80 314 Publications workshop
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:
Publications workshop
Credits:
6
Course code:
80 314
Level of study:
Master
Teaching semester:
2019 Autumn
Assessment semester:
2019 Autumn
Language of instruction:
Norwegian / English
Maximum number of students:
15
Person in charge
Joao Doria de Souza
Required prerequisite knowledge
Admission to AHO and successful completion of three years bachelor level studies (180 ECTS).
Course content
Publications workshop aims to equip its participants with a basic but solid typographic design and graphic production toolkits. We will do so through actively discussing the transposition of design decisions taken in architecture and design processes of all scales towards the specific space of the book, with a particular interest on what makes a self-publishing venture into a thing in the world.
The course will unpack editorial, visual, distribution and circulation strategies present in select cases of serial self-publishing from the twentieth century within literature, the arts, architecture and design. Said cases will make an argument for editorial and typographic design as tools and spaces for diffusing discourse, creating situations for debate and exploring the functional, poetic, political and social aspects of what self-publishing is and does.
With a focus on resourcefulness and low-cost production through available printing and binding resources on campus and local copy-shops, participants will produce a modest body of work ranging from ephemeral material such as posters, flyers and zines (understood as quick prototyping spaces) and culminate in a fully fledged Reader publication — an edited and designed compilation of material relevant to each participant’s personal interests.
Learning outcome
Participants will learn how to slide back and forth between the production–display—circulation spaces with a hands-on approach, being prompted to show their work to a larger public by the course completion, eventually initiating an AHO’s student imprint that can constitute an own archive and section at AHO’s library.
Lectures will contextualize how typography and visual language have been historically intertwined even in the absence of text, expanding and exploring of the temporal and material aspects of the book and what can it do for architecture and design in the current historical moment as well as in each participant’s personal/current moment of practice.
Working and learning activities
The course backbone leans on the pursuit of a deeper understanding of typography as an aesthetic position and as a drawing and information/language-structuring tool through tutorials and discussions on editing, typesetting, prescriptive versus generative grid-making, printing and binding.
Excursions to binders and printers in the city of Oslo will be conducted. Skype calls with an international network of designers and editors involved in contemporary artistic, architectural and design discourses will complement the course in the capacity of guest lecturers or critics.
Students hold individual responsibility for sourcing content for each tutorial and the course leader will provide clear guidelines and the necessary feedback during group/individual meetings. A basic list of materials will be shared by the beginning of the course. Basic prototyping resources (printer, folding machine, cutter, stapler, binder) present at The Ventriloquist Press at Carl Berners will be made available for select tutorials.
Curriculum
Selected readings will be taken out of the publications listed below and expanded through lectures.
Core readings
Gerstner, Karl, et al. Designing Programmes: Five Essays and an Introduction. Lars Müller, 2007.
Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with Type: a Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students. Princeton Architectural Press, 2010.
Hochuli, Jost. Detail in Typography: Letters, Letterspacing, Words, Wordspacing, Lines, Linespacing, Columns. Éditions B42, 2015.
Pipes, Alan. Production for Graphic Designers. Prentice Hall, 2009.
Extended readings
Tavares André. The Anatomy of the Architectural Book. Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2016.
Colomina, Beatriz, et al. Clip, Stamp, Fold: the Radical Architecture of Little Magazines, 196X to 197X. Actar, 2011.
Decroos, Bart, et al. Oase 100. The Architecture of the Journal / De Architectuur Van Het Tijdschrift. nai010 Uitgevers, 2018.
Müller-Brockmann Josef, and D. Q. Stephenson. Grid Systems in Graphic Design: a Visual Communication Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers, and Three Dimensional Designers = Raster Systeme für Die Visuelle Gestaltung: Ein Handbuch für Grafiker, Typografen, Und Ausstellungsgestalter. Niggli, 2017.
Smet, Catherine de., and Le Corbusier. Vers Une Architecture Du Livre: Le Corbusier: édition Et Mise En Pages, 1912-1965. Lars Müller Publishers, 2007.
Redstone, Elias. Archizines. Bedford Press / Architectural Association, London, 2011.
Birdsall, Derek. Notes on Book Design. Yale University Press, 2004.
Hochuli, Jost, and Robin Kinross. Designing Books: Practice and Theory. Hyphen Press, 1996.
Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks, 2016.
Tschichold, Jan. The Form of the Book: Selected Essays on Questions of Book Design & Typography. Hartley & Marks, 1991.
Goode, Simon, et al. Making Books: a Guide to Creating Hand-Crafted Books by the London Centre for Book Arts. Pavilion, 2017.
Keller, Christoph, and Michael Lailach. Kiosk: Modes of Multiplication: a Sourcebook on Independent Art Publishing, 1999-2009. JRP Ringier, 2009.
Philpot, Clive. Booktrek: Selected Essays on Artists Books (1972-2010). JRP Ringier, 2013.
Ponge, Francis, and Beth Archer Brombert. The Voice of Things. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1974.
| Mandatory coursework | Courseworks required | Presence required | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence required | Required | The course requires 100% attendance and participation. |
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | Individual | Pass / fail | The body of work that will be assessed is — binder with typographic / grid set of exercises — 16-pp individual photo zine — postcard set — poster set — 16-pp contribution to group reader |