LJ 103: Design Writing | Fall, 2010
How to be an architecture critic. Great little piece by Alexandra Lange at Design Observer.
MWF 10-10:50
SSL 140
Fall, 2010
24132-F10@classes.uci.edu
LJ103 / 24132
THIS IS THE DRAFT SYLLABUS FOR THIS COURSE.
Official syllabus available on EEE: https://eee.uci.edu/10f/24132
In this course, we will read a variety of writings about design, especially graphic design, architecture and built environments, and product design. Although we will read a few writings by designers, the course will emphasize the view from outside design, as mounted by cultural observers who are tracking trends, evaluating objects and environments, addressing the social context and implications of design, or reflecting on objects and places from a philosophical point of view. We will pay attention to the different genres and styles that writers employ when addressing design, including description, review, interview, essay, humor, and philosophical reflection. Writing assignments will ask students to observe and comment on the designed world using tools and models developed in class. Quizzes and late midterm will test knowledge of individual texts.
I. What Is Design?
1A. Modernism and Its Objects (9/24/2010)??
Films by Charles and Ray Eames; Eames Demetrios, An Eames Primer (R)
1. Design Manifestos (9/27/2010)??
Helen Armstrong, Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. pp. 20-55 and pp. 124-26 (Kenya Hara).
Manifestos by Bruce Mau and others; Ellen and Julia Lupton on manifestos®
Ellen’s collection of contemporary designs (pdf)
2. Design writing ((10/4/2010)
David Barringer, There’s Nothing Funny About Design. Interviewed by Ellen Lupton.
Interview with Jack White in The Believer
Chapter One from Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine
II. Objects
3. Affordances and Usability (10/11/2010)
Texts: Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (selection), Ellen and Julia Lupton on affordances®; Ellen Lupton, “The Birth of the User” (link)
Additional chapter from Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine (on bathrooms)
SHORT ASSIGNMENT: Analyze an object that you use every day.
4. Style and Trends (10/18/2010)
Malcolm Gladwell, The Cool Hunt plus, contemporary cool-hunting and anti-cool-hunting sites.
Cool hunting case-study: Giant Robot
Special Guest: Glen Mimura, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (10/20/2010)
FIELD TRIP TO GIANT ROBOT: Sunday, October 24 (meet in LA, 2015 Sawtelle Blvd. between 12-6). (Field trip is optional. Students must arrange their own transportation.)
The Mezzanine: Archaeology of the Un-Cool?
5. Process and experience?? (10/25/2010)
Richard Sennett, The Craftsman [OR, CUT THIS AND ADD UNIT ON DESIGN FICTIONS??]
Also: Tim Ingold on basket weaving and limits of design, 341-46.
III. Environments (11/1/2010)
6. Experiments in Reflection (11/1/2010)
Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
SHORT ASSIGNMENT: Analyze a space in Orange County using Alain de Botton as a model. (Due Friday)
??7. Denise Scott Brown and the Case of California® (11/8)
Denise Scott Brown, “On Pop Art, Permissiveness, and Planning” (pdf); Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Learning from Las Vegas (excerpt in Armstrong anthology); Martin Filler, The World’s Foremost Female Architect
This week: lecture by Cole Akers (Wed.)
*Lupton in Germany Nov. 12, Nov. 15, and Nov. 17).
Midterm Nov. 15. Friday: review for exam; Monday: exam; Wednesday: Helvetica movie
IV. Graphic Design and Typography
??8. Exam (11/15/2010)
Type Crimes?? (11/17/2010)
Helvetica: The Movie
9. Anatomy of a Font (11/22/2010)
Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type (R or link)
THANKSGIVING
??10. Conclusions
(Finish typography and design; other business.)
(Lupton may be at UCLA Conference on December 1; CJ Gordon lecture??)
LONGER ESSAY: Write a journalistic piece or reflective essay about an object, trend, built environment, or example of typography. Essay must involve research (not just internet!). Visit a place, interview a designer, study store layouts, locate background examples of a current trend, find some theoretical or conceptual frameworks, etc.
REPORTS/PRESENTATIONS/WIKI/ MEDIA JOURNAL (In groups??)
Each student or student group needs to research a contemporary publication or blog that features design. {or, read around each week in these areas).
Possibilities include Dwell, Giant Robot, ID, Print, Design Observer, Unbeige, Core77, Significant Objects, and Design for Good.
New York Time Opinionator Blog on “Home”
Lifehacker
BOOKS ORDERED THROUGH THE UCI BOOKSTORE
Helen Armstrong
Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field
Princeton Architectural Press
ISBN: 978-1568987729 (24.95)
REQUIRED? YES
David Barringer
There’s Nothing Funny About Design
Princeton Architectural Press
ISBN: 978-1568988283 (24.95)
REQUIRED? YES
Alain de Botton
The Architecture of Happiness
Vintage Books
978-0307277244 ($18)
Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine
ISBN-10: 080214490X
ISBN-13: 978-0802144904
LINKS
VADS (image database with design orientation)
Flickr Commons (photos in public domain)
There will be an exam at the end of Week VIII; this is the only exam for the course.
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