Welcome to Graphic Design: Conversations

Overview

In this course, participants will create a collective, web-based publication together.

To do this, we will explore:

  • Conversation — We consider the entire course an ongoing conversation between us all. We might begin by asking each other: “What do we want to publish? Why?” We might not have an answer at first because we don’t know each other yet. So we’ll get to know each other, and so on & so forth. We will also consider what roles we’d like to inhabit while working together. A publication needs many people acting as a team, including (but not limited to): writers, editors, illustrators, designers, developers, art directors, project managers, etc. Finally, conversations as a medium are inherently “interactive” — that is, you often do some preparation for a conversation, but you also need to be present in order to be responsive to what happens in the moment, for it to be most meaningful.

  • Publishing on WWW — We’ll be publishing on the world wide web, so we will learn about its history and feel comfortable using it as a medium. Participants will learn about web’s original intentional design as a decentralized system for not only passive consumption but active contribution! We’ll explore foundational web-publishing methods, including making our own websites with HTML and CSS, as one of many possible tools in our web-publishing toolbox.

  • Creativity — At its essence, creativity is bringing two unlike things together. You could say creativity is simply connecting things. As a class, we’ll practice activities inspired by process-based art movements & groups including Fluxus and Oulipo. We will be creative as a class but also practice on our own to gain experience. Weekly assigned prompts will aid in personal exploration & reflection. Each participant will keep a simple “Log” and “Net” (more on these in “Weekly Prompts” section below) throughout the course as a way to document their personal creative processes.

Class & course design

This course will meet for 12 individual classes.

For the first half of the semester ...

Each class will include:

  • activity
    (hopefully a creative / exploratory one)

  • lecture
    (on theme related to conversation / web publishing / creativity)

  • conversation
    (based on last week’s prompts)

The prompts for the following week’s class will be emailed to you on Wednesday following class (the day after). Each prompt will likely include a reading, an activity, and prompt for journaling and collecting (for your “Log” and “Net”). Learn more about the prompts in the section below, “Weekly Prompts.”

The second half of the semester ...

Will be more freeform. Since we’ll be more focused on creating our collective publication, the way we spend time in class will be dependent on what we decide to create together, each participant’s role in the publication, and so on. Stay tuned.

Schedule

  • Tuesday, January 31
  • Tuesday, February 7
  • Tuesday, February 14
  • Tuesday, February 28 … guest TBD

  • Tuesday, March 7

    (Spring Recess)

  • Tuesday, March 21
  • Tuesday, March 28 … guest TBD
  • Tuesday, April 4
  • Tuesday, April 11
  • Tuesday, April 18
  • Tuesday, April 25
  • Tuesday, May 2

Note: There is no class on Tuesday, February 21

Texts for this Course

This year, we’ll frequently be referencing two texts:

( 1 ) Are.na 2023 Annual


Each participant will receive a physical copy of this book, which presents various writings from community members of Are.na on the theme of “Service.” We will start the semester off by reading the last piece, “Wikipedia as a Sacred Text,” a conversation between designers Carolyn Li-Madeo and Sharon Park. You can read more about this publication here.

( 2 ) Fruitful School Guides


Fruitful School is a workshop I sometimes do with my friend John Provencher that blends websites with art. These helpful guides, which are not perfect but useful, help in learning web markup and coding languages HTML, CSS, and JS almost as if you would use any other art medium — paint, clay, etc. I’ll be sending links to these as we need them throughout the semester. More info about Fruitful School here.

Weekly Prompts

Each participant will also be completing weekly prompts during the first half of the semester. Their aim is to help in personal creative exploration & reflection. Each prompt will likely include a reading, an activity, and prompt for journaling and collecting (for your “Log” and “Net”).

