Making Good Ideas : How are good ideas made better? What processes are involved in making this happen? How do creative people transform their basic thoughts into fully realized plans? This course shows how to take ideas into the physical world, and investigates the idea-building skills and processes involved in making good ideas. This course explores how to give dimension to your ideas for print publication like posters, editorials, book covers as well as for products, installation, and personal entrepreneurship, to name a few. The course meets in a remote format and by online visits to creators and fabricators. Class meetings, discussions, sketches and finals may develop in-class, as critiques or as group online experiences.

The Illustrated Poster : Posters have existed for centuries, communicating to and connecting with audiences around the world. With functions ranging from educating and informing to inspiringand selling, poster makers respond to the times they live in and demonstrate the unique and enchanting power that words combined with imagery have over the human psyche. In this class, we will strengthen our understanding of our own work and practices by looking at illustrated posters of past and present. The work we make will respond to class discussions and assignments that demonstrate the exciting historic and contemporary shifts of the Illustrated Poster.

Grad Remix: Material Topics : Grad Remix is a rotating set of material-based studio courses for graduate students. Topics have included Creating the GIF, Dolphin Press Collaborative [a joint undergrad/grad course], 3D Storytelling, Visual Narratives, and Picture Books in Science & Nature. This umbrella course title allows for flexibility in developing elective courses to take advantage of prevailing opportunities.

Markets for Children : Making things for children is equally rewarding and fraught with responsibility. Whether it is for purposes of learning, teaching, playing, imagining, tinkering, wearing, pondering, or observing, each image or object created needs to be understood for its place in a child's universe. In this course, students will make a 5-minute presentation of their project on the first day of classes. This project will be completed through self-directed research and fully prototyped by the end of the semester. Alongwith completion of the project will be a written paper demonstrating an understanding of the market place for this project and a needs assessment that shows awareness of existing makers of and markets for the project. Projects may include books, blogs, apparel, educational toys, games, decor or other child related project.

Drawing Non-Fiction : In recent years, the drawn image has been increasingly preferred over photography – or is used in combination with it – as a medium for documentation, reportage and journalism. Illustrators and artists have taken on the role of journalists by documenting events and experiences, offering both objectiveand subjective viewpoints on issues. This course is designed to teach students to position themselves as journalists, and guide them in building their drawing practice in combination with writing, as a way to develop non-fiction narratives rooted in reportage and opinion. Students will be introduced to examples from visual journalism in historical and contemporary journalistic practices, that are sequential (comics, graphic novels, animation, zines, booklets) and non-sequential (political cartoons, editorial illustrations), and will be encouraged to experiment with these formats. The course will alsointroduce students to basic layout design and a functional understanding of production formats in order to equip them with the skills required to compile their narratives for print or web.