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

Readings (and other cool stuff)

Feb. 11, 2025

Archives: “Black History is Design History”

Write a little about why you chose the object to add to the archive “For Black History Month I chose to add this object to the archive because_____”

Title
Author
Year
Format (what is it?)

Include the source link and a little bit of copy from the website where you found it

For tags — including more is better

Questions for discussion:
—Why does source matter?
—Who gets to be in archives?
—How can dominate narratives shape society?
—What is an example of a dominant narrative, something you maybe learned growing up that turned out to not be true later?
—What is something you have found to be important that you emotinoally really connect to, why? Can you imagine that thing in a library or archive? Why or why not?
—Why does a flat, crowd-sourced model of visual culture matter? How can it help remedy problems of access and representation?
—Reality is complex—simplicity and reduction are convenient but can sometimes result in erasure of certain stories—can you think of an exmple of this from history, culture or your personal experience?

Smithsonian American Museum of African American History
Stanford
AIGA
Black Experience in Design
Print Magazine
Adobe
As Not For by Jerome Harris

Most of the readings live here:
https://www.are.na/mary-banas/type-as-image-readings

The Politics of Design: A (Not So) Global Manual for Visual Communication (PDF)

Reading this whole book is great! Here is the recommended reading for the “STUDIO EXPERIMENTS: IMAGE” work:

Pages 66-76 in the PDF (it is set up as spreads, that’s why)
Page numbers in the book are 129-149
Chapter “SYMBOLS AND ICONS”

Recommended blogs / websites:

The Creative Independent
https://thecreativeindependent.com

It’s Nice That
https://www.itsnicethat.com

AIGA Eye on Design (not posting new articles, but has an archive)
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org

Design Observer
https://designobserver.com

Podcasts:

99% Invisible

The Design of Business | The Business of Design

Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Scratching the Surface with Jarrett Fuller

PLACES IN BOSTON

https://ksmallgallery.com/

Review Boards: Advice

BEFORE: PLANNING N ADVANCE

Start to gather and organize your materials; digital and physical things —take stock on what you have. I encourage you to include MORE work rather than less, but curate the way you present the work (i.e. final work is pinned up or on a table and process is there but displayed in a secondary way)—If you have digital work to present, think through what tech you will need and reach out to SMFA Staff or a tech savvy friend to trouble shoot that well before your Review time (do you need to have your work on a drive? Do you need to connect to a screen? Do you need speakers? Etc.)

—Make a plan for printing things you might need to print out—If you want to make anything more “finished” schedule this into your life (i.e. I want to make 5 copies of my zine to put on the table at Review Boards)

—Include sketchbooks and process! People love to see this, and sometimes the critics will be able to make a connection that is not apparent in your finished work through your process/sketches work

—Make a plan to get a friend to help you set up and break down

—Reflect on the semester for yourself (take 15 minutes to write this stuff down): what did you learn? What are you sure about? What do you want advice or direction on? (courses to take, professional advice, references to inform your work). If you struggle with this, have a friend ask you questions about your school and career goals, and record the convo to jot notes down from it. Sometimes a natural conversation is easier than writing.

PRACTICAL THINGS

Start on time; if someone arrives late that is on them! This is your time and you should use all of it. Your work should be displayed and ready before. your start time.
Ask the students who are taking notes to record in the way that is your preference; for example “make sure you jot down the course names” or “I am really looking for artist references, can you help me ask for that?” “will you record audio instead of written notes?” ETC. I have noticed that some of the peers in review boards do not take a ~single~ note, so if you want something from them you may have to ask for it. Other topics to ask your peers: about courses, about labs, about study abroad, about internships, about opportunities off campus (galleries/social things)
Ask the students or one of the professors for a timer when there are 10 or 5 minutes left, or you can set a timer on your phone. This will let you have the last few minutes of the meeting to ask a question or otherwise conclude.

DURING THE REVIEW

This is your review. Based on the reflection you wrote, what are your goals for this meeting? Have these goals in mind and focus the group if they get off track (i.e. the group is talking for 20 minutes about a project that I am no longer interested in)

Frame up your presentation like this:

Tell people what you are going to show them and WHY, and set any practical expectations
Show them what you said you would show them (your work)
Tell them what you just showed them (context / questions)

For example, your review board might go like this:

Take a minute before this all goes down to get your mind right. Believe in your ideas and your work. Know that everyone is there to help you and guide you. Also remind yourself that you do not have to take any of the feedback, you are just there to listen, have a conversation, and decide what is valuable to you later.

Introduce yourself and state your pronouns, your area of focus and your year, something else like where you grew up or what you love about Boston is also nice to give a fuller picture of who you are; ask everyone else to introduce themselves because it is likely you will not know them or what department they are in, or they will not know each other—this sets the tone for the conversation.
Artist might say something like “I am going to show you three projects, with a special interest in the video which is unfinished at this time. I would like to give you an overview of these works and then for the video project I want to talk about possibilities. Then I will ask you for some advice on courses I should take. I would love to know what references you think I should be watching, reading or looking at based on the work you see here today. Finally, I have a timer set for 10 of, during which time I will ask any final questions I have”

OR artist might say something like “I am going to show you five things today. The first 3 are from my screen printing class, which has been a fruitful area of exploration this semester. I realized I am really interested in color after doing that work. I would like to hear what other printmaking or fine art classes I should take to get more into color. I am also going to show you a motion piece and a print piece. I am curious to know what threads you see across my work formally and from a content point of view"
Show your work, walk through your projects, give context. What is most important for an audience to know is what you were aiming or aspiring to do — what interest led you to making this work (I am interested in working with metal, I am interested in fairy tales and character building). Some work speaks for itself and can have a cold read (a video, graphic design) so you can also do that. Do what feels right for you, but DIRECT the focus of the critics on the stuff you want to talk about or you want the most feedback on.
Ask specific questions if you have them, the critics should be asking you a bunch of questions here to get to know you / your work better
Re-cap — tell everyone what they just saw, ask the final questions / anything you did not get to
Thank the guests!
Break stuff down with your friend
Give yourself a little treat for a great Review Board!

