Description:

In this workshop students will be guided through creatively visualizing information on a topic of their choice in a flyer, zine, or brochure. Students will learn how to distill and creatively communicate their topic for their relevant audience, and get to combine design structures like visual hierarchy and grids with an appropriate artistic medium of their choice.

Students are encouraged to bring topic ideas that they are interested in for the first of the four workshops. The first workshop will include covering some useful design concepts and examples of successful artistic information design, as well as collaborative brainstorming on ideas for information topics and which of the three formats is the best form for each student’s topic. Subsequent workshops will be built around honing each individual’s project by working as a group through a critique format focused on solving problems, dialing in an audience, and bringing artistic presentation into each project through multiple drafts. This drafting process may involve a little homework depending on the student’s vision and process.

While graphic design is often thought of as digital form there is no expectation for students to work digitally. Mediums and materials like colored pencil, pen and ink, block printing, collage, and more are all welcomed and encouraged. If your chosen medium requires a more involved set-up, studio space, or is particularly messy your drafts may be best completed as homework and then brought in to the next session. While some students may not complete the final version of their information design during the workshop series, everyone should come away from the workshop with a path forward for their piece, an awareness for the tools and goals of creative information design, and a chosen audience for their finished work.