TYPE AS IMAGE: SPRING 25
Prof. Mary Banas
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at
Tufts University

Tu 8:30AM–2:00PM
230 Fenway: Room B211A

When contacting me, copy both emails for best results:
mbanas01(at)tufts.edu
mary.banas(at)gmail.com

Office Hours:
Fridays from 12–1pm, on zoom
203.641.5386

How to make an appointment:
https://calendly.com/mary-banas/office-hours
please book this by 9am on Fridays, email me to give me a heads up that you have booked it.

Graphic Arts Area Instagram
Permissions doc for GRA IG is here

Syllabus
01 Description
02 Learning Outcomes
03 Assignments
04 How We Work
05 Studio Culture

Tufts University Policies

Calendar

Briefs01 Alphabet Book
02 Studio Experiments
03 Poster
04 Sequence

Readings

Tutorials (including how to print!)

Resources

Review Boards: Advice

Talks

Google Drive

Index

Type as Image

SYLLABUS

01 What is this course about?

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Barbara Kruger, 2020

Best known for laying aggressively directive slogans over black-and-white photographs that she finds in magazines, Barbara Kruger developed a visual language that was strongly influenced by her early work as a graphic designer. Here, Kruger interrogates the American subject, demanding they examine the conditions of their contemporary capitalist lives, and consider what it is that their flag actually stands for.

Jenny Holzer, 2021

Action Causes More Trouble Than Thought (2021), features one of Jenny Holzer's iconic Truisms. The print employs a highly decorative, cursive font which has been rendered in hand-applied palladium leaf onto a screen-printed silver-grey background. At first, the words remain somewhat elusive, merging into an overall elaborate pattern of flowing curls, but once discerned their meaning becomes clear and the simple message is richly communicated.

Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha: Drum Skins debuts a new body of more than a dozen round paintings made between 2017 and 2019 by the pioneering American artist known for his use of language. The presentation features text Ruscha painted on found drumheads that he has collected over the past forty years. Informed by memories of the distinctive slang he grew up hearing in Oklahoma, the phrases consist of double and triple negatives such as “I Ain’t Telling You No Lie” and “I Never Done Nobody No Harm.” As Ruscha explains, “I grew up with people that spoke this way.…I was very acutely aware of it and amused by it. It seems like you’d run from incorrect English, but I embraced it. I like seeing it and exposing it.”

Robert Indiana

GRA-0011 is designed as an introductory course for artists from various disciplines who use text in their work. This course investigates typography as an expressive form. How can you create intentional meaning with your type, in addition to what the words say? How does form hold meaning? How might we interpret the meaning we gauge from text arrangements?

This course introduces strategies for creating type as FORM, PATTERN, TEXTURE/SURFACE, and IMAGE.

Slide lectures, references, readings and project assignments will support students working with self-generated expressive text.

We will use the Adobe Suite and analog materials.

We will study vernacular type and the historical development of typographic styles. Students will develop a series of compositions using expressive typography.

The computer will be our primary tool but not the only one. You are encouraged to bring in skills in calligraphy, photography, and drawing. During the course of this class we will use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator as the main software applications. A basic course for all designers and all graphic artists using text.

02 What should I expect to learn?

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Fall 2023

Gain a practical understanding of type as form

Gain a practical understanding of iterative making

Gain confidence in image-making and composition through a series of rigorous experiments

Make meaning through form, composition, and sequencing

Create speculative content

You will also:

Record and distill elements from your working process, aiming to gain new insight on your artistic practice

Work collaboratively with your peers

Experiment with the RISO printer

03 How are assignments delivered?

PROJECT BRIEFS

Mary Banas

What is a project brief?
In the professional design world, a designer and client usually meet and have a discussion about the needs of the project. From there, the designer will create a brief that defines what was discussed. The brief usually includes the scope of work, defines deliverables, defines audience, names the key stake holders, and important dates and deadlines.

How do I submit assignments?
Into our course Google Drive Folder, you will submit research, sketches, drafts, final work as digital flats (e.g. a PDF) as well as photograph and/or video (your poster on the wall, showing scale; a video of hands turning the pages of your book). You are responsible for submitting work into the folder on time.

