Design Curriculum | Advanced Professional Certificate | BFA

The Design curriculum exposes you to all areas in design, providing a comprehensive education that gives you flexibility to work in any media. Wide-ranging courses—from publication, book, web, and multi-media to experimental and individual explorations—support your personal and professional goals. While we tap the capabilities of the most up-to-date computer technology, we also strongly emphasize core intellectual concepts, the ability to think visually, and an understanding of the creative process. Our faculty consists of successful working designers and dedicated teachers who expose you to a variety of working methods and provide expertise in all areas of the design field.

Advanced Professional Certificate in Design

Design BFA

Please note: The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University reserves the right to unilaterally add, withdraw, or revise any course offering in the above-mentioned program of study, including policies, provisions, requirements, and fees. Current students may visit the Academic Advising Office to obtain the official program requirement sheet that corresponds with their year of enrollment. 

IDESN 4880

Internship Program
3 credits
The internship program provides design majors with experience in a professional environment, helping to prepare them for entry into the job market. As members of a design team, interns put their technical and creative knowledge to work and have the chance to make professional connections within the design community. To obtain credit, students must register for the course and meet with the internship advisor prior to getting their internship. Positions generally last 15 weeks. Prerequisites: IDESN 3150, IDESN 3210, IDESN 3510.

IDESN 4750

Visiting Designers
3 credits
A series of three visiting designers for each student present a project related to the student's area of specialization. Visitors are from the professional design community and work with a regular faculty member to coordinate their projects, which may include: poster design, book or publication design, type design, broadcast design, interactive or web design, environmental design, or other specialties. Prerequisites: IDESN 3210, IDESN 3510.

IDESN 4700

Professional Practices in Design
3 credits
This course is an introduction to business and professional practices, providing seniors with tools to deal with design as a business, as well as an opportunity to clarify their own professional goals. The course includes interviews with practicing designers, preparation of a business plan, and presentations by leading design professionals. Prerequisites: IDESN 2560, IDESN 3200.

IDESN 4520

Poster and Cover Concepts
3 credits
An interdepartmental course focusing on the use of images to communicate specific messages clearly, creatively, and in a compelling manner for a particular audience. Students work on book and magazine covers, CDs, and posters to explore issues of subject and symbol, image and inspiration, audience and impact, as well as the interaction of words and images. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1630 or IPHOT 1200.

IDESN 4510

Environmental Graphic Design
3 credits
This intermediate course will explore how the design of environments shapes human experience. Design as a service is a behavioral art. Architecture and urban planning clearly influence attitudes, guide human behavior, and establish frameworks for living together on this planet. From art installations, performance, and public art to industrial design of objects and informational design of services, the need to balance information capacity, notification levels, representational fidelity, and aesthetic emphasis in ambient information systems produces issues of usability, flexibility, diversity, practicality, spirituality, and etiquette. Modes of learning, forms of identity, and implements of branding and wayfinding inform creation, awareness, and experience of the designed environment. This course explores these matters and uses studio exercises and field trips to develop skills and knowledge necessary for the designer to operate in the world of human events and experience.

IDESN 4490

Special Topics in Design
Variable credit
A field based learning experience where students work under faculty supervision to solve a specific design problem presented by an outside organization. Problems are defined either as collaborations with non-profit organizations or as research based projects that go beyond the design of individual components. Students research a general graphic communication problem and then create a "design brief" to define the work that follows.

IDESN 4500

Advanced Projects
3 credits
Students work on a variety of more complex design projects, producing sets of materials and pieces with specific, practical communication goals. Emphasis is placed on working in a collaborative environment, similar to situations encountered in design studios. There is a choice of portfolio appropriate projects, but responsibility is placed on the students to organize their time and resources in a productive manner. Prerequisites: IDESN 3210, IDESN 3510.

IDESN 4450

Portfolio
3 credits
A course designed to help students prepare their portfolios for the working world and bring all their work to a more uniform standard. Every project is based on the needs of the individual student with a focus on improving their design process and also the details in their work. Resumes, networking, and interviewing are discussed. Prerequisites: IDESN 3210 and IDESN 3510 or IDESN 3530 or permission of the instructor. NOTE: this course is only to be taken in the student's last semester at school, unless specific permission is given.

IDESN 4320

Studio InFlux
3 credits
Studio InFlux is a dynamic and progressive studio at the Art Institute of Boston. It collaborates with non-profit organizations that promote social and cultural change. Design is used to deliver their messages through actual printed projects. Studio InFlux enables students to explore the application of design principles to practical problems through real design projects. The studio offers students the opportunity to further their practical design skills, enhance their portfolios, and gain experience with clients. Prerequisites: IDESN 3210, IDESN 3510.

IDESN 3670

Advertising Concepts
3 credits
Using language based concept development, this course explores the interdependent relationship between design and copy writing in the field of advertising. Through weekly brainstorming and writing exercises, students learn how words and images work together to generate meaning and how free association and open thought patterns can lead to coherent and provocative advertising concepts. The way in which marketing objectives relate to creative strategies is also taught in this course. The final project is a complete advertising campaign. Prerequisites: IDESN 3200, IDESN 3510, and strong language skills.

IDESN 3530

Design Systems
3 credits
This course examines the use of systems in design, exploring both how design reflects existing systems and structures in the world and how visual systems themselves can be used as organizing features in our environment. Students learn to apply these concepts to advanced multipart projects in graphic identity, interactive design, and related publication or exhibition work. Prerequisites: IDESN 3200, IDESN 3510.

