Textbook: Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide, by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish (or else, this blog's plentiful notes and images)
Introduction:
ARH 346 is a historical survey of Graphic Design from its origins to the present day. In addition, I emphasize 20th Century and early 21st Century developments in the field.
Goals:
At the end of the semester, the student is supposed to be acquainted with the main trends and styles in the discipline's history. My focus is not "graphic" per se. I view design as a general term for the human mark (more of this throughout the course).
Course content and grades, missing an exam
1- There are two exams: A midterm (25%) and a Final (25%). Each test has a written and a visual component.
2- There is a weekly 150-word (at minimum) comment assignment for each of my weekly posts. Comments must show a bit of research and the ability to discuss novelty on the topic at hand. Generally, I will close the comment window of our blog 6 days after posting. Posts for comment are posted until Monday at 12 noon, when I close the comment section. Here's the breakup of points:
Post for comments = 25% of the final grade, attendance = 25%, mid term & final = 50%.
4- I ask you to refrain from using your personal laptops during my lectures. We don't need more audio-visual overload on top of my image-laden lectures.
5- Missing an exam and retaking it can only happen if the student provides a doctor's note justifying the reason for the absence.
Schedule of Classes
Introduction: This chapter covers the evolutionary foundations of communication, language, and design, early graphic forms, communicating ideas and beliefs, and the invention of proto-writing.
Chapter 1: Early Writing: Mark-making, Notation Systems, and Scripts 3000—500 BC
Mark-making, notation, varieties of early writing, the spread of writing as ideas and scripts, the alphabet, and literate culture.
Chapter 2: Classical Literacy 700 BCE—400 CE
Variations of literacy and the alphabet, the function of graphic codes, models of writing: gestural and constructed, writing at the end of the Classical age.
Chapter 3: Medieval Letterforms and Book Formats 400—1450
Medieval culture and graphic communication, graphic media and contexts, the codex book letterforms, manuscript hands, and pattern books; Graphic forms of knowledge, publishing communities, and graphic arts.
Chapter 4: Renaissance Design: Standardization and Modularization in Print 1450—1660
Early print design, graphic communication in Renaissance culture, print technology and type design, graphic forms of knowledge.
Chapter 5: Modern Typography and the Creation of the Public Sphere 1660—1800
Printed matter and the public sphere, news books, broadsheets, newspapers, politics and the press, graphic arts and design, and modern type design. On the edge of industrialization
Chapter 6: The Graphic Effects of Industrial Production 1800—1850
Industrialization and visual culture, illustrated papers, book design for mass production, printing images, advertising design, and typography, fine art and graphic art; critical issues.
Chapter 7: Mass Mediation 1850—1900s
Printed mass media, changes in print technology, changing patterns in the use of graphic media, media networks, graphic design and advertising, posters, and public space.
Chapter 8: Formations of the Modern Movement 1880s—1910s
Responses to industrialism, Arts and Crafts publications, Arts and Crafts dissemination, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Viennese design, Decadence and Aestheticism, the private press movement and modern design, integration of design and industry.
Chapter 9: Innovation and Persuasion 1910—1930
Visual culture and avant-garde design, the graphic impact of Futurism and Dada, from experiment to principles, propaganda, and mass communication studies, graphic persuasion and its effects institutionalizing graphic design.
Chapter 10: The Culture of Consumption 1920s—1930s
Designing the modern lifestyle, modern style in graphic design, consumer culture, and the profession.
Chapter 11: Public Interest Campaigns and Information Design 1930s—1950s
Public interest and education, photojournalism and documentary, wartime propaganda, wartime information, commercial and technical uses of information design, information analysis, and design process.
Chapter 12: Corporate Identities and International Style 1950s—1970s
Image and identity systems, International style: Style, systems, and graphic design concepts; technology, the profession.
Chapter 13: Pop and Protest 1960s—1970s
Pop culture and style, self-conscious graphic design, slick surfaces and high production values, counterculture and the alternative press, revolutionary culture and protest, changes in the profession, and critical vocabulary.
Chapter 14: Postmodernism in Design 1970s—1980s and Beyond
Postmodern styles, postmodern consumption, conservatism, critical theory and postmodern sensibility, postmodernism, and activism.
Chapter 15: Digital Design After the 1970s
Digital technology: from punch cards and plotters to desktop computing, Media transitions: type design and publications: Fluidity and functionality. The myth of immateriality and challenges of digital design.
Chapter 16: Today's Graphic Design
Ad Busters
Majid Abbasi
Chris Dixon
Eboy
Dave Eggers
Experimental Jetset (Amsterdam)
Sarah Fanelli
Isidro Ferrer (Spain)
Field Study
Lizzie Finn (London)
Tom Gauld (London)
Julia Hasting (NY)
Yuri Gutilov (Moscow)
Fons Hickmann (Berlin/Vienna)
Kim Hirthøy (Oslo)
Keiko Hirano (Tokyo)
Inkahoots (Brisbane, Australia)
Siobhan Keaney (London)
Ji Lee (NY)
Ken-Tsai Lee (Taipei)
Anette Lenz (Paris)
Kei Matsushita (Tokyo)
Ung Vai Meng (Macao, China)
Mooren & van der Velden (Amsterdam) Torturers of modern design
Peter Moser (Switzerland) Design as Theater.
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1. I don't grant a makeup exam if not adequately justified by a doctor.
2. You'll miss the comment/option if you don't post a comment before I close the comment/option (each Thursday @ 2pm).
3. If you cannot come to class, let me know in advance so I won't mark you "absent" and instead "justified". I won't fix absences unless adequately justified by a doctor's note.
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