Design Courses

DES 130T: Exploring Materials

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.218
Schedule: M 11:00-2:00pm
Instructor: Keila Perez

Designed to introduce students to a variety of fabrication methods, labs and resources across the UT campus. An invaluable opportunity to experiment with a range of materials. Class meets January 22-February 19.

DES 130T: Harm by Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.310
Schedule: MW 9:30-11:00am
Instructor: Libby Riddell

This course will explore the harm design can do through current and historical examples, ranging from methods, architecture, graphic design, and technology. Students will be asked to question their responsibility as designers, practitioners, and industry members when it comes to the ethics of projects.

DES 323: Color in Theory and Practice

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 1.204
Schedule: TTH 9:30-11:00am
Instructor: Carma Gorman

Explore contemporary color notation systems and color management techniques. Survey economic, health and safety, environmental, cultural, legal, political, and other ethical considerations pertinent to using color.

DES 326: Objects and Spaces 

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.218
Schedule: TTH 8:00-11:00am
Instructor: Kate Catterall

Projects introduce rendering and prototyping techniques used for solving problems in three-dimensional media such as product design, packaging design, environmental graphics, and/or architectural/landscape design.

DES 330T: Developing a Joyful Creative Practice

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.210
Schedule: MW 11:00am-2:00pm
Instructor: Bella Varela

Engage in photography, video, performance, textile/sewing, and installation to nurture the development of a joyful, compassionate, and enduring artistic practice. Construct a creative practice that aligns with their individual interests while engaging with various communities and subcultures and aim to continually challenge conventional notions of joy on a daily basis.

DES 330T: Design, Race, and Culture

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.310
Schedule: F 11:00am-2:00pm
Instructor: Michael Ray Charles

Explore the complex interplay between race, design, and culture. Examine how race has historically influenced and continues to shape the fields of design, architecture, fashion, and the arts. Develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which race intersects with design practices and cultural expressions through critical examination of historical and contemporary examples.

DES 330T: Design Lab Print Studio

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 2.212
Schedule: T 5:00-8:00pm
Instructor: Henry Smith

Print Studio is an exploration of printmaking basics across new and old technology, while encouraging students to push the boundaries of the concept of “print.”

DES 330T: Gender Bias in Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.310
Schedule: MW 11:00-12:30pm
Instructor: Vic Rodriguez Tang

Through a series of methods such as research, making, and critiques, among other techniques, this course invites students to look into their gender biases when it comes to making design choices and ask them to propose ways to challenge their decision-making process.

DES 334C: Interaction Design I 

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.218
Schedule: TTH 2:00-5:00pm / MW 5:30-8:30pm
Instructor: TBA / Jiabao Li

Explore theories, methods, and techniques for designing time-based and interactive experiences, including video, motion graphics, and web and mobile applications.

DES 335: Typography II

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 1.204
Schedule: MW 11:00am-2:00pm
Instructor: Carley Cullen

Students use typographic principles to design complex print and on-screen publications.

DES 336: History of Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.308
Schedule: MW 11:00-12:30pm
Instructor: Monica Penick

Surveys the history of graphic and/or industrial design from c.1450 to the present, with an emphasis on the last 150 years.

DES 337: Decolonizing Graphic Design

Mode: Online
Flags: Writing (W)
Room: N/A
Schedule: M 2:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Cheryl D. Miller

This remote course presents Miller’s own BIPOC heritage of the West African origins and transatlantic slave trade influences to North American Black graphic design history. The history of the slave artisan fills in the gaps of Black graphic design history erasure through the broad history of the graphic designer and the traditional canon of the history of graphic design.

DES 340C: Identity Systems

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 1.202
Schedule: MW 2:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Vic Rodriguez Tang

Examine the relationship between business and graphic design to simplify, unify, and amplify a brand's identity in a studio format.

