the daily

t may 12 / w may 13

zoom link for may 13 crit
no need for a noon check-in. just hit the link a minute or so before your assigned time below.

reminder: final presentations are due tuesday, may 12 at noon, in the folders below

DELIVERY OF WORK
note: there are two separate places to put work!
presentations: place downloaded loom videos and pdf slide decks [no keynotes!] in this google drive folder

file naming example: lastname_firstname-actFinalPres.pdf

project files: place all final and/or new work that you want me to consider for final grade in to your named folder within this google drive folder
file naming example: lastname_firstname-somethingLogical.pdf

acceptable files: pdf, jpg, png, gif, mov, mp4
unacceptable: keynote, psd, ai, indd

before final critique, review the work of the classmates in your group. in class, we will skim through the work and then have open discussion about each project – about 11 minutes per designer. this will maximize critique time for everyone. 

three small groups

12:00 ross, lynnsie, ki, cordell, anna

1:00 noah, ricardo, shane, halee

1:50 ava, han, hannah-rae, gillian

2:40  10–20 minute all-group farewell gathering afterward.

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w may 6

join in the mayhem at the ZOOM@NOON! – filters, filters, and filters! make your own filter for your camera – cheap glass, magnifiers, plastic films, saran wrap, whatever! should be fun!

zoom link for today

if you did not do it monday, here is the online course eval for applied comm theory. please fill it out. thanks!

reading responses: rubrics are updated with those scores in the participation area. some of you had no responses whatsoever. i will adjust your grade if you do the reading and respond accordingly over on the blog posts. participation is 10% of your final grade, so prioritize accordingly.

speaking of rubrics, yours need to be updated by you by friday may 15. remember that this is me trusting you to participate in an honest evaluation of your learning and knowledge of the course material.

work time today, for our last “normal” day of class. our next meeting will be our last, dear designers – final critique. be sure you have read and understand all of the final crit requirements and project / presentation deliverables.

one-on-one times for anyone with questions or wanting feedback or discussion
12:45
1:00
1:15
1:30
1:45
2:00
2:15
2:30

and buried in this mess for those who read: i have truly enjoyed working with each of you both semesters this year. you are an
amazing,
fun,
funny,
serious,
thoughtful,
earnest,
hard-working

group of young designers. it has been a privilege to advise and assist you along your path to greater awareness and understanding of the power of design. i’m very proud of the progress you’ve made since that first project in vis com 1 and am so excited about who each of you is becoming as a person with a unique and valuable point of view on the world. this has been the most unusual semester i’ve ever encountered and i respect and admire your perseverance in sticking this out to the end. you’ve continued to repeatedly rise to the occasion, making smart and thought-provoking work despite uncontrollable circumstances no student should have to endure. i truly hope that we can all be reunited physically in the fall to continue this journey together in our collective home away from home. — tg

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M may 4

zoom link for today

question of the week:
how might a communication model be used to annotate a 5-second snippet of communication?

review requirements for final learning summary and delivery of work in the post below.

one-on-ones if anyone wants to discuss their work
8:45
9:00
9:15
9:30
9:45
10:00
10:15
10:30

online course eval for applied comm theory. please do this during today’s class session to be sure it gets completed. keep in mind that i do indeed use your critical and thoughtful input to improve the course. this is completely anonymous and i don’t see any forms until after grades are submitted.

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final learning summary // critique structure

present your final set of completed projects. this can consist of only the most recent phase of new work that we haven’t yet seen, or it can be a cumulative review of your semester’s effort. either way, the primary focus should be on new work not shown in earlier learning summaries. i’m most interested in how your work exemplifies a theory of communication, includes modes of persuasion, leverages semiotics, or uses rhetoric in some way. 

one course objective that no one has explicitly covered to-date is how these theories are relevant to graphic design. are they valuable and of use to graphic designers as strategies for making? why or why not? while this isn’t a hard requirement, it would cover new ground that no one has intentionally covered yet. 

your presentation can take one of two forms:

a 5–7 minute loom video with images and narration.

