Description

This is an interdisciplinary studio seminar class based on creative learning techniques. We will explore the history, nature and methods of designing information as a practice of crafting message and meaning in the arts and sciences. Designing information makes knowledge understandable and easy to use. This course will encourage visual thinking and collaborative studio methods as we explore various models of exchanging and presenting ideas.

Topics covered include building the creative environment, individual and collaborative visual thinking, applied information design, and visualization techniques. We will brainstorm (scribble, draw, photograph, and build), research, plan, critique, prototype, implement, and test our ideas. Students will be encouraged to visualize their final projects as temporal and spatial experiences.

These projects will take the form of:

You will use your visual thinking skills in close observation, sketching, flow chart development, storyboarding, diagramming, mapping, and three-dimensional modeling.

As the course develops you will learn and use basic computer-based statistical software and design tools to assist you as you build and design your well-considered information. (This software includes but is not limited to Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Flash (optional), Macromedia Dreamweaver (optional), and any other in-class software you would like to learn on your own time.

Final projects will draw from your skills and ongoing lectures as you work in project teams to create prototypes and models for larger information design projects. These projects might take form as static, progressive, interactive, and/or spatial models.