Some beautifully abstract mathematical forms: the dual graph and the Voronoi diagram. All are related to the study of Topology, which considers “the nature of space, investigating both its fine structure and its global structure. Topology builds on set theory, considering both sets of points and families of sets.” One of the foundational problems of Topology is the Konigsburg Bridge Problem, which I adapted into an assignment here.
In recent years higher education has gone bonkers for branding. The potentially educatable are now the educated potential, and, at least in terms of marketing and focus groups, the students have become the teachers. To wit, this article from NYT, which was instrumental for our critique of the New School’s new identity for BusinessWeek.
Using the laws of modern handwriting analysis, modify an existing typeface to have the attributes of a liar’s script.
Using the Handbook of Regular Patterns, design at least five wallpaper samples for the home or HQ of a major historical person or group.
Make a map of your routes through the city during the next five days.
Curate a timeline that includes all major projects from Parsons as well as all of your major visual influences.
Design a mail-order catalog for the sale of everything in your bedroom.
Write, photograph, and design a travel guide to the Eighth Floor of 2 W 13th St.
Make a presentation that explains a well-known psychology experiment. Think of Milgram, Skinner, Rosenhan, Festinger, Harlow, Kandel, and many others.
Design a game for one player. Explain and document the process of playing it in book form.
Organize and photograph either all the books in your library, all the clothes in your closet, or all the items in your pantry, whichever is most numerous.
Create and install a public sign that alters typical communication patterns in its space. Document the installation.
Design and place three ads for a very close friend using typography found exclusively at the supermarket.
Design a complete alphabet out of things that were once alive.
Typeset 6 versions of your résumé per day over the next 5 days. Do not try to express yourself. Do not create a logo for yourself. Do not use more than 2 fonts per design.
Create posters for a film series with 11 films: M, FX, Big, Jaws, Psycho, Casino, Titanic, Clockers, Chinatown, Casablanca, and Citizen Kane.
Either eavesdrop or keep a diary for five days, and, on the sixth day, use this language to create a poster in A1 format.
Design a logo of your own name based on photographs you’ve taken in New York City.
Design a small book of around 16 pages that tells a joke.
Using the only the words from a TV commercial, design a type-only story-board or small book.
These assignments are from the class Antithesis.
Introduction
As Communication Designers, we are asked to have a tremendous number of technical and analytical skills at our disposal to communicate information that is unfamiliar to us in ways that are unfamiliar to our clients. Designing maps, magazines, typefaces, and posters are all very different skills requiring different tools and a deep understanding of how certain forms favor certain kinds of content when others do not. Successful designs and designers not only understand these problems themselves but manage to communicate them to their audiences.
The majority of the classes in the first few years of Communication Design are geared toward teaching these critical design skills in a cumulative way. In Typography, for example, projects are assigned one-at-a-time to gain an understanding of how letters are made, then words, and then the printed page. A class in Book or Publication Design allows for experimentation within the bounds of these forms by first explaining our expectations from them as an audience.
In the last few years, you have been faced with millions of micro-decisions about how you relate to these forms and strategies of design. A class on strict Information Design, for example, may have left you feeling comfortable with extremely refined typesetting, or it may have reinforced a sense that you work best with more intuitive, gestural solutions. The point of making these micro-decisions on project after project is to build up something like an instinctive method for taking apart communication problems in a visual way. Many designers call this instinctive method their design “process.”
In the Senior Thesis, your process (which is always evolving) was put to the test for the first time in a major way when you had to use it to grapple with a communication problem of your own devising. However, as different as this project may have seemed in terms of its requirements, the Senior Thesis was still, like the classes before it, cumulative and methodical. It began with a diagnostic (What are you interested in?), continued with an initial problem (How will you find out more about it?), and concluded with a bigger challenge (How will you present your learning to others?).
The real world is a much messier place. Designers are seldom given three weeks (let alone fifteen) to focus on any single problem, and problems are not defined around gaining skills but by desired outcomes. A typical designer may be working on several different projects at once, some interesting and some not, all requiring different skills and innovative solutions. What designers fall back on again and again is their process.
Like the Senior Thesis, this class will allow you to continue an investigation of your design process. But, unlike the Senior Thesis, this class will apply real-world constraints to your process. Your task will be to tackle nine one-week design challenges that are outcome-specific. Some of your solutions will be successes; some will be failures. All of the projects are designed to teach you more about your process. In the end, you will choose three of the projects to refine and complete. Along the way, we will continually engage the world around us and our relationship to it.
