Workshop ideas for University of Utah Visit Ideas

• I am combining three important things in this workshop:
  • Climate Design
    • Utilize drawdown? or un goals? for initial content
  • Meaning Making
  • Free Culture
    • utilize flickr commons for images, velvetyne (et al) for type?
    • We will be sharing files with each other?
• This workshop needs a name.

1. Workshop
   1. Free Culture > In The Beginning Culture was Free!
      1. Design Tools/elements
         1. Flickr Commons
         2. Typography and Open Source
      2. Vernacular
         1. Stewart Brand and How Buildings Learn
            • How Buildings Learn excerpt as part of a readings packet!
   2. Climate Designer
      1. Project Drawdown
      2. UN Sustainable Development Goals
   3. Clear, Easily Iterative Deliverables
      1. Posters
         1. Some sort of series?
            • why posters?
            • can "posters" be interpreted in some way?
         2. 2 posters – the posters are in communication with one another?
            • Reuse my poster project prompt from AD1 w/ sandie and isaac?
         3. 3 posters – they are iterative? they build on one another?
2. Readings
   1. Refernce the AD1 Invisible Cities readings?
   2. AD1 Grating exercises readings?
   3. The Ecstasy of Influence, Jonathan Lethem / http://fromkeetra.com/Downloads/TheEcstacyOfInfluence_JonathanLethem.pdf / https://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-ecstasy-of-influence/?single=1
   4. Writing Bodies, Litia Perta
3. Questions
   1. What is it?
   2. When is this from?
   3. Where is this from?
   4. Who made this?
   5. What made this?
   6. What is so great about this?
   7. What drew you to this?
   8. Why does this exist?
   9. How do we create meaning?
   10. How do we decide what is "good enough" to give to another person? and does that matter?
   11. How do you reinvent the visual presentation of a familiar product?
   12. How do we discover new ways to reimagine and promote common forms?

• Manifesto?
  • Mind Essential Principles
• Speculative Design
  • Any potential readings from Speculative Everything?
  • If this is speculative, and about our climate, does it matter what time in the future we're speculating about?
    • The year 2025
    • The year 2030
    • The Year 2050
  • What kind of future?
    • a Dystopian Future
    • a Utopian Future
• There is no wrong way to translate your favorite inspiration into a kit or tool. Make wildly poetic leaps or stay near the source. If you create a work that acts as a tried and true homage with clear reference to it’s origin, consider crediting that origin in a notable way. For further thoughts on influence, appropriation, and the like, check out The Ecstasy of Influence, Jonathan Lethem.
  • From Keetra Dean Dixon's 2018 Flex workshop handout...

The Actual Prompt?

Clearly articulate due dates and expecations.

PART 1

An experimental, expressive graphic exploration that responds to the source material (Drawdown or UN Goals!?)

• Slideshow with bibliography
• 12 experimental compositions, explore type only, image only and type and image combined

PART 2

Two posters that create a dialogue about your topic and that challenge your audience to think critically.

• 2 printed or animated posters, sized to your discretion. Each poster must use a grid, have 3 levels of hierarchy including a heading, 200 words of text and at least one image.
  • what all of this means of course is up to you: the size, grid, etc. should all make sense based on your approach... how can you "make meaning" through selecting these design elements – not just through your text/image choices?

Wk1

Create a typology study:

• Make a list of 10 words that describe your topic.
• Find 3 aphorisms or quotes that describe the topic.
• Look at digital and analog resources and collect images, illustrations, diagrams,

patterns, etc that illustrate the topic. ** What literal objects represent your topic? ** What metaphors apply to your topic? ** What possible allusions can you make in design, art, architecture, literature, history, etc, to your topic? ** What personal influences and interests would you like to combine with your topic? * Present as a PDF slide show with your words, aphorisms or quotes and image research. The last page should be a bibliography of your sources.

Wk2

Create 12 experimental compositions

• Make twelve 8x8 inch collages.
• Explore the form-making potential of the words and images you have gathered by manipulating both type and image.
• Consider both analog and digital manipulation of letterforms and images.
  • How does the meaning of words change if you use a different typeface?
  • How do the compositions communicate your specific interpretation of the topic?
  • How can you use type and image to communicate spatial relationships and environments? Consider shadow, plane, perspective, overlay and depth.
• Go wild with experimentation! What you can do to alter an image or typeface?
  • Abstract, make it modular, texturize, pattern, cut, tear, float, fold, frame, mask, project, adorn, alter...
• Present compositions

Wk3

Create a poster series

• Make 2 posters that express different aspects of your topic. The points of view can be complementary or contrasting.
• Build on your experimental compositions. Discover coincidences — both visual and language-based.
• Is there a composition that could be used as a grid for one or more of the posters?
• Could you combine two or more of the compositions?
• Have you discovered a certain technique that you want to replicate in the posters?
• Use a grid!
• Poster must have 3 levels of hierarchy and include a heading
• use at least 200 words of text and at least one image
• The definition for what a "poster" is can be variable: traditioanl poster? small?giant? billboard? building? website? animation? video? app? what is a poster for and how does a different medium or framework still do that?

Wk4

Critique: Posters due

– Present however necessary for your poster concepts.