Blog Post Topics

Here are the week by week topics that you are required to respond to with a post of your own. There’s really no required format for how you go about developing your response. That said, I encourage you to be creative in the approach, style and structure that you employ.  A real asset that you guys bring to the table is your ability to write well.  Leverage that ability by honing your craft and finding your voice. Then, add that ability to whatever area you choose to specialize in the world of interactive media. There’s nothing stopping any of you from becoming, amongst other things, published critics of interactive media.

Week-by-Week List of Topics

Week 1: Expectations
For your very first blog reflection for this course please write about what you expect to learn in this class and how you hope it will prepare you for a future career in interactive media.

Week 2: “Stitch Bitch” by Shelley Jackson
Chapter from the book, Rethinking Media Change. (This chapter is in PDF format on Moodle.)

Week 3: What Is Art and Does It Matter?
Our textbook, Why Is That Art?, discusses in detail four major artistic categories. Why do you think it’s important—or not—for you, a student of visual media, to be aware of both the artists and artistic movements described in this text and elsewhere? Is it important for you to be aware of important professionals in your area of study? If yes, then why? And, perhaps more importantly, how might you go about acquiring this type of knowledge?

Week 4: Helvetica
A documentary film by Gary Hustwit on, yes, Helvetica the typeface, but also on broad issues of typography and type design. I have a copy of the DVD if you want to borrow it. (This can also be streamed online at this link: Documentary Heaven)

Week 5: Artist Series
This site contains several short video/interviews of renowned graphic designers (plus one design firm) created by the late Hillman Curtis. Watch at least two and comment on them. (These are awesome; I’d watch them all if I were in your shoes!)

Week 6: Story of Stuff
Lots to ponder here. Great example of digital media convergence! Make sure to watch at least one of the “stories” — stuff, electronics, cap and trade, bottled water, subsidies, or cosmetics — so you can really understand all the different types of media that are being leveraged.

Week 7: Journalism In the Age of Data
Excellent discussion of information and data visualization seen through the lens of journalism.

Week 8: iPhone Interface Design
Watch the short video that features Edward Tufte talking through the advantages and successes (and occasional flaws) of the iPhone as an interface.

Week 9: Thirty Conversations On Design
Watch three–or, at your leisure, watch more than three!–of the short videos on design. There are many to choose from. Make sure to look through both the 2009 and 2010 sets to see all of the possibilities.

Week 10: Seventy-nine Short Essays On Design by Michael Bierut
Selected essays from graphic designer Michael Bierut. Read at least three. (These are in PDF format on Moodle.)

Week 11: Broadcast Designers
Watch at least one of the following from the documentaries section of Lynda.com. These three are all, in some way, related to motion graphics and broadcast design. (When you click the link above you’ll be taken to the list of all 47 documentaries–hey, maybe you should watch all of them. You’ll find the following three in this list. If you click on one of them you’ll be taken to the page with the video segments. Clicking on the button that says “description” will give you a brief overview of what you’ll be shown and why these people and/or agencies are significant.)
1. Rick Morris: Motion graphics designer.
2. Harry Marks: Broadcast designer
3. Troika Design Group: Design and branding agency

Week 12: Title Sequences
Watch a handful of title sequences from Art of the Title and/or Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. Find some that are typographically interesting to you and analyze them in your post. Address questions such as the following: What do you see?; why do you like it?; what makes the design and animation effective at conveying the spirit of the film or at hinting at its content?

Week 13: Short Films
Watch at least two of the selections of short films produced by Hillman Curtis (except for “Movement Study”). Comment on the narrative devices, film-making techniques, editing choices, characters, etc. in the film(s) that you watch.

Week 14: Pica Towers
Watch the three short animations in the Pica Towers trilogy created by Marc Craste and Studio AKA: The Good News, Hounds of Flesh, and Pizza Sangre. (Make sure you watch them in that order as it’s not that obvious on the site what the order is supposed to be.) Comment on the narrative devices, film-making techniques, character designs, etc.

Week 15: Musings.
This week’s blog post doesn’t require you to watch or read anything. Yeah? Yeah! Instead, I want you to think and write about visual aesthetics. What have you learned this semester that impacts the way you approach the design of visual communication content? Why is having an understanding of visual aesthetics important (or not) when the artifacts being created are interactive? How will your increased sophistication with visual content impact the choices you make about the potential direction of your career?