Bachelor of Arts Graphic Design
THREE-YEAR BA PROGRAM IN GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION
INTRODUCTION
EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
The three-year BA Program is aimed at training a professional capable of facing the new emerging needs in the complex field of communication by mastering updated technical and strategic skills and methods of research and analysis of the languages of contemporary visual culture.
This program encourages students to develop an integrated set of methodological, technical and cultural skills that will enable them to face graphic and advertising design projects with different targets in a progressively integrated media context. The educational path aims at training a new communicator that is capable of acknowledging and managing design complexity by interacting with a team of professionals in a coherent way along a path that goes from the creative process up to its correct application to traditional and new media. The three-year program meet the increasing need for professionals capable of thinking about the project and translating it into the languages of contemporary communication by using various techniques: from traditional graphic techniques to 3D design programs for structural product design and packaging, up to web design techniques and to the management of multimedia programs for advertising communication.
DIDACTIC METHODOLOGY
The course help students develop an ability to decode and interpret the briefing through concept research and analysis methods, visualization skills intended for drawing for design, ability to design integrated systems of visual identity, brand identity and advertising communication, as well as extended web design skills. An understanding of the languages of contemporary visual culture, with particular emphasis on photography, cinema, graphic design and advertising, as well as some notions in the field of semiotics and theory of communication support the development of adequate analysis and interpretation skills with reference to the various communications forms and contexts. Students can choose between two specialisation paths: one aimed at studying how to design brand identity, structural design and packaging; the second aimed at providing more skills in the development of multimedia advertising communication projects.
PROFESSIONAL PROFILES
The professional that will be trained in this course will be able to work as a creative director, visual designer, web director and graphic designer in the fields of advertising, traditional and multimedia publishing industry, institutional, business and social communication. The skills that will be developed will help students meet the increasing demand for professionals capable of managing the continuous digital technological innovation. The knowledge acquired during this three-year program involves and can be applied in new communication sectors such as exhibition design and design of visual identity systems in the territory.
PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
The cross-disciplinary character and the applicability of graphic design and art direction skills to various communication products make it possible to set up frequent collaboration activities with external partners belonging to the profit and no-profit sector. Among the design experiences devoted to business communication it is worth mentioning: study of institutional posters aimed at communicating the corporate image of Pago (leading company in the fruit juice sector); the study of the corporate identity of the H2C hotel chain, as well as the analysis of new concepts for the product “Nutella” for the Ferrero Group.
Another noteworthy collaboration activity has been carried out with ATM – Milan Public Transportation Company – for which campaigns aimed at promoting the use of public transportation have been designed.
As far as communication in the social sector is concerned, many information and prevention campaigns as well as the integrated communication project on the identity of LIbera, an anti-mafia Association, have been developed. The latter has involved the elaboration/ideation of various communication projects: from social advertising (billboards and TV spots), to the study of the graphic clothing of means of transport used by the anti-mafia convoy, up to the creation of a video in motion graphics aimed at sensitizing people.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Angelo Colella
He graduated at the Accademia di Brera. After working for a long time as an
Art Director in important Italian and international advertising agencies, he approached the world of Graphic Design in the 80s.
He collaborated with Albe Steiner and he was professor of Graphic Design at the Società Umanitaria in Milan for five years. He is the ideator and curator of many shows and exhibitions inspired by “social” issues among which “Infortunio sul lavoro” and “Lo statuto dei lavoratori” in collaboration with the Associazione Magistratura Democratica of Milan. He was also curator of the image of the Prague International Marathon and of the art review “A sense of wellbeing” by Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. He curated exhibitions and shows with Gianni Colombo and Marcello Morandini and was responsible for the graphic project of the magazine G&D (Graphic & Design).
He is member of ADI, AIAP, BEDA, PDA and of the prestigious Type Director Club of New York.
His studio, with branches in Milan and Prague, is in charge of the image and communication of major companies in different fields and is partner (Corporate Design Area) of Publicis and Republic Lab.
