FCSC 1180 Applied Design

Spring 1998

Course Objectives

1.     Learn the vocabulary of Design.   You will master these concepts:

2.     Become a designer.  You will explore the steps in the design process as you create designs to enter in weekly competitions, and you will create two finished designs, one for a display case, one for a marketable craft product.

3.     Learn to evaluate designs.  You will develop personal standards to use in evaluating successful and unsuccessful designs.   You will develop a rational personal design philosophy about what pleases you in specific circumstances.

4.     Self-Evaluation Techniques.  You are expected to be able to state objectively what is successful, what is not so successful about every design you create.  As part of your self-evaluation, you may read what others have written in their critiques of your designs.  You will learn to recognize when you have achieved your design goals -- to "solve the design problem" and to "leave a design alone before you wreck it" -- and you will learn how to develop a sense of detachment about your designs so that you can evaluate them yourself and learn from the criticisms of others.

5.     Develop a Personal Design Philosophy.   By the end on the semester you are expected to be able to articulate what constitutes good design to you.

Supplies

1.     Paints.     Each student will need to buy a five or six color set of acrylic paints in tubes.  Colors needed are white, black, blue, red, and yellow.  Most sets have other colors too which is fine, but not absolutely necessary.  Buy paints that seem to have bright colors, but any brand in fine.  No oil paints.

2.     Paintbrushes.      Two paintbrushes, a medium-sized paintbrush (size 6), and a fine one.  The brushes should come to a nice point at the tip.

3.     White Paper.      You will need about 12 sheets of white drawing paper to paint on.   A pad of Strathmore Alexis Drawing Paper (9" x 12" pads) at the UW Bookstore is ok (2 or 3 students could share a pad), but any quality and size drawing paper is fine.  Computer or photocopy paper is too smooth to use.

4.     Water cup & palette:  An old jar and an aluminum pie plate are fine.

5.     Reference materials:  An "Artist's Color Wheel" is required.  It is available at the UW Bookstore, and brand is ok.  If you purchase Allen (see below), you can use the color wheels in that book instead.

On reserve at Coe Library:  There is no required textbook for this course, but Allen, Phyllis and Miriam F. Stimpson (1992) Beginnings of Interior Environment, 7th Edition, NY:  Macmillan College Publishing Co. is on reserve at the circulation desk of Coe Library.  The chapters on Design and Color may be helpful to you as you study design, especially if you have not had much background in this subject.  Suggested sections are on the daily syllabus only, not on each lab sheet.  It is up to you to read the suggested material before the date when it is listed as an appropriate reference.  This book is also used as the textbook for Interior Design I (FCSC 2188).

Course Schedule

Final Exam Week:  Exercise O due by 1:00 pm on Wednesday May 6.  (There is nothing required during the period scheduled for a final exam in this course).  Pick up DC 13 from display cases after 1pm Wednesday May 6.  Remember to clean out your file also.

Grading System

*  five lowest scores in these 10-point projects can be dropped, reducing the total points for the semester.  You can drop a maximum of three grades in any one category, Design Competitions, Critiques, or Exercises.  Note on the syllabus the projects which cannot be dropped, marked with an asterisk.

Total Points for Semester (Adjusted for Drops):     680 points

Class Policies

Grading System:  90 - 100% is an A, 80 - 89% is a B, 70 - 79% is a C, 60 - 69% is a D.  There is no Curve.

File:  Each student has a file in room 3027 in which all completed design entries and exercises should be kept throughout the semester.  File folders should not be removed from the classroom.  The original design which was the inspiration for Design Competition 13 (the marketable project) must be submitted in oral presentation.

Class Attendance:  It is critical that you attend class.  Every class period there is a project due, role is taken.  If you must miss a class due to a prearranged absence, turn in assignment early.  If you are sick, you should call the instructor at 766-5355 and leave a message that you will not be attending before class starts.

Design Competition:  Each competition problem is announced and discussed in the 3 hour "long" lab, and is due at the beginning of class the following 3-hour lab one week later.  Be sure to put your name on the back of your design entry.  If you complete a design but are unable to attend class the day it is due, have someone hang the design for you and you will receive full credit for entering it.  You will miss the 10 point in-class critique, however.

