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

Fall Quarter '06/07

Mondays/Wednesdays, 1-4
Primary studio and lab in 404 + working studio and bookbinding in 405 + Lectures in room 403,

codes: 405=3960#, 404= tba

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 496A will focus on your preparation for the practice with Professor Palacios.
A series of tasks.

December Break,

Continue your work on design research projects, preparation of your book/portfolio and possibly pursue an internship.

Winter,

Art 452 will continue to research design methodology through editorial applications in advanced typography with Professor Palacios.
Art 459, Graphic Design Topics with Professor Nulf is highly recommended; this is the last year Karen will be offering this course.
Art 469B will focus on your preparation for the practice. We will place work and resumes online using methods of Information Architecture Plus prepare and send out your first wave of applications for design positions. The professor will be determined this quarter.
The tasks

Spring,

Art 453 will focus on bringing a closure to your academic pursuit of a graphic design education at Ohio University. This will continue to include experimentation within new media using methods of Information Architecture (IA), and the senior show among other actions. Professor Asher will be the professor of record for this quarter.
Finishing the tasks

Orientation to Art 451, Senior Studio:

The course objective is to secure enough of an understanding of the design processes investigated to be able to utilize them in continued experimentation throughout your work in the practice. It will assure you of your ability to recognize your design potential 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 begin the quarter by visiting letterform design. A process, which is studied in design programs at various universities which allow the advancement of design students to focus on typeface awareness as a metaphor in synthesis.
• We will evolve a complex design application by first researching the visual results of a grid study.
• To determine a clear direction for the next project, we will be looking at portfolios within the next few weeks and create a series of stamps, a packaging system or redesigning the U.S. currency depending on your needs.
• A One-Day Project, typically a letter/letter combination or a clock will shift (if we want to) to a bookbinding exercise.
  

Change is essential for all professions. And graphic design is no exception. In design, methodologies have transformed and have reinvented themselves partially as a result of understanding and reacting to our heritage. In the curriculum at OU we embrace and respect the heritage of design. Therefore, we have the potential of envisioning new design methods. This process allows you to 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 associated with the typeface, the grid studies and applied system, you will create a visual library of self-motivated results that you will most likely reference during future endeavors.

Activities that need attention:

• Finishing Studio 404, room functions must include:
  • work spaces for 20 students and a professor station, this room accommodates Seniors, and Juniors in design only. Eventually the computers will be here.
  • a conference table,
  • pin up discussion board in close proximity to the conference area
  • The juniors will be using 404, therefore studio spaces will have to be clear for your own security reasons and establishing the work environment advocated clear thinking without visual noise and distractions. This is due to dedicating our teaching lab classroom to include full workspaces. Something we have never been able to achieve until now. (during this quarter there will be some disturbances due to the technology upgrade of the room along with the furniture shift and installation of vertical flat storage)
  • space for the official hard copy time line
  • paper samples, Pantone books and reference library
  • We are making the space a bit more designed. There was a big improvement by pitching out some of the junk furniture and those funky walls! We still need to do more.
  • Class coordinator needs to orchestrate and make sure these functions have been addressed by Monday of next week
• There will be no assignments of desks. It is much like the lab used to be first come first serve.
• Each person responsible for their designated task must assist me in updating tasks by incorporating last year's post-mortem reports.
• 405 will be letterpress and sophomore class workspaces plus this room will be available for you to work large and with bookbinding.

Office Hours

My office hours will be 4-5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays or by appointment. We will have a 20-minute mid-term meeting to discuss your overall mid-term effectiveness.

© Ohio University, 2006, updated on 6 September 2006, return to top / Attendance/Work/Grading / adleta front door / adleta@ohio.edu