Communications Design
There is no one way to practice Communications Design. At Pratt, we see it as a close alignment of thinking and making. Our curriculum pairs critical, cultural observation with emerging technologies and tools to help you form your own design process. In that pursuit, our goal is not only to prepare you for a range of job possibilities and careers, but also for a lifetime of creative inquiry—understanding the narratives and structures that define your world today and designing new ones to inform your future.
Being in New York means being immersed in the design industry every day. This allows us to engage faculty with unique technical skill sets and emerging capabilities, teaching students from the forefront of the field. Our graduates leave equipped to pursue a spectrum of exciting career paths as creative professionals. Our alumni continue to distinguish them-selves in design studios, cultural institutions, branding agencies, and independent enterprises, making significant contributions to the fields of art and design, print and digital publishing, education, film, gaming, interactivity, and many more.
THE CURRICULUM
The Communications Design curriculum embraces the multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature of communication design practice. Our courses and projects promote the rich exchange embodied in a studio culture that values the development of individual perspectives, critique, visual literacy, media fluency, experiential learning, and innovative formal outcomes.
Second-year coursework introduces fundamental theories, methodologies, and skills central to communication design. Courses prompt students to define and explore a design process that engages research, historical and contemporary contexts, experimentation, audience, technology, and play in the construction of meaningful visual forms.
Upper-level studio courses prompt students to engage in increasingly complex projects that introduce time-based media, visual systems, branding, and installations. Beginning in the third year, students develop an individual focus or set of interests inside the larger discipline through courses in their chosen area of emphasis: graphic design or illustration. Electives both inside the department and throughout the Institute expand the core curriculum, allowing students to explore ways of thinking and making through their specific communication design interests.
The department hosts an annual visiting artist and designer lecture series and invites guest critics to participate in open critiques, taking full advantage of the wealth of talent that New York City has to offer. The program also supports international exchange and study abroad programs for students who are interested in expanding their learning experience abroad.
Chair
Meta Newhouse
Assistant Chair
Philip Graziano
Assistant to the Chair
Nene Villalobos
Academic Advisers
Aaron Stone
Nicholai Patchen
Office
Juliana Curran Terian Design Center
Steuben 404
Tel: 718.636.3594
www.pratt.edu/ug-communications-design
Faculty Bios
www.pratt.edu/ug-communications-design/faculty
CDBAD-375 Branding and Art Direction Intensive - (3 Credits)
The Branding and Art Direction Intensive course provides opportunities to translate theory and concept into practice to produce artifacts, campaigns, events, interactive experiences, deepening the knowledge and experience of the branding of products related to lifestyle, culture and entertainment, including but not limited to fashion, dining, automobiles, cosmetics, real estate, cultural institutions and travel. It is, essentially, the space to collaborate, innovate and play while exploring examples of ground-breaking art direction, including advertising campaigns, both creative and disruptive, retail spaces, including restaurants and events, motion graphics and websites. Storytelling through brand imaging, in addition to a survey of award-winning advertising concepts, images and marketing strategies together with exercises in the creation of non-traditional images comprise content included in the course.
CDBAD-379 3-Dimensional Design and Branding Intensive - (3 Credits)
The 3-Dimensional Design and Branding intensive supports Communication Design students who want to integrate effective messaging through branding and explore the technical, formal, historical, and theoretical concerns of creating meaningful objects, products, wayfinding systems, retail spaces, and exhibit/installation work as an extension of that brand. Students will learn how to develop brand messaging and storytelling through meaningful interactions with their audience by incorporating 3-D design solutions that reach people through a physical space, an experience and/or through touch. Key explorations will involve projects that focus on environmental graphics, visual merchandising, packaging, installation graphics and other physical forms.
CDBAD-385 Branding and Art Direction Intensive 2 - (3 Credits)
This course is an in-depth exploration of the flexible, dynamic and technology-driven aspects of brand development. Students are challenged to engage with new approaches to telling engaging brand stories that showcase clients and companies as lively and movable producers or service providers-as dynamic and relevant as the service or product they represent. Readings, lectures, and research-driven projects introduce critical perspective on branding and its relationship to larger cultural, political and technological trends. Exercises and in-class workshops prompt students to explore these topics, while research-driven projects challenge them to integrate this dynamic approach to actual scenarios and concrete deliverables.
CDBAD-401 Branding and Art Direction Senior Project - (3 Credits)
Senior Projects introduce students to a critical and personalized classroom environment that engages self-directed, extensive and comprehensive design projects, whether project-or thesis-based, providing ample time and latitude for both refinement and ongoing exploration and experimentation. Each project tests a student's ability to define, research and execute at a professional level, while putting into practice core principles of visual communication process and philosophy. This establishes the foundation for a compelling portfolio geared toward entering the profession or pursuing post-secondary education. Senior Projects in the illustration area of emphasis focus on the creation of imagery that entrepreneurial possibilities of image-based communication. Students will take a combined total of three Senior Projects and/ or Advanced Senior Projects, resulting in an iterative process that develops a student's capacity and expectations for self-directed projects and exploration.