or

a pdf slide deck, exported from keynote. since it’s not “live” like a loom video, this will need text on the slides to clarify your intentions and address course objectives. 

regardless of your choice, use your emerging knowledge of best practices in presentation and slide design to make your presentation and slides attractive and functional 

• practice beforehand to check timing

• use bulleted notes to keep you on point but not reading word-for-word

• keep text fairly minimal on each slide

• use as many slides as you need to tell the story [you’re not wasting paper]

• consider rhythm and pacing of your verbal delivery and your slides in the storytelling process – moments of density, “negative space”, dramatic pauses, sequential revealing of info, etc.

• consider how type hierarchy might contribute to rhythm and pacing, as well as clarity.
  

final presentations are due tuesday, may 12 at noon, in the folders below

DELIVERY OF WORK
place downloaded loom videos and pdf slide decks in this google drive folder
file naming example: lastname_firstname-actFinalPres.pdf

place all final and/or new work that you want me to consider for final grade in to your named folder within this google drive folder
file naming example: lastname_firstname-somethingLogical.pdf

acceptable files: pdf, jpg, png, gif, mov, mp4

unacceptable: keynote, psd, ai, indd

PROPOSED CRITIQUE FORMAT
before final critique, review the work of the classmates in your group. in class, we will skim through the work and then have open discussion about each project – about 11 minutes per designer. this will maximize critique time for everyone. 

three small groups

12:00 ross, lynnsie, ki, cordell, anna

1:00 noah, ricardo, shane, halee

1:50 ava, han, hannah-rae, gillian

2:40  10–20 minute all-group farewell gathering afterward.

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w april 29

zoom link for today

for fun: view your indexical drawings here. thanks to those who did the drawings as requested. comment on who you think each numbered drawing represents.

wednesday small group crits of work-in-progress
12:30 ki, noah, halee
1:30 cordell, hannah-rae, gillian, anna

i will be taking a process and a participation grade during these discussions that will go toward your semester average in your rubric. you’ll see it in the “process” and “participation” sections, along with the date.

optional readings for this week
you may comment here for extra credit.
communication models from graphic design theory
starting with a discussion of how models shape our understanding of the world, this reading details the evolution of models for communication, ending with meredith davis’ expansion on the idea with her own expansive model.

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m april 27

zoom link for today

question of the week:
how can i make an instragram carousel post that most clearly “shows the data” [rather than telling in a purely typographic way] on the major quantifiable aspects of my social issue?
or
how can i make a mini-zine [one 8.5x11 page] educating readers about my social issue that effectively leverages ethos, logos, and pathos? 

monday small group crits of work-in-progress
8:30 lynnsie, ricardo, ava
9:30 han, shane, ross

wednesday small group crits of work-in-progress
12:30 ki, noah, halee
1:30 cordell, hannah-rae, gillian, anna

i will be taking a process and a participation grade during these discussions that will go toward your semester average in your rubric. you’ll see it in the “process” and “participation” sections, along with the date.

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W april 22

zoom link for today

anyone been doing “question of the week” for this week or last?

slight update to learning summary for monday april 27. to take a little pressure off, let’s treat this more like a small group crit over work-in-progress. we will then do a final learning summary over completed projects on wed may 13, during finals week. that’s in three weeks!

optional readings for this week
no need to respond online. my recommendations purely for your educational benefit.
EDIT: these and future readings can be commented on for extra credit. do that here.

principles of information design from beautiful evidence
this contains tons of best practices for those using information design as a form of logos, from edward tufte, a heavyweight in the field.

propaganda critic [particularly the “core concepts” section]
this has tons of great information on less-than-ethical approaches to communication. once you read this, you will start to notice these techniques used all over the place.

analog activity for today
in 30 minutes or less, draw an indexical image that most strongly signifies you over this past week. carefully photograph it, adjust tone/color as needed, and email to me. i will assemble onto a webpage and we will guess the indexes. i’ll play along as well.

