HOW TO DISCOVER THE ITALIAN DESIGN is an elective seminar open to students, (undergraduate and graduate) to help build their understanding (and foster discovery as a way to learn about the culture of Italian Design). The seminar combines theories, philosophy, and ideology of Italian design, and focuses on professional design disciplines (i.e., product design, interior design, furniture design, fashion design, communication design, transportation design, and architecture). We will consider contemporary literature, scholarly articles, professional journals, on-line publications, public and private institutions, and venues such as exhibitions and museums in the course.  Students will study Italian Design from broad and specific viewpoints and consider the roles that designers, companies, public and private institutions have in shaping the culture of design, seeking a larger, contextural overview into the subject.

Course material will be conveyed through lectures, readings, class discussions, project assignments, in-class workshops, field trips, and in-class assignment reviews.  The research gathered and presented in assignment #1 (A-F), will culminate in a presentation / exhibition scheduled at the end of the semester.  The course will investigate broad concepts and applied principles, introduce designers and fabricators, consider material uses and fabrication technologies, look for economic and socio-cultural relations for a deep and contextual understanding of Italian Design. 

We will also consider local, regional, and international aspects that shape Italian design.  Through ordering and visualizing (diagramming and mapping) research data about designers, companies, and design work, students will discover cross-disciplinary relationships and socio-cultural nuances embedded in Italian Design (over the past 75 years). Students will focus on specific professional design disciplines and frame their research within the parameters of place and time.  In addition, as technique is so often an important causeway for design,  students will consider the structure of production (i.e., the roles that art, craft, making, and manufacturing have in creating, branding, and marketing the output known as Italian Design). 

After taking this seminar, students will receive a historical overview of professional design disciplines that contribute to Italian Design, and better understand the roles and aspirations that designers, companies, designed projects, writers, academic and professional institutions, museum and gallery venues, journals, publications and marketing have hadin shaping the culture of design, as well as the influence that local and regional economies and their socio-cultural geographies have had in the formation of Italian design.

After taking this class, students will be able to form thoughtful relationships about: ideology and design the chronology and contextual overview of Italian dsign the nuances between design, production, and output institutions, designers, companies, media, marketing, and the public realm the influence that contemporary literature, journals, and books have had on the culture of Italian Design academic and professional discipline organizations industry (companies) and designers (design offices) public and private institutions  (i.e., ADI, universities, FORMA, unions, etc.) and their role in shaping Italian design writers, thinkers, authors, critics (individual and collective contibutions) theories of design, (as opposed to philosophies or ideologies of design).

Topics presented  in this seminar will focus on professional design disciplines, which include: Fashion Design, Interior Design, Furniture Design, Product Design, Graphic / Communication Design, Transportation Design, and Architecture.

The primary goal of the course is to help students discover broad and specific understandings about Italian Design through research and the course assignments, class presentations, discussion of the readings, and field trips.  Students will be given an opportunity to complete a series of “mapping exercises” based upon their research and following, collectively work to design and present the research through some means such as an exhibit, titled; How to Discover the Italian Design, (to be completed by the end of the semester).

Objectives of this course are two-fold. One objective is to develop an understanding of professional design disciplines that contribute to Italian design (Italian designers, Italian companies, and the projects themselves).  The other objective is to develop discovery about Italian design through research methods and analytical processes. The course will deliver a comprehensive and contextual body of knowledge on the subject of Italian design, guided by research methodology, focusing on the following:

*       furniture designers, product designers, graphic / communication designers, fashion designers, interior designers working to produce projects designed or made in Italy

*       professional disciplinary knowledge

*       companies that manufacture, market, or brand Italian design

*       design output – products and projects that constitute Italian design

*       theories related to design and production

*        regional, national, and international trends

*       cultural geographies that foster or contribute to Italian design

*        professional practice, marketing, branding, and promotion of Italian design

*        materials and fabrication procedures involved in the manufacturing and production of Italian design

*        regional, national, international venues, including, tradeshows, publications, galleries & museums.  

The second half of the seminar will focus on incorporating and presenting research gathered during the first half of the course in a presentation-exhibit formated to address the subject, How to Discover the Italian Design.  The format of the presentation-exhibit is open, however the exhibit should highlight quantitative data on the following:

               Manufacturing Technologies for Specific Industries

               Designers and Design Firms

               Projects from Professional Design Disciplines

               Writings by Designers

               Scholarly and Professional Publications - Authors, Critics, and Editors

               Design Theory

               Period Styles and Design Movements in Italy since 1945

               Materials and Design

               Media, Periodials, Books, On-line sources, Videos and Film

Interest in discovering and learning about Italian Design.  Passion to research and a desire to organize, present, and disseminate research acquired through the course in a public presentation-exhibit.

Evaluation will include class participation (10%), individual research efforts though assignment #1 A-F (60%), and participation in the design and formation of a presentation-exhibit (30%) titled, How to Discover the Italian Design (past, present, and future).  Beyond weekly class participation, students will be engaged in two assignments for evaluation.  The first research-assignment is dependent upon the student’s choice of study, to document / analyze various aspects within a professional design discipline: (i.e.,  Fashion, Interior, Furniture, Product, Graphic / Communication Design, Transportation Design / Car Design, Systems Design, Architecture), or in an topic based taxonomy (i.e., interaction design, new craftmanship, modernism, design-make, autonomous design, etc.)   With approval by the professor, students will choose a professional design discipline and gather information about individual designers, companies, design-output, technologies used to manufacture, educational and regulating institutions that support the design discipline, while also considering the influence that venues such as museums, exhibits, journals, publications, conferences, etc., have on the branding of Italian Design.   The second assignment will afford students the opportunity to create a presentation-exhibit highlighting the research, organized and designed by the students to help viewers “discover” nuances and personal inquiry of Italian Design and through the process, deliver a learning outcome for those participating in the seminar.

To clarify, the first assignment will involve individual study for students to gather, document, and analyze information within a selected or assigned professional design discipline.  This assignment will generate six A2 posters by each student to visualize quantitative research gathered from assignment #1 A-F.  The second assignment will involve a collective group effort to develop and complete a presentation-exhibit, whose aim is to disseminate the research output obtained from the seminar, and in doing so, facilitate discovery through the visualizion of the research as a primary way of learning about the Italian design. 

Students will work through the two assignments in a complementary manner. The two assignments will parallel course readings and lectures despite disciplinary differences among the various design disciplines. The design and fabrication of the presentation-exhibit will reinforce both the understanding and the value in learning about Italian design through research and discovery, generating an appreciation for the methodology of visualizing and mapping the information and data gathered through the research to address the subject of the seminar; How to Discover the Italian Design.