COMD DESIGN THEORY COLLECTION

Project Scope Abstract: I’m creating from scratch a collection of student writing and research presentations to be used as a supporting text in COMD3504 Communication Design Theory to help broaden the course readings to include a diversity of voices and perspectives. This collection will include research papers, essays, reading responses/reviews, manifestos, and research project presentations selected from coursework or submissions. Students interested in publishing their work openly/publicly will work with faculty and/or peer reviewers to prepare their work for inclusion in the collection. The collection will be published as an OpenLab Project and linked from the existing COMD Theory OER.

In support of a student-led / co-creation model of education, this collection of student writing will provide an opportunity for students to publish their unique perspectives in the historically privileged field of communication design. Part of our course curriculum and the COMD Department’s mission is to increase the variety of voices in professions that utilize creativity, technology, and design. While every attempt is made to present a broad view of design history and theory, the first half of the course takes a mainstream viewpoint in order to prepare students for the field.

Dec 2023 Proof of Concept: I will work with two current students to help prepare their essays for publication, create a submission with a release form, and test some new possible “book-like” themes (similar to Pressbooks) in OpenLab Dev.

Deliverables:

  1. Worked with two current students to refine/revise their essays for publication.
    • The first essay is “Simple Driving.” It analyzes how the 1971 Mini Automatic advertisement perpetuated gender stereotypes through coded messaging.
    • The second essay is “A Look into the “Get Down”. It analyzes a 1970s McDonald’s advertising campaign, which launched a new era of African-American representation in media.
  2. With the help of other COMD faculty teaching COMD3504, we created a release form.
  3. Two other faculty, Profs. Nicolau and Goetz are collecting work from students this semester.
  4. My OpenLab colleagues and I are reviewing “book-like” themes (similar to Pressbooks) to install on our testing server.