Department of Art and Design

Take a look at the following Optimist iPad Project video:   Art and Design Creative Expressions

Faculty in the Department of Art and Design work with our undergraduates in numerous ways towards the production of creative products in efforts to further the body of knowledge of the discipline. Here are three examples:
First and Second Year ReviewsAll first and second year art and design students are required to participate in yearly reviews. Students prepare a portfolio of work produced in the classroom over the previous year and present it to a group of 4 to 6 faculty members. The portfolio must includes process material that communicate the students visual thought process throughout the evolution of a creative product. Students are evaluated on several dimensions including verbal skills about visual concepts. Reviews give faculty members an opportunity to lead and direct individual student based on a comprehensive body of original, creative work. They also require students to think critically about the work they have produced and the processes utilized.
Senior ShowsIn collaboration with 4 or 5 other graduating seniors, all art and design students are required to curate and produce a gallery show of the work they have completed during their time at ACU. The work is shown publicly in one of our two galleries for a period of several weeks. The process of assessing, preparing and exhibiting their work for public display is both daunting and demanding. The curation (assessment) process is often done collaboratively with faculty mentors giving opportunity to guide students in the critical thinking needed to compile a cohesive body of original work. Students are also required to write and display an ‘artist statement’ that articulates the concepts and core ideas embodied in their work.
Interface for the iPadOur Spring, 2010 interactive design class worked with professors and students from 3 departments to design and produce the interface for the first iPad app for a university newspaper. The Art and Design students researched and explored best practices for a platform that hadn’t been released to the public. The research phase required students to learn and implement cutting edge processes from many disciplines. Faculty members from Art and Design, Computer Science and Journalism mentored and directed students over a 3 month period. We have already seen remarkable results from this kind of innovative, collaborative and cross-disciplinary project. Very recently a student from the course accepted a position at The Daily, the first international daily newspaper produced solely for the iPad.