Design and Visual Communication II

OVERVIEW

Design and Visual Communication Two expands the design process to focus on the designer as a researcher, strategist, and entrepreneur. A semester-long project in product innovation affords students the opportunity to self-define areas of contextual inquiry and opportunity. Emphasis is placed on developing skills and expanding tools designers use to empathize with peoples’ lives, to understand, conceptualize, and communicate the circulation of capital, people, and culture from a regional to global scale, and to intelligently envision the products or services of the future.

Each assignment creates conditions where students discover, interpret, and communicate what a designer is, the roles designers play, and the value designers bring to the “conceptual economy.” A designer must not only be an expert in form but also have a broad range of skills in the social sciences, technology, and the organization of teams. Their ability to manage complex design problems, to design in context for a target audience, and to be accountable for design decisions through evaluative criteria elevates the designer from “maker” to “design strategist.”

objective

• Advance design thinking skills

• Perform professional business practices
  (collaboration/co-creation/creative commons, intellectual property laws)

• Demonstrate design entrepreneurial skills and abilities

• Develop competencies in brand identity

• Demonstrate visual and verbal communication competencies in storytelling

• Expand primary and secondary research tools and techniques

• Integrate rapid prototyping techniques into the design process

• Advance project management skills (time, organization, team building, risk, etc.)

• Foster interpersonal communication skills (listening, questioning, body language, manage emotion, suspend judgment, etc)

• Establish abilities to work effectively in multi-disciplinary, collaborative teams

• Advance writing and self-promotional abilities (blog, bio, design brief, and more)