Unit 3: Overview & lecture
Question: How do the tools we use influence the things we make? How can we subvert a tools’ intended use to create something unexpected?
Unit summary: The study and practice of graphic design is not simply a matter of mastering the latest digital tools. Each successive piece of software or physical tool we encounter has its own preferences and proclivities. As engaged critical designers, we must learn to recognize the assumptions that our tools make (and that they encourage us to make), and to see beyond them. At the same time, we should be nimble—able to adopt things which are not standard tools of our trade, and consider ways to adapt them to our own purposes.
Learning objectives: Master a tool (or two); understand where the tool came from; become critically aware of the relationship of tools to process and form.