CURRICULUM
GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION SUBJECTS – I YEAR
COMPUTER GRAPHICS I
Fundamentals of Digital Drawing: The course allows the acquisition of the theoretical-practical basic notions of digital drawing, of digital graphic representation and of photo-retouch through standard software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. The course is structured into an intensive and a one-semester section aimed at defining and organising the educational portfolio.
Photo-Retouch and Vectorial Design: an in-depth study of photo-retouch and vectorial design
Page Make-up: study of new-generation programs used in page make-up such as In Design CS2.
Graphic and Printing Techniques: all technical applications adopted in the printing processes will be illustrated and explained to provide students with a technological background. Students will study materials, supports, equipment and all the aspects concerning the reproduction and realisation of a printed product.
HISTORY OF MODERN ART
The course traces the birth, the institutionalisation and the crisis of the Western representation model that has characterised Art in the modern age. The optical devices, the geometrical outlines, the idea of the square, the relationship between the observer and the image producer, the role of the client and the exhibition place will be the themes dealt with along this historical journey from Giotto to Velázquez up to Courbet, not according to a temporal linear development but in relation to the level of formalization reached by each of the issues treated. The course proposes a sort of deconstruction “Representation” as a status of the Western modern image.
HISTORY OF APPLIED ARTS
(HISTORY OF GRAPHICS AND ADVERTISING)
Graphics and advertising, despite being perceived as “young” techniques, have a long and important history, which this course wants to emphasise by underlining the movements and personalities that brought to important innovations in the way of communicating. Through an analytical approach of the History of Graphics and Advertising, which links the economical, social and cultural aspects with those of visual communication, the course provides the necessary knowledge to practise the profession in a conscious and responsible way.
ART DIRECTION I
Art & Copy: this course introduces students to the study of applied creativity and advertising and promotional communication of a service or a product analysing the design process through which an idea is transformed into a visual or text message diffused through various media: press, TV, Internet and new media. Students are offered the opportunity get to know the various professional roles and skills that are involved in the communication process, from the brief analysis stage up to the presentation of the idea: strategic planner, Art Director and Copywriter.
Strategy & Planning: the creative process is rationalised (data collection, brainstorming, positioning map) in order to define the strategic coordinates through which the creative minds can formulate an original idea that is consistent with the communications problems/goals that have been set by a given brand.
Research Methodology: this course offers the introductory analytical tools to understand the elements that form the communication system through a research methodology based on the analysis of the brief, of the brand image and of its positioning in a given brand context.
GRAPHIC DESIGN I
Basic Design: it introduces students to the elements of visual production: perceptive, aesthetical-compositional and geometrical-intuitive.
Corporate Identity: the basic elements used for the creation of the visual identity of a company or a service.
Lettering: an in-depth study supported by a strong manual application. This course goes from history of typography to its historical and social evolution in all the traditional and technologically advanced expressions conveyed by PC fonts. The applications in various cultural and communication context will be dealt with starting from a cognitive analysis.
Web project: students will be introduced to the graphic digital design environment, with special reference to the world wide web. The basic technical aspects and the notions of usability, interactivity and information architecture will be provided.
LAY OUT AND VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES
This course is aimed at providing students with the methodology at the basis of expressive drawing and animation through a fast and dynamic study supporting an expressive system that easily allows the visualization of an idea that is functional to creativity and visual design. The course is structured into two parts, one intensive and introductory module, aimed at introducing students to the representation language of visual impact and the second part structured into the three years.
SEMIOTICS
The course is focused on the analysis of the communication process of which the mechanisms will be examined and de-constructed by using the methods developed by semiotics in its various movements (structural, interpretative, generative) and paying particular attention to communication and to the visual text in all its forms and non-verbal elements. The course aims at providing students with basic knowledge on how a graphic sign, a drawing, a billboard, a trailer, a video-clip can diffuse values and tell a story. The course foresees practical exercises on the issues dealt with in the thematic units.
GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION SUBJECTS – II YEAR
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS I
The course deals with an in-depth analysis of the relationship between Art and environmental space within all the artistic movements of the twentieth century starting from one of the protagonists of such research like Gianni Colombo (Milan, 1937- 1993). Colombo’s overcoming of the bi- or threedimensional work and the direct involvement of theexhibition space allow to focus on the temporalization of space as well as on the programming and participation of the work of art. Sectors such as Cinema, Theatre, Design, Video and Architecture will be read in an integrated and historicized framework.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS
Photography Techniques: this course aims at providing students wit all the necessary skills to use digital photographical appliances for research and documentary purposes and gives students tools to read and interpret advertising photographic images.