one-on-one slots for today
12:45 noah
1:00 shane
1:15 lynnsie
1:30 han
1:45 ki
2:00 anna [absent]
2:15 cordell [absent]

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m april 20

zoom link for today

announcement: kcai will be hosting virtual end-of-semester shows for all departments, through special galleries on kcai.edu. gd sophomores will have space to post a few highlight images of your best work from the semester. i’ll say plan on showing 3–5 images per designer for now. we’ll figure out details as we go.

question of the week:
what would a physical object associated with my social issue look like when reimagined as 5 different rhetorical tropes? 

keep making progress on your work, whether it be the question of the week or your own projects. looking for visual evidence of progress each week when we meet, not plans or explanations. next learning summary is due in one week – monday april 27.

one-on-one slots for today
8:30 gillian
8:45
9:00 ava
9:15
9:30
9:45
10:00 ross
10:15 anna
10:30 halee
10:45

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W april 15

ZOOM@NOON for a bit!
meeting ID: 923 1008 7776
password: 171699

zoom link for today
trying the password feature today. if it asks for a password: 085477

reading responses from w april 8 were due at noon today. responses from these readings should be done here. keep it meaningful and brief.

keep making progress on your projects, refining and completing work-in-progress and determining how to continue the conversation about your topic, using the techniques from the course content.

today’s slots if you want some one-on-one time. i’d like to talk to everyone once a week to maintain accountability for your work, to help idea generation, and ensure good forward momentum.
12:45 ricardo
1:00
1:15
1:30 hannah-rae
1:45
2:00
2:15

new work for next class
reading // “wit” from a smile in the mind
or
reading // rhetorical figures from graphic design thinking: beyond brainstorming

choose one to comment on. several of you have read “wit”, so comment on what you learned from that if you desire, or check out the newer second reading. it’s very short but still informative.

responses from these readings should be done here by midnight on w april 22. keep it meaningful and brief.

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M april 13

like last class, no all-class check-in today. hit the link below for your crit time and i’ll admit you to the video call.

remember to email me files of what you’re presenting. a single pdf is preferred, if possible. so far i have only received files from shane, anna, cordell.

learning summaries for today
9:00 lynnsie, ross, ricardo, halee, shane
zoom link for today’s learning summaries

don’t forget, reading responses from w april 8 are due wednesday. see the post below.

we will have an all-class check-in at the start of class on wednesday, probably 12:15 [after our ZOOM@NOON!]. everyone needs to be making progress on work – either the question of the week or your self-directed projects. we’ll have time for one-on-one discussions wednesday. prepare questions and/or work to share with me so you can keep moving forward with good momentum.

our next learning summary will be monday april 27. the final one will be during finals week on wednesday may 13.

question of the week:
using a rhetorical trope, how can i design a poster that encourages viewers to respond to my social issue with one specific and positive action? 

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w april 8

zoom link for today

no all-class check-in on april 8. hit the link above a minute or so before your crit time below and i’ll admit you to the video call.

remember to email me files of what you’re presenting. a single pdf is preferred, if possible.

revised groups for today’s learning summary
12:10 han, ava, ki
12:50 gillian, noah, anna, shane

one-on-one slots for those interested
2:00
2:15
2:30
2:45

monday april 13 learning summaries
9:00 hannah-rae, lynnsie, ross
9:40 cordell, ricardo, halee

new work for next class
reading // “the union of word and picture” from type + image

reading // “graphic resonance” from type + image

responses from these readings should be done here by noon on w april 15. keep it meaningful and brief.

prep for learning summaries on monday, or continue your project work! keep rolling, crew. so many of you have great ideas and are developing strong momentum.

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M april 6

8am group check-in

responses from last week’s reading should be done here by noon on w april 8. keep it meaningful and brief.

question of the week
what if i designed a symbol and name that sparked a positive movement to address my social issue?
contemporary example: extinction rebellion america
historical example: campaign for nuclear disarmament

one-on-ones for today. use the same link as above for our group check in.
9:00 anna
9:15 ava
9:30 hannah-rae
9:45 han
10:00 halee
10:15 ross
10:30 shane

new work for next class
prep for learning summary. the most important thing here is communicating what you have learned about the course subject matter. you can best do that by explaining how the theories of semiotics, rhetoric, modes of persuasion, or communication are evident in your project work. 