Design Exercises:  Are assigned in the 1 hour "short" labs, and are due at the following short lab one week later.  Turn them into the "in basket" by the door of the classroom.   If it was a group project, turn in only one assignment per group, with everyone's name on it.

Critiques:  Are written in class in the long labs.  The questions you will write answers to are on the page with the design competition directions in your lab manual.  Critiques help determine your grade on the Design Competitions, and are given a separate grade by the instructor on the basis on how well you discriminate between good designs and poor designs, and how well you are using the design vocabulary.

Standard Grade:  Every student who enters a design competition will earn the standard grade of 7 points out of 10 automatically, which is the equivalent of a C.

Bonus and Penalty Points on Design Competitions:  Every design competition will be critiqued by all students in the class.  The top 10 designers will receive bonus points equivalent to their rank in the competition.  The first place design will receive 10 bonus points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points and so on with the tenth place design receiving one bonus point.  These are added to the standard grade, so the first place finisher receives a total score of 17 out of 10, and the tenth place finisher will have a score of 8 out of 10.  All other students will receive no bonus points, just the standard score of 7 out of 10.  Students will also select the one design which they feel requires major improvements before it can be made into a marketable design.  The design which receives the most nominations for improvements will be docked one penalty point for a total score of 6 out of 10.

Late Designs and Exercises:   Are not accepted.  Because late designs are not accepted, your five lowest scores are dropped in the 10 point categories (Design Competition, Critique, or Exercise).   Those that can't be dropped are marked with an * on the syllabus.  A design is late for the competition if it is not hung in time for the critique session.  An exercise is late if it is not turned in by the end of class on the date due.  Late designs will receive 0.  You can drop a maximum of three in each project category:   Design Competitions, Critiques, and Exercises.  Remember to turn designs and exercises in early if you know you will be gone.  Every effort will be made to accommodate students who have major health problems or who tour with teams during the semester which affects their class attendance.  However, the student is responsible for making arrangements for alternatives to this policy on an individual basis.

Display Design:  Each student is assigned a display case and date to install a case.  Cases are not graded until the self critique is handed in, which is due the next class after the case in installed.   There will be a 20% reduction in your grade if the case is removed before the self critique is submitted.  A 10% grade penalty is given if the person who put in a display fails to remove it in time for the next person to put theirs in.  Cases are usually installed in the 3 hour labs, and removed on the day before that class two weeks later.  In addition, students will critique as a group two displays during the semester at an assigned time.

Final Marketable Craft Prototype:   You will select one of your Design Competition entries or Exercises to develop into a finished hand-crafted item which would be marketable for commercial production by a design firm.  The Family and Consumer Sciences Dept. will supply some equipment you can use, but in general, you will need to buy your own supplies for this project.   Craft projects will be graded on the basis of creativity, marketability and design quality - no project should be a kit or copy of any existing or commercially available craft item, and it should be your own design, based on a design you produced originally for one of the competitions or exercises in this class.

Design Teams:  You will be assigned  a design team to work with during the semester.  You will be expected to sit with the design team during labs, and you will confer with them when doing critiques.  Teams will be two to four members.  Teams are expected to help each other install display cases whenever anyone on the team is assigned to install one.   Teams are assigned as the Teaching Assistants for the one day during the semester.

Class Teaching Assistants:   Each week two or more students will be assigned as teaching assistants for the two hour laboratory period.  The TA's will determine the function of the designs for the design competitions.  These students will assist in handing the design competition entries for the day, and prepare bulletin boards.  They will record the votes of classmates for the best in the class, will assess penalty and bonus points, and place the awards on the best designs for the competition.  They will also assist fellow students who are installing display cases for that week and make sure that the classroom is in order before they leave.  Students who are TA's for the day are expected to stay until the end of the class period or until their work is done if they leave earlier.   The TA's also select the designs that are to be compared by the class (question 2 of the weekly critiques).  Students will earn an automatic 20 points when they serve as teaching assistants, if they do all the work required.  The week previous to serving as a TA, students are expected to meet with the instructor to determine the requirements that will be presented to the class for the upcoming design competition.   It is critical that TA's be in class both the week before and the day of their assigned TA day.