Undergraduate · Studio · 4 credits
Graphic Design 2
The mark, the sign, the symbol — design as social justice
PREREQUISITES
Graphic Design 1
OFFERED
spring
LEVEL
300-level
A sophomore-level studio grounded in semiotics, mark-making, and design as social practice. Students learn to read and construct visual signs — understanding how marks carry meaning, how metaphor operates in images, and how design can argue a position and advocate for change. Every project begins by hand. Every project asks: what does this image actually say, and to whom?
Syllabus
Key information — full syllabus available as PDF
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Conduct sustained research on a human rights issue and translate that research into designed communication
Design a coherent poster series using three distinct visual languages: typographic, illustrative, and photographic
Develop a complete visual identity system including logo, color palette, typography, and style guide
Produce original analog marks — through monoprinting, frottage, and collage — and integrate them into digital design work
Understand and apply semiotic principles: icon, index, symbol, denotation, connotation, and visual rhetoric
Design a multi-page editorial publication in Adobe InDesign using paragraph and character styles
Engage critically with the ethics of visual representation, persuasion, and authorship
Articulate design decisions in critique using a shared vocabulary of formal values and social responsibility
STRUCTURE
4 major projects, all connected to a single human rights issue chosen in Week 1
Projects build sequentially: rhetoric > identity > brand system > editorial
All projects begin with analog work (collage, monoprinting, frottage, or sketching ) before digital construction
Analog marks produced by hand are scanned and integrated into digital work throughout
Process book maintained throughout the semester
Mid-project and final critiques for each project
Written self-assessments accompany each project
ASSESSMENT
Ungraded — students propose their own final grades
Self-reflections accompany each project
End-of-semester grade discussions with instructor
End-of-semester process book submitted as primary evidence of growth
TEEXTBOOKS
No required textbooks.
Course draws on readings and visual references, including: - Roland Barthes — Mythologies; "Rhetoric of the Image" - Victor Papanek — Design for the Real World - Paul Rand — A Designer's Art; Thoughts on Design - Rob Roy Kelly — pedagogical writings on foundational design education - Emory Douglas — work and writings on revolutionary art - Ken Garland — First Things First manifesto (1964, reissued 2000) - Dondis A. Dondis — A Primer of Visual Literacy - Ellen Lupton — Thinking with Type - Robert Bringhurst — The Elements of Typographic Style Readings and visual references distributed via the course management system.
Projects
Major projects per semester:
GD 2 Project 1: Human Rights / Human Wrongs
Students design a series of posters communicating a human rights issue through three distinct visual modes: typographic, illustrative, and photographic. The issue chosen here runs through every project in the semester. The poster series asks students to say the same thing three completely different ways — and have it land with equal force each time.
GD 2 Project 2: Logo Intensive
Students design a visual identity for a social justice organization connected to the human rights issue they chose in Project 1. A logo mark, wordmark, and InDesign style guide define how the identity is used. The project bridges single-mark thinking and the full brand system of Project 3 — and keeps the semester's social justice thread continuous.
GD 2 Project 3: Chocolate Brand Packaging
Students develop a complete brand identity and packaging system for a mission-driven chocolate company whose values connect to their chosen human rights issue. Logo, color system, typography, monoprint-based repeating pattern, three packaging designs, and a style guide — all built from a combination of hand-made marks and digital construction. Audience: women 35 and older.
GD 2 Project 4: Zine
Students design a zine on a topic connected to the human rights issue they have worked with all semester. The form is chosen deliberately: a zine has no gatekeepers, no client, and no approval process. The only question is what the student actually wants to say — and whether the design makes that saying visible. Minimum 8 pages, produced in multiples for critique.
Going forward, the project will be connected to the human rights issue students have worked with all semester, making the zine the personal and editorial culmination of sustained social research.
Course Overview
- Graphic Design 2 marks the shift from creating individual pieces to developing comprehensive systems of meaning. The course is centered on a core idea: in Week 1, students select a human rights issue—such as racial equity, housing, labor rights, environmental justice, disability, or others—that becomes the focus, research foundation, and ethical lens for all projects throughout the semester. These projects include a poster series that communicates the issue, a logo and style guide establishing an organizational identity, a chocolate brand embedded in a commercial context, and a zine giving it a personal voice. By semester’s end, students have built a cohesive body of work rooted in meaningful engagement.
