THE EXPERIENCE:
While the computer lab is full of students, you can only hear the clicking of mice. The intense focus on each student's face tells the tale – a project is due soon. The final piece, a visual timeline of the history of robotics, still needs to be printed and mounted, but this is the sprint to the finish.

In another class, a student explains her design for the graphic elements of a large scale exhibit to a small group. There is formality in her voice, despite the familiar audience, as she explains the rationale of her design process and choices. Some agree, some disagree, with her choices; the ensuing discussion is engaging, tantalizing, ripe with other ideas. Each of these ideas will be mentally cataloged by each student, to be explored for a future project.

Casually sitting in the library, three students are discussing an interactive web design. Each element moves elegantly across the screen, creating a unique, stylish, and playful method of interfacing the data. The design is still in the early stages, but already it is clear that this is the direction he wants to follow.

To the casual observer, a communication designer seems to be relatively passive – sitting at a computer, clicking away, squinting at a screen covered with a myriad of criss-crossing lines and letter forms. But to the designer, the world is incredibly active – an unending flurry of ideas, options, information and deadlines. Even in the most simple assignment – say creating a unique logo from your initials – choices are infinite.

And while it may seem that the computer is the logical starting point of any project, it often starts with a pen and paper in a process book. In the process book, the limitless possibilities are explored, irrelevancies are carved away, and an idea is revealed. Computer software is the method by which the idea is realized, and the software is ever changing. To be a designer requires an interest in computers, and an ability to adjust to and embrace the changes.

As students progress, they explore in detail the issues of typopgraphy, informational hierarchy, and sophisticated messaging. The technical aspects of the industry, including print production standards, client interaction, and web-based design, are covered in depth. It is during this time that students begin to work in groups, both collaboratively and competitively. The inexhaustible energy is an extension of the process book – many different takes on the same problem, with a multitude of solutions.

Visual Resources is a course, generally taken by selected seniors, in which non-profit organizations become clients, and real pieces are created by the students. It is in this class, as well as substanital internships, that students truly understand the dynamics of the client – the dance of creating exciting, appealing work that suits the clients' practical needs.