Everything you need to know about this course is on this website—what is due, what is coming up, readings and references are linked here. Bookmark this website for your future use. It works best on desktop (not best on your phone). There will be a few occassions when I email you something, but typically I aim to document everything here for convenience and clarity.

If you have a particular need in terms of how you best process information and require another type of delivery, please notify me by the 2nd class meeting. This may or may not be accompanied by an official accomodation request.

04 How will I work?

DESIGN PROCESS

Image from Fall 2023

How do designers make stuff? The short answer is , there are lots of ways. There are some tenents that come up again and again for designers, like visual research and sketching.

In this course you will adopt and experiement with a variety of methodologies to design. You will utilize and experiment with the following ways of working:

COLLECTION

CRITICAL REFLECTION

CRITIQUE

DESIGN PROPOSALS

PAPER PROTOTYPES + MOCK-UPS

READING

SKETCHING

VISUAL RESEARCH

WORKING ITERATIVELY

I have been designing professionally since 2003 and before that I was in college studying design like you. Most of the approaches I am sharing are things that work for me time and again, but know that they are many ways to design—you will find your own ways as you move through this work, and you will develop and discover new things as you continue with design beyond this course.

You can expect to do 4-6 hours of work outside of class.

05 How will we work together?

STUDIO CULTURE

Barbara Kruger, 2018

ENGAGED, RESPECTFUL PRESENCE

The nature of a studio environment is a bunch of artists learning and working together.

Being present in class is more than just physical: it includes but is not limited to:

01. communicating with your peers

02. engaging in critique

03. witnessing lectures and presentations

04. participating in discussions

05. making presentations

06. using campus equipment

07. taking notes

08. submitting assignments into our class Google Drive folder

The technical and conceptual work in this class builds on the previous week. If you expect to miss class, find that you are missing classes, or obtain a medical issue that may affect your attendance, you will not be able to make up the work and you should withdraw from this course.

———————————————
WHAT WE WORK WITH:

MATERIALS

—laptop or lab computer with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign; downloaded and installed printer drivers for printing locally

Assemble a little kit of the following and bring it to every class:
—pencil
— eraser (white plastic eraser is best, like
—pen
—clear tape
— blue painters tape (or Japanese paper tape; something that removes easily)
—Xacto knife, blades, safe place to put old blades
—metal ruler
—scissors
—notebook/sketchbook
—envelope or sleeve to transport finished work
—a couple elastic bands
—plain white index cards
—tacks for pinning your work up

Commitment to equity, inclusion, and a practice of freedom

By registering for this course, you are agreeing to a social contract. We recognize that in order to establish the conditions wherein we will collectively and individually develop a practice of freedom, we must confront and undo the work of oppressive indoctrination by challenging, unlearning and relearning modes of thought and existence in a space of generosity, support, and mutuality.

In the context of this class, cultivating a practice of freedom refers to the right of freedom from discrimination, which is afforded every member of this class, as it pertains to citizenship, race, ancestry, ethnicity, cultural expression, class, disability, place of origin, skin color, religious belief, sexual orientation, gender, age, record of offenses, marital status, and family status. This applies to all areas of shared space and related classroom activities including interactions with faculty, visitors, colleagues, and the class as a whole. By registering for this course, you acknowledge that you will be an active and engaged member of this community. You agree to uphold, and when appropriate, advocate for the practice and maintenance of this freedom.

Evaluation

This class is pass/fail. Your performance evaluation is informed by these three things:

—presence + participation: quantitative (20%)

—process: qualitative including risk taking, the quality of experiments/work, and your dedication to your work (40%)

—final output: qualitative (40%)

If you come to class and do the work, you will pass. If you miss class or do not complete work, you may not. Midterm check-in emails will be sent to those in danger of failing this course.

Tufts grades will appear as:

CR, NC. Credit, no credit. Instructors should assign these grades to SMFA undergraduate students taking studio art courses. A grade of NC is not acceptable for degree credit.

The minimum score for passing (CR) is a 59 in the course.

Course Attendance Policy

Your enrollment in this course is an agreement to follow this attendance policy. Please read this policy carefully.

