History of Graphic Art

Twentieth-century graphic design didn't happen in a vacuum — it grew out of wars, manifestos, and arguments about what an image is supposed to do, and this course traces that arc from the decline of Art Nouveau through modernism's variants into the digital turn. You'll read Hollis and Eskilson, sit through discussion-driven lectures with a semiotic backbone, and be assessed on one oral presentation plus a midterm and final. It's the historical and theoretical grounding behind the studio work you do elsewhere in the program, so the movements and figures here become the vocabulary you'll keep reaching for in critiques.