If uninspired, don a moustache.

VCFA ZONE


Leslie T., Margaret G., Michelle M. and Adrain R:
I can't believe it is midterm time for VCFA already. 1/​20/​12 is the deadline for getting your evaluations in to Jen.

Why I teach at Cornish.


To the design world at large, Seattle design means three things: Modern Dog, Art Chantry and Grunge. Of course there's much more. But that's the quick sum-up, and there's validity in it.

Cornish College of the Arts is a regional school, very much rooted in Seattle. In the Visual Communications program of the Design Department here, hand lettering and illustration are as valid forms of communication as are The Grid or Helvetica. There's also no Church and State division between those who manipulate type and image and those who make drawings. I like that: I wish I had had that inclusion when I was going to school.

The design tradition here is based on a radical past. It's heavily influenced by music and theater. Unlike many design students at other schools who work in silo'd buildings, students here mix daily with the musicians, dancers, actors, artists, photographers and theater production people in other Cornish programs.

I like that Cornish supports my belief in interdisciplinary study for designers. I like that the program is growing, headed up by a Department Head with vision, and that the faculty is as supportive of a student's interest in the comic novel as it is of that student's interest in Josef Müller-Brockmann. I like that the librarians do everything they can to act as resources for my students and for me and that the design department staff makes sure that I am totally supported so I can do my best thinking. That's why I teach at Cornish.

student information and updates

It's done! The DSC Prize charrette ended on Thursday at 4 sharp. The entries are in and the judges will receive the packets in the coming week. Don't forget to mark your calendar for the Big Check Ceremony Feb 28 at 12 in MCC 505! And do bring a helmet in case I have to fling myself out the window.


The DSC Prize Charrette is in progress! Think turf. Think lots of turf. Think $500 prize.

This ongoing conversation reads in reverse order. Responses to your post will appear above your post.

Click and type in a question or comment

Thanks Natalia!

As I understand it, class starts at 11-- meet at his lecture in 505, then we'll do the workshop from 1-3:50.
N.
---

Hey Natalia, does class start at 9 tomorrow for the presentations with Tom?

Thank you , Kayla! I'll put them in my bag now....

Hey Natalia! This is the reminder to bring our Design History papers to school! Thanks! :)

- Kayla

Hi Chelsea!

Think about the themes that run through your work. Now think of people who might know something about those themes. For instance, in your case: can you find a contemporary Mexican or Mexican-American graphic designer who could weigh in? Or a historian or museum curator specializing in Mexican graphic design of the period? Finding an advisor gives you an opportunity to use all those research skills Heather shared with us to unearth appropriate candidates. Who is mentioned in your research books and blogs that might be prevailed upon to have one or two (recorded phone conversations with you?) Whom do you know? Who is a Facebook friend?
The advisor does not have to be local, but he or she does have to be able to attend the 11th week reviews either in person or using Skype.

Hey Natalia,

Do you have suggestions for how to find professionals that we might want to ask about being our mentors? I'm... kind of lost on that front. Should their specialties relate to our degree projects? Do they have to be local?

Thanks!
Chelsea
---

---
Hi Heather!
Good idea. While you are snowed in, make sure you:

Have your draft 1 week-by week schedule for this semester as fully completed as possible and ready to review.

Start on what you have planned for the first week.

Make sure you have read your Aristotle-- you should have completed VII, VIII and IX in the Poetics.

Review your process book pdf.s from last semester and think about the design of the final book for this semester. The process book for the degree project should be, at the end of next semester, the most complete, well-designed and perfectly written and produced (no typos/ no misspellings/ no widows, no orphans, no nothing) of your career here. Many people publish a bound book. So this is a good time to think about the grid and system that you are using and whether you can use them throughout the semester to organize as you go. Research production sites (lulu? I've been hearing issues with lulu) for the final book. Add in to your schedule the timeline associated with producing on that site (what pdfs need to go where, when.)

Start researching and listing the outside professionals you would like to have as project advisors. You want to have two professional advisors for this semester, to act in a limited mentorship role and to appear at your 11th week reviews. List your dream people and write a first draft of an email explaining what you are doing and what you are asking them to do. Bring this letter to class Monday.

Remember to include in your schedule prepping them for the 11th week reviews.

Concentrated thought now will make your final weeks less hectic. This semester is totally devoted to the thinking behind your degree project.

After Aristotle, we will not be doing systematic reading unless something suddenly occurs to us. We will be looking at some exhibition design and thinking about metaphor and manipulation and how it translates into exhibition design. But the semester is really about getting the degree project up and out.
I'm here at my desk, snowed in, so do post if you have questions or concerns. Or ideas for things you'd like to see happen in this semester in the seminar.
---

BTW Natalia - anything we should get started on for Senior Studio? Reading, project, etc? We all have our timelines to go on, but I figure there might be something else, you never know! - Heather

anyone who's short on funds and needs the book "From Modernization to Globalization" - I have a copy I'm willing to loan, I'd just like it back (I like to back-reference...) email me @ hea.nicewonger@arts.cornish.edu :)

---

Oops. snow.

---

Students enrolled in Design for Social Change:

Please go ahead and order the books that are required for this class. Readings start the first day of class in the major reader.

The major reader is entitled, "From Modernization to Globalization: Perspectives on Development and Social Change," (Blackwell Readers in Sociology), published by Wiley-Blackwell, and is a compilation of important writings relating to the larger issues in social change.

You can find the book used or buy if from someone who already took the class, or you can order it here on my bookstore page, but try to get it used and make sure to get it before class starts.

The second two required books are: "Propaganda," by Edward Bernays and "Thinking in Systems," by Donnella Meadows. These are both inexpensive new, and we will not be using them until the fourth week, so you have a little time on those.

Enjoy the break!
---