CMU Fall 2023

In my third semester at CMU School of Design (SOD), we customized our pathway by focusing on two design tracks of our choice. I chose to focus on Products and Environments, excluding Communications. However, my chosen design elective, "Digital Imaging," is practically a Communications design course. We investigated the roles that physical, visual, and digital forms play in our lives, and learned methods to understand how people think and work.

Products Studio I — This course investigated how object forms can relate to people through reasons of looks, feel, function, make, and preference. The understanding of context played a role as the system of internal and external factors and conditions that cause people to interact a particular way through how they recognize, handle, move, and perform activity with the form and material of an object. Drawing and physical modeling have become essential tools for the planning, development, and communication of these ideas.

Products Lab I — This course consisted of introductions, demonstrations and solutions to introductory aspects of SolidWorks. Forming foundational skills in CAD-based communication and problem solving was emphasized.

Environments Studio I — This course taught us the elemental strategies for designing meaningful, narrative-driven spaces and experiences. Through projects looking at the world as it is today and speculatively 10 years in the future, we developed our ability to think through the relationship between time, space, scale, materials, and technology.

Environments Lab I — Through this course, we developed skills including low-fidelity prototyping, rapid making, high-fidelity scale models, digital 3D modeling, typography in space, UI/UX strategies, augmented reality AR prototyping, basic electronic prototyping, and the development of concept videos. Building upon what was learned in your first year, we continued to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, while also being introduced to Adobe After Effects, Aero, and SketchUp.

Digital Photographic Imaging — Through this course, we learned how to articulate non-visual ideas visually, to understand the nuance of communicating narrative, to communicate complex ideas with little real state, to communicate both visually and verbally, to refine our crafting of 2d space, to learn the ins and outs of photoshop, to learn color management in a digital environment, to have fine crafted digital output, to digitally input, and to learn digital workflow.

Design Studies: Systems — This course prepared us to design for, and within, complex systems. We made use of systems theory and experimented with systems thinking techniques to interpret and illustrate how ecological, social, and cultural systems operate at different levels of scale. We also learned to identify leverage points within a system, and design ways to intervene that creates openings for norms, behaviors, attitudes, and habits.

Design Studies: Cultures — Cultures immerses you in ways in which societies shape design, and how design shapes societies in return, rooted in historical and philosophical origins of identities and cultures. We explored various aspects of human difference and relate them to the designed, material worlds we inhabit. We learned to explore meaning, purpose, and values that represent us as people and designers.

Environmental Systems on a Changing Planet — This course introduced the interconnected Earth systems that regulate our climate and ecosystems, providing the resources required to sustain all life, including human societies. We also developed the environmental, scientific, and information literacy required to understand current environmental issues that are frequently debated in the public sphere.

History of American Public Policy — This course traced the development of US domestic public policy, the growth of the federal government, and the changing relationship among citizens, states, and the federal government over time. We gained a clear understanding of how interests and political will have been cultivated and mobilized in the past, which can offer them useful models for advancing their own priorities and those of their generation.

To get a behind-the-scenes look from my Environments Studio & Lab courses, view my blog posts at www.medium.com/@lpbarnes. The descriptions of CMU's BDes courses are viewable at design.cmu.edu/content/bachelor-design.