CDBAD-401P Branding and Art Direction Senior Project - (4 Credits)
Senior Projects introduce students to a critical and personalized classroom environment that engages self-directed, extensive and comprehensive design projects, whether project-or thesis-based, providing ample time and latitude for both refinement and ongoing exploration and experimentation. Each project tests a student's ability to define, research and execute at a professional level, while putting into practice core principles of visual communication process and philosophy. This establishes the foundation for a compelling portfolio geared toward entering the profession or pursuing post-secondary education. Senior Projects in the illustration area of emphasis focus on the creation of imagery that entrepreneurial possibilities of image-based communication. Students will take a combined total of three Senior Projects and/ or Advanced Senior Projects, resulting in an iterative process that develops a student's capacity and expectations for self-directed projects and exploration.
CDBAD-402 Branding and Art Direction Intensive 3 - (3 Credits)
This course is an advanced investigation into the strategic, social and critical considerations involved in branding. Students will be encouraged to propose new approaches to branding, explore subcultures, embrace transparency, engage audiences and test new trends. Students are challenged to develop a nuanced understanding of social, cultural, political and environmental implications surrounding branding and design production and to develop a point of view in response. Projects prompt students to apply investigative, critical and collaborative approaches to actual scenarios and concrete deliverables. Through in-depth research and the application of advanced formal experimentation. Students identify an approach to branding that allows them to propose and investigate a set of topics and strategies in preparation for thesis.
CDBAD-402P Branding and Art Direction Advanced Senior Project - (4 Credits)
Advanced Senior Projects build on the competencies of Senor Projects, further developing a student's ability to work independently within an environment that engages self-directed, extensive and comprehensive design projects, whether project-or thesis-based, providing ample time and latitude for both refinement and ongoing exploration and experimentation. The expectations in Advanced Senior Project are higher with respect to level of professionalism and development. Each project tests a student's ability to define, research and execute at a professional level, while putting into practice core principles of visual communication process and philosophy. This enhances and completes the process of portfolio building while preparing the student for entering the profession or pursuing post-secondary education. Advanced Senior Projects in the illustration area of emphasis focus on refining the knowledge and competencies necessary for the creation f imagery that is not only compelling visually, but also embraces the multi-platform and entrepreneurial possibilities of image-based communication. Students will take a combined total of three Senior Projects and/ or Advanced Senior Projects, resulting in an iterative process that develops a student's capacity and expectations for self-directed projects and exploration.
CDBAD-403 Branding and Art Direction Senior Project - (3 Credits)
The Senior Thesis course is the capstone of the Communications Design senior year. It provides students with the opportunity to apply the full range of skills and knowledge they have obtained and cultivated at Pratt in the execution of a single, self-initiated project tied to the student's Area of Emphasis. In collaboration with their professor, students write a design or research oriented project proposal which may involve revising or extending existing work or creating new work with an eye to the future. The emphasis is on communication the design process, documenting research and experimentation phases and articulating a critical, reflective analysis of a body of work. Senior Thesis projects are the culmination of a program of studies, and therefore allow students to reflect critically on their own work and clearly identify their interests in the larger context of the communications design profession.
CDGD-376 Graphic Design Intensive - (3 Credits)
The Graphic Design Intensive course is for students who wish to focus specifically on the typographic and information design aspects of graphic design. The course is concerned with the visual language of graphic design and its many applications. Students taking the course develop the intellectual and technical toolkit necessary for the practice of graphic design in the twenty first century. The course syllabus builds on the skills learned in Typography and Information Design, preparing students to become versatile graphic communication design practitioners in a wide range of media and contexts, from paper to screen, from digital environments to public spaces.
CDGD-378 Interaction Design Intensive - (3 Credits)
The Interaction Design Intensive course focuses on essential skills related to the design of digital experiences, including research, planning and production. Students will follow a user-centered design process to gain insights, empathize with target users and inform their designs. They will explore issues that deal with graphical user interfaces, user interaction, navigation, information architecture, grids and layout. Students will also be introduced to basic processes that exist in real world work scenarios such as creative briefs, wireframes and interactive prototypes, as well as to practical tools such as file transfer protocols, content management systems and online development frameworks.
CDGD-386 Graphic Design Intensive 2 - (3 Credits)
This course is an in-depth exploration of interactive, experiential, and performative aspects of communications design. Readings, lectures, in-class workshop and research-based projects explore advanced topics and design principles surrounding interactivity, experience design and performance through a variety of media and platforms. Students will combine critical thinking and hands-on making using methods that include contextual research, prototyping, testing and developing proposals for complex visual systems and narrative strategies.
CDGD-402 Graphic Design Intensive 3 - (3 Credits)
This course is an advanced investigation into expanded modes of practice, and explores authorship and the development of a personal approach to a body of work as much as it develops sensitivity to audience and context through illustration. Students are challenged to develop a nuanced understanding of social, cultural, political and environmental implications surrounds image-based creation and to develop a point of view in response. Through in-depth research and the application of advanced experimentation with form, media and technology, students identify an approach to inquiry through illustration that allows them to propose and investigate a set of topics and strategies in preparation for thesis.
