Design makes a difference at Cornish College of the Arts

The Design Department at Cornish College of the Arts helps its students develop skills as visual communicators through carefully structured projects. As the students progress, their options for completing those projects multiply. When the graphic design students reach their final year, the Senior Studio course provides a challenging problem, and each student must determine how he or she will develop a solution. Professor Claudia Meyer-Newman sees her role as providing a context within which the students become initiators.

A context for initiating projects

In Fall 2004, Meyer-Newman provided a context in which the students could use their design skills to participate as both design professionals and activist citizens. She invited officials from the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) to her class to serve as guest clients. They highlighted environmental issues the city faces and the communication challenges for an urban population with 118 spoken languages. They invited the students to develop design strategies that would communicate complex information to Seattle residents in a relevant and engaging style. Meyer-Newman required the students to supplement the information provided in class with independent research and to brainstorm ideas for effective information design. Each student developed a project proposal reflecting his or her choice.

Industry-standard tools

The students purchase their own laptops and the Adobe® Creative Suite as the basic tools required for participation in the program. Cornish College adopted the Creative Suite more than a year ago because it is the industry standard. The students use Adobe Illustrator® for their vector drawing, Adobe Photoshop® for image manipulation, and Adobe InDesign® for page layout.

Communicating what materials are appropriate for recycling

Several students chose to support curbside recycling efforts. Madoka Hayashi tackled the problem of clearly communicating what kinds of materials are acceptable for recycling by creating an iconic guide appropriate for mailing and adhering to cupboards or containers that can be easily deciphered by non-English speakers.

Madoka Hayashi

Motivating citizens to recycle and conserve

Lisa Henry created signage for buses and sidewalks that encouraged people to recycle rather than discard.		Lisa Henry
Steven Baughman created an activity book called Rethinking Waste that explores creative uses of waste materials. The book’s pages are reused paper grocery bags.		Steve Baughman
Adam Borden created a comic book that encourages young people to reduce energy waste.		Adam Borden
Sumi Lee decided to target a motivational message at very young children by creating an activity guide for preschool teachers. It describes fun art projects that incorporate recycling messages.		Sumi Lee (PDF: 931k)

Respecting the outdoors

Several students chose to communicate the delights of downtown Seattle’s outdoors by creating Green Maps that encourage residents to enjoy the city as pedestrians or bicyclists. Eun Seok Lee created a Green Map and guide that visually communicate city attractions and services for a diverse audience that includes non-English speakers.

Eun Seok Lee (PDF: 8.0M)

Raising community and environmental awareness

Nathan Winkel wanted to create incentives for real estate developers to use sustainable building techniques. He designed a poster series highlighting buildings that meet sustainability standards.

Nathan Winkel

David Kaul and Lanti Nuramalia worked together on an entire campaign to promote Seattle’s city center as a healthy urban environment for high-density residence. Their campaign included a brochure with an attractive mailer and “eco-friendly” information booths.		David Kaul and Lanti Nuramalia
Kevin Spellman decided to revamp documents already created by the guest clients. He created new versions of the Annual Progress Report (APR) on the City of Seattle’s Environmental Action Agenda 2004 and Annual Report for 2004.		Kevin Spellman

Creative freedom, community involvement, and professional results

Each student in the Senior Studio course had to decide what was important to create. They initiated projects rather than responding to assignments dictated by faculty. Meyer-Newman’s studio course gave them the opportunity to produce professional-level results for the guest client and to experience design as an important force in improving their own communities. The class even led to one student landing a paid freelance job: Kevin Spellman was officially hired to redesign the city of Seattle’s Annual Report.