About the Course
The course focuses on developing a strong foundation in design, craft, composition, typography, and conceptual development. It is designed to assist in the development of formal practice and technical skills in the fields of art and design, and the roles of typography in contemporary culture. Students develop abilities in critical and creative thinking, artistic innovation, and project planning and management.
click here to see process map for the design of the course
1. Exemplify key publication design principles, with a focus on the text and image relationships within magazine and book formats, through representation of conceptual project plans, submission of sketches and project drafts, and submission of final project work.
2. Demonstrate advanced practice in the design of publication structures, with an emphasis on design of a publication’s cover, spine, title page, table of contents, chapter opening, appendices, and index, through presentation of conceptual project plans, submission of sketches and project drafts, and submission of final project work.
3. Demonstrate advanced practice with typography as an element of publication design, with an emphasis on the design of text blocks and flow, running heads, callouts, folios, footnotes, and quotations, through presentation of conceptual project plans, submission of sketches and project drafts, and submission
of final project work.
4. Create examples of professional bookbinding, with a focus on soft-cover perfect binding construction, and hardcover sewn construction, through production of functional binding prototypes.
5. Demonstrate knowledge of publication design history, with an emphasis on understanding the ways in which publication design, as a discipline, has been influenced by the economic, social and/or political conditions of a place and time, through participation in group seminars and writing of annotated bibliographies.
6. Read and interpret key ideas in publication design theory, with an emphasis on the topics of design authorship, reception theory, and the future of the book, through participation in group seminars, writing of annotated project bibliographies, and submission of final project work.
Course Syllabus + Assignment Briefs
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Assignments
[click here to see Student Work]
This course will introduce students to the practice, history, and theory of publication design. Through design research, independent project work and collaborative exercises, students will investigate the ways in which various publication models have served different needs for their publishers, writers, and readers. Course work will include independent student research, sustained project work and critiques, placing equal emphasis on concept (the design process) and craft (soft cover construction, sewn binding structures, digital and web based publications).
Lectures, readings and guided discussions will supplement project work, introducing students to the topics of design authorship, the history of reading, reception theory, and the future of the book. To successfully complete this course, students will be expected to understand, emulate and extend the composition principles and publication formats that informed the first manuscript books and that have continued with the printed book into the contemporary age of digital production.
Course Structure + General Policies
Each project or problem is carefully structured to create conditions conducive to discovering the processes of publication design as a social practice. These conditions encourage exploration of visual communication concepts and design principles, allowing students to develop more personal and socially connected ways of addressing and solving communication problems.
Approximately one third of the semester will be spent in lecture and class discussion; the remainder will be spent in critique and production of student work. Please be prepared to spend a significant amount of time outside of the allotted class time on process and production of projects. Under this instructive approach, personal and intuitive concepts are stressed over specific technical skills. These skills and techniques –needed to execute the assignments– are not taught; they must be developed through involvement with the problems.