CDGD-403 Graphic Design Senior Thesis Project - (3 Credits)
The Senior Thesis course is the capstone of the Communications Design senior year. It provides students with the opportunity to apply the full range of skills and knowledge they have obtained and cultivated at Pratt in the execution of a single, self-initiated project tied to the student's Area of Emphasis. In collaboration with their professor, students write a design or research oriented project proposal which may involve revising or extending existing work or creating new work with an eye to the future. The emphasis is on communication the design process, documenting research and experimentation phases and articulation a critical, reflective analysis of a body of work. Senior Thesis projects are the culmination of a program of studies, and therefore allow students to reflect critically on their own work and clearly identify their interests in the larger context of the communications design profession.
CDGD-410 Form and Code Project - (3 Credits)
This course is a practical introduction of computer programming for all designers, and anyone who wants to develop ideas using code. It provides way into computational thinking and how to use computers in creative generate 2D and 3D form, animation and interaction. It introduces computation as a process, as a tool and as a medium. The course emphasizes generative form to progressively introduce more complex computational structures, including repetition, transformation, parametrization, visualization and simulation.
CDGD-412 User Experience - (3 Credits)
This course focuses on essential design elements of user experiences, including research, planning, production and development skills. Students will explore issues that deal with graphical user interfaces, user interaction, user experience, information architecture, layout, navigation, behavior and motion. Students will also be introduced to basic processes that exist in real world work scenarios such as creative briefs, wireframes, component libraries and interactive prototypes, as well as to practical tools such as file transfer protocols, content management systems and online development frameworks.
CDGD-414 Data Visualization - (3 Credits)
Through a process of analysis, editing, and visualization, data becomes information. This course allows students to follow the process to extract and reveal meaning form data and to visualize and explain complex information.
CDGD-416 Independent Publishing - (3 Credits)
This class introduces students to the field of independent publishing, focusing particularly on the ways in which a communication designer might use the short-run, self-published book to explore ideas, work collaboratively and disseminate information quickly and cheaply. Employing a mix of class discussion, field trips, studio work and independent study, students gain an understanding of the culture and history of self-publishing while also acquiring a range of information and technical skills that can be applied within their own practical work.
CDGD-418 Speculative Publishing - (3 Credits)
This course offers students an introduction to the basic principles of designing books beyond the traditional concept of the physical artifact. Students will be asked to research, design, produce and publish books in new formats and on technological platforms. The course takes an integrative approach to learning, combining content development, research and analysis and making. The emphasis is on the production of design prototypes rather than on executing technological functionality.
CDGD-480 Design Corps - (3 Credits)
The Design Corps mission is to provide socially or environmentally conscious organizations with quality pro-bono design services, while exposing Communications Design students to professional experience and the rewards of using their skills in the service of a good cause. Operating as a design firm under the direction of experienced faculty, students present design options, provide finished files and monitor production of final pieces for these clients.
CDILL-310 Children's Books - (3 Credits)
This course explores the art of image making and visual storytelling for young readers. The creation, style, layout, pacing of sequential art and accompanying writing of text for children are all studied in-depth. Established and emerging markets are also explored, as are the skills and knowledge necessary to access them.
CDILL-330 Illustration Methods and Media I - (3 Credits)
This two-course sequence develops proficiency in the rendering of representational imagery through the handling of various drawing and painting media.
CDILL-333XP COMD Provisional Test I - (3 Credits)
test only
CDILL-377 Illustration Intensive - (3 Credits)
The Illustration Intensive course builds on the skills established in COMD 241 Image as Communication and COMD 251 Dynamic Imagery and allows students interested in careers in illustration to deepen their knowledge and practice in producing impactful visual messaging. Students will work with and refine the ability to use various media-including print, digital and combinations of the two -in the context of visual messaging, branding and storytelling for many different markets. Traditional avenues such as editorial illustration will be explored, along with emerging products and applications, as well as the possibility for marketing strategies and entrepreneurial opportunities. Assignments will be balanced with in-class work to provide a comprehensive study of various facets of the discipline.
CDILL-387 Illustration Intensive 2 - (3 Credits)
This course is an in-depth exploration of narrative structures and image-based systems in illustration. Readings, lectures, and other course materials introduce critical perspectives on historical and contemporary illustration practice. Projects will focus on an advance understanding of the relationship between meaning and context, audience and contemporary modes of illustration practice. Students' combine critical thinking and hands-on experimenting with a variety of media and methods to develop advanced research and technical skills.
CDILL-401P Illustration Senior Project - (4 Credits)
Senior Projects introduce students to a critical and personalized classroom environment that engages self-directed, extensive and comprehensive design projects, whether project-or thesis-based, providing ample time and latitude for both refinement and ongoing exploration and experimentation. Each project tests a student's ability to define, research and execute at a professional level, while putting into practice core principles of visual communication process and philosophy. This establishes the foundation for a compelling portfolio geared toward entering the profession or pursuing post-secondary education. Senior Projects in the illustration area of emphasis focus on the creation of imagery that entrepreneurial possibilities of image-based communication. Students will take a combined total of three Senior Projects and/ or Advanced Senior Projects, resulting in an iterative process that develops a student's capacity and expectations for self-directed projects and exploration.
CDILL-402 Illustration Intensive 3 - (3 Credits)
This course is an advanced investigation into expanded modes of practice, and explores authorship and the development of a personal approach to a body of work as much as it develops sensitivity to audience and context through illustration. Students are challenged to develop a nuanced understanding of social, cultural, political and environmental implications surrounding image-based creation and to develop a point of view in response. Through in depth research and the application of advanced experimentation with form, media and technology, students identify an approach to inquiry through illustration that allows them to propose and investigate a set of topics and strategies in preparation for thesis.
