Overview + Content

This course is the culmination of a four-year undergraduate training in Visual Communication Design. Throughout the VCD curriculum, students learn ‘best practices’ in two-dimensional design, typography, color theory, logo and brand development, design histories and theories, the fundamentals and principles of time-based media, interactivity, design research, and user-centered methods, and mass-production in print. In this final VCD course, students leverage the sum of their acquired skills to design and implement a people-centered design project. Students identify unframed problem spaces, conduct research methods to uncover solutions, and develop visual communication design solutions that address their findings. Through this, students learn about time management. Students format and present their work in various professional settings and receive feedback from both internal and external audiences. Your capstone should reflect the depth and breadth of your learning in application to a project that is deeply meaningful to you. Your capstone work will be the core of your senior show.

Structure + Process

This class meets for 5 hours each week. Most class sessions will be structured with individual advising sessions and presentations at each project milestone. As you are in control of the progression and outcomes of your project, you should utilize class time effectively: meet with the instructor(s), prompt a critique, pilot your solutions, ask questions, and work smart. Additional activities (lectures, tutorials, critique, etc.) may be added to class sessions at the instructor’s discretion. You are expected to work a minimum of 9 hours outside of class per week to achieve the class goals. You (YOU!) determine the structure of your capstone experience.

In the first weeks of the semester, we will go through a process that will help you define your project and outcomes. After that, we will break the semester into quarters:

Quarter 1 (10 January–24 February): Project definition and the first round of designs (culminates in an internal critique)

Internal Presentation (28 February, 2 March)

Quarter 2: (7–24 March): Project/Solution Refinement (culminates in an 'external' critique with visiting reviewers)

External Presentation (28, 30 March)

Quarter 3 (28 March–18 April): Revise/Produce (culminates in final documentation)

Quarter 4 (20 April–3 May): Package, Present, Portfolio (culminates in the senior exhibition).

Grading and Projects

Grades are a little different in this course. Traditional letter grades hinder creativity and place emphasis on task completion rather than creative investigation. With this in mind, your assessment in this course will be focused on your learning rather than your output.

The primary mode of feedback will be through a series of critiques (at the end of each "quarter").

At the end of the semester, you will be asked to complete a self-reflection that will facilitate a one-on-one discussion with the instructors.  At that meeting, we will discuss what grade we both believe is appropriate. With all this in mind, expectations for deliverables will always be clearly communicated and your participation in those activities will be considered when determining your grade. Feedback from Helen, Aaron, Amrita, and your peers will be provided in both structured (rubrics) and unstructured (critique) venues throughout the semester.

Engagement Policy

There is no "attendance" policy for this class. However, there is an "engagement" policy, which will affect your final grade for the semester (and, by extension, the quality of your work). You are expected to actively and passionately take part in this course in the following ways:

• Attend class meetings on time both in-person and online.
• Create things and be prepared to show them on time for crits and discussions.
• Make things thoughtfully, intentionally, and with intensity.
• Meet all deadlines for handing in work and process.
• Actively participate in critiques and discussions both in-person and online.
• Be actively curious about making things and the things your classmates make.
• Care about yourself & your work, your classmates and their work, this class, and your profession.

This policy is adapted from a version by Meena Khalili via Mitch Goldstein (source)

Approach

There are a few principles that should define our collective approach this semester.

Be present, not perfect

"Design, as a problem-solving activity, can never, by definition, yield one right answer: it will always produce an infinite number of answers, some 'righter' and some 'wronger.' The 'rightness' of any design solution will depend on the meaning which we invest the arrangement [of design elements]."
-Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, 1971

Outside of a few issues (spelling, craft, promptness), We will never ask you to be perfect in this class. Your daily goal should be to make your best effort, learn from your mistakes, and continuously improve (even if by very small amounts). Rather than executing perfect solutions, focus on being present and attentive in class, during critique, and in discussions and we promise that you will be a much better designer by the end of the semester.

Reevaluate your expectations for critique

Professor Mitch Goldstein from the Rochester Institute of Technology has put together a very useful guide to critique. Please review it prior to any critique to refresh your memory on the purpose of critique. One of the best quotes from his guide:

"You should walk away from getting a crit feeling empowered and excited to make the work better, not defeated and miserable from the experience. It is up to both the givers and the receivers of the critique to make this happen." 

How to Crit Guide (Links to an external site.)

Make sure you have backups 

Losing your computer (either from a software crash, hardware failure, theft, or otherwise) is an inevitability. Embrace this and plan for it: have a plan to backup your computer. We recommend having a two-pronged backup strategy. You should have one hard backup on an external hard drive somewhere. If you use a Mac, make sure Time Machine is connected and use it regularly. The other backup should be remote. You could use Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. or use a remote backup service like Backblaze or iDrive.

Be honest and sincere

To do our best work together, we need to have a good working relationship. Trust is the cornerstone. Do your best, and if you fall short, be humble and ready to learn. If you need to miss class for any reason, just tell us. We've heard it all and that's okay.

Honesty also works both ways. If something is not going as you would like in this class, tell one or both of us. I'm ready to talk about it and work through it.