, one of which is retained by the University and the other returned to the student. The independent project or “thesis” is expected to represent a significant body of work accomplished over the course of two years, culminating in the design of an exhibition of the work.  6 Course cr per term
HTBA

ART 743b, Letterform Design  Nina Stoessinger

Designing typefaces means building systems of recombinable letterforms. It is therefore distinct from other letter-making disciplines in that it necessarily calls for a systematic approach. Besides optical and aesthetic issues presented by individual letters, the course focuses on building a consistent typeface design by way of a structured and systematic process. Students create their own digital typefaces, working on individual projects chosen in consultation with the main instructor. The project definition necessarily includes aesthetic as well as functional goals; with the problems of type design so deeply interconnected, a clear project definition is needed to establish relevant criteria for testing and evaluating the work. Projects are usually based on one or more historical references, which are understood as guideposts but not constraints. The course is taught with RoboFont, a leading font editor program for Macintosh OS X that allows designers to construct letterforms on screen and turn them into usable fonts. Students are introduced to the software while learning the principles of designing and spacing type. Fully fledged type designers are not made in one term; the object is to “demystify” the subject and teach users of type an increased appreciation and deeper understanding of it.  3 Course cr
F 2pm-5pm

ART 744a, Moving Image Methods  Neil Goldberg

This class explores the signature formal properties and possibilities of video and provides critical frameworks for understanding moving image work. A series of hands-on projects introduces video production techniques, with a focus on accessible approaches over technically complex ones. Screenings from various cinema and video art traditions provide context for these explorations and help guide critique of the students’ own work. One thematic focus is on framing the everyday, the overlooked, and the incidental, providing a useful bridge to some of the key concerns of graphic design practice: how to direct attention, create emphasis, make manifest the latent and the liminal. In addition to production strategies, the course offers exercises that focus attention on the act of attention itself, to investigate how video can augment and transfigure the act of observation and uniquely represent what is observed. These exercises build toward the completion of a larger video project incorporating the approaches introduced throughout the term. Students gain the technical and critical facility to incorporate moving image work thoughtfully in their own design practices.  3 Course cr
M 2pm-5pm

ART 745a, 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
W 10am-1pm

ART 745a, 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
W 10am-1pm

ART 750a, Coded Design  Bryant Wells

Learning how to apply the medium of the Internet to the practice of design. Through discourse, example, and collaboration, we learn how the shape and properties of information influence the digital surfaces around us. Students bring their interest in understanding the nature of systems, develop new ways of looking at their own work through the lens of code, and conceptualize novel social experiences in distributed design. Through HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and API, the web browser becomes a method for helping to create the digital world around us and aids in deepening our understanding of the information economy that feeds creation and consumption online. While this course goes deep into these and other programming technologies and concepts, prior experience with programming or HTML is recommended, but not required.  3 Course cr
W 3:30pm-6:30pm

ART 754b, 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
Th 10am-1pm

ART 755a, Collage Networks  Ritu Ghiya

As online networks create new spaces for human interaction, artists and designers have novel opportunities to make work for nuanced, memetic, emerging mediums. During the semester, students research designer/developer practices to make concept-driven projects. Artists also visit for technology demos, feedback sessions, and workshops to guide students’ work. To be successful in this class, students should have experience building web pages with HTML, CSS, and some Javascript.  3 Course cr
M 10am-1pm

ART 762b, Exhibition Design  Staff

Students enrolled in this studio course have the opportunity to work in collaboration with their classmates and peers to concept, design, and produce an exhibition. Assignments and prompts are given throughout the course, guiding students through the necessary process of an exhibition coming to life. The students identify and create relevant touch points in relation to the exhibition and create a system of collateral ranging from exhibition graphics and signage to advertising materials. The focus of the exhibition is informed by strategic discussions amongst the class, identifying the audience, purpose and goals.  3 Course cr
W 10am-1pm

ART 770b, Motion  Shira Inbar

An impactful communication method, motion is inseparable from design process and practice. This course combines studio work with an examination of histories and theories to explore the possibilities and value of time-based design. Focusing on each student's evolving body of work, the course introduces methods and principles including sequential thinking, time and transition comprehension, linear and non-linear narratives, iteration and translation, and behavioral fine-tuning and aims to expand each student's ability to work and think in motion in an integrated, intuitive way. Output and applications vary in format, scale, duration, and context as well as in process and method, ranging from independent work to collaborative projects. Prior software knowledge is not mandatory, but welcomed and recommended.  3 Course cr
M 10am-1pm

ART 790b, The Media of Sound: Experimental Approaches to Sound Recording and Media Design  Ross Wightman

This course explores the multifaceted and multimedia approaches used in the industry of recording sound and designing the art objects that contain them. With a focus on experimental and conceptual applications of this technology, students engage in creating sonic/visual works that subvert, alter, or synthesize the various media forms that go into “music production.” Alongside creative projects, historical and contemporary works of sound art and music production are examined as case studies to exemplify both the norms of the industry and works that subvert them. Concepts related to the transmission and reception of sound through various media (tape, vinyl, MP3, etc.) are explored alongside the quirks, limitations, and advantages of the milieu of hardware and software options (multi-track recording devices, DAWs, etc.), both contemporary and antiquated, that have been available to producers and artists alike over the last century and beyond. Topics include formatting artwork for sound recordings, recording and editing sound, collaboration on production of both digital and physical media, and more.  3 Course cr
M 10am-1pm