CDILL-402P Illustration Advanced Senior Project - (4 Credits)
Advanced Senior Projects build on the competencies of Senor Projects, further developing a student's ability to work independently within an environment that engages self-directed, extensive and comprehensive design projects, whether project-or thesis-based, providing ample time and latitude for both refinement and ongoing exploration and experimentation. The expectations in Advanced Senior Project are higher with respect to level of professionalism and development. Each project tests a student's ability to define, research and execute at a professional level, while putting into practice core principles of visual communication process and philosophy. This enhances and completes the process of portfolio building while preparing the student for entering the profession or pursuing post-secondary education. Advanced Senior Projects in the illustration area of emphasis focus on refining the knowledge and competencies necessary for the creation f imagery that is not only compelling visually, but also embraces the multi-platform and entrepreneurial possibilities of image-based communication. Students will take a combined total of three Senior Projects and/ or Advanced Senior Projects, resulting in an iterative process that develops a student's capacity and expectations for self-directed projects and exploration.
CDILL-403 Illustration Senior Thesis - (3 Credits)
The Senior Thesis course is the capstone of the Communications Design Senior year. It provides students with the opportunity to apply the full range of skills and knowledge they have obtained and cultivated at Pratt in the execution of a single self-initiated project tied to the student's Area of emphasis. In collaboration with their professor, students write a design or research oriented project proposal which may involve revising or extending existing work or creating new work with an eye to the future. The emphasis is on communication the design process, documenting research and experimentation phases and articulating a critical, reflective analysis of a body of work. Senior Thesis projects are the culmination of a program of studies, and therefore allow students to reflect critically on their own work and clearly identify their interests in the larger context of the communications design profession.
CDILL-412 Designing for Kids - (3 Credits)
This course will explore the art of designing for young people. Students will create books, toys, products, logos and educational materials for different age groups and examine the realms where child and adult audiences intersect. An overview of this topic will be acquired through assignments, lectures and exposure to both contemporary and historical material. Students from all disciplines are welcome in this class and will e encouraged to create work the reflects their own respective majors, skills and vision.
CDILL-414 Sketchbook Warehouse - (3 Credits)
This course will explore and examine the commercial viability of the work generated in sketchbooks. While sketchbooks are understood to be a repository for marketable ideas and explorations, they can also serve as the genesis for self-authored projects. This class will demonstrate how designers and artists can derive the most value from their sketchbooks, while also using them to develop a personal visual vocabulary.
COMD-210 Intro to Comm Design Procedures Procedures - (3 Credits)
Design Procedures is a set of two courses on the basic technical preparation of artwork for publication. Computer-production techniques as well as hand-crafting presentation skills are taught in the context of simulated professional job processes. The course develops technical skills that are necessary to produce publications in the graphic design and advertising professions, to provide instruction of publishing methods needed to produce assignment solutions for other Communications Design Department studio courses and to develop an understanding of how technical processes relate to the creative design process.
COMD-214 Introduction to Typography - (3 Credits)
These courses include the history, design and execution of lettering for reproduction. The computer is employed to introduce the student to the basic principles of typographic design and typesetting.
COMD-217 Intro to Advertising - (2 Credits)
Introduction to Advertising course provides a comprehensive look at understanding advertising by examining its development and evolution, purpose and fundamental creative principles.
COMD-220 Introduction to Illustration - (3 Credits)
These are basic courses in the art of making pictures for the purpose of communicating information and ideas. Illustration images are inherently figurative, so drawing and painting from life and mind are a major component of study. Class sessions alternate between working in drawing/painting studio workshops and critiques of assignments.
COMD-222X comd test III new course long title - (3 Credits)
comd test III new course
COMD-230 Lighting and the Contemporary Portfolio - (3 Credits)
These courses provide a thorough foundation of image capture and production techniques within the context of the communications design professions. While artistic expression remains an important criterion in the evaluation of assignments, effectiveness of communication will ultimately determine the success of images in advertising, graphic design, and illustration. The first course is an overview of the principles and techniques that are specific to communications arts. This includes a basic comparison of digital and traditional optical imagery. The second course expands the subject to advanced lighting, location, production, and reproduction techniques as used within print and electronic publications, and how images will finally be used to serve the purpose of the publication.
COMD-236 Illustration Methods and Media II - (2 Credits)
This two-course sequence develops proficiency in the rendering of representational imagery through the handling of various drawing and painting media.
COMD-240 Research, Analysis and Process - (3 Credits)
This course introduces student's o the research methodologies and processes that form the foundation of successful communications design. It demonstrated how communication design is shaped by the problem solving phases of learning, identifying, generating and implementation and how these methodologies can be applied to the understanding of audiences, organizing content, developing strategies, and defining purposes.
COMD-241 Image as Communication - (3 Credits)
This image as Communication course is an in-depth investigation into the use of the image as a tool for transmitting messages and telling stories. Students will explore the use of visual rhetoric, composition, editing, context, sequencing, scale and other design fundamentals, all in the service of a concept or narrative.
