Graphic Design Tools

Instructor: Kern Toy
SF / GRAPH–108 / 18 sessions
Prerequisite: completion of CORE or equivalent
July 9–August 17, Tues./Thurs., 5:30–9:30 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

From the nuances of digital typography to the highly complex and specialized world of digital prepress, this course investigates the software, hardware and techniques necessary to create and deliver successful printed designs. Students use the triumvirate of graphic design software: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign to create a series of projects that touches the universe of modern graphic design for print and web.

Topics covered include type handling and font management, desktop scanning techniques, effective multipage design techniques, and more. The assignments and lab work in this course directly support Graphic Design 1: Foundation and Typography 1: Form.

Minimum skills necessary for this class: basic Mac skills: knowing how to work in Finder, how to use the Mac filing system, how to organize folders and knowledge of the most common standard keyboard shortcuts.

This course satisfies a studio elective; a passing grade will suffice for the digital competency required to take Graphic Design Level 1 co-requisites in the student’s sophomore year.

Back to the Future: Rediscovering Zuanchō

Instructor: Douglas Akagi
SF / GRAPH-404 / 15 sessions
Prerequisite: Jr standing
August 5-23, Mon.-Fri., 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

A rare and exquisite collection of Japanese kimono pattern books, Zuanchō, are used to as the vehicle to transport the past to the present.

Zuanchō are design-idea-books. Zuan refers to a prototype design to be used in decorating various kinds of objects and chō means book or notebook. At the turn of the twentieth century in Kyoto, the cultural center of Japan to this day, these masterfully printed compilations of design concepts (paintings, patterns, styles, and palettes) facilitated conversations between kimono makers and clients. Art from a rare collection of these Zuanchō books are the focus and impetus of this course.

In twenty-first century San Francisco, one of their pages might be the starting point for a housewares product line, a short story, or a typeface design. Now as then, the elements contained and impulses conveyed by these books are available for application, combination, and interpretation. In this studio, students are introduced to zuanchō and guided through a process of imaginative appropriation that draws on their skills in a medium of their choice to recast the treasures of this collection for contemporary use. Cultural, historical, and critical awareness are approached in practical terms to guide hands-on creative engagement. After a series of exercises designed to expand conceptions of the re-use to which these artifacts may be put, students focus on the development of a single project whose final expression is inspired by the craft embodied in the zuanchō themselves.

Misako Mitsui, whose family were Kyoto kimono merchants for generations, is generously sharing her family’s Zuanchō collection with the college. She initiates the course with a very informative lecture about Zuanchō and its fascinating history. Additional lectures about traditional Japanese aesthetic values and product ideation set the stage for inspired creativity.

This course satisfies an Upper Division Interdisciplinary studio requirement or a studio elective. For Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Illustration, and Interaction Design students, this course may satisfy an investigative studio or major studio elective.

Summer Design Intensive

Instructors: Jason Munn, Paul Sahre, Martin Venezky
SF / GRAPH–420/ 15 sessions
Prerequisite: Graphic Design 3, Design Studio 3, Type 3
June 3–21, Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

The Summer Design Intensive offers the unique opportunity to study with visiting graphic designers in an intense, three–week workshop. This course is open to advanced graphic design students and design professionals (on a space available basis).

June 3–7 / Jason Munn
Not So Obvious
This week centers around creating a poster by exploring various approaches during the first half of the week. These approaches and exercises focus on narrowing in on a concept and then realizing that concept by the end of the week.

Jason Munn is originally from Wisconsin, but now calls Oakland, CA home. He began making posters ten years ago for local venues and independent musicians, designing under the pseudonym The Small Stakes. Now, working under his name, Jason continues to focus on posters, as well as design and illustration commissions. Jason's work has appeared in numerous exhibits and publications. A selection of his posters are part of the permanent collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Denver Art Museum. In 2010, Chronicle Books published "The Small Stakes" which focuses on Jason's posters created from 2002-2009.

June 10–14 / Paul Sahre
Liar!
Liar! addresses lying/truth telling as it relates to the practice of graphic design.

Graphic designer, illustrator, lecturer, educator and author Paul Sahre established his New York studio in 1997. While consciously maintaining a small office, Sahre has nevertheless built a large presence in American graphic design. The balance he strikes between commercial and personal projects is evident in the physical layout of his workspace: part design studio, part silkscreen lab, part classroom. In one room he designs and prints posters (some of which are in the permanent collection at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum) for various off-off Broadway theaters, while in the other room he is busy designing book covers for authors such as Rick Moody, Chuck Klosterman, Ben Marcus and Ernest Hemingway. Sahre is also a frequent visual contributor to The New York Times. He is the author of Leisurama Now: The Beach House for Everyone, 1964-_______, a loving look at a short-lived product of early ‘60s consumer optimism: affordable middle-class summer homes. Sahre received his BFA and MFA from Kent State and teaches graphic design at the School of Visual Arts. He lectures extensively all over the world. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale.

June 17–21 / Martin Venezky
The Typographic Dream State
Students uncover unexpected typographic form by crossing into and out of a variety of media and processes. Methods may include drawing, building, storytelling, staging, filming, destroying, and experimenting.

San Francisco designer Martin Venezky first gained renown for his design of Speak Magazine. With his firm Appetite Engineers, Venezky continues his dedication to craft, process and detail. Venezky’s work for clients like the New York Times, SFMOMA, Abrams, Reebok, Sundance, and Chronicle Books has been widely published, and in 1997, he was among I.D. magazine’s “ID40” list of influential designers. In 2001 the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honored Venezky with a solo exhibition, and in 2005, his monograph, It Is Beautiful...Then Gone, was published by Princeton Architectural Press. In 2012, the American Association of Museums awarded Venezky its Smyth-Ravenal Prize for Excellence in Publication Design for the International Center of Photography’s Mexican Suitcase catalog. Martin has taught graphic design at both the graduate and undergraduate level since 1993 at CCA, RISD, CalArts and ArtCenter, and maintains an ongoing schedule of lectures and workshops.

This course satisfies an Investigative studio or Graphic Design studio elective.

The following summer study abroad courses also satisfy Graphic Design requirements:

• Paris, France: Animation by Design
• Tokyo, Japan: In Search of Emptiness & Wabi Sabi