Projects
Instructor’s note: Though this class only has nine one-week projects, I have an ever-growing pool of projects do draw from, depending on how the class is doing, individual needs, and my own intuition. They tend to be very simple, short, and open-ended. At least a few are adapted from some of the great teachers I’ve had over the years.
18 One-Week Projects
Grading
The nine weekly projects (P1-P9) will be graded as High Pass, Pass, and Fail. Each of these projects are worth 5% of the total grade, meaning that all nine are worth a combined 45% of the grade. From these nine projects, each student will select three to refine during the five refinement weeks in the schedule. These three “final” projects will be worth an additional 15% each, combined for a total of 45%. The final 10% of your grade will be based on attendance and classroom participation, particularly during critique.
Visitors
Visitors will add their new perspectives and insight to our thesis class and will function in a variety of capacities. They may lead critiques, attend individual meetings, give an artist’s talk, or direct a small workshop or charette. You will be advised in advance of their participation in class. Attendance for these sessions is mandatory.
Outings
From time to time, we will go on trips as a class to stimulate discussion and response, and in order to view our classwork in a broader context. You are encouraged to suggest possible outings and contribute to shaping this class as you see fit.
Schedule
(P# = Project #)
This class was first given in spring 2005 at Parsons School of Design in New York.
To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the U.S. Edition of The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 2005, a prominent New York publishing firm has decided to publish each of the 13 stories separately and release them together in a deluxe boxed set. You have been asked to submit a set of three covers as part of your design proposal. Choose three stories from the list below and become familiar with them. Then design a set of three 24p x 42p book covers to compliment these stories. Designs should not use iconography typically associated with Sherlock Holmes; they should seek to solve the problem in an original way. Designs must function as an identifiable set. Designs may be in full-color or black-and-white. They needn’t be computer-generated. They must relate to the content of stories themselves.
Week 1: Students present several ideas to the class. Presentations will be formal, either pinned-up or presented in flats on tables. Ideas will be discussed and refined. Students should be familiar with some or all of the stories in order to best participate in the critique. A minimum of three and maximum of ten directions is expected. Students working on the computer must show versions of their work, not just a single solution.
Week 2: Reading response due for “Paperback Nabokov” due Tuesday before class. In-class discussion of the article “Paperback Nabokov.” Individual meetings. Further refinement and progress monitoring. Final direction selected.
Week 3: Final critique. Covers should be presented trimmed to size and mounted on a single piece of black foamcore pinned to the wall for critique. Students will make a 5-minute statement of introduction, followed by comments from the class.
Available Titles
The Adventure of the Empty House
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist
The Adventure of the Priory School
The Adventure of Black Peter
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
The Adventure of the Three Students
The Adventure of the Golden Prince-Nez
The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter
The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
The Adventure of the Second Stain
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
Go on the Union Square Logo Hunt and discuss.
Lecture: Taxonomic structure of logos.
Reading: “Development of Form through Writing and Printing Techniques” by Adrian Frutiger [Signs and Symbols]
Reading: “History” by Per Mollerup [Marks of Excellence]
Divide into pairs and interview each other for an hour or so. Get to know each others’ likes, tastes, favorite words, colors, fashions, etc. Take good notes, you will use this information for the next four weeks.
Week 1: Use the information you’ve gathered in this week’s class to develop a logo for the classmate that you’ve interviewed. Come to class next week prepared to show fifty logo ideas in an organized fashion. From that batch, nominate 3-5 logos to continue developing. We will critique these.
Week 2: Based on the critique and further development, show how the logos you selected the previous week have progressed. Choose one logo in this group to render in final form. During this finalization process, read pp.69–177 of Paul Rand’s Design, Form, and Chaos to understand what a logo presentation book is, and how to tell the “story” of your logo’s development by thoughtfully introducing and rationalizing its form. Begin gathering materials (writing, illustration, research) for this presentation book.
Week 3: Present a finalized logo and an initial sketch/comp for your presentation book. We will critique both items in tandem.
Week 4: Refine the logo and book as necessary. Final critique.