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wed april 1

12 noon dept-wide ZOOM@NOON activity. do it!

12:10 zoom meeting for official class

april 8 learning summary
small group crits w/screen share. it’s up to you how to share your work – pdfs are fine, keynote is fine. 

11 min per designer, including presentation and feedback.

deliverable: email me pdf file[s], single or multi-page. export from keynote if you are using keynote to present. 

filename: lastname_firstname-learningSummary3.pdf

no all-class check-in on april 8. hit the zoom link a minute or so before your crit time below and i’ll admit you to the video call.

12:00 halee, han, ross
12:40 hannah-rae, ava, ki
1:20 gillian, lynnsie, noah
2:00 anna, ricardo, cordell, shane

discuss readings

one-on-ones for today
1:00 ki
1:15 cordell
1:30 gillian
1:45 lynnsie
2:00 x
2:15 noah

thought: many of you are still “telling” me things, rather than “showing” me what has been made. you need to move much more heavily into a mode of making and showing what’s been made. making gives you something to respond to, something to iterate on, and think critically about. you learn things by making just as you do by reading and researching. 

clarification
the question of the week [on march 30 post below] is always optional. only pursue that if you want to have that specific kind of problem to respond to.

also, i misspoke about the reading assignment – it’s assigned today for discussion on this coming wednesday, april 1.

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m march 30

8am zoom meeting

check in w/everyone – doing okay?

Temp check
go around "room" and each share one high, one low, and one thing that's part of your daily routine that you find energizing and/or inspiring (school-related or otherwise)

Norms / best practices
- listen deeply to whomever is speaking in the virtual room.
- one mic. try not to interrupt, and if you do, apologize.
- be comfortable with being uncomfortable
- full participation required (no multitasking)
- use the “raise hand” function in the zoom chat box to raise your hand
- gallery view vs speaker view
- using annotation tools
- sharing a screen

review new class structure - weekly readings and question

next learning summary: april 8review 3 semiotics readings

question of the week:
within the form of a standalone keynote presentation, how can i clearly organize, display, and provide critical semiotic commentary on found examples within my social issue? 

discuss one-on-one sign-ups for today and wednesday
9:00 anna
9:15 ava
9:30 gillian
9:45 ricardo
10:00 halee
10:15 ross
10:30 shane

new work for next class
reading // icon index symbol from graphic design thinking: beyond brainstorming

reading // “denotation and connotation” from type + image

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thur march 19

how to access and update your act grading rubric:

1. go to drive.google.com and log in using your kcai username and password [same as gmail].

2. go to the “shared with me” section of your drive.

3. find and click on the google spreadsheet titled “act-rubric-20-yourlastname”

4. at the top of that document, click on the “open with google sheets” button.

5. fill in any areas of the rubric where you’ve done work. for example, if you’ve demonstrated your learning on semiotics, add in your assessment of how you did in those areas. there are spaces for participation, presentations, and process as well. all should be filled out because you’ve all done those things already. refer to the key to the right for info on what the appropriate number is.

your scores will be on the left-most column and my scores are to the right of that. my scores count for 60% of your total grade and your scores count for 40%.

note there are red “2”s in each major area. those are just placeholders so the formulas work properly. once you add your scores into those areas, you or i can delete the red “2” so the averages are accurate.

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m march 2

review “the art of asking questions” on medium.

small group review of “wit” reading.

small group critique over work in progress, for those interested.

new work for next class
this round of learning will need to be faster than normal, as time is short. each student will have 6 minutes total, and i’ll have to be really diligent on time to keep us on track, so forgive me in advance for rudeness in making hard stops on presentations. please plan your summary accordingly.

a quick heads up: once your learning summary is done, you’ll need to fill out on your rubric the relevant sections on “course objectives”, “presentation/craft 1”, “participation 1”, and “process 1”. you’ll use the key on the right side for scoring 1–4. half-numbers are okay.

