Design
College of Arts and Letters
Program Description
The Department of Design continually works towards establishing itself as a leader in design education for the California central valley. We strive to serve students that seek a rigorous program of study in order to empower them to be leaders in their respective fields.
The Department of Design recognizes that the environments in which we live and work are shaped by an ever-increasing quantity of visual information. This information, in the form of two- and three-dimensional forms, comes to us from a variety of sources that utilize both traditional and technologically advanced modes of visual communication. To a greater extent than at any other point in our history, artists and designers are dissolving the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional visualization.
The Department of Design is well positioned to respond to the multifaceted nature of today’s visual culture. By offering degree programs in Graphic Design, Interior Architecture, and Photography we prepare our students for a wide range of visual and design practices that play a part in creating our built environment.
The Department of Design strives to prepare students to have an impact in professional creative environments that will require collaboration, adaptation to technology and leadership in solving complex problems. The needs of the institutions, businesses and individuals they work with are rapidly changing. The technology they will use to create, as well as the technology used by their audiences, will change the most. We want graduates to be capable of seizing opportunities as they arise and turn them into meaningful learning experiences throughout their career.
The Department of Design is where creative and critical thinking come together in a curriculum that, while preparing students for different career paths, fully engages students in relevant areas of technical and aesthetic concern while establishing historical and social context to their disciplines. Students are taught how to utilize an iterative process to create high quality solutions that respond to complex functional and aesthetic requirements that correspond to the appropriate audience, occupant or user.
Furthermore, the Department seeks to prepare students to be articulate in their discipline: to be able to discuss and present their work, both in writing and in conversation, from the perspective of the functional and aesthetic concepts that underlay the work and how their decisions in these areas frame and solve a given problem.
The Department of Design offers a Bachelor of Arts in Design Studies as well as Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, Interior Architecture, and Graphic Design. All four programs of study are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and (NASAD).
Programs
Contact Information
Richard Pratt, Department of Design Chair
Mystique Horton, Administrative Support Coordinator
Mariposa Hall 5001
(916) 278-3962
FAX (916) 278-6116
Department of Design Website
Faculty
CARLINO, PJ
DERTINGER, DOUG
DUFF, MICHELLE
ESTIOKO, MARIO
FORREST, JOHN
GIBBS, CAROLYN
GREGORY, ELIZA
KELLY, LAUREN
PARK, MYUNG
POOR, NIGEL
POTTS, EMILY
PRATT, RICHARD
SHEPARD, NICK
SLEDGE, DAVID
WACKER, MARCY
How to Read Course Descriptions
ARCH 1A. History of Architecture: Prehistory to 1800. 3 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
A survey of global architecture and the built environment from prehistory through the end of the 18th century, viewed through its narratives, theories, representations, and formal qualities. Emphasis on architecture's social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Introduction to basic methods of architectural analysis, using context, typology, poetics, structure, technology, materiality, zeitgeist, economics, tectonics, and creativity.
ARCH 1B. History of Architecture: 1800 to Today. 3 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
A survey of global architecture and the built environment from 1800 to today, viewed through its narratives, theories, representations, and formal qualities. Emphasis on architecture's social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Introduction to basic methods of architectural analysis, using context, typology, poetics, structure, technology, materiality, zeitgeist, economics, tectonics, and creativity.
ARCH 11. Architectural Design Fundamentals. 3 Units
Prerequisite(s): INTD 25
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Introduction to the planning and designing of interior spaces related to residential and commercial projects. Emphasizes understanding and applying programmatic relationships and spatial problem-solving processes to multiple small-scale multilevel design problems. Focuses on the programmatic and schematic design phases. Introduction to architectural drafting concepts, including architectural scale, drawing conventions, and orthographic view creation. Introduction to iterative design work processes and subsequent architectural design development and communication.
ARCH 30. Digital Literacy for Designers. 2 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Introductory digital literacy course for design majors. Focuses on preparing students to engage with digital assets and techniques relevant to the scholarly and creative endeavors of the design disciplines. Explores digital literacy as a practice in relation to design.
ARCH 33. Beginning AutoCAD and SketchUP. 2 Units
Prerequisite(s): ARCH 30.
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Introductory computer-aided design (CAD) course. Focuses on using AutoCAD and SketchUp software for orthographic drawing development and three-dimensional models of buildings. Emphasis on CAD vocabulary, digital drawing/modeling conventions, and techniques. Provides practice constructing digital two-dimensional orthographic drawings and digital three-dimensional models of architectural projects.
