All Active Courses and Workshops

Screen printing is an old and versatile process with many modern uses. We present a variety of techniques and contemporary fine art applications of silkscreen printing. Students are guided through the transformation of an idea to printed image and encouraged to take a creative approach. The emphasis is on experimentation, … Read more

In this course you’ll learn the essentials for designing with fonts, and build typographic skills that are applicable to a wide range of visual communication design endeavors. You’ll be introduced to key typographic concepts, work between class meetings on a series of structured assignments, and get in-class feedback from peers … Read more

Learn woodworking fundamentals through a series of exercises utilizing both hand tools and machines. Develop a habit of sharpening and tuning your tools. Practice a variety of joinery techniques and build your own sample library of construction options. Put your newly honed skills to test by building a final project … Read more

Intro to B&W Darkroom Photography is a hands-on 7-week introduction to the analog B&W darkroom photography process. Lessons include camera functions, exposure, film developing, chemistry and enlarger use, making contact prints and work prints, and final printing in the darkroom. Critiques of student work develop an aesthetic and conceptual understanding … Read more

Learn to shoot great moving imagery and record high-quality audio to create engaging stories! This class provides a technical and conceptual foundation for digital video production. Students gain and hone camera skills including exposure, focus, and composition, as well as the basics of sound capture for video. This course covers … Read more

This course focuses on the production of short and long-form comics, with a focus on the development and design of characters and the worlds that are drawn and written for them. Continued research into the history of storytelling in multiple comic genres will be folded into the course.

The 20th century is particularly suited to study the multicultural heritage of fashion and art history.  In its first 50 years, fashion and art were an expression of Eurocentric partisanship, despite extensive, uncredited cultural borrowings from peoples and countries in the global community. In the mid-1960s these broader voices in fashion … Read more

This course is focused on the production of short and long-form comics and the visual narrative form. Students will become familiar with 1-3 panel comics, page design, lettering, inking, digital drawing, and 3-part narrative structure for long and short comics. Looking at the history of storytelling through comics, students will … Read more

Traditionally, street photography is an established method of documentary investigation made popular in the 20th century by greats such as Eugene Atget and Walker Evans.  Following the Second World War, photographers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus began to look at photography and the street in very different … Read more

Explore advanced construction and drafting methods for custom tailoring. Learn how to design and construct a tailored ensemble using traditional methods that include pad stitching, foundation shaping, special lapel and collar treatments, and finishes. Prerequisites: Introduction to Creative Fashion and Introduction to Pattern Drafting or permission of instructor.  Email: achan@massart.edu. … Read more

An overview of pattern drafting and an introduction to clothing construction. Students explore the different methods of pattern making, from using the dart for fit to adding shape for fullness, and learn how to take body measurements for fit. Pattern drafting and construction techniques are then applied to an original … Read more

In this class, students learn to design and build custom interactive objects. Using a basic toolkit available for online purchase, students construct AC and DC circuits, program microcontrollers, and learn basic hand and machine fabrication. Throughout the seven weeks, students learn a variety of tools, techniques, and methods to create … Read more

Learn to develop and market textile designs using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Topics include building a design from a motif, creating colorways for your print, using scanned artwork to create designs, and texture mapping. Students create a series of print designs and a collection of coordinated prints.  

Design and fabricate individualized place settings, serving dishes, teapots, and vases through different projects. Employing various hand building techniques and kiln-firing techniques (high-fire reduction and atmospheric soda reduction), students are able to create tableware that is useful as well as personally expressive. Frequent demonstrations, lectures, and dialogue with the instructor … Read more

Fusing design activities and methodologies, including aesthetic sourcing (visual, literary, emotional, and structural) and drawing and modeling, participants engage in design as a problem-solving process. Projects emphasize the development of conceptual visualization through the exploration of two- and three-dimensional sketch techniques.

Students explore the current practices being used by sustainable fashion designers/companies, organic and eco-friendly textiles, innovations in design/ production, textiles, waste minimization, and upcycling in design and manufacturing. While working through their own process, students will use sustainable methods to design and create projects addressing social responsibility in the fashion … Read more

An overview of pattern drafting and an introduction to clothing construction. Students explore the different methods of pattern making, from using the dart for fit to adding shape for fullness, and learn how to take body measurements for fit. Pattern drafting and construction techniques are then applied to an original … Read more

In this course you will use digital and traditional media to complete a series of creative design projects that will sharpen your “design eye,” build skills for impactful use of design elements and principles, and grow your ability to develop unique and expressive graphic form. You’ll gain experience with design … Read more

Visual and Information Design for Digital Experience is a seven-week synchronous remote/online course focused on visual and graphic design for digital experiences and environments. Through presentations, workshops, critique and in-class exercises, students learn core design principles such as balance, contrast, visual hierarchy, alignment, repetition, proportion, negative space and Gestalt principles. … Read more

Using digital capture devices, students examine the ways in which light shapes our perception of the world around us, and explore the possibilities of light as a tool in their artistic practice. Technical assignments aim to harness the power of existing/found light as well as supplementary sources including strobe and … Read more

In this digital capture / photo production intensive, students are introduced to the creative and technical possibilities of digital photography while exploring photographic history and current practices. Participants learn to use a digital (DSLR or mirrorless) camera to create photographs using raw file formats and fully manual controls. Topics covered … Read more

In the Interior Construction Documents course, students will gain essential skills in interpreting and utilizing construction documents for interior design proposals. They will engage with residential plans, learning to decipher architectural symbols and make informed design modifications based on the information provided in the drawing sets.Throughout the course, students will … Read more

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the profession of interior design and the essential design principles it entails. Students will engage in developing a design proposal tailored to a specific design brief, along with completing weekly assignments that guide them through the design process.Throughout the course, weekly lectures cover … Read more

This studio course delves deeply into fundamental design principles essential to creating functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces. Students will learn to integrate natural light, optimize accessibility, balance public and private areas, and harness the power of color in their designs. The course centers around a challenging design brief focused on … Read more

Focusing on the direct, iconic imagery of the cartoon, this drawing course teaches the elements of design, along with expressive and abstract illustration to focus the eye in support of storytelling. This course covers the mechanics of narrative techniques in story-driven art. Students will develop skills in using the theories … Read more

Memoir has dominated adult graphic novel publishing, in part because memory is often viscerally linked with imagery. Similarly, visual and comics journalism allows authors to tell non-fiction stories about politics, war, and trauma in ways that meld non-linear experiences with factual accounts. Students will explore interview, landscape, and visual translation … Read more

There are a million different ways to accomplish the same thing; every creative person has their own distinct sensibilities that influence how they see and make art. Sensibilities do not change with the tool. In this beginning digital illustration course, students create work using the diverse capabilities of digital software … Read more

There is a long tradition in short story comics and learning how to do it is a great way to hone your craft and build your audience. Learn to use the constraints of limited story space to create engaging and surprising short comics. In this class we’ll learn how to … Read more