COMD-242 Process and Production - (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to the production process of print-based media. Through a number of weekly short assignments students will explore and apply a variety of both analog and digital processes and presentation techniques. These assignments will function as an introduction to a range of design tools using both traditional and emerging technologies. Students will be tasked to determine, step-by-step, how best to execute and present a design solution. In addition to professional standards in publication software, focus will be on demonstration the potential of combining different tools and techniques into the designer's workflows.
COMD-250 Typography and Information Design - (3 Credits)
This course focuses on the analysis, management and representation of content in a way that fosters efficient and effective understanding, balances with attractive or artistic expression. Using self-generated and existing content, students learn the basics of typography, information and interface design in both sand-alone visuals and dynamic, interactive documents. The roles of structure, hierarchy, layering, sequence, editing and navigation of information are explored. Study of the different ways to organize, represent and navigate content provide a thorough ground for advance typographic, information and interface design as print pieces, websites, apps, map making, wayfinding systems, diagrams, charts and data graphics.
COMD-251 Dynamic Imagery - (3 Credits)
This course focuses on designing motion, animation and time-based experiences for Communications Design. This includes learning the fundamental skills of how to generate ideas in time, how to build a dramatic construction, and how to connect images in a narrative sequence. Through studio inquiry and problem solving, students will learn the visual, conceptual, technical and creative promotions and branding for the screen and for multimedia environments. Students will be encouraged to develop their individual creative ability and support this with a high level of technical skills.
COMD-252 Digital Prototyping - (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to the tools and production processes involved in the production of time-based and interactive media. Through hands-on lectures and the development of a series of short assignments, students will acquire the skills to naturally incorporate a variety of digital authoring tools and technologies into their workflows, exploring the properties and constraints of designing for digital media. Students will gain the ability to execute design solutions integrating time-based media, dynamic content and interactivity.
COMD-302 Copywriting for Advertising - (2 Credits)
This course concerns the skill of writing for advertising and marketing, how words relate to images, and how to develop verbal promotional campaigns that move consumers to purchase. Effective copy is more than just clever words on a page: It is the result of thoughtful research in market demographics and psychographics.
COMD-313 Typographic Design III - (2 Credits)
With the use of actual typographic design situations, the course instructs the student in the use of type as a basic element of graphic communication, including principles which determine typeface selection (to visually communicate the desired effect) and the appreciation of letterforms. Typesetting and typographic layout on the computer are emphasized.
COMD-314 Typographic Design IV - (2 Credits)
With the use of actual typographic design situations, the course instructs the student in the use of type as a basic element of graphic communication, including principles which determine typeface selection (to visually communicate the desired effect) and the appreciation of letterforms. Typesetting and typographic layout on the computer are emphasized.
COMD-315 Graphic Design I - (2 Credits)
Graphic Design courses explore the creative display, organization and communication of ideas and information through word and image. The design principles covered in these courses apply to all presentation media - print, computer, film/video, exhibit, and environmental graphics. These courses are more advanced in their coverage of information design problems than those of COMD-201 & COMD-202 (Visual Communication I & II) in that they require a higher level of typographic skill and communication ability with pictorial information. They are not \"layout\" courses. Although presentation on the page or video monitor is very important, the primary focus of these courses is on the development of the communication content.
COMD-316 Graphic Design II - (2 Credits)
Graphic Design courses explore the creative display, organization and communication of ideas and information through word and image. The design principles covered in these courses apply to all presentation media - print, computer, film/video, exhibit, and environmental graphics. These courses are more advanced in their coverage of information design problems than those of COMD-201 & COMD-202 (Visual Communication I & II) in that they require a higher level of typographic skill and communication ability with pictorial information. They are not \"layout\" courses. Although presentation on the page or video monitor is very important, the primary focus of these courses is on the development of the communication content.
COMD-317 Advertising I - (2 Credits)
These are courses in the development and presentation of visual and verbal messages that move consumers to action. Although they include many of the same design principles practiced in the graphic design courses, they require additional emphasis on creative writing skills. The total responsibilities of the art director are explored - from conceptualization and integrated design to personal interaction with clients, copywriters, photographers and illustrators.
COMD-318 Advertising II - (2 Credits)
These are courses in the development and presentation of visual and verbal messages that move consumers to action. Although they include many of the same design principles practiced in the graphic design courses, they require additional emphasis on creative writing skills. The total responsibilities of the art director are explored - from conceptualization and integrated design to personal interaction with clients, copywriters, photographers and illustrators.
COMD-319 Illustrated Typography - (2 Credits)
Illustrated Typography is a course designed to enhance sensitivity to and bridge the gap between textual design and image making. Students in this course will develop the ability to create and integrate unique hand drawn type solutions into their own work thereby communicating more effectively by holistically considering both types and image when creating illustrations. Students will learn layout and typeface selection as well as their own generated type designs to enhance the editorial, conceptual and narrative concerns of illustration.
COMD-321 Illustration III - (2 Credits)
Through the presentation of practical illustration assignments (such as poster, editorial, advertising and product illustrations), emphasis is placed on conceptual thinking and the creation of original and personal solutions through the students' own choice of media. Assignments include problems that demand provocative, entertaining and stimulating results.
COMD-322 Illustration IV - (2 Credits)
Through the presentation of practical illustration assignments (such as poster, editorial, advertising and product illustrations), emphasis is placed on conceptual thinking and the creation of original and personal solutions through the students' own choice of media. Assignments include problems that demand provocative, entertaining and stimulating results.
