AIGA and F+W Media present “Extra Credit,” a series of free webinars for students, new designers and anyone seeking a creative boost.

Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming

Date: May 19, 2011
Time: 1:00 p.m. PT / 4:00 p.m. ET

Presenter: Ellen Lupton, director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at Maryland Institute College of Art and author of Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming

The design process involves researching, inventing and expressing ideas. Sometimes concepts seem to pop out of nowhere, but just as often they result from deliberate techniques. Many designers start a project with brainstorming, an open-ended search for initial directions. Brainstorming, however, is just the beginning in a designer’s quest for useful and inspiring ideas.

 In this Design Cast you’ll learn:

• How to invent surprising variations of a core idea
• How to conduct and apply visual research
• How to quickly develop concepts for complex interactive projects
• How to use visual experimentation to jump-start your design vocabulary

In this engaging session, Ellen Lupton and her MFA students at Maryland Institute College of Art will present a variety of fun and helpful methods for exploring the design process. See fresh thinking tools at work, inspired by the work processes of leading designers and thinkers.

Register now for this free Design Cast!

About Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton is director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). She has authored and edited numerous books about design, including Thinking With Type, Design Your Life, and D.I.Y. Kids. She has collaborated with her students and colleagues at MICA to publish an influential series of books about design processes, including D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, Indie Publishing, Graphic Design: The New Basics (with Jennifer Cole Phillips), and Exploring Materials (with Inna Alesina). Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming is the latest title in this influential series.

Since 1992, Ellen Lupton has served as curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City, where she has helped organize numerous exhibitions. She is currently collaborating with Andrew Blauvelt of the Walker Art Center on the exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production, which opens in Minneapolis in 2011 and New York City in 2012.

Lupton has lectured around the world on design topics. She has published essays and illustrations in The New York Times, Real Simple, ReadyMade, Print, Metropolis, Eye, Design Observer, AIGA Voice, and other publications. She was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2007.