Summer Institute for Graphic Design Studies
Hello!
I just finished my first two-week course (Type + Image) at RISD…and I loved it! The class was run on a project-basis–our professor (Franz Werner) offered us 7 projects and we had to choose the four projects that interested us the most! (Based on the projects you choose and how difficult they were, the two-week intensive course would count for a RISD student as Typography I, II, or III.) There were only 9 of us in the class– 3 people changing careers, 5 people in college, and 1 person in high school. Almost all the students had some kind of knowledge about using the Adobe programs and, I would say, came in with more background experience with art (in general) than myself. (I’ve never taken any art classes…) After spending two-weeks in this class, and after asking the teaching assistant a lot of questions, I feel SO MUCH more comfortable with InDesign and Photoshop…it’s great!
One of the cool aspects of the course is that the professor encouraged us to use analog methods of creating images. For example, one project was to make three book covers. He required that one book cover be made with the letterpress, one with photography, and one with drawing. When I say “letterpress,” picture an old typeshop with drawers of wood block letters in all different sizes that you use to essentially “stamp” on a paper using this big old machine. Using the letterpress was a really cool experience and definitely made me much more appreciative of computers. I think I spent most of my time in the typeshop looking for a font that wasn’t missing letters that I needed for my book title! 😛 I also had access to RISD’s dark room and photo room to take pictures which was cool.
It was really great to be around students so motivated! Most of us came in early and left late and never took a lunch break..but we were all having fun! You can see some of our work here: https://www.facebook.com/risd.sigds.
I am really excited starting web design next week!!! The teach assistant said that it will be more intensive and structured than Type+Image was–which makes sense because we walk out of the class with a working website! Our professor also already emailed us homework to do over the weekend! I’ll blog again soon!
Be well!
🙂 Amy