DES 344: Objects and Spaces II

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.310
Schedule: TTH 11:00am-2:00pm
Instructor: José Perez

Explore the principles, techniques, and tools used in creating visually stunning and functional 3d models. Develop hands-on experience in designing objects, environments, prototypes, and renderings using 3d modeling software and the fabrication labs. Conceptualize, model, and fabricate projects to develop the necessary skills to bring ideas to reality.

DES 346: Project Studio

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 1.406
Schedule: TTH 11:00am-2:00pm
Instructor: Jon Freach

Professional experience solving real-world problems, including commissioned projects, student-initiated projects, and/or pro bono projects.

DES 347: Publication Studio

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 2.212
Schedule: F 11:00am-5:00pm
Instructor: Kevin Auer

Advanced publishing projects in print and/or digital media.

DES 353: Ecological Interaction Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.218
Schedule: W 2:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Cathryn Ploehn

This project-driven studio course offers an exploration of the methods, poetics, and politics of designing interfaces and interactions for (and with) ecology. Engage with themes and tools such as: sustainability, the politics of resolution, eco-feminism, permaculture, biophilic design, botanical simulation, computational design, ritual design, and data visualization.

DES 260: Design Internship

Mode: Hybrid
Room: AHG 1.308
Schedule: M 9:00-11:00am
Instructor: Kate Canales

Introduces students to ethical standards and professional practices in design; allows completion of an approved professional internship.

DES 160I: Internship in Design

Mode: Online
Room: N/A
Schedule: M 8:00-9:00am
Instructor: Kate Canales

Participate in a professional design internship in a field of interest.

DES 375: Capstone Design Exhibition

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.308 / ART 1.406 / AHG 1.310
Schedule: TTH 2:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Vic Rodriguez Tang / Tasheka Arceneaux-Sutton / TBA

Students collaboratively curate, design, and install a senior B.F.A. exhibition, and publish collateral materials that publicly showcase their capstone projects.

DES 376: Independent Study: Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: N/A
Schedule: N/A
Instructor: N/A

Student-defined projects completed under faculty supervision.

DES 330T: Intro to Design in Health

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.218
Schedule: T 5:00-8:00pm
Faculty: Byron Wilson

Introduction to how design is playing a role in the changing healthcare industry. Students can expect to explore the creative design-based approaches and problem-solving methods and their application to solving contemporary health care challenges.

DES 330T: Play-Design Lab

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 3.218
Schedule: W 11:00-2:00pm
Faculty: Keila Perez

In this course, we explore the emerging field of play-design and its potential to create better conditions in our rapidly changing societies. It will examine how play can contribute to the development of social and creative processes exploring boundary lines of a practice in designing for play and designing through play. Through studio sessions, participants will gain a deeper understanding of play design theory as well as embodied experiences of play to inform design choices in their projects. We will experiment with various playful qualities, such as imagination, exploration, storytelling, risk-taking, humor, joy, and pleasure, among others.

DES 330T: Speculative Futures: Bio Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.310
Schedule: W 2:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Jiabao Li

This course offers an interdisciplinary platform for students to engage, collaborate and experiment in regard to biotechnologies and our futures.

DES 330T: Future Shaping

Mode: In-Person
Room: ART 1.202
Schedule: TH 2:00-5:00pm
Faculty: Tamie Glass

Explore how designers from the past imagined living in the future. This seminar delves into how designed objects and spaces can enhance experiences, promote well-being, and influence behavior. We will investigate various contexts and design disciplines in an exploratory practice of future-shaping. Drawing upon insights and research from psychology and sociology, we will analyze behavioral prompts that can strategically encourage different forms of engagement. Imaginative case studies, illuminating readings, and futures design will provide the basis for speculative concepting activities and a deeper understanding of life in the decades and centuries to come. Our driving question: how can and should design enable how we want to live, work, and play?

DES 110T: Portfolio Design

Mode: In-Person
Room: AHG 1.308
Schedule: MW 12:30-2:00pm
Instructor: Edward McFarland-Catalan

Five-week course designed to help design students enhance their portfolios and, in turn, their employability and success in the field.