Class 1
Monday, September 9, 2025 —
Intros, Course Overview, Gestalt
Agenda
- Introductions in Figma
- Visual Lecture: Course Overview
- Review Syllabus
- First Day of Class Exercise
BREAK- Visual Lecture: Gestalt Theory and Visual Perception
- Software Onboarding and Intro Demo: Figma for submitting exercises and readings
- Ticket to Leave
Homework (due next class)
*All homework is listed on the day it is assigned, and is due the following week, unless otherwise specified
- Create an
Are.na account, join our Are.na group with this invite link and browse the Visual Design Studio Resources - Complete the Individual part of the first day of class exercise that we started in class in Figjam, and comment or respond with an emoji to someone else’s question(s) If you also have that question and/or would like address it at the beginning of our next class.
- Verify your Figma Student account and join our Figma group with the link in the upper left corner of the course site home page
- Download and install Adobe Creative Cloud (specifically Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign, and Acrobat). Open each program and make sure it is opens successfully, since we'll be diving in and introducing Illustrator and Photoshop next class.
- Let me know if there are any other questions or scheduling/adding/dropping issues, otherwise I will see you at our next class on Monday!
Required ReadingA Primer of Visual Literacy, ch. 2-3 Donis A. Dondis
Supplemental Reading The Triangle, Bruno Munari
A Language of Vision, Gyorgy Kepes
Art and Visual Perception, Ch. 1-3, Balance, Shape, and Form, Rudolf Arnheim
Investigations on Gestalt Principles, Max Wertheimer