Graphic Design:
Learning from the Masters
New sessions coming this summer!
This 8-week online class is a combination of historical study and hands-on work relared to graphic design masters, their life’s work, and the events that informed their practice and philosophy. The course is composed of video lectures, demos, and assignment briefs relating to the subjects. The asynchronous content is supported by weekly Zoom meetings dedicated to critiques and discussions.
The assignments introduce students to a variety of useful skills for practicing graphic design, both digital (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) and physical techniques (sketching, collage, photography, letterform drawing). The assignments include: typographic compositions, stop-motion animations, posters for exhibitions, activism/protest, and theater, experiments with logo design, and page layout.
Above: Selected work by students in the Fall 2022 class, showing the diversity of assignments.
Color Workshop:
Exploration & Application
An online course at Domestika.org
Explore the captivating world of color design in this online course at domestika.org.
In this popular Domestika course, students embark on a creative journey where they develop an understanding of color theory, which leads to a new awareness of color. They are introduced to the timeless books by Itten and Albers, setting the foundation for true exploration. Using digital and physical tools, students experiment with color subtraction, learn techniques to create the illusion of transparency, and discover the power of color.
Review by a Domestika student:
This is a great course to explore the fascinating subject of the interaction of colours. Richard demonstrates fantastic ways to build out these colour studies both with paper and digitally, giving tips that will save you a lot of time and frustration. His enthusiasm is infectious and you will learn in this course!
Morgan Stanley
Color Exploration
Evolution of a corporate color system
I was commissioned by Morgan Stanley to explore ways of updating the company’s brand identity color palette. The goals of this theoretical exploration: 1) expand the company’s existing color system while maintaining its essence; 2) create a standard set of color pairings to help unify the ways colors are combined; and 3) ensure ADA compliance in the use of color throughout the company’s visual communication products.
The expanded color system I developed consists of: 5-color monochromatic ramps of the original and new colors, 2- and 3-color pairings made with the primary brand color and colors from the expanded system. The colors are labeled with hex codes and WCAG values.
I delivered a deck showing the color ramps and color pairings on white and black backgrounds, along with examples of typography and information graphics shown in ADA compliant color combinations from the expanded system.