“Every year we cap off the ‘Graphic Design in Multimedia’ class with two projects: a book of reflection essays designed and written by the students as a class, and a final project where students must envision an event and design all of the collateral (logos, ads, posters, and other deliverables). With the loss of a week of class due to the extended spring break, and the difficulty of remote instruction and critique, I decided to combine the two projects into one—a magazine complete with essays written by students, “featurettes” of infographics or other small editorials, and ads for imagined companies that students would invent and design.
Addressing COVID or the remote nature of our lives right now was not in the design brief, but the students quickly came to the theme of “Connections” as a through-thread for the magazine. Over the course of about a month, they conceived of the idea, split into teams, and wrote, designed, critiqued, edited, and compiled a 50-page magazine, completely remotely. Two students acted as art directors and oversaw global design decisions, while the rest of the class worked on features and other elements in pairs.
The choice to do a group assignment as a final project was one that I did not make easily. I knew it would be difficult to do remotely, but I also thought it would be a great way to keep the class and students connected even outside of our weekly meeting time. I’m extremely happy with the outcome, and may use it as an assignment again in the future for this class in coming years, remote or not.” — Michael Faber
Michael Faber is the Senior Manager for Academic Technologies at Duke’s Office of Information Technology. In this role, he oversees computing, printing, Innovation Co-Lab, and other tech resources on campus, and he also teaches “Graphic Design in Multimedia.”
A magazine about graphic design and the connections that bind us during strange times. Designed, written, and produced (completely remotely) by students in “Graphic Design in Multimedia” class at Duke University, Spring 2020.
Students: Shalini Arimilli, Emma Calhoun, Kyra Chan, Emily Chang, Debora Cordero Martinez, Nhu Do, Wil Hoyle, JJ Jiang, Seijung Kim, Julia Lang, Dezmanique Martin, Pavel Pivarshev, Paloma Rodney, Beatriz Staub, Caroline Surrett, Mindy Wu