These prompts are like regular exercise (for “creative fitness”) and should be completed weekly if you want to be “strong” (creatively). Note that each weekly prompt will come with a time estimation — that is, about how long I estimate the prompts will take you (1-3 hours typically). Please make sure to set aside this full amount of time to complete them. Don’t spend much over this estimation, either, as more time spent doesn’t necessarily mean better quality work. What’s important is your full, active engagement during the allotted time period.

Your “Log” is where you write. Your “Net” is where you collect. Most likely both of these will happen on the website Are.na, which will be introduced during the second week of class.

Evaluation & Grades

This course essentially culminates in a class-wide project. That said, its success depends on literally everyone’s genuine effort, participation, & cooperation. Let’s not have any missing links!

I’m treating this course as pass/fail (A or F). To pass, show up, do your work, and be a good team member! For the first half of the semester, this means making sure to complete your weekly prompts and being an active participant in-class. For the second half, this means being a contributing and helpful team member so we can have a successful collective web publication.

This course prioritizes creative process. That said, the invention of useful products is not the focus of this class, but the invention of useful techniques and approaches might be. Creativity relies on first paying attention to your interests & curiosities, giving yourself the space & time to explore them thoroughly, and then sharing and reflecting on what you’ve created. Make sure to give proper energy to each part of the process throughout this course.

Attendance

Attendance is essential. Please note that three or more absences will result in a failing grade. If you absolutely must miss class, please email me in advance. (If you do miss class, note that you are responsible for catching up on any individual work.)

Health is a priority in this class. If you need to be virtual due to exposure to COVID, need to miss completely due to sickness, or are virtual or absent for some other COVID-related concern, let me know as soon as possible.

Academic integrity

Students will become familiar with using pre-existing language, images, and software as raw material while creating entirely new works. While making websites, we will learn which technologies could be appropriated and how to properly credit their inclusion.

From Academic Integrity at MIT: "Writing Code":

“Writing code is similar to academic writing in that when you use or adapt code developed by someone else as part of your project, you must cite your source. However, instead of quoting or paraphrasing a source, you include an inline comment in the code. These comments not only ensure you are giving proper credit, but help with code understanding and debugging.”

“You should not simply re-use code as the solution to an assignment. Like academic writing, your code can incorporate the ideas of others but should reflect your original approach to the problem.”

I encourage you to retype someone else’s code instead of copy and pasting it. It’ll help you learn. On that note, be careful about pasting huge blocks of code. Remember to do things one step at a time so you truly understand each piece of code’s unique function.

Materials

Participants should bring personal laptops to class.

Software used in class:

  • Web Browser — Chrome or Firefox
  • Code Editor — VSCode, Sublime Text, or Atom
  • Graphics Editor — Figma

Websites / accounts used in class:

  • Are.na — for collecting & journaling collaboratively
  • Wikipedia — for contributing
  • Glitch.com — for collaborating on and storing code
  • GitHub — for storing and versioning code

Eligibility

This course is open to 12 students.

Anyone officially registered for the class who confirms they want to keep their spot is “in.” For those registered, send me an email (schwulst@princeton.edu) to confirm that you would like to keep your spot by Saturday, February 4th.

There is a large waitlist for this course. If someone who is registered drops the class, the priority for who gets in off the waiting list goes: VIS majors > VIS certificates > freshmen > sophomores > juniors > seniors. I will be in touch to everyone on the waitlist via email on Monday, February 6th if there are any openings.

If you’re registered but uncertain about whether you’d like to take the course, please kindly let me know and drop the course ASAP so someone from the waiting list can get in. Thank you!

Note: David Reinfurt’s VIS215 (“Advanced Graphic Design”) may be open to new students. It meets on Monday afternoons. Learn more at its website: https://r-e-s-e-a-r-c-h.org or by emailing reinfurt@princeton.edu.

Acknowledgements

This class has been generously shaped by many. Special thanks to Meg Miller, Jason Protell, Peter Pelberg, Megan Pai, Max Bittker, Lai Yi Ohlsen, Laura Coombs, David Reinfurt, Tamara Maletic, and Dan Michaelson, among others.