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
Here is your first assignment. There are logos all around you, and for the purposes of this class and for your future work as designers it is good to become aware of them and what you think of them. Break into three teams and go out into Union Square. In one hour, find as many logos as you can in one of the following categories and bring them back to class, in physical, photographed, or sketched form:
Animals
Arrows
Birds
Botanical Motifs (Leaves, Trees, Flowers)
Buildings
Crosses
Crowns
Dogs
Eyes
Flags
Fragments
Geometric Figures
Globes
Greek alphabet
Handwriting
Hearts
Initials
Keys
Lightning
Lions
Maritime
Möbius Strips / Infinity Symbols
Music
Mythology
Numbers
Science
Serpents
Stars
Waves
X
Meet back in the classroom and we’ll discuss what your team has found.
List above from Per Mollerup’s Marks of Excellence.
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
In 1736, Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler discovered the solution to a problem that the citizens of Königsburg had argued about for quite some time. He described the problem as follows:
In the town of Königsberg in Prussia there is an island A, called “Kneiphoff”, with the two branches of the river (Pregel) flowing around it. There are seven bridges, a, b, c, d, e, f, and g, crossing the two branches.The question is whether a person can plan a walk in such a way that he will cross each of these bridges once but not more than once. I was told that while some deny the possibility of doing this and others were in doubt, there were none who maintained that it was actually possible. On the basis of the above I formulated the following very general problem for myself: Given any configuration of the river and the branches into which it may divide, as well as any number of bridges, to determine whether or not it is possible to cross each bridge exactly once.
For next week’s class, create a single, black-and-white, 51p x 66p sheet that visualizes the problem and its solution. The purpose of your sheet is to teach others how to solve the Königsburg Bridge Problem, so you must use the tools and conventions of typography to help make the information clearer, and you must use whatever resources you have available to teach yourself more about the problem so that you may thougtfully explain it to an audience by way of your design. You may use one typeface only for your solution. Please note that you only have one week to complete the assignment. Good luck.
This assignment is from the class Letters, Symbols, and Composition.
Introduction
Typography is a greatly varied discipline, as are the kinds of work typographers are often asked to produce. The aim here is to solve a number of difficult problems using typographic methods culled from the first semester of training in Type I. These include a knowledge of the history of typography; a familiarity with typographic and alphabetic forms; and an awareness of how these forms should be used, either complicitly or resistantly. We will initiate a semester-long discussion about how the way we see words tells us how to read them and vice versa. We will cultivate our own ways of controlling and creating typographic information. We will look more actively at the typographic world around us, and we will learn from those observations and from our own hard work and critical feedback.
The ability to place your work in context with that of other designers and design history is essential. Over the semester I will suggest many books to compliment the projects we’re doing in class. It is not required that you buy all of them, but it is strongly suggested that you seek them out, either at a library or a bookstore. Some of the suggested readings will be essential for completing the assignments.
There will be no midterm exam.
There will be no final exam, but students will be required to present all the work completed during the semester for a final review. At that time any improvements on past assignments will be taken into account and grades will be changed accordingly.
Your grade depends on the completion of the assignments on the day that they are due, class participation, periodic reading assignments, and punctuality.
This course is dedicated to:
The objectives of this course are:
Projects
Readings
This class focuses on critique and working method more than critical reading. Some readings will accompany the project assignments, but there is no master reading list. However, if you haven’t already got it in your library, Robert Bringhurst’s book will be indispensible for this class and for all of your future work as a typographer.
This class was first given in fall 2003 at Parsons School of Design in New York.
CHAP’BOOK, n. [See Chap to cheapen.]
1. Any small book carried about for sale by chapmen
or hawkers. Hence, any small book; a toy book.
2. A small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts.
Set Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel” in book form.
Requirements: The book should not exceed 16 pages, including cover. The book should not be larger than 36p x 54p. The book should not be set in more than one typeface. All text pages should be numbered. All other pages should not be numbered. A running head or foot may be included if appropriate. The book should include a title page and colophon. The cover should be purely typographic. The cover should reflect the book’s internal grid. The text should open on the right with a blank facing page. The colophon should be on the left of the final spread. The book should saddle-stitched.
Part 1: Design a sample text page for your book on tracing paper. Pay special attention to typeface selection, copyblock proportions, alignment, orientation, leading, kerning, and copyfitting. Bring multiple settings to class if necessary, along with annotations detailing your specifications.
Part 2: Using the revised sample text page as a base, flow the text you’ve selected into the book. Design an appropriate opening page based on your book grid.
Part 3: Design an appropriate title page and cover for your book. Fabricate the book.
This assignment is from the class Typography I.
