Ecological Communication Design

Level: Undergraduate

Division: Parsons The New School for Design

School: School of Design Strategies

Department: Environmental Studies

Course Number: PSDS 1601

Course Format: Studio

Location: NYC campus

Permission Required: No

Topics:

• Environmental Studies
• Sustainable Design
• Graphic Design

Description:
Damage to ecosystems and ecological sustainability tends not to be visible; as a result, environmental science and activism require careful strategies for visualizing ecological relations. This course will introduce students to a range of visual communication principles, techniques and tools, such as figurative and diagrammatic image composition, digital image manipulation, page composition, sequential art, typography and information design. By the end of the course students will be familiar with key design software and able to produce resolved compact digital files and print materials. These elements of visual communication design will be learned in the context of seminars about the history of visualizations in environmental science and activism, with topics such as romantic landscape painting and the establishment of national parks, nature conservation and animal photography, scientific illustrations and the birth of ecology, diagramming ecosystems, visual narratives and ecological politics, visualizing quantitative information and environmental policy, sketching scenarios of desirable sustainable futures.

Course Pre/Co-requisites:
Open to: All university undergraduate degree students.

Restrictions:

Level

Open to Undergraduate students.