Design Practicum is a studio in which students work with industry professionals to complete research, design, and production for a public-facing project in a non-commercial environment. This is an advanced production studio intended for 3rd or 4th year BFA students interested in working with outside collaborators, such as artists, academics from other fields, curators, local representatives, consultancies, and other design practitioners.
Outside collaborators and their respective organizations are selected and managed by the professor of each semester. This semester, we are excited to work with Amir Esfahani from the non-profit organization Internet Archive, Joanne Cheung from the global design company IDEO, and our very own Mason Gross Galleries.
Students will be involved in all stages of design projects including research, concept development, design, development, production, and presentation. Studio time will be used for project work, short presentations, discussion, and critiques. Students will meet with commissioners to define objectives, complete basic research, understand the content, develop design strategies, and present work-in-progress. Based on feedback, students will revise, refine, and produce final designs for the last client presentation. Students will be expected to self-organize, manage schedules, and communicate with commissioners and their classmates. The course will also include virtual field trips and studio visits.
Right now, we are all remote. But when we return to campus, we need to acknowledge that Rutgers New Brunswick campus is on unceded land from the Munsee Lenape tribe. Even for our video calls, Zoom relies on servers at Equinix data centers in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Melbourne, New York, Tokyo, Toronto, Silicon Valley & Sydney, according to Rory Solomon, Assistant Professor at the New School. Let’s discuss: what is a land acknowledgement statement? More information can be found here: native-land.ca
— work with industry professionals and organizations
— understand SOW (Scope of Work), deliverables, and production
— define constraints and design strategies
— successfully present to and negotiate with commissioners and designer colleagues
— conduct visual research and explore innovative presentation techniques
— create professional presentations
— revise, refine, and iterate designs until the work is published
Weekly attendance is very important. This is a once-per-week studio class with in-class instruction that cannot necessarily be made up outside of class.
One absence will be forgiven and not affect your grade. Each absence thereafter results in a partial letter grade reduction of your final grade (e.g. A- becomes B+). If you do miss class, for any reason, it is your responsibility to catch up on the work. Contact me via email to review any material you missed. Your classmates are also a good resource for catching up. Classes missed for religious observation will of course be accommodated, but please provide reasonable advance notice to the instructor.
Three late arrivals constitutes one class absence. Attendance will be taken during the first 5 minutes of every class. If you arrive after that period, you will be considered late and it will be your responsibility to check in with me to avoid being marked absent. Three unexcused absences results in a failing grade.
Every part of this course can be completed remotely, and no part requires on-campus facilities. In this class, we will be using the primary tools:
— laptop or desktop computer
— WiFi
— Adobe Creative Suite: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop
— Zoom for video calls
— course website to view assignment briefs, resources, and class announcements
— Google Drive (docs, forms, etc)
— Slack
For this online course, you will not be required to print out any files. However, it is very important to begin to create a clear system for storing your digital files.
File management is an important part of the design process. During this class, you are expected to develop a clear system of naming and keeping track of your digital files. Please do not name files “thing for design1a” or “finalfinal project.” Be specific and clear so that you can document your progress and easily navigate your files.
Each student has 30G of storage space on the art.rutgers.edu server. This server can be accessed remotely.
Files submitted for review must be .pdf files.
While you are encouraged to organize your working files according to your own system, submitted files must follow a class-wide naming format:
“student initials_project name_process milestone_iteration”.pdf
For example:
AB_InternetArchive_Sketch_2.pdf
or
YZ_Ideo_Final_1.pdf
Please use underscores between phrases (shift + hyphen) and do not leave blank spaces or use periods. This is an industry-wide convention to avoid possible file corruption or confusion with operating system files. For example:
“Mindy Seu_Internet Archive_Sketch”.pdf
“Mindy%Seu_Internet%Archive_Sketch”.pdf
— attend all classes on time and prepared to work
— complete all projects in the designated time frame
— actively participate in projects
— keep a record of process from research to sketches to final package and documentation
— complete a portfolio of individual and group work by the last day of class
30% - P1: Internet Archive
30% - P2: IDEO
30% - P3: Mason Gross Galleries
10% - participation
The grading system is:
A = Outstanding performance throughout the course, work excels consistently in all the areas described above
B = Exceeding basic expectations for all projects
C = Satisfactory performance, that is, the completion of all assignments on time and at an acceptable level
D = Poor work
F = Failure