Video Techniques: this course introduces students to the methodological bases of filming and editing techniques in the advertising sector.
Dynamical Graphics: this course aims at completing students’ knowledge of digital techniques through the exploration of programs for motion graphics.
ART DIRECTION II
Art & Copy: during this course students will develop design skills through a methodology aimed at designing creative campaigns both in the visual and in the copywriting fields for real clients.
Brand Identity: students will be introduced to corporate identity that goes through a process of de-codification of the corporate values, their positioning and the identification of an identity that can be recognised worldwide.
Online Advertising: this course aims at disclosing the secrets of the so called “Above the Line” communication on the Internet by joining advertising, graphic design and non conventional web marketing (viral marketing) notions. This is a practical and composite course that trains both future web art directors and would-be creative minds, graphic designers or copywriters that are oriented towards the new media. Banners, jump pages, web-sites, mini-sites and web campaigns of all kinds will be analysed and produced.
GRAPHIC DESIGN II
Editorial Graphics: it deals with the graphic design of books and magazines providing technical and
methodological competencies of research and production.
Multi-layer Editing: it introduces students to the theoretical and practical modalities of the
“deconstructed” graphic and of the non-conventional publishing, developing the interaction potentials
of the icons and fonts of the page according to the modes of digital programs.
Web design I: it provides the technical and cultural elements needed to deal with the
development of web pages and sites through an in-depth analysis of digital and web-oriented communication. The course is focused on standard programming technologies: XHTML, CSS and DOM, that – with the aid of Flash – represent the basic structure of any web project.
Basic Packaging: it introduces students to the structural design world and to the graphic layout of packaging through the study of shapes and of conventional and recyclable materials.
MARKETING
Students will acquire the basic elements of marketing, the present consumption trends and the current sociological changes. They will learn how to make a marketing plan by analysing all steps involved in the launching plan of a new product. The course develops also themes related to Sociology (trends, consumption approaches, lifestyles), Economics (supply and offer, budget, costs management, pricing) and Communication (brand, Design, Advertising). The course aims at the acquisition of a method (as a system to approach marketing problems, from the analysis to the development of the project), of a language and of the comprehension of a company’s internal and external context.
CREATIVE WRITING
The course, starting from texts written by real masters of modern literature (Kafka, Proust, Joyce, Montale), commented in a critical way, explains to students the various styles and personal writing of such writers. The objective is to stimulate a vital sensitivity for the creative expression and communication.
ILLUSTRATION
This course introduces students to the Illustration world through an overview that goes from a presentation of genres and authors to traditional and digital techniques up to the individuation of a personal style. Besides the traditional techniques (crayons, acrylic, etc.) digital techniques, among which Corel Painter – one of the most widely used software in this sector, will be explored.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography, as a creative expression, is an integral part of arts and belongs to those forms of artistic production which involve thought, imagination and sense of project of the author, no matter if it is a photographer, a designer or an artist. The course does not intend to teach the analogical or digital photographic techniques, but it aims at transferring some fundamental concepts related to the “ability to see” and “ability to read” photographic images that consider the crossing of different disciplines interacting with the photographic medium.
HISTORY OF CINEMA
The course has the following objectives: 1) an approach to the themes of audiovisual products in
general and of cinema in particular 2) the analysis of the spectator-film relationship in order to make students’ vision of films more critical and effective 3) the knowledge of the cinematographic language and of the technologies underneath cinema 4) the knowledge of the production steps of a movie 5) the analysis of the reading modalities of a script 6) the knowledge of the main movements of the History of Cinema and of the most significant authors.
GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION SUBJECTS – III YEAR
COMPUTER GRAPHIC II
3D Design: it provides the basic elements of the digital three-dimensional modelling and representation orientating the practice on different types of three-dimensional representation and considering the structure of basic forms of packaging for different materials and uses.