I've been teaching this course version since 2005 at four different institutions: Rochester Community and Technical College, the University of Minnesota Duluth, Buena Vista University, and currently Pacific University. The course has evolved significantly over the years—in sequence, projects, and especially in integrating social justice themes. What remains constant is the belief that design is inherently not neutral; every decision regarding form, color, typeface, image, and hierarchy influences meaning and who benefits from it. GD2 helps students see this in practice.
The technology component in GD2 differs from GD1 notably: each digital file includes elements created by hand that cannot be generated by a prompt. Students begin with monoprinting, rubbing, collage, and sketching before opening a file. These analog marks are then scanned, integrated, and developed further. In an age where generated images are common, this approach asserts authorship and authenticity—emphasizing that the work is visibly and demonstrably human. This isn’t nostalgia; it’s a conscious stance on what design is and who creates it.
Course Reflection
- Graphic Design II (GD2) is positioned in the middle of a sequence. Graphic Design I (GD1) teaches students to observe — to interpret formal relationships and understand how placement, scale, and proportion generate meaning. GD2 shifts focus to expression — to guide students in using those perceptual skills for argument, systems, and ongoing social engagement. Advanced Design, which follows, encourages students to develop a practice. GD2 acts as the hinge: what occurs here influences whether students enter Advanced Design with something to articulate or still waiting for a subject to be assigned to them.
Design education often directs students toward branding (the marketing of products and services) while overlooking the broader tradition of design as a form of communication, political expression, and a tool for marginalized communities without institutional platforms. Students typically arrive expecting to learn logo and packaging design. While these skills are important, and this course teaches them, they are merely tools, not ultimate goals. The important question that design education rarely addresses, but this course consistently explores, is: communication for what purpose? Whose interests does this design serve? Who is it intended for, and who does it represent? The social justice theme woven throughout the semester as a foundation and alternative to traditional corporate branding projects. Students who complete this course by designing a poster series, visual identity, brand system, and zine, which are all focused on a human rights issue they researched in depth, experience design as a form of civic engagement rather than only professional activity.
The social justice theme woven through the semester was not always so explicit, and will be more explicit in Spring 2027. Earlier course versions asked students to pick topics of interest, with social relevance as one option among others. I discovered that students choosing personally meaningful subjects produced stronger design work. The research was more thorough and design choices were more intentional. Making the social justice thread mandatory may elevate the strength of their arguments.
The analog mark-making approach in GD2 is directly influenced by the Dada movement — Hannah Höch's photomontage, Kurt Schwitters's Merz collages — and by 1960s and 70s social poster traditions: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party newspaper, Atelier Populaire posters from Paris in May 1968, Malaquias Montoya and Chicano civil rights graphics, early 1970s women's liberation imagery. These demonstrate that handmade marks, reproducible images, and urgent social content have always been interconnected.
The Bauhaus is introduced in GD2 as the foundational institution for everything Kelly, Albers, and the Basel school developed. They were among the first to consider design as a discipline requiring both theoretical knowledge and craft skills, perceptual training, and social purpose. Paul Rand's idea that good design is good business — and vice versa — helps students understand the logo-focused work. Roland Barthes's "Rhetoric of the Image" provides semiotic tools to analyze what images suggest versus what they actually communicate. Victor Papanek's ethical stance that designers are responsible for their work's impact frames the entire course. These texts are practical tools in critique, used to defend and challenge design choices.
My assessment approach in GD2 reflects GD1: ungraded, process book-focused, with discussions on grades and student-proposed final scores. The process book in GD2 is even more significant, as the semester yields a cohesive body of work. A student who designs a poster series, logo system, brand identity, and zine around the same human rights issue demonstrates an argument across different formats. The process book documents will document how the argument has evolved.
Selected Student Self-Reflections
"My biggest strengths in this class definitely shined when I got to choose topics I was passionate about and put my all into them. I've enjoyed playing around with hierarchy and framing in all my projects, and I feel like I'm good at balancing practicality with visual appeal. The analog process was actually the perfect starting point for me, since I've always done things by hand and only recently got used to using digital programs for art. Starting things by hand really let me feel the tacticality of every project and also feel more connected to them, which made the results much more fulfilling, even if I had qualms about how my pieces turned out." - M.E., 2026
"I got a lot more confident in my designs this semester. Whatever I made, there would be an audience for it. I learned how to use Illustrator and inDesign again, which was a steep learning curve for me. I spent a lot of time sketching ideas in my notebook as they would come to me, and many notes app ramblings to help strengthen my design. I also got critique from an outside group to see if someone who had no background of design classes would understand my messages." - G.S., 2026