Required books and supplies Spring 2017
DE 234: Sophomore Studies: C&CS 2
We will continue with Pioneers of Modern Design for Tuesdays. This text is available here. Kindle or e-book versions are good too. Readings will start the first day of class.
Research shows that notes taken by hand are assimilated by the brain far better than notes taken on a keyboard. Please be prepared to take notes by hand (with notebook and pen) in Thursday classes.
DE 334: Junior Studies: C&CS 2
We will be using Graphic Style from Victorian to Digital, by Heller and Chwast, and dig into The History of Motion Graphics, by Betancourt. Both of these are available here. Kindle or e-book versions are good too. Readings will start the first day of class, so get your books now.
Research shows that notes taken by hand are assimilated by the brain far better than notes taken on a keyboard. Please be prepared to take notes by hand (with notebook and pen) in Friday classes.
Students are required to have the list of tools below. All the tools that are required are available on this site on the bookcase page, or you can pick most of them up in a Goodwill. Bring your tools and book to the first day of class to get checked off the roster.
Research shows that notes taken by hand are assimilated by the brain far better than notes taken on a keyboard. Please be prepared to take notes by hand (with notebook and pen) during apparel history lectures.
Materials for Apparel:
1. a good pair of fabric shears (Fiskars are good if you're just in it for this one class. Wiss or Gingher bent trimmers are best if you plan to use them for years. Make sure they are really sharp.)
2. 60" non-stretching tape measure
3. a seam ripper
4. a pack of hand needles: 7-10 assorted. Something that feels comfortable to you.
5. an awl (needed for this project!)
6. fine sewing pins, either glass-headed or flat-headed--
7. either make yourself a pincushion or buy one. If you are really serious, buy the magnetic pincushion-- it is great. You basically aim, toss and the pin snaps on. Time saver.
8. 2" x 18" clear ruler with grid
9. a sewing gauge
10. a styling design ruler (French curve +) (see my page or SewTrue.com)
11. tailor's chalk
12. curve stick, hip curve
And put it all in:
a 24" x 16" zippered portfolio case or other suitable carry-all of your own design. (This is more necessary than you might think. Keeping track of various tools is difficult, and you will have to store and carry fabric and brown paper patterns, too.)
This is really the minimum. There are some gorgeous curves and stuff you could buy if you wanted to-- I would add to your tools as your needs dictate. No need to buy stuff you may not use.
Pen and Paper: My Students' Note-taking
After deeper reading about the ways the brain processes information, it has become clear to me that students who handwrite and/or doodle notes remember and access information far better than students who type notes on a keyboard. For this reason my students will not be using screens and keyboards for note-taking during lectures, talks or "visiting designer" talks this semester. (We will, of course, be using screens for design work.) Our goal is to create a space where the student is thinking his or her own thoughts about the topic at hand without interruption or interference, so that those thoughts can be laid down in long-term memory. So please bring your analog note-taking tools to class-- that would be pen and paper.
WHY I TEACH AT CORNISH
To the design world at large, Seattle design means three things: Modern Dog, Art Chantry and 80's Grunge. Of course there's much more. But that's the quick sum-up, and there's validity in it.
Cornish College of the Arts is a regional school, very much rooted in Seattle. In Design here, hand lettering and illustration are as valid forms of communication as are The Grid or Helvetica. There's also no Church and State division between those who manipulate type and image and those who make drawings. Or those who love book design and those who love UX and UI. I like that: I wish I had had that inclusion when I was going to school.
The design tradition at Cornish is based on a radical past. It's heavily influenced by music and theater. Unlike many design students at other schools who work in silo'd buildings, students here mix daily with the musicians, dancers, actors, artists, photographers and theater production people in other Cornish programs.
I like that Cornish supports my belief in interdisciplinary study for designers. I like that the college and program are growing, headed up by a president with vision, and that the faculty is as supportive of a student's interest in the comic novel as it is of that student's interest in Josef Müller-Brockmann. I like that the librarians do everything they can to act as resources for my students and for me and that the design department staff makes sure that I am totally supported so I can do my best thinking. That's why I teach at Cornish.
WHY I TEACH AT VCFA
Since Cornish College does not yet have an MFA in Design, I teach grad students at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, a low-residency graphic design MFA program in Montpelier, Vermont. The program is very young, and it's an exciting pedagogical model for graduate education. I wouldn't fly to residencies held across the country from me if it were not.
VCFA's design program is a student-centered program. It is different from traditional MFA models in Graphic Design. Instead of signing up for grad school, then going through a set curriculum that ends in being inducted into the "longhouse" of design MFA completion, VCFA candidates are supported in finding what they themselves want and need as designers. Then the faculty helps them develop those ideas and skills. Imagine the difference! Imagine the growth.