Motion Graphics: the course envisages designing with the aid of advanced computer graphics software such as After Effect, used for editing multimedia products.
CONTEMPORARY ART PHENOMENA
The course aims at guiding students through an exploration and critical analysis of the images coming from heterogeneous disciplines and languages characterising contemporary “visual culture” in order to enrich their visual and cultural background and lead them to the definition of new aesthetical morphologies and an original expressive universe. Students will visit exhibitions, take part in conferences and meetings on the relationship between the various languages of artistic expression (fashion, photography, graphic design, contemporary art, music).
COMMUNICATION METHODOLOGIES AND TECHNIQUES
The course envisages an in-depth study of the theoretical models for analysing and documenting communication projects also as a supporting tool to the graphic lab and to the thesis projects carried out by the students.
PROJECT METHODOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Creativity: critical and methodological analysis for the realisation of cinema-TV and mobile advertising spots.
Graphic Lab: this course is characterised by the professional methodology typical of graphic projects, real projects for real clients inside and outside the Academy will be carried out by the students who will work in teams and in collaboration with students attending other courses.
Web design II: this course aims at providing students with the necessary methodological tools to improve the design of a professional web site according to the W3C standards also through the study of real web sites and through team work.
Packaging: the potential of the art of packaging will be explored by studying and designing graphic lay-outs that are suitable to the communication objectives: label, moc up and graphics are just some of the elements that students will be able to experiment through an effective methodology that reflects brand strategy and mission.
AUDIOVISUAL LANGUAGES AND TECHNIQUES
Through this theoretical-practical course students will analyse the multimedia techniques applied to corporate and product communication in order to plan and realise an audiovisual product for advertising purposes. This course represents an in-depth specialisation study focused on the application of the art director professional role to the multimedia advertising communication sector.
BRAND DESIGN
During this course students will study in depth tools to research into, analyse and decode fundamental socio-cultural phenomena for the definition of the brand identity of companies and services. The evolution of society will be analysed, all the signals coming from consumers will be collected and their trends and taste will be anticipated on the basis of forecasts that cross the worlds of design, graphics, advertising, textile and fashion design, as well as interior and retail design. A section of the course is devoted to a research project aimed at constructing a visual scenario defining the visual concepts and/or the direction for the brand design thereby training a professional whose role is quite recent in the professional job market.
LAY OUT
This course develops the students’ knowledge of all the drawing techniques from the point of view of advertising communication.
It analysis the aesthetical conventions of drawing in the advertising field trying to enrich them by extending the languages of drawn communication with new styles and methodologies.
Students will acquire the drawing tools in the creative and project phase.
THEORY AND METHOD OF MASS MEDIA
The course provides students with operating tools needed to understand the phenomenon of Media and to perform an analysis method of the effects of Media and Communication paying particular attention to psychological and social processes. Lessons will deal with the teaching of the “Toronto School of Communication” and will be specifically focused on Marshall McLuhan’s intuition according to which “the Medium is the Message” considering also the economical and social effects. The study of Media leads students to consider how people and institutions are moduled by technologies.
DECORATION
Decoration is something totally different from what is traditionally intended with project as it does not involve any forecast, organisation and use hypothesis. Decoration has “no tasks”, its status consists in presenting itself as communication of sensations, as consumption phenomenon in itself, as a list of personal values. Students will be encouraged to deal with three-dimensional objects as they were painting, looking for pieces of visual thoughts in themselves in order to make decoration and its expressive and poetical vocation living.
DIGITAL ANIMATION TECHNIQUES
This course is based on 3D animation through the software Modo and Maya and encourages students to explore the fields of modelling and animation of figures and
scenarios, thereby acquiring a background of knowledge that can be used in many heterogeneous productions based on digital media.
PUBLIC ART
Since the mid 80s the evident objective of Public Art has been to intervene in some infrastructures so that the historical function of a square or of a monument could be refound with a completely new approach, thus defining a spacial whole as a social whole. Students will deal with survey and intervention projects in which they will have to conjugate in a critical way Architecture and Urban Design, Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, Visual Communication and Plastic Arts in general.