IDESN 3510

Visual Communication
3 credits
This third course in the Design sequence focuses more specifically on the conceptual and practical problems of visual communication. Students learn to create or vary messages for various audiences, formats, or media and to consider the context of their communication. They also examine issues of maintaining identity or concept in sets of materials or across multiple pages and of preserving visual relationships over space and time. Prerequisite: IDESN 2220 and IDESN 2560 or IDESN 2520.

IDESN 3400

Brand Realization
3 credits
This course, Brand Realization, will focus on how an identity is established for an enterprise its "brand." Students will discuss and analyze the organization's mission, products, or services and then create a public 'persona' for the company through graphic style, message content, image content, and marketing approaches. Prerequisites: IDESN 2560, IDESN 3200.

IDESN 3230

Typeface Design
3 credits
This course reveals how typefaces are conceived, designed, made, and used. Students study typefaces in various contexts and then use digital tools to create a typeface for use in everyday communications. Technical standards of typeface design; the visual nuances of form, consistency, and spacing in a particular typeface; and the interaction of type software with other applications as well as the broader issues of the cultural context and history of western type design are introduced and addressed in this course. Prerequisites: IDESN 2560, IDESN 3200.

IDESN 3210

Typography III
3 credits
A continuation of the principles and methods introduced in Typography II, with further emphasis on typographic structures and grids and a focus on longer, more complex typographic documents. Prerequisite: IDESN 3200.

IDESN 3200

Typography II
3 credits
A process-oriented course aimed at developing a personal typographic "voice." Through a sequence of restricted typographic exercises, students learn to structure informational hierarchies while working with the formal composition of type as point, line, and textural element. The principles learned from exercises are applied to progressively more complex problems, with emphasis on the process of experimentation. Prerequisites: IDESN 2220.

IDESN 3150

Brand Specialization
3 credits
An introduction to design production and prepress requirements for printed work. Lectures, demonstrations, and field trips cover printing processes and techniques, computer file preparation, color management, paper choices, and writing specifications for print projects. Prerequisites: IDESN 3510, IDESN 3200.

IDESN 3110

Interactive Projects
3 credits
Students work on projects that utilize the complete interactive design process, including research, user scenarios, wire framing and prototyping, and exploration of navigation, feedback, and information design principles. Issues of human/computer interaction are discussed in the context of more sophisticated web sites, information kiosks, and the overall category of "experience design." Prerequisite: IDESN 2115 or permission of the instructor.

IDESN 2590

Bindings & Boxes
3 credits
Using traditional bookbinding techniques as well as more contemporary methods, the art and craft of building boxes, portfolios, and other containers for holding, carrying, or presenting work is taught. Students build basic forms such as the clamshell box, the drop-spine box, portfolio forms, and albums. Once basic skills have been mastered, the goal is to create a final piece that is experimental, challenging, and personal. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1640 or IPHOT 1200.

IDESN 2560

Visual Research
3 credits
This course addresses issues of reading experiences in visual terms and using that understanding to challenge design problems. Research methodologies are examined from the viewpoint of the graphic designer. The infinite ways one can look at research and its associated tools, including digital cameras, sketching, collage, and writing, are explored. Visual research requires visual evidence. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1615 or IFNDN 1620.

IDESN 2550

Sketching: Thinking Made Visible
3 credits
This process-based course explores shorthand methods to both stimulate the imagination and capture fleeting ideas. Emphasis is put on the sketching process as a means of exploration and visual communication. Students "learn by doing" through a series of short, simple projects plus several more complex, problem-solving exercises. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1640 or IPHOT 1200.

IDESN 2540

Color Theory
3 credits
This course familiarizes students with the complex language of color, enhancing their sensitivity to its physical characteristics and increasing their ability to manipulate those characteristics to achieve expressive and symbolic aims. Projects emphasize and explore the terms that describe color and color relationships, such as hue, value, intensity, temperature, interaction, and edge strength. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1640 or IPHOT 1200.

IDESN 2520

Language of Form
3 credits
This is a studio class with the objective of getting the students in tune with the mind of a designer. Design is about the process of synthesizing a large amount of information into a single, clear concept. Most great ideas are the result of a sketching phase with an experimental, open, and curious attitude. In this course, the creative process is explored extensively, using different approaches and diverse techniques, from hands-on to computer software. Special attention is given to the effective use of various visual vocabularies in abstract compositions and representational graphic translations. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1640 or IPHOT 1200.

IDESN 2220

Typography I
3 credits
A study of letterforms, typefaces, type identification, classification, nomenclature, and basic type use. Studio exercises begin with letterform drawing and spacing and follow with use of text in simple groups to study typographic arrangement, hierarchy, contrast, expression, and readability. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1640 or IPHOT 1200.

IDESN 2185

Interactive Game Design
3 credits
This course is for students with an interest in game and user interaction design and development. Students will use web based tools to explore the relationships between objects and actions and compose scenarios and events which engage, inform, and entertain users. Students will learn basic game elements, editors, and open source software and utilize object libraries. Students will discuss narrative forms, goals, and strategies to create immersive end user experiences. Students who complete this course will understand game mechanics and will have designed, created, tested, and packaged a finished interactive composition.

IDESN 2115

Introduction to Web Design
3 credits
The web has quickly become a common communication and business tool as well as a new opportunity for graphic designers to use their visual and conceptual skills. Students explore the use of basic design principles in the web environment and are introduced to new concepts in interactivity and site navigation. The course also covers basic technical aspects of page and site construction. Prerequisite: IFNDN 1640 or IPHOT 1200.

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