ARCH 36. Beginning Revit. 2 Units
Prerequisite(s): ARCH 30
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Introduction to Building Information Modeling (BIM) concepts and modeling techniques using Autodesk Revit. Introductory course on the basic methodology of parametric systems. Covers the fundamental principles of BIM modeling workflow. Emphasis on project setup, project modeling, view setups, and sheet layouts.
ARCH 110A. Intermediate Architecture Design Studio Option A. 4 Units
Prerequisite(s): INTD 25, ARCH 11, ARCH 33, ARCH 36
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Intermediate architectural design studio exploring issues, ideas, and methods of making and thinking in in single-family and multi-family residential architecture. Design problems emphasize creating an integrated solution that considers form, space, site, tectonics, materials, and energy considerations. Emphasis on schematic concept formation and subsequent architectural development. Students work on individual and group design projects.
ARCH 110B. Intermediate Architecture Design Studio Option B. 4 Units
Prerequisite(s): INTD 25, ARCH 11, ARCH 33, ARCH 36
Term Typically Offered: Fall only
Intermediate architectural design studio exploring issues, ideas, and methods of making and thinking in commercial architecture. Design problems emphasize creating an integrated solution that considers form, space, site, tectonics, materials, and energy considerations. Emphasis on schematic concept formation and subsequent architectural development. Students work on individual and group design projects.
ARCH 110C. Intermediate Architecture Design Studio Option C. 4 Units
Prerequisite(s): INTD 25, ARCH 11, ARCH 33, ARCH 36
Term Typically Offered: Fall only
Intermediate architectural design studio exploring issues, ideas, and methods of making and thinking in public-sector architecture. Design problems emphasize creating an integrated solution that considers form, space, site, tectonics, materials, and energy considerations. Emphasis on schematic concept formation and subsequent architectural development. Students work on individual and group design projects.
ARCH 136. Advanced Building Information Modeling for Architecture. 2 Units
Prerequisite(s): ARCH 36
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Advanced techniques for designing in Building Information Modeling (BIM) environments, including conceptual modeling, design options, custom object creation, and energy modeling and analysis. Emphasis on creating construction drawings using Revit.
ARCH 150. Introduction to Structural Concepts. 3 Units
Prerequisite(s): Student must have completed their G.E. Area B4 requirement.
Term Typically Offered: Spring only
Introduction to structural principles as they apply to buildings. Course content includes a historical overview of how structural engineering has shaped buildings; an in-depth analysis of structural forces, including compression, tension, and lateral loads; and an examination of the structural properties of wood, concrete, masonry and steel.
ARCH 180. Capstone Architecture Studio. 5 Units
Prerequisite(s): 12 units of the ARCH 110 choices with a grade "C" or better.
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Capstone design studio where given complex interior architectural problems, students explore issues, ideas, and methods of making and thinking in architecture. Continued emphasis is on designing integrated solutions that explore form, space, tectonics, materials, building systems, and sustainability. Focus is on demonstrating competency in design research, analysis, programming, conceptualization, design development, and communicating final design proposals. Projects completed with assistance from instructor, client, and working professionals.
DSGN 4. Design and Thinking. 3 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
An introduction to critical analysis of visual forms. This course introduces students to core principles of design by establishing and examining the framework around which visual forms are built and used in our society. Common ideas surrounding the logic of visual forms and the possibilities and limitations of their communicative range will be discussed.
DSGN 10. Think Make. 4 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
The course explores the combined acts of thinking and making in the production of designed objects. Using a variety of media and approaches from multiple design professions, students engage in design as a lens of inquiry and exploration. Design Department Majors Only.
DSGN 20. Design and Society Since 1780. 3 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Identifies significant developments in the global history of design. Analyzes a series of socio-historical phenomena and systems of belief that underpin design movements. Examines urban planning, architecture, interiors, graphics, photographs, clothing, furniture and products through the lenses of technology, economics, consumerism, ethics, race, gender, class, labor, ecological impact, and cultural expression. Students develop critical thinking, research and writing skills through discussions, lectures, readings, videos, and essays.
DSGN 101. World Design and Visual Culture. 3 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall only
A history of western and non-western design with an emphasis on how design influences, and is in turn influenced by, cultural, political, economic, and technologic forces. The course will look at design practice (architecture, urbanism, products, graphics, etc.) through two distinct lenses: one focusing on visual and physical qualities, the other on how design effects the lives of the many diverse groups that interact with the products of this practice.
DSGN 196A. Design Research Methods. 3 Units
Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
This course provides an overview of key concepts in design research methods. The course is primarily theoretical and process-focused with a practical base. Topics in the course include identifying design research questions, methods and tools to answer research questions, design research using multiple methods, data collection and analysis, ethical concerns in conducting research, and research communication. The course is open to undergraduate design majors.