COMD-323 Package Design I - (2 Credits)
This course introduces the fundamentals of dimensional construction while simultaneously integrating many design disciplines and principles. Imaginative use of materials and surface graphics are encouraged. Marketing and production problems are explored.
COMD-325 Production Design - (3 Credits)
In this course, students will learn to develop visual concepts for immersive experiences such as film, television, theater, gaming or virtual reality. Based on researching historical, cultural, emotional or any other relevant implications students will explore the application of an appropriate visual language for spatial, temporal and material components combined to create a desired experience. Through case studies, readings and discussions the application of these skills in various practices will be exemplified.
COMD-330 Design and Sustainability - (3 Credits)
This course explores the role of sustainable practices as a necessary competency for emerging designers. There is positive and increasing pressure for design practices to integrate social, environmental and economic considerations (planet, people, profit) into the work. Through introduction and examination of current best practices involving circular economy, sustainable material management, life-cycle analysis tools, currency models, cooperativism etc. students will research, analyze and synthesize core principles of holistic approaches to sustainability within a wide array of communications design scenarios.
COMD-333X Coursedog Test Course I Long title - (3 Credits)
This is only a test on the production side for coursedog
COMD-340 Digital painting - (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to the process of creating representational images using specialized digital processes. Through in-class tutorials,lectures, and hands-on work, students will combine traditional illustration techniques with contemporary digital image-making technologies in order to explore how digital techniques inform meaning-making and visual rhetoric in the development of images for static, motion based and virtual environments.
COMD-345 Illustration: Children's Books I - (2 Credits)
These courses explore the art of image making and visual storytelling for young readers. Studied in-depth are the creation, style, layout, pacing of sequential art and accompanying copywriting of art for children.
COMD-362 Design Corps S - (2 Credits)
Design Corps encourages and promotes the relationship between design practice and design education. The Design Corps mission is to provide non-profit organizations with professional quality design services at no cost, while exposing graphic design students to valuable industry experience. Under the direction of experienced design faculty, students operate as a firm. They create and present design options, provide finished files and monitor production of the final approved design. They work both as individuals and teams on a variety of print and web projects. Workload and schedule vary based on clients. Students returning to the class take on a more active leadership role.
COMD-370 Branding and Messaging - (3 Credits)
The Branding and Messaging course explores the development and crafting of effective design solutions in the form of multi-component, multi-stage or cross-media projects. Students will develop series and systems that include visual and verbal components to create a cohesive identity or brand across deliverables that either communicate, reinforce or build upon a message. Students will be presented with various design and marketing problems crafted to help them explore how brand are perceived in various communication channels and identify where there is inconsistency or confusion on the marketplace. They will develop branding strategy guidelines that ultimately deploy into a full branding suite.
COMD-371 Integrated Viscom I:cross Platform Dsgn - (3 Credits)
The integrated Visual Communication courses function as lab and studio environments that engage students' applied technical skills and craft through a range of cross-disciplinary assignments. Critical strategies will be covered through weekly lectures and in-class studio time that help guide students through each phase of application and production. Information and ideas take on many forms in contemporary design practices. The inherent challenge is for designers to consistently apply the execution of idea, form, and craft across different media platforms, including print, digital and environmental, each of which introduces a unique set of properties and constraints to which to respond. This course exposes students to the tools and knowledge base required to realize design concepts at high levels of production and craft.
COMD-380 Product,Environment,Material - (3 Credits)
This course will expose students to design problems that are dimensional in nature and/ or exist in a physical space. Students will develop an understanding for how to generate and design their own objects/products, displays, utilize effective materials and design the environments that these products ultimately live in, whether real or fictional. Students will be able to harness three-dimensional design principles to develop a series of explorations that relate to space and human behavior.
COMD-381 Integrated Viscom 2:NEW Forms - (3 Credits)
This Integrated Visual Communication courses function as lab and studio environments that engage students' applied technical skills and craft through a range of cross-disciplinary assignments. Integrated Visual Communication 2 investigates the role of visual communications within emerging platforms and technologies as well as expanding upon the knowledge and utility of more common media. Students are encouraged to explore new media and expand their ideas beyond traditional design applications.
COMD-401A Senior Project I - (4 Credits)
This course prepares students for the professional world through the creation of quality artwork, which will comprise the student's portfolio. The student becomes familiar with the fundamental business practices necessary to find an entry-level position in the field.
COMD-405 Professional Practice - (3 Credits)
In preparation for the completion of the program, this course addresses all facets of obtaining, managing and successfully growing freelance or full-time work as a practicing professional. The course will assist students in organizing, preparing and presenting a cohesive body of work, identifying a market, and promoting and protecting that work, while acquiring the skills and knowledge to navigate and prosper in the profession. Among them: intellectual property rights and protections, ethics, basic business practices and the vocabulary of the profession. Classes and assignments will balance lectures, discussions and student presentations of design work that is focused on the promotion of the student, as well as the development of an original product or business.
COMD-411 After Effects - (2 Credits)
Building upon the lessons of COMD-211 & COMD-212, Design Procedures I & II, these courses offer instruction in complex computer pre-press and hand presentation skills on a professional level. Studio/design office maintenance is covered in-depth - from computer hardware and software setup and troubleshooting to materials management and high-level handcrafted prototype techniques.
