Yes, Summer is just a Winter and Spring away, and it is never to early to think of your Summer plans. So, below are a few of the SVA Summer Residency programs that I’m involved with. Covering type, social advocacy, writing and sound.
SVA Masters Workshop in RomeMay 27 – June 10
Studying graphic design and typography this summer in Rome—the birthplace of Western typographic tradition is a not-to-be-missed experience. The program, now in its fourth season, is a unique way to learn about type, book and lettering design, as well as architecture, art, archeology, epigraphy and even Italian cuisine. Study with some of the best typographers and designers in Italy. Visit the Trajan Column and the Pantheon, and partake in exclusive visits to the Roman and Imperial Forums. Examine the inscriptions on Roman structures that have long been accepted as a typographic ideal.
This intensive hands-on workshop in design history, theory and practice (which takes place at Sapienza, University of Rome Piazza Fontanella Borghese) allows participants to research and analyze the roots of typography, draw type and letters from the classic models while practicing contemporary design along with a faculty of Italian and American designers, historians and publishers. Taught by leading design professionals, this workshop emphasizes the multidisciplinary and entrepreneurial nature of contemporary design. In addition, collaborations with noted Italian design organizations and media businesses result in unique (and potentially publishable) print and web projects. Website here.
IMPACT! Design for Social ChangeJuly 9 – August 17
To remain competitive, corporations are looking for innovation and impact in the area of social change as it relates to their business. The non-profit world is seeking new ways to support their constituencies through design strategy. This six-week summer intensive will introduce participants to the growing field of design for social advocacy.
The program will run on two parallel tracks: the first will educate students on how to conceive and execute their own projects for social change with a focus on funding projects that are not client-based. Along with a personal project, students will participate in the development and execution of a team project that addresses a pressing need within a predetermined community. On this track, students will roll up their sleeves to take the program out of the realm of theoretical thinking and extend it into the real world. By the end of the residency, each student will have a fully developed concept.
The intensive offers advanced students and working professionals a unique opportunity to study with faculty composed of leading designers and social entrepreneurs.
In addition, weekly lectures and field trips will allow participants to directly interact with a dynamic range of innovators in the field. This is a rapidly growing area of design. The program will instill in participants the confidence, self-motivation and collaborative spirit, which will be needed as they continue on to work as design activists. Website here.
Design Writing Summer Intensive
June 18 – 29
As publishing outlets proliferate and design’s social and environmental implications become more profound, it is more important than ever to write about design engagingly and intelligently.
SVA’s MFA program in Design Criticism is pleased to announce a design writing summer intensive aimed at those who would like to refine their skills as thinkers, researchers and storytellers. For practicing designers, this is a chance to examine the profession and its impact through projects, articles and blog posts. Clear thinking, deep research and engaging expression are vital skills in a contemporary designer’s toolkit. For journalists and writers, this program offers methods and insights for understanding and writing compellingly about images, objects and spaces.
A range of writing genres and imaginative approaches will be introduced. Working individually and in small groups, participants will experiment with essential techniques such as interviewing, archive research, close observation, analysis and critique, and then to develop and finesse several projects. In addition to personal work, the development and execution of a team project will be undertaken.
In addition to a robust daily schedule of seminars, lectures and field trips, each participant will have a workstation in SVA’s beautiful light-filled D-Crit studio in New York’s Chelsea district, and 24-hour access to department resources, including its extensive library.
The intensive offers students and working professionals a unique opportunity to study closely with a faculty composed of leading writers, editors and bloggers. Lectures and field trips to New York sites and studios allow participants to directly interact with prominent designers, architects and urban planners.
The Sound of Design: Music and Audio for Designers
June 11 – 22
SVA is pleased to announce its first sound design program for graphic, motion and interactive designers. Now that design is integrated with motion, time and space, it is more essential than ever before for designers to know how to create or where to access all types of sound – from music to sound effects to iconic beats – to bring their designs to life with as much skill and creativity as typography and layout. New software puts unmatched tools in designers – hands to add audio production to their work without hiring or collaborating with musicians. The 21st century has ushered in an age of autonomy for artists and designers and this program will introduce students to the tools and skills necessary to excel in this changing creative landscape.
Most of the sounds we hear – from the annoying beep of a phone to the luscious score of a hit movie – were designed by someone to help us navigate or feel something in ways that can be expressed better than through words or visual imagery. Yet this important aspect of creativity and design is rarely discussed, much less taught. This residency will explore the current practical elements of music and audio production, while at the same time provoking discussion on how the experience of graphic design might change over the next few years to include a more multimedia app
roach appropriate for devices such as the iPad, and the fact that traditional design layouts for books and magazines are rapidly evolving to this new approach.
The program will offer lectures by prominent practitioners in contemporary music and audio production, ranging from record producers, musicians, engineers and sound designers to cultural historians. These lectures are meant to stimulate the exploration of sound design at a critical junction between the role it played in 20th-century media and its unrealized potential in the 21st century. The program will also provide a practical approach to creating or integrating sound design into individual and group projects.
Make a sound investment in the future of design and learn how to access and integrate sound into your design. Taught by expert producers, editors, engineers and user-interface designers, this program will help you make sound choices when mixing your media.
At the end of the program, students will have selected a medium they want to sound-track and created a sound (music, sound effects, etc.) treatment based on influences derived from the streets of New York. They will present this with visual accompaniment at the SVA Theatre to a live audience.