If you miss 3 classes you can not pass this course and will receive a “NC” if it is past the drop date. There are no excused absences in this attendance policy. If you miss 3 classes, you can not pass. Check your calendar now to make sure you do not have any travel that conflicts with this course time.

This is a studio course, it is essential that our work is completed in community. You will work with and be in dialogue with your peers and the instructor. Engaged critique is an essential aspect of this course, we will review and discuss work in a public forum. The only way to engage with critique is to be present in class.

Tufts University Policies

Academic Integrity

Faculty Responsibilities

Faculty members and other instructors are responsible for creating an atmosphere of integrity and honesty in their courses, in their research, and in their other academic interactions. This is accomplished by:

Clearly defining expectations in course syllabi;
Communicating any course- or discipline-specific scholarly procedures to students;
Engaging students in robust ways; and
Reporting concerns about academic misconduct each time such concerns are known.

Student Responsibilities

Students are responsible for creating an atmosphere of integrity and honesty in all assignments, class discussions, research conducted, and other academic work. This is accomplished by:

Learning and using proper scholarly procedures;
Scrupulously following directions and asking for clarification when needed; and
Engaging with course material fully and meeting the spirit of the assignment.

︎︎Accomodations for Students with Disabilities

We support students with a range of physical, sensory, psychological, medical, and learning disabilities, including temporary conditions such as injuries or broken bones.

Depending on the nature of the disability and the particular needs of the student, a variety of supports are available. These can include, but are not limited to:

Classrooms accommodations (e.g., furniture, materials in alternate formats).
Exam accommodations (e.g., time-based exam accommodations)
Auxiliary aids and services (e.g., notetakers, CART services, lecture recordings).
Non-academic accommodations (e.g., housing, dietary, and parking).
Introductions and referrals to other campus resources

If you are wondering if a specific kind of accommodation is possible at Tufts, please contact us, and we can work with you on your specific situation.

Food Resources

Mental Health Support

Course Calendar:

Today is

This course meets Tuesdays from 8:30AM–2:00PM, with a break from 11–12 for lunch, then class resumes sharply at 12pm and concludes at 2:00pm.

230 Fenway: Room B211A

Tufts Academic Calendar

12 WORKING WEEKS (14 total)

JAN 21 — WEEK 1
ALPHABET BOOK: START
LEARN TO PRINT ON JUMBO (link)
• Download Drivers
• EMAIL LOUIS TO SIGN UP FOR ORIENTATION ON RISO: Louis.Meola@tufts.edu

JAN 28— WEEK 2
ALPHABET BOOK:
• REVIEW SPREADS
✶★ PRINTING ON RISO DAY! ★✶

FEB 4 — WEEK 3
ALPHABET BOOK: Assembly, Cover, Bags, Binding
✶★ PRINTING ON RISO DAY! ★✶

FEB 11 — WEEK 4
INTRO STUDIO EXPERIMENTS
STUDIO EXPERIMENTS: FORM
• Franken Form

FEB 18— WEEK 5
STUDIO EXPERIMENTS: FORM DUE
Franken-form crit

FEB 25 — WEEK 6
STUDIO EXPERIMENTS: PATTERN DUE
• Wallpaper the room
• INTRO TEXTURE/SURFACE

MARCH 4 — WEEK 7
STUDIO EXPERIMENTS: TEXTURE/SURFACE DUE
• Wallpaper the room
POSTER: INTRO, R+D

MARCH 11 —WEEK 8
POSTER: SKETCHES DUE
🔮 FIELD TRIP TO KATHERINE SMALL GALLERY 🔮

🌸🌺🌷🪻🌼🌸🌺🌷🪻🌼🌸🌺🌷🪻
MARCH 18 — SPRING BREAK
(WEEK 9)

MARCH 25 — WEEK 10
POSTER: DIRECTIONS DUE, DECIDE ON DIRECTION TODAY, SMALL COLOR PRINTS, VISIT PRINTSHOP
POSTER: FINAL CONTENT
SEQUENCE: INTRO

POSTER: TILED POSTER DUE, FEEDBACK FROM GUEST CRITICS, SEND FINAL TO PRINT BY EOD
SEQUENCE: PROPOSAL REVIEW
Mary’s talk at Katherine Small Gallery?

