School of Visual Arts

• CFA AR 569: Art, Community, and Social Engagement
  What is community art? How is it different from socially engaged art, street art, and participatory art? What are the goals of these forms of engagement? For whom are they created? What and whose values, and ethical principles must I consider, and what do I need to know before designing a community project? A fundamental aspiration of the course is grounded in the belief that art can facilitate positive social change and enhance community well being. Whether you are curious about or already convinced of this claim, the course will provide you with the tools to clarify assumptions about community art and social engagement practices, and recognize the various historical contexts at the root of artistic and engagement practices in the US and abroad since the 1960s. Through discussions, guest lectures, written reflections, and fieldwork, you will have the opportunity to develop the cultural competency necessary to examine and clarify your own worldviews and beliefs, as you take part in diverse community activities in the city and region. As final project, you will be able to demonstrate the refinement of your newly developed concepts and experience by conducting the necessary research to complete the presentation of an execution-ready community-based project proposal designed in collaboration with members of a community and peers. 2 cr
• CFA AR 571: Exhibition Design
  Projects, lectures and field trips are ways in which students will investigate the topic of exhibit design. Projects include the experience of designing an exhibit. A curatorial point of view is the concept driving the design. Students will explore the design holistically, from a prototype of the physical space, to a form for presenting objects, media and information, exhibit signage, wayfinding and promotion. Critiques will emphasize how fluidly the graphic and material form relates to the curatorial concept. Lectures focus on defining contemporary exhibit design in the context of a more expectant and informed public. The changing role museums, galleries and project spaces play in the dissemination of curated objects/ideas/media will be a common theme. Field trips will be used as a tool to teach students about the exhibit experience, from the standpoint of a designer and visitor. 2 cr.
• CFA AR 572: Internship
  This course is for juniors and seniors pursuing an internship for college credit. Internship hours range from 80-150 hours during the course of 6-14 weeks. Students meet in consultation with an Internship and Faculty advisor for critiques of internship work. A final presentation of work is required at the end of the semester. 2.0 credits.
• CFA AR 576: Motion Graphics
  Introduction to methods and processes of creating motion graphics for broadcast and cinema. The focus is on story-telling in a time-based context through ambient and linear narratives. Students will consider how design elements--such as type, image, framing, pacing, rhythm, sequencing and sound--influence time-based narratives. Students will broaden their individual aesthetic by exploring a variety of mediums from analog to digital formats and animate with Flash and After Effects.
• CFA AR 577: Editorial Publication
  This is a hands-on, project-based introduction to editorial and publication design. Both form and content, with emphasis on use of the grid as an organizing creative principle will be utilized. Typography and image will be discussed as students design, print, and bind their own books. Students may select a topic of personal interest and explore various materials and methodologies.
• CFA AR 580: History of Graphic Design
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Course (CAS WR 120 or equivalent) - Chronological survey of theory and practice of graphic design from the Industrial Revolution to the present. Through slide lecture, reading assignments, discussion and a studio project, we will actively investigate how graphic design responded to and influenced its social, political and technological context. Emphasis will be on European and American design histories, in addition to major movements in Russia and the East. Comparative and symbiotic relationships between graphic design and other visual arts and design disciplines such as architecture and industrial design will be analyzed. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Historical Consciousness
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CFA AR 581: Web Design
  This course addresses the principles, problems, and applications of web design. HTML and CSS will be taught, giving the students the ability to control the design and presentation of online information in its most basic form. Emphasis is on content, usability, site architecture, navigation and interactivity.1st and 2nd semester.
• CFA AR 582: Web Design 2
  This course will explore web design through various web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Figma). While applying your design skills to this medium, you will develop an understanding of the technology behind the web and understand how to navigate the constraints and opportunities of the medium, and become comfortable executing your ideas in code.
• CFA AR 586: Child Development through Arts
  What are the theories of artistic development of children, and how do these build on or differ from each other? How have these theories changed over time? What is the relationship between child development and cultural context? We will examine the role of the senses, emotions, and cognition in shaping artistic development and of the layered integrations these form over time. Qualitative and arts-based research, presentations, discussions and written reflections will provide the various forms through which demonstrate one's understanding of the artistic development of children and youth. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Research and Information Literacy.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Research and Information Literacy
• CFA AR 587: Information Design
  This course explores ways of graphically structuring information. Students will learn process, organize and ultimately symbolize and visualize complex and quantitative information. Focus is on information graphics that reveal multiple hierarchies of data, through which new relationships are made visible. Representation (determining an appropriate form language for an idea) and narrative structure (main organizing principle) are the frameworks that will be studied in order to create precise, clear, legible and efficient communication. Open to undergraduate and graduate graphic design students. 2 cr.