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w feb 26

work time!

research help from lora farrell at kcai library at 1:30 today. we will have some time afterwards to browse the stacks, too. should be an informative time!

new work for next class
those interested in rhetoric and related topics, read “wit” from the book a smile in the mind. we will discuss as a small group or as a class on monday, march 2.

those interested in small group critiques over your work in progress, have work ready to share and discuss for monday.

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m feb 24

check in: learning summary is due march 4. so is your type 2 specimen. do you want to do your learning summary before, after, or keep it on march 4?

”ask da prof” session: 30 min
what do you want to know about these communication theories? clarification of concepts, terminology, examples? questions about the readings?

lecture, discussion, and work time as needed.

new work for next class
read “the art of asking questions” on medium

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w feb 19

“question asking” practice session: full group, small group, individual; macro, mid-level, micro.

lecture, discussion, and work time as needed.

remember you want to have a bias toward making and try to answer your questions as a graphic designer – by communicating visually, through type, image, interaction.

new work for next class
to satisfy your own learning and curiosity, have clear progress on something you can show your peers. impress yourself with what you can make!

your next learning summary is due in two weeks. use that as a deadline for something significant you want to make.

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m feb 17

finish status updates from students.

review of perceptions of learning summaries: what is the best way for you to demonstrate your learning? traditional courses have tests, essays or project work. how is your work in this class different or the same compared to other types of classes you’ve had?

morphological analysis exercise using this handout.

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m feb 10

lecture, group discussion or work time as needed.

new work for next class
learning summaries are due.
goal: demonstrate through project work what you have learned about the course subject matter.
view the rubric here. i will email you a link to your personal rubric that we will both fill out throughout the semester. your self-eval will count for 40% of your grade. my eval will count for 60%.
10 minutes max per student.
presentation format is open.

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w jan 29

talkey talk!
what’s up? how was break? what did you do? what is another thing that nobody knows about you?
also, how are you feeling about this class? classes in general? school in general?

discuss social issues you’re considering.

discuss next steps. what are you going to explore? any problems or questions? what can i do to help?

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m jan 27

syllabus day!

and for your convenient review, the graphic design course policies and the general kcai policies that also govern this course.

if you need something from me [critique, “how am i doing in class?”, additional resources, ideas, guidance, how to ride a bike, music/restaurant/vegan food suggestions] you have total freedom and encouragement to ask. please ask.

what are “learning summaries”?
simply put, they are your opportunity to share an overview of the knowledge you’ve gained from your explorations in this class. they are also an opportunity for group learning and teaching. you should approach this as any good designer would – with a clear sense of the goal/need [to share your explorations] and an understanding of the audience [your peers and me] and context [kcai/our classroom]. you will have a time constraint of about 10 minutes per student. consider the best media to communicate your ideas and whether you want input/dialogue as part of your summary.

resources

course syllabus

inquiries

semiotics
lecture // semiotics primer

lecture // semiotics primer part 2

lecture // anchorage+relay in advertising

reading // “the union of word and picture” from type + image

reading // “graphic resonance” from type + image

reading // “denotation and connotation” from type + image

reading // semiotics part 1 from visible signs

reading // semiotics part 2 from visible signs

reading // semiotics from visual communication from theory to practice

reading // icon index symbol from graphic design thinking: beyond brainstorming

sample project 2019

rhetoric
reading // “wit” from a smile in the mind

sample project 2019

reading // rhetorical figures from graphic design thinking: beyond brainstorming

lecture // rhetoric

modes of persuasion
reading // principles of information design from beautiful evidence

reading // propaganda critic [particularly the “core concepts” section]

video // modes of persuasion

sample project 2019

communication
lecture // communication models

lecture // the message cycle

reading // communication models from graphic design theory

sample project 2019

general
lecture // organizational strategies