APRIL 1 — WEEK 11
Today is April Fool’s Day
POSTER: FINAL TRIMMED POSTER READY TO HANG, FORMER STUDENTS FOR CRIT/CELEBRATION
SEQUENCE: DRAFT VERSION, PAPER PROTOTYPES

APRIL 8 — WEEK 12
SEQUENCE: REALLY GOOD VERSION
REVIEW BOARDS Q+A
GRAPHIC ARTS ANNUAL SUBMISSION PREP

APRIL 15 — WEEK 13
SEQUENCE: REALLY, REALLY GOOD VERSION
REVIEW BOARDS Q+A

APRIL 22
LAST CLASS MEETING
SEQUENCE: FINAL CELEBRATION, TEARFUL EMBRACE, ETC.

May 2–May 9 = REVIEW BOARDS
May 5 is Cinco de Mayo

May 12 Grades due by 9am

01

Alphabet Book

A series of experimental, rapidly-created letterforms created by hand using paper, cell phone camera, scanners, and found materials from your environment resulting in a collaborative book made using the RISO printer and bound with an elastic band.

Project Description

We are starting with a mini experiment that will cover a lot of ground and get you warmed up for the semester. It will also be incredibly fun.

Part 1: PAPER EXPERIMENTS
You have some letter pages. Manipulate these letterforms to create new images. Print out your own letters on pages and make more.

Part 2: OBJECT EXPERIMENTS
Create new letterforms from found materials. For example, you can make them out of tape, ground meat, dirt, your hands, shadows, your hair, candy, shaving cream, sticks, photograph or make a rubbing of a crack in the sidewalk that looks like an “Y”... ETC.

Requirements:
—only work in black and white (includes graphite/pencil)
—create 20 new “letterforms” or compositions
—*avoid* large areas of smooth rich black, the RISO printer works better with a little texture

Suggestion:
—6 Helvetica/paper experiments
—6 made out of found material
Use these 12 letters to make your 20 compositions

How to do this work:

Consider the following ways:
—cut
—tear
—slice
—fold
—crumple gently
—crumple intensely
—roll, wave
—place on scanner and move while scanning
—draw on it
—draw around it
—shade it in
—trace it onto a new sheet

Experiment with all of these materials/modes, at least once:
—graphite/pencil
—charcoal
—pen
—big fat marker
—ink and brush
—tearing
—folding
—cutting with Xacto knives
—using the scanner

PRINTING RESOURCES:

Link for printing on Jumbo from the web:

jumboprint.tufts.edu/MyPrintCenter

Download Jumbo print drivers here

Part 1 (started in class)

PDF of Alphabet is here

only print the pages you need

Resist over complicating your letterforms or compositions. You will have the opportunity to layer colors on the RISO. Focus on experimenting with familiar and unfamiliar ways of working and manipulating the letterform.

How to document your paper experiments:

Photograph or scan the letters that you made, bring them into your InDesign document —

1. Open Adobe InDesign

2. File > New

3. 11x17, change units to inches, un-check “facing pages”, name your file

4. When you are in InDesign, use File > Place to place an image

5. To edit your image from Photoshop, go to Window > Links, use the hamburger menu, choose the image, and select “Open With Photoshop” — after you make your edits in Photoshop save the file with the same name and it will automatically update in InDesign.

6. Work iteratively by duplicating your pages.... In the”Pages” palette, select the page you want to duplicate, on a Mac computer hold down the “Option” key, drag your page slightly to the right until you see a vertical line, release. You should see the page repeated. Make edits on this page and keep moving forward. You can edit and select your favorites later!

If you are using the lab computers, here is how to save your files for use later on another machine:
File > Package, save the packaged file on your Google Drive or other place that works for you. The packaged file will include a PDF. This PDF is what you should print out before class, and what we will use for printing on the RISO.

Upload your PDF to the class Google Drive folder (X_Name) -- letter underscore Your Name.

