Course Overview: Graduate Seminar: ‘Information Architecture/Visual Rhetoric’

With the exception of perhaps technical communication teachers, we in ‘English studies’ have not traditionally been tasked with teaching visual communication methods such as page layout and design. Yet as visual imagery is increasingly used to communicate in our society (and communicators are increasingly using visual elements), we need to find ways to train our students (as well as ourselves) to better analyze and interpret visual elements as well as become proficient visual communicators.

This graduate-level seminar will give students a strong theoretical background in information design as well as practical, hands-on experience creating visual components for their own work. In other words, students will both learn ‘how-to’ communicate visually by creating and manipulating visual elements as well as learn critical theoretical approaches to help inform their decisions. Students will complete assigned theory-based as well as practice-based readings on visual communication, become proficient in using the layout and design tools in MS Word as well as one desktop publishing program (either Quark Xpress or Adobe InDesign—we will also ‘experiment’ with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator but students will not be required to become proficient in these programs), complete short weekly assignments, write a mid-term final project proposal and create a final project. This course will use a service-learning approach for the final project in that students will work with a ‘real world’ audience (or client) to create a well crafted, visually-based final document. Students will also be required to write a final report discussing their experience working with their ‘client’ as well as explain the theoretical and practical justification for their choices in detail. This final project could be a website, a brochure, a poster, an advertisement, etc, or could even be a document redesign; students will work with their audience to determine the genre of this final document.

Course Overview for Enrollees. The fundamentals of graphic design and page layout have not traditionally been taught in English departments. Yet as we live in a society increasingly dominated by visual imagery, we, as writers and teachers of writing, need to be able to analyze and interpret visual communication as well as effectively communicate information visually.

In this course, you will learn several theoretical frameworks for analyzing and interpreting visual information as well as practice applying one or more of these frameworks using the tools available in MS Word as well as one desktop publishing program—Adobe InDesign or QuarkXpress—to create your own ‘visually communicative’ documents. We will also experiment with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Course Requirements: Weekly readings and short weekly assignments; a mid-term final project proposal and a final project that you will create working with a ‘real world’ audience (or client) in which you apply the principles you’ve learned in the class. You will also be required to write a final report discussing your experiences working with your ‘client’ and explaining your design choices for your final project.

Policy Statement. Students will be expected to attend class regularly, complete the weekly readings and short assignments, participate in class discussions, and participate in peer review sessions.

Required Texts:

Arnheim, Rudolf. Visual Thinking. University of California Press, 2004.

Kostelnick, Charles and David Roberts. Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators. Longman, 1997.

Kostelnick, Charles, and Michael Hassett. Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions, Southern Illinois University, 2003.

Kress, Gunther and Leo van Leeuwen. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Routledge,1996.

Lefebvre, Henri. The production of space. Blackwell Publishing, 1991.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics DC Comics, 1999.

Schriever, Karyn. Dynamics in Document Design Wiley, 1996.

Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information Graphics Press, 1990.

Williams, Robin and John Tollett. Design Workshop. 2^nd Edition. Peachpit Press, 2006.

Williams, Robin. The Non Designers’ Design Book, 2^nd Edition. Peachpit Press, 2003.

Syllabus.

Week	Topics	Readings	Projects/ Assignments
Week 1	Intro to Visual Communication, Ways of Thinking and Seeing	Arnheim. Visual Thinking.	Short Activity Paper
Week 2	History of Graphic Design/Visual Communication	Schriever. Dynamics in Document Design	Short Activity Paper
Week 3	Mapping Visual Space, Theories on Space	Lefebvre. The production of space	Short Activity Paper
Week 4	Toward a Theory of Design and Visual Communication	Kress, Reading Images Kostelnick. Shaping Information.	Short Activity Paper
Week 5	Layout and Design, MS Word Demo	Williams. Non Designers’ Design Book	Short Activity Paper
Week 6	Texts, Words and Typography More MS Word Practice	Kostelnick. Designing Visual Language	Short Activity Paper
Week 7	Iconography, Semiotics, and Stereotypes	McCloud. Understanding Comics	Short Activity Paper
Week 8	Information Architecture	Tufte. Envisioning Information	Short Activity Paper
Week 9	Producing Visuals: More Practice Using Desktop Publishing Software Photoshop and Illustrator Demos	Williams. Design Workshop.	Short Activity Paper
Week 10	Pictorial Elements: Photographs and Composition, Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress		Final Project Proposals Due
Week 11	Visual Communication and Film (Watch portions from Alfred Hitchcock films)
Week 12	Ethics, Brainstorm/Peer Planning for Final Projects
Week 13	NO CLASS—Meet w/Clients, Work on Final Projects
Week 14	Informal Progress Reports on Final Projects, Peer Reviews
Week 15	FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
Week 16	FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS		FINAL PROJECTS DUE

