Is Design Color Coded?

Catalog description

The course Is Design Color Coded? considers how color operates and is valued within different design disciplines. Why does the color white represent purity and cleanliness in some contexts while connoting death in others? Why does the color red signal danger or emergency in certain situations but represents prosperity and power in others? Why does purple-colored clothing connote high status in societies as distant as Ancient Greece (7th century BCE) and the Tokugawa period in Japan (1603-1868)? During this two-credit arts workshop, students will explore color as a constitutive element of most people’s lived experiences. Analytic exercises and creative projects will structure each course meeting, and it is expected that both historic and contemporary designs will inform the creation of new work. As students develop a critical understanding of how color contributes to our understanding of designed objects, we will also discuss how color affects our perceptions of race, gender, ethnicity, identity, and social status. Student projects will engage a range of different design disciplines including industrial design, fashion design, interior design, graphic design, surface coatings, and digital interfaces. Class meetings will include discussions, presentations of student design work, skills workshops, and field trips. Readings will include David Batchelor, Chromophobia; Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger; Catherine Keyser, Artificial Color: Modern Food and Racial Fictions; Michel Pastoreau, Black: The History of a Color; Sarah Street and Joshua Yumibe, Chromatic Modernity: Color, Cinema, and Media among others. Field trips may include Cooper Hewitt Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Tesla showroom, Kohler showroom, Supreme, Future Perfect and Christie’s. Note: Students should have a good working knowledge of the Adobe Creative Cloud programs Illustrator and Photoshop and the 3D…