Interactive Publication – ARTS 580

CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

This graduate course stresses individual direction and achievement in interactive and digital publication design. Students will research the vital role of visual communication and will examine the processes involved in creating and coordinating images and typography through both verbal and visual content across multiple and emerging media. Through readings, research, and assignments, students will explore the role of the designer in visual storytelling and will develop a body of work that attempts to influence and shape culture. At this advanced level the student is expected to be self-motivated and produce work that is deeper conceptually and is at a much higher aesthetic level than undergraduates. May be taken twice.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

A designer is a visual communicator and should be able to craft any message into a piece that is both functional and beautiful, engages an audience, and elicits an intended response. Publication design demands skill, creativity, and craft to accomplish well. The designer must beautifully and appropriately showcase many pages worth of content and craft layouts that engage the audience rather than overwhelm or alienate them. It is the designer’s job to lead the audience from front cover to back cover. In order to create a successful publication, a designer must understand and implement grid structures, organize content, create visual hierarchy and systems, and understand the anatomy of a document and adding the functional parts. He/she must also understand the content and appropriately illustrate it, craft a document to be cohesive throughout without monotony, and maintain a brand throughout a large document or series of publications. Publication design is both conceptual and technical. A designer must have a thorough knowledge of the content, document, client, and audience in order to create a successful publication.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in Course Overview.

Discussions (8)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to create a thread in response to the provided prompt for each discussion. Each thread must be at least 300 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 3 classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 150 words. Each thread and each reply must include at least 1 scholarly citation in MLA format.

Publication: Proposal Assignment

In a detailed document using current MLA format, the student will create a proposal for his/her chosen project related to interactive publication and his/her overall subject focus while pursuing the MFA. The student will also use the Publication: Proposal Assignment during his/her progress updates/discussions to help gauge project development and progress.

For each module that a milestone is due in, the student will submit his/her work in progress for peer review and critique. The student will be awarded points for participation.

The student will submit the visual, interactive, and research result of his/her publication project.

Publication: Final Presentation Assignment

The student will create a presentation to showcase his/her Publication: Final Assignment. The presentation should demonstrate his/her research from concept to final representation.

Quizzes (8)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned module: week. Seven of the quizzes will be open-book/open-notes, contain 6 multiple-choice and true/false questions, and have a 20-minute time limit. Quiz: Futurizing Publishing Structures will be open-book/open-notes, contain 1 essay question, and have a 20-minute time limit.