Part 2

Make things from objects in the wild (found in your environment) — after you make these, you will photograph them, bring them into the computer, and lay them out on your 11x17” pages in InDesign.

necklace

oats

rings

ribbon

matches (outside!)

grapes

leaf

wax

ribbon

Another way to think through the steps of this project:

Project Schedule:

WEEK 1
Project introduction, make and manipulate letterforms in class, mini Photoshop and InDesign tutorials

(no longer need to do the below, we will meet with Louis at the top of next class for a tutorial)

First, read this PDF of HOW TO USE THE RISO by Professor Vin C.

Email Louis to get trained on the RISO before next class:

Email the studio manager Louis Meola (louis.meola@tufts.edu) to get an orientation to the RISO room. There is a laser cutting guillotine in there, a sticker printer, an electronic stapler, and a shearing paper cutter. Louis will review the best practices and rules of the room. You will learn the code for the key for the laser cutter and how to use it. I will teach you how to use the RISO, Louis may or may not review this with you. After the orientation, Louis will grant you permission to book the RISO machine for your work outside of class and give you card access to the room—you need this for our future work.

WEEK 2

DUE:
20 Letterform Compositions at 11x17” size, as both a PDF and printed out

Put the PDF version of your work in the class Google Drive Folder, we will use these PDFs for class.

I am still confused, what am I bringing to class?
—Quantity: 20
—Size: 11x17”
—Composition can be: “pages” or “poster” style, or a mix of both
—Format: PDF (to send thru computer) + print outs (to use on the RISO glass top in the future when we print on RISO)

In class: review compositions, print on RISO
Together in class we will create a book. Everyone will print multiples of their letterform pages and we will “bind” them together with an elastic band.

Right now I estimate the book will contain TWO compositions from each student (e.g. if my letters were “M” and “B” I would contribute an “M” composition and a “B” composition to the class book) — this may change when we are working together, for example, we may decide as a group to add more.

First, we will plan our book as a class. We will use your black and white printouts to take a look at what we have. We may decide on a sequence. We will choose which ink colors to use. Students will group their files by ink color and we will run the pages for that color, switch the color out and run the next batch of pages. After that, we can get weird and experimental by printing things on top of other things. We will let the process and the possibilities and limitations of the RISO printer guide our outcome! It will be exciting and surprising.

If we do not have enough time for each student to print their compositions on the RISO together in class, you will need to reserve the space and complete your prints before next class OR during next class. If you do not feel confident on the RISO, wait until we are together again and I can assist.

❇️💜⭐️🌷🌞😎💧🍪🍫💋🗡️🟣🌺❤️✴️🌸
OUTSIDE CLASS WORK
We will create a small set of letter postcards as a class that will be bound with a belly band and inserted into the iridescent book bag

Use this template in the class Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15QQ-CwFSo7tsvyn5NVXLUFmFSC2SBMjJ?usp=drive_link

Choose a single letter from what you have made and repeat it 4-up in the provided template file

Upload your postcard as a PDF in black and white to the class Google Drive here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sx7G8KuNTrODOl4bNfcL5Ovbww932q2z?usp=drive_link

How to do it:
Indesign:
File > Export > PDF

Name your file with the letter and your name, like this:
A_Mary.PDF

MAGIC BOOK TEMPLATE is in the google drive here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dzIP8dIbVLHoCYjfu0x4cZMQbK5fVdQA?usp=drive_link

WEEK 3

—Print any remaining book pages that you need to
—Print 32 postcards (8 pieces of card stock, 4-up, 2 different artworks, any color paper, any color ink)
—Choose to archive this project as either an animated GIF or a “magic book” as shown in class

MAGIC BOOK TEMPLATE is in the google drive here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dzIP8dIbVLHoCYjfu0x4cZMQbK5fVdQA?usp=drive_link

Magic book can be black and white or color
Laser printed or printed on the RISO
Make at least 10 copies on laser, at least 20 copies on RISO

ANIMATED GIF instructions:
—300x300 canvas
—Import your designs , each on a different layer
—tweak the contrast / color as you wish
—change the timing to 0.2 or 0.5
—Export as a gif

School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University

smfa.tufts.edu