Above: The red team’s blog, “Red is the New Black.”
Divide into two groups and create a blog each. One blog supports the color red. The other supports the color blue. The two are competitive. Create 10 new postings per day, minimum. Information need not be accurate and will likely be propagandistic. When possible, use Alexander Theroux’s essays from The Primary Colors to construct your posts.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Hoon Kim’s visceral response to the assignment. Pages from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
1) Describe a FedEx slip through the eyes of a Modernist in 250 words.
2) Describe the same FedEx slip through the eyes of a Postmodernist in 250 words.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Two of Elana Wetzner’s beautiful objects. Pages from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Bring in a box marked “Beautiful” and another marked “Ugly.” Place five graphic design artifacts in each. Come to class prepared to explain your rationale for the placement of the objects.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: For his response, Philipp Rumpf offered a detailed Marxist reading of the Arm & Hammer box. Spread from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Select an object available at the supermarket and write a museum-style wall plaque to describe it. Include artist, nationality, life dates, official title, year of creation, materials, purchasing information, and a 250-word description of the object in an art historical context.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Lauren Mackler and Philipp Rumpf’s response to the assignment. Lauren took an inventory of items in her schoolbag. Philipp returned the inventory to her with his own set of six modifier adjectives and asked her to make sense of his choices. Spread from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Find a partner. Over several days, generate a list of ordered items that are significant to you. Keep this list a secret from your partner. At the same time, generate a deck of cards where each card contains an item from your list. Give this deck to your partner, and take your partner’s deck for yourself. Make a new list using this deck. Come to class ready to compare your lists and your experiences.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Talon Gustafson’s response to the assignment involved picking books whose titles could be used for making a concrete or Dadaist poem. Spread from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Pick 12 books from the library by intuition and write an essay which relates them.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Huy Vu’s response to the assignment, which includes the hamburger recipe he used to cook for his group and the decorative bags he designed to present the meal. Spread from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Form four small groups and spend time together this week. For next week’s class, give a gift that will evoke an emotional response when given.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Hoon Kim’s response to the assignment, in which he provides a tour of the studio based on specific textures from outside and in. Spread from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Write and photograph a simple tour guide to your studio for a stranger who is coming to meet you for the first time.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Above: Jen Magathan’s response to the assignment, which re-examined a set of drawings made along a street in Assisi, Italy during the course of a single day. Spread from “This Is Not a Manifesto.”
Make a record about an event from your life that you have a particularly strong memory of. Gather visual evidence and secondary supporting information as well. The record should fit entirely in the manila file folder that I’ve provided for you.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
Preamble
How do ideas become visual? How do emotions take shape? What do we assume about the things we see? What do we take for granted? What are our expectations for communicating with others? How do they communicate with us? How should information be organized? In what form does it pass from one person to the next? What are the boundaries between the precious and the everyday? How do we evaluate beauty? When do visual things become ideological? Which kinds of communication are information and which are propaganda? Which kinds of communication are ethical and which are unethical? Who decides? What should learning about design require? How should we do it? What does criticism have to teach us? Who can make design? What kind of rights and authority can those people lay claim to?