Course Objectives. Using Stuart Selber’s idea of multiliteracies, this course design seeks to build functional, rhetorical and critical literacies, (i.e., teach students to be users of technology, questioners of technology and producers of technology). Selber argues that teaching these literacies is within the purview of English departments because “…situating technology in broad terms is the job of humanities teachers, not only because the mission of liberal arts instruction is to develop whole persons capable of making balanced judgments in a technocratic world but also because this crucial task is so rarely undertaken explicitly and concretely by the units most often charged with computer literacy initiatives in higher education” (10). He continues: “If teachers fail to adopt a postcritical stance, thus leaving technology design and education to those outside the field, it is entirely probable that students will have a much more difficult time understanding computers in critical, contextual and historical ways, that technology designs, informed by pedagogical and cultural values not our own, will define and redefine literacy practices in ways that are less than desirable, and that computer literacy will simply serve to perpetuate rather than alleviate existing social inequities” (13). Using Selber’s theoretical justification to ground my pedagogical approach in this class, my goal is to build all three literacies—the specific software requirements (MS Word and desktop publishing programs) will foster functional literacies, i.e, the ‘how-to’ component; the service-learning/audience analysis component as well as the design portion of the final project will foster rhetorical literacy; and the short weekly activity papers as well as the final report component of the final project (which asks students to justify their rhetorical decisions) will foster critical literacies.

Assignment Sequences.

Short Weekly Assignments: These short activities will be designed to give students a chance to practice the theoretical as well as practical concepts that we cover each week. For example, students will either be asked to analyze images and visual elements or complete short design or redesign assignments using MS Word or desktop publishing software by apply a theoretical concept from the readings.

Sample Short Weekly Assignment #1 (Week 4):

Define Visual Rhetoric: In a short (2-3 page) paper, propose a definition for visual rhetoric. Explain what visual rhetoric is as well as what it is not. Then, support your claims with evidence from the readings as well as your own ideas and ideas we have explored in class. Use at least two images to support your position.

Sample Short Weekly Assignment #2 (Week 5):

Short Document Redesign: Find a one-page advertisement or flyer and redesign it using MS Word. Then, write a brief 1-2 page explanation providing a theoretical justification for your decisions.

Sample Short Weekly Assignment #3 (Week 10):

Original Image: Create an original digital image in Photoshop or Illustrator (you can also scan in a pre-existing image and modify it or pull something off the web—problem here, though, is that most web images are compressed gif or jpeg, meaning the resolution will be low) that communicates something that you feel can not be communicated in print (or you feel can not be communicated in the same way in print). For example, you could try to represent an emotion or an action. The goal is to represent something that may not easily be translated into words. Be prepared to share your ideas, and discuss your work with the class.

Mid Term Final Project Proposal: For the final project in this class, you will create a single document that uses very strong (or primarily) visual components or elements to communicate information. In other words, at least half of the communicative elements in the document must be visual. The type of document you choose is up to you; for example, you may create a brochure, poster, advertisement, newsletter, magazine article, website—any genre that interests you, or you may choose to redesign an existing document. There is, however, a catch. You must work with a ‘real world’ client or audience in creating this final document, so you will, to a large extent, be responding to that audience’s needs. Second, you will also write a final report explaining in detail your audience analysis methodology as well as their specific needs culminating in your theoretical justification for your final document (i.e, why you made the decisions you made in terms of your interaction with your audience and your knowledge of theory).

For the midterm proposal, write a 5 page proposal explaining the type of client/audience you’d like to work for and the type of document you’d like to create. Your proposal should include a brief introduction of your topic (why you selected this particular project—why you’re interested in working with a particular type of audience or client and why you selected a particular type of document), a description of the audience or client you’d like to work with, and a description of the final document you will create and the purpose of the document. In terms of your specific audience, you may choose a particular client to work with in a professional capacity (i.e., a particular person, a business or company, or an organization) or you may choose a specific ‘target’ audience for your document. If you choose to designate a particular audience, your description of this audience must be specific—i.e., ‘working women’ is too general; ‘married Hispanic women between the ages of 20-30 with a high school education who earn less than $20,000 a year living in ABQ who need information about healthy eating’ is more specific. Finally, briefly explain your methods for approaching the project. How will you get started? How will you analyze your audience? What difficulties or limitations do you foresee? How might you handle these?

Final Class Project

General Assignment Description: The final project will include two components: 1) a final document (a brochure or pamphlet, an advertisement, a webpage or website template, a catalogue or magazine or book layout, or even tourism materials like a map or a series of public information signs; you may also choose to redesign an existing document); and 2) a 15-18 page final report that explains how you constructed this document: what choices you made from a theoretical as well as practical application in presenting your information visually and why, and your audience analysis methodology as well as how you incorporated feedback from your audience into the design.

Specific Requirements: This final document must be created for a ‘real’ audience that you work with directly. Your audience may be a particular client whom you work with in a professional capacity (i.e., a particular person from a business or company or an organization) or you may choose a specific ‘target’ audience. If you choose to work with a specific ‘target’ audience, your audience description must be specific—as stated in the mid term project description above. Additionally, your final report must include the following sections: overview/introduction (introduce your project and your specific goals), methodology/approach (explain your audience and your procedures for analyzing your audience; additionally explain what problems you encountered and how you overcame these problems), theoretical justification (detail the design choices you made and the specific theories you used to justify these choices) and conclusion/evaluation (explain your initial design concept as well as changes you made to accommodate the needs and feedback from your audience).

Grading Criteria: In evaluating your final project I will be looking for quality, not necessarily quantity. You may choose to create a fairly ‘simple’ document, but your choices must reflect serious consideration and a high level of complexity. Additionally, I will expect your final report to address each of the sections above in detail.