COMD-415 Sketchbook Warehouse - (2 Credits)
This course will explore and examine the commercial viability of the work of sketchbooks. While sketchbooks will be understood to be a repository for marketable ideas and explorations, it can also serve as the genesis for self-authored projects. This class will demonstrate how artists can derive the most value from their sketchbooks.
COMD-421 Masters Studio: Illustration - (2 Credits)
This studio class is designed to provide ancillary skills crucial to the creative process, including original and stock resource photography methods as well as finished illustration portfolio preparation and presentations. Classes will be conducted as intensive laboratories in skill development, collaboration and teamwork. Assignments involve all major aspects of illustration.
COMD-425 Writing the Idea - (2 Credits)
Great advertising is a product of great thinking. This course will challenge students to generate creative solutions through clear and compelling written, as well as visual, concepts. The focus of the class will be on the elements of composition, breaking down successful advertising campaigns and crafting impactful messages through copywriting.
COMD-436 Special Topics: Publications - (3 Credits)
Special Topics: Publications is an interdisciplinary elective that enables students to collaborate on the development and production of an ambitious publication over the course of one or two semesters. Emphasis is places on research, ideation, refinement and content development as well as production and distribution. As this course draws upon the professional expertise and interests of the instructor, it is highly flexible and rarely repeated without modification.
COMD-444X Coursedog Test Course II Long title - (3 Credits)
This is only a test on the production side for coursedog
COMD-444Z Coursedog Test Course II Long title - (3 Credits)
This is only a test on the production side for coursedog
COMD-449 Designers Write - (2 Credits)
Designers today aren't just making other people's words look pretty - they're developing their own books, writing their own blogs, and contributing to the cultural conversation in design journals. In this class students will discover the parallels between great writing and great design, and learn to create strong, focused content that fits seamlessly with their visual work.
COMD-451 Freelancing & Business Illustration and Graphic Design - (2 Credits)
This course is essential for students planning to establish a freelance business or land a first job in the fields of illustration, graphic design, and advertising art direction. The lecture/workshop sessions cover: 1. The portfolio - how to construct it, protect it and plan a search strategy. 2. Getting a job - pricing freelance jobs, writing purchase orders and contracts, dealing with collection and legal actions and designing a self-promotion piece. 3. Taxes/Accounting/Business Structure - the business world (sales tax, sole proprietorship, copyright, work for hire, markups, contracts).
COMD-460 Emerging Practices - (3 Credits)
Emerging Practices addresses contemporary topics in Design. Design practice is intrinsically connected to socio-political, cultural, technological, economic and philosophical movements. As a result, design practice perpetually evolves in response to the present time. Through exposure to contemporary frameworks as well as hands-on project work, the course explores the changing nature of what designers do and the subjects they engage with. The course's specific theme and format is defined by the expertise of the faculty member. Sections of Emerging Practices will therefore vary significantly in content while sharing the goal of investigating emerging trends in the discipline
COMD-461 Visualizing the Idea - (2 Credits)
Modern media is oversaturated with images, many of which we have seen so often they have become invisible. Effective marketing requires messages to be seen in order to be heard. Before you can solve a design problem, you have to understand it. ComD Imaging III will focus on the analysis of existing visual imagery and challenge students to create exciting new non-traditional visuals.
COMD-463 Design Corps Senior Project F - (4 Credits)
Design Corps encourages and promotes the relationship between design practice and design education. The Design Corps mission is to provide non-profit organizations with professional quality design services at no cost, while exposing graphic design students to valuable industry experience. Under the direction of experienced design faculty, students operate as a firm. They create and present design options, provide finished files and monitor production of the final approved design. They work both as individuals and teams on a variety of print and web projects. (Web design experience is not required.) Projects, workload and schedule vary based on clients. Students returning to the class take on a more active leadership role.
COMD-464 Design Corps Senior Project S - (4 Credits)
Design Corps encourages and promotes the relationship between design practice and design education. The Design Corps mission is to provide non-profit organizations with professional quality design services at no cost, while exposing graphic design students to valuable industry experience. Under the direction of experienced design faculty, students operate as a firm. They create and present design options, provide finished files and monitor production of the final approved design. They work both as individuals and teams on a variety of print and web projects. (Web design experience is not required.) Projects, workload and schedule vary based on clients. Students returning to the class take on a more active leadership role.
COMD-467 Drawing on Location - (2 Credits)
Drawing on Location is designed to train students to visualize and document the environment they observe around them. Locations throughout New York are used as reference material for communication solutions that relate to timely subjects and provocative themes. Students will keep intensive journals of their visits that include observations of each location, interviews with people connected with their location, and photographs.
COMD-476 Motion Design:Illustration S - (2 Credits)
This course focuses on the use of motion and time-line based media within the field of illustration. The course will familiarize students with current trends and professional standards in advertising, publishing, television and Web industries. Students will become proficient in the use of industry standard software such as Adobe After Effects and Flash. Through a combination of lecture, demonstration, discussion, and hands-on lab and studio work, the student will develop their personal style in conjunction with producing an animation portfolio piece that fulfills the demands of one of more of the various media-related industries.
