Ying Tan, Associate Professor

tanying@darkwing.uoregon.edu

Office: 113 Millrace One

Office Hours: Tuesdays 3PM-5PM by appointment

Advanced Visual Design is a two-term sequence in communications design. It provides the pre-professional student an opportunity for immersion in conceptual invention and problem solving in an environment based on design practice and research. Studio efforts will encompass a wide range of design experiences from which to build personal methods, insights and portfolios. Both graduate and undergraduate students will find opportunities for professional growth.

The Advanced Design studio is rooted in a "concept-to-project" model. This means that certain conditions may be imposed, certain issues may be raised or certain parameters may be set but it is up to the student to act as the critical conceptual agent in the formulation of each problem-based project. The reasoning behind this model is that the emerging practice of design is one which values those who can seek and pose problems, perform independent research, evaluate and articulate their discoveries and successfully synthesize their ideas through design artifacts. As technology reshapes design practice, the designer must be prepared to act as a collaborative author in increasingly complex communications environments and cultural conditions.

The primary issues in Advanced Design have to do with "why" and "how", regarding decision-making and problem solving. This course is more interested in the choice of "appropriate" media/technology in the solution of problems rather than in the application of a specific technology/medium for it’s own sake. I encourage each student to cultivate his/her own personal strength that may come from a unique cultural, educational and technical background.

The issues we will deal with and around which we will develop inquiry and create design artifacts are as follows:

1. Language, meaning and ideas...communication theory and signification, conceptual invention and creativity, visual language and rhetoric, representation, evidence, and truth.

2. Critical analysis and problem-solving...function, performance, research, testing.

3. Culture and context...vernacular communications, identity, style, community, public/private.

4. New Media...theory and practice, interactive, experiential, immaterial, immersive, technology history and theory, information environments.

5. Design aesthetics...Formal, functional and technical integration, the ambiguous and poetic vs. clarity and logic, structure, organization and control.

6. Design practice...ethics, materialism, environment, applied intuition, teams, clients, project development and management, time and money, jobs, interviews, presentation, portfolio.

In general, the exercises of the two terms are intended to develop projects that involve these issues without being literally "about" them. The specific content of the problems will evolve out of research, critical analysis, personal knowledge and intuition. The projects are intended to result in portfolio caliber work.

All projects will be co-determined by the students and myself. This will allow a chance to completely define and control problems of personal interest in a rigorous and thorough manner and to develop highly finished work, which may be included in the portfolio. Earlier projects may be re-worked to bring them to portfolio quality. A formal portfolio exhibition will be held at the end of the Winter term in the Lavern Krause Gallery and portfolios will be critiqued by the Portland Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Oregon Multimedia Alliance in the Spring.

Some internships and client work will be available during the year and we will also attempt some field trips to Northwest design, communication, multimedia and graphic production firms.

The class meeting time will be used in this structure:

12noon - 12:45pm, Student Project Presentation and Critique

1pm - 1:45pm, Instructor Lecture and Presentation, Assignment

2pm - 2:45pm, Class Exercise and Individual Project Advising