course notes

disclaimer: the course notes are for classroom use only.

week 1 introduction to course Review of syllabus + course expectations	establish context + historic overview Purpose of communication (particularly visual)? Defining history? Significance of studying history in a graphic design context? introduce project 1 : artifact project material culture Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire
week 2 theory in the contemporary context	Communication Theory Sign Systems / Visual Literacy the global village Reading Images Creating Meaning	text, pp 7-10, introduction Adrian Forty. Objects of Desire. Introduction. pp 6-10 Design and Mechanisation. 42-61 Arthur Asa Berger. Signs in Contemporary Culture. various exerpts, pp 9-15, 19-21, 24-37, 95-107
week 3 theory in the contemporary context semiotics [ post ] structuralism propaganda	Communication Theory Semiotic Theory Propaganda Structuralism / Post structuralism	Steven Skaggs and Gary Shank. Codification, Inference and Specificity in Visual Communication Design. pp 54-69 Thomas Ockerse. The Semiosis of Design / The Design for Semiosis. pp 148-167 Roland Barthes. The Photographic Message, Imagination of the Sign
week 4 language systems	Mark-making to the Alphabet origins of visual communication the alphabet + language systems, the written document writing / literacy / power quiz on theory	Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, Design/Writing/Research Typewriting Laws of the Letter Period Styles
week 5 medieval europe	medieval europe (from the Fall of Rome to the Renaissance) The role of religion manuscripts + book arts moveable type printing press Technological advances (Gutenberg Bible) Democratization of information / literacy and learning technology photography, digital type typographic developments 15th century influences type design, early 20th c. european colonization exploration and domination exchange of ideas World context in transition Identity (universal, national, product + personal) Economic Issues
week 6 technology + the industrial revolution	technology + the industrial revolution Economic, political, social considerations Radical process of social change Rural—urban migration The Victorian Era Philosophical Developments European Socialism Marxism Arts & Crafts movement ruskin / morris / the hand-made origins of advertising consumerism culture of obsolescence capitalism commodity culture	Advertising: the Magic System. pp 320-335 The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. pp 29-43 In the Empire of Signs: Ideology, Mythology and Pleasure in Advertising. pp 244-269 text, pp 11-31, the art poster + the beginnings of design in europe
week 7 radical change at the turn of the century	Context Influences Expressionism, Cubism, technology Political and economic context Language art nouveau 20th century concrete poetry appolinaire mallarmé mayakovsky	Ellen Lupton and J Abbott Miller. A Time Line of American Graphic Design, 1829—1989. pp 24-65 Stefan Themerson. Idéogrammes lyriques. pp 3-24
week 8 20th c avant garde “ isms ” presentations 10.13 dada > jen, sean, kristen futurism > evonne, jin, bridget constructivism > jeff, graciela, kelley	dada [1920s] zurich, berlin, paris, new york politics anti-art fluxus [1960s] futurism marinetti sex, fast cars and violence musollini constructivism propaganda quiz	The Futurist Experience. pp 29-53 Between Utopianism and Commerce: Modernist Graphic Design. pp 137-170 Jeremy Aynsley. The Modernist Body. pp 56-67 text, pp 32-67, war and propaganda, futurism and italy, the soviet republic + germany
week 9 20th c avant garde “ isms ”	de stijl universalism influence on dutch design bauhaus influence on education pedagogy formalism universalism
week 10 early modernism	Universal meaning/universal visual vocabulary International Style Swiss Design Ulm School (Germany) Modernism in the US Influence of European Migration Graphic/Industrial Design + Architecture	text, pp 68-103, the netherlands, switzerland, france + the united states text, pp 130-178, switzerland and neue graphik, italy and the milanese style, france + northern europe
week 11 the war and post-war years	the war and post-war years propaganda advertising european influence consumerism Activist Graphic Design / Issues and Causes issues of power and media control	text, pp 104-10, war and propaganda (1920s-1945) Steven Heller. Swastika Chic. pp 24-29
week 12 & 13 beyond the west presentations 11.10 rachel, rebecca bob, corey, andrew	Case studies in Latin America, Africa, Asia sustainable design, design and development literacy, language multiculturalism postcolonialism north vs. south, east vs. west… quiz	Andrew Blauvelt. Multiculturalism and a Critical Pedagogy. pp 3-9 Rosemary J. Coombs. Is There Legal Protection of Cultural Imagery? pp 34-36
week 14 postmodernism	postmodernism post-industrial / digital revolution feminism / gender issues power and the periphery deconstruction hybrid imagery	From Pop to Protest: Graphic Design and Youth Culture in Britain in the 1960s. pp 244-269 text, pp 179-185, the late 1960s text, pp 186-215, the 1970s and after
week 15 wrap up	wrap up quiz