• CFA AR 589: Interactive Design
  This course opens the door to different ways of thinking and making forms, and adding interactivity through computer programming and looks at how it can be used for creative projects by creating a new context or extending what we already know. Class time will be split between lectures, work sessions, discussions, presentations and critiques. 2cr
• CFA AR 593: Design Lab
  CFA AR593 Design Lab is an elective course open to all students in the School of Visual Arts. Design Lab is an in-house design studio providing professional quality graphic design solutions to the College of Fine Arts and Boston-based non-profits. The course will facilitate and regulate work flow, student/designer-client relationships, art direction, and finalization of the production process. Open to undergraduate and graduate design students. To be considered for a position, students must submit a portfolio (5 work samples) and a 200-word written statement explaining their interest in Design Lab. 2 credits. 6 contact hours per week. Fall or Spring semester.
• CFA AR 594: Graphic Design Theory
  Students will be exposed to the writings of early 20th century Avant-garde designers, mid-century proponents of the International Style and design neutrality, poststructuralist theories of the 80's and 90's, the shift back to the notion as the designer as an individualized author in the early00's, and current debate over issues of technology and the designer as an agent of social change. This course will include weekly readings and written responses. Each week, a student will be assigned to present the reading(s) for the week, and introduce the work of the designer(s)/author(s) to be discussed. There will also be a studio component to create a designed visual response to one or more of the readings covered. This will be an elective course open to MFA students in graphic design. 2 cr
• CFA AR 595: Visual Systems
  This course is focused on research and application of visual systems as a subject matter. Student investigations of modules and relatedness will form how visual systems direct and influence a creative process. While most design assignments require a visual or typographic system this course will address systems as a conceptual inquiry. Students will conduct a holistic exploration of abstract and physical systems to consider speculative solutions grounding visual systems in context. Lectures will discuss systems in nature, sciences, architecture, math, music and linguistics as well as technological applications within the design and art world. Design problems will approach analysis of systems and form as a visual response related to object, material and space. Open to undergraduate and graduate students this elective course meets once a week. 2cr; meets 3 hours a week.
• CFA AR 596: CFA AR 596 Graphic Design Theory II
  This seminar course builds on the critical insight students develop in Design Theory I, and challenges students to develop their own theoretical perspective, methodology, and critical practice. Students use this discourse as the foundation for their Thesis inquiry, further defining what they think, how it applies to the work they make and their future professional trajectory. This course will consist of both reading and writing, students will discuss the readings and consider weekly readings and brief written / visual responses.
• CFA AR 597: Experience Design
  Students will study and design interactive experiences in physical space. Emphasis is on how user experience shapes design. Projects include designing usable, interactive environments across a range of scales from mobile devices to social networks to museum displays and finally full scale architectural spaces. Work will be generated and discussed in terms of: concept development, media production, prototyping and implementation.
• CFA AR 600: Contemporary Issues in Art Education (4 credits)
  With an arts-research approach, this course allows students to explore and respond to contemporary issues while developing their own craft and building a creative learning community. The course surveys the roots of contemporary art and pedagogy and the shift to postmodernism, including influential figures, theories, and trends and their impact on art education. A deep-dive investigation into masks as universal but complex, culturally-embedded phenomena provides students in the course with a unique lens. Students investigate the popularity of masks in global contemporary art and the roots of these masks that speak to culture, identity, privacy, and other issues of the moment. Responding to course content by creating art, students stretch and expand their knowledge of the mask form and use it as a tool to examine pressing issues in the contemporary art classroom. The in-depth focus enriches the background, ideas, and approaches teachers can bring to mask making, a valuable but often challenging project, but also use as a model. Through e-portfolio and online discussions, students create a community of learners. A culminating project, such as a unit plan or autoethnography, synthesizes traditional research methods with arts-research insights and tackles the complexities that arise in a multi-cultural curriculum, such as appropriation, transnationalism, and ahistoricism.
• CFA AR 601: Graduate Typography
  The ability to communicate graphically and typographically sits at the forefront a successful graphic design practice. Graduate typography presents an opportunity for advanced study of the relationship between form and language in order to develop a strong typographic acumen for print and screen. Students will build upon fundamental elements of typography to explore advanced practical and hypothetical applications. Projects rely on a mastery of traditional typographic methods as a basis to discover innovative typographic forms and concepts for print and screen. 4 credits. 3 contact hours per week. Fall or spring semester.
• CFA AR 602: Graduate Typography II
  This course builds on Graduate Typography 1, continuing an exploration of advanced practical and theoretical typographic applications. Expanding previously developed skills, students will study methods and develop new modes for shaping language and meaning using text. Students should be aware of historical and contemporary typographic styles, movements and practices and use this knowledge to imagine a typographic future.
• CFA AR 610: The Inclusive Art Classroom (4 credits)
  This course will introduce the historical, legal, and educational facets of protected populations in the United States with a focus on art education. Discussed populations are those with needs that require individualized attention, awareness and considerations in an educational setting including students with physical, intellectual and cognitive special needs as well as other underrepresented student groups. The goal of this course is to introduce and explain characteristic behaviors, strengths and weaknesses of various disabilities and discuss strategies for differentiation of instruction, classroom management, and accommodations for the art classroom. Existing and emerging technologies and pedagogical methods will be discussed in order to make the artistic process accessible and meaningful to all students regardless of their emotional, intellectual, or physical capacities.