'You can't be what you can't see' - Marian Wright Edelman. This studio looks to understand, build, explore and celebrate our identities as a way to create strong messages and language, as words and images, and representations within our physical and digital spaces. Rather than waiting for our worlds to be more inclusive or industries to embrace diversity, we will create and celebrate spaces for differences to thrive. We will embrace design as a way of opening up conversations as a method of storytelling. By being able to better understand and represent ourselves and our stories, it will help us build the skills and empathy needed to communicate and design for others.

Engaging with the worlds we see and the ones we wish we saw. Understanding the way the world reflects us and the ways in which we can design worlds that more accurately reflect us. Understanding the power of communication, of language, of the importance of calling things by their names as ways to have important, relevant conversations.

'If the designer is to make a deliberate contribution to society, they must be able to integrate all they can learn about behaviour and resources, ecology and human needs; taste and style just aren't enough.' - Sheila Levrant de Bretteville. This studio is about engaging our imagination, about creating and celebrating better worlds through design. Understanding what has come before, where we sit now and imagining where we might want to go. Embracing our imagination and creativity to develop strategies, to build communities.

This studio will be based around in-class workshops, solo and collaborative exercises, focused or exploration and experimentation (the process of performing activities, actions or processes to determine something or learn from them) through weekly exercises, designed to help you loosen up, encourage risk taking, broad exploration, increase your ability of finding many different ways to solve a problem, discourage you from becoming too attached to early ideas, develop an understanding of the message before jumping to the medium. This weekly and consistent experimentation will help you tighten up, refine your completed projects to the highest possible standards.

Students will need to be actively engaged as members of this creative community. Contributing and supporting. Sharing information and resources. Learning to offer and receive worthwhile critique. In-class discussions will be lead by student thoughts, questions and prompts. Conversation, communication, and critique are crucial to this course, whether it be through verbal dialogue or contributions through Canvas.

Brief 01: Research publication
Brief 02: Solo exploration and experimentation through creative exercises and archive.
Brief 03: Collaborative exploration, in-class exercises and archive.
Brief 04: SKO.

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/how-corita-kent-fought-power-with-joy/
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/why-role-models-matter-celebrating-women-of-color-in-design/
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/parasto-backman-on-how-to-embed-feminist-post-colonial-intersectional-perspectives-into-graphic-design/

Designing Experiences, Designing for Social Change, Designing Identity, Designing through Image, Designing Publications, Designing Disobedience

Students will need to be actively engaged as members of this creative community. Contributing and supporting. Sharing information and resources. Learning to offer and receive worthwhile critique. In-class discussions will be lead by student thoughts, questions and prompts. Conversation, communication, and critique are crucial to this course, whether it be through verbal dialogue or contributions through Canvas.