COMD-477 Motion Design: Graphic Design F - (2 Credits)
This course will explore the power of graphic design in motion. The challenges and aesthetics of the medium will be studied in practice as well as theory, with an emphasis on effective communication through historically informed composition and editing. In addition to exploring movement, image, montage, abstraction, and visual narrative structure, students will photograph, create graphics and edit/animate their own images with sound design. Students taking the course for a second semester will further develop their technical and conceptual skills with more ambitious motion projects and will experience an increase in one on one time with the professor for focused project direction.
COMD-478 Motion Design:Graphic Design S - (2 Credits)
This course will explore the power of graphic design in motion. The challenges and aesthetics of the medium will be studied in practice as well as theory, with an emphasis on effective communication through historically informed composition and editing. In addition to exploring movement, image, montage, abstraction, and visual narrative structure, students will photograph, create graphics and edit/animate their own images with sound design. Students taking the course for a second semester will further develop their technical skills with more ambitious motion projects and will experience an increase in one on one time with the professor for focused project direction.
COMD-483 Typeface Design F - (2 Credits)
Students will design original typefaces and lettering while learning about contemporary and historical typeface design. Hands-on experience, discussions, and demonstrations will give students greater sensitivity for typography and equip them to create custom type solutions for clients. Students must already excel in typography and be proficient in Illustrator to enroll. Motivated students are encouraged to repeat the course for a second semester for a more ambitious typeface project and to research a chosen aspect of typeface design in greater depth.
COMD-484 Typeface Design S - (2 Credits)
Students will design original typefaces and lettering while learning about contemporary and historical typeface design. Hands-on experience, discussions, and demonstrations will give students greater sensitivity for typography and equip them to create type solutions for clients. Students must already excel in typography and be proficient in Illustrator to enroll. Motivated students are encouraged to repeat the course for a second semester for a more ambitious typeface project and to research a chosen aspect of typeface design in greater depth.
COMD-485 Calligraphy - (2 Credits)
Calligraphy offers a rich visible language that is handmade and alphabetic. Using the broad-edge pen, students will explore writing that is legible yet flexible enough for contemporary design, has strong links to typography, and is based on the styles used in manuscript books. Students will learn a majuscule and minuscule Roman script through instruction in basic techniques and the use of materials.
COMD-487 Children's Book Illustration Advanced Class - (2 Credits)
This course will serve as preparation for those illustration students who wish to enter the children's book publishing industry. Art directors and editors are always interested in seeing new book ideas, but the beginner must show not only that they are prepared and familiar with the requirements of the trade, but they have an original or unique way of looking at the world. The requirements include an original or adapted story; a 32-page dummy and sample finish art, exploring in more detail the bookmaking process typically found in COMD 346. Classes will be conducted as an intensive seminar, individual instruction and group critiques.
COMD-511 Sequential Art and the Graphic Novel - (2 Credits)
This course emphasizes visual storytelling in all its complexities - from the psychological reasoning behind the arrangement of panels to mold time to the pacing, camera angles, balloon placement, composition dynamics, and lettering that make a story come alive. In addition to the traditional forms of print-based sequential illustration, this course also provides an excellent foundation for the creative process in video animation and computer interactive multi-media productions.
COMD-9400 Comd Internship - (0 Credits)
This course centers around an internship experience at a field related professional site. Students earn course credit and refine their career objectives while establishing a strong employment history and references for future work experiences. Students will gain skills and knowledge on-site as well as a more objective understanding of the experience through participation in a class seminar. Students must attend the Internship Workshop in Career Services prior to registering for this course.
COMD-9401 Comd Internship - (1 Credit)
This course centers around an internship experience at a field related professional site. Students earn course credit and refine their career objectives while establishing a strong employment history and references for future work experiences. Students will gain skills and knowledge on-site, as well as a more objective understanding of the experience through participation in a class seminar. Students must attend the Internship Workshop in Career Services prior to registering for this course.
COMD-9402 Comd Internship - (2 Credits)
This course centers around an internship experience at a field related professional site. Students earn course credit and refine their career objectives while establishing a strong employment history and references for future work experiences. Students will gain skills and knowledge on-site, as well as a more objective understanding of the experience through participation in a class seminar. Students must attend the Internship Workshop in Career Services prior to registering for this course.
COMD-9403 Comd Internship - (3 Credits)
This course centers around an internship experience at a field related professional site. Students earn course credit and refine their career objectives while establishing a strong employment history and references for future work experiences. Students will gain skills and knowledge on-site, as well as a more objective understanding of the experience through participation in a class seminar. Students must attend the Internship Workshop in Career Services prior to registering for this course.
In the Communications Design BFA program students will undertake a course of study where they will work towards:
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Developing a professional, responsive and interdisciplinary perspective on the role of design and the designer and their relationship to economic, social, ecological, historical and political systems
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Engaging with form, systems, experiences and interactions as intersecting modes of knowing, thinking, making and being, and the implications on people, communities and environments across scale
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Situating making practices, research and theory in response to the legacies of design history and to global, local and personal narratives
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Demonstrating fluency in challenging the use of tools, technologies and materials across media in consideration to the value systems they embody
- Practicing exploration and experimentation of the interplay between thinking and making towards developing a diverse body of work