AFTER THE REVIEW

After reviewboards: the critics will send you notes via an internal system. You can follow up with any of the professors if you have additional questions and you can also thank them for their time and attention. In life, you will never regret “being a person”, and that is glue that connects us all together (and business runs on relationships, too, so when you want advice or to get into a class or to connect with a professional and you find it is that same professor who was in your review board... they will remember you as a nice person!)

A NOTE ON MY NOTES

I have been a reviewer for the time I have been at Tufts, but I do not have deep experience with this process here. The people who will really know the most about this experience are your peers who are juniors and seniors. Ask them what it has been like, how you can prepare, what they would do differently, etc.

Tutorials

Printing on Campus

Print guides from Chris:

Print Service Guide
Inkjet Printing Guide

Optimal file set up:
—Make a copy of your file and embed images and outline fonts for best results

—Export as a PDF with bleeds and crop marks, choose High Quality Print, as demonstrated in class today

1. Read the above PDF
Choose a paper type and check out the price
3. Upload your file to BOX or send via email
4. fill out the document (specify that your poster has crop marks and you want it “trimmed to the crops”)
5. Lab will email you & you approve the cost
6. Go to school store to pay; they will give you a slip when you pay7. Bring the slip to the lab and pick up your print

You can trim your own poster in the lab where they have the huge cutter — I recommend you trim your own poster but if you want someone else to do it that is OK too.

How to print from your laptop

Install JumboPrint on your computer

You can add the JumboPrint application to your Windows or Mac computer and use it the same way you would with a personal or office printer. Select either Tufts_Bw or Tufts_Color when printing documents, and then retrieve your print job from any JumboPrint location.

Please note that all public computers on the Tufts campuses are already configured to print to JumboPrint.

Printing at SMFA is free.

Here is the new link from Stephen for downloading the drivers:
https://tufts.box.com/s/8cgh228or0k3h5jhz8d98ra0o8eeqmhi

Download the packages, open them on your computer, double check on the package to open it, it will look like this:

This install window pops up, press the button on the bottom right to confirm all the steps of installation

How to print from the browser

Go to: https://access.tufts.edu/jumboprint, sign into your tufts account so you can see this https://jumboprint.tufts.edu/MyPrintCenter

1. Click on “upload”, select your PDF (remember the name of your file)

2. Check the box next to your print

3. At bottom right, choose “Black & White” (or color if you are printing color); select “Single Sided” (unless you want to print double-sided)

4. Pages per side should be “1”

5. Go out in the hallway and swipe your ID, choose the job name you want (this is the name of your file) to print and press “OK”

InDesign

How to set up your 11 x 17” for your Alphabet Book

• Open InDesign
• File > New
• 11x17” (might need to change increments to inches)
• Landscape
• Un-check “facing pages”

How to export from InDesign to a PDF
• InDesign > File > Export
• Can choose “smallest file size” if you think your file might be heavy

Photoshop

How to bump up contrast on your photographs:

• Open Photoshop
• File > New
• Choose image from your computer
• Image > Mode > Grayscale
• Image > Adjustments > Levels (pull the triangles until you see something you like

Other recommended practices:
• Duplicate your Background layer so that you have a built in back-up of the original image in your file if needed (for convenience!)
• Use the adjustment layers (”black and white cookie”) and the layer mask (”rectangle with circle inside it”) to make adjustments to your image in an elastic way
• Use the paintbrush to add and subtract from your image
• Use the lasso tool to cut things out
• Return your color space to RGB (Image > Mode > RGB) to then create a colored layer so you can better see what little bits are on the page
• Use filters to add texture or blur to your images
• To make something a bitmap it needs to be grayscale first (Image > Mode > Grayscale > then again Image > Mode > Bitmap)

Illustrator

Resources

Gradients
https://meshgradient.com

Mockups:
https://creatoom.com
https://www.hazardmockups.com
Poster
https://benditomockup.com
https://mockup.maison

Styleguides
https://www.madebycircular.com.au

Elizabeth Goodspeed’s list of studios:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oQLTMIWWoC68iICbhZQFBj-ELB9dE8EXwP_wbuEPnN8/edit?gid=0#gid=0

If you want to get an internship this summer, here is my recommended timeline:

FALL
Research design studios and companies in the location you will be (or remote opportunities). Use Linkedin or their website to reach out to someone who works there, someone a job title or two a head of you is a good call. Ask for a coffee or zoom date and ask them to review your portfolio.

WINTER
Before break, meet with career services, get their advice on the Tufts network, resumes and portfolios. I will also review your portfolio.

SPRING
Reach back out to the folks you met with in the fall and let them know you are looking for opportunities. Apply cold to internships that are posted. Reach out to folks in the Tufts network.

Above all: be a person. Business is about relationships. Lean on the networks that you have, your friends, family, Tufts, your professors.

School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University

smfa.tufts.edu