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SPRING 2026
Professor Mary Banas
SMFA at Tufts

Email: When contacting me, use both my Tufts email and my Gmail

Office Hours: Fridays from 12–1pm, on zoom, or by appointment

Make an appointment for office hours:
https://calendar.app.google/fjv8YceUnWXn5AJj8
please book this by 8am on Fridays.

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
Readings
Tutorials (how to print!)

Review Boards: Advice
Events
Project Briefs:

Weekly Typography Collection
Alphabet Book
FrankenForm
Patterns of Ten
Typographic Poster
Sequence

Submit work:

Google Drive


04

How will I work?

DESIGN PROCESS
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.

© Professor Mary Banas, Fall 2025School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts Universitysmfa.tufts.edu