Designing and creating visual messages is important for those entering the professional world. Both designers and non-designers benefit from skills that will enable them to illustrate their ideas and concepts. In this course students will learn principles of message design. A variety of industry standard software applications are available to support the research, writing, visualization, design, and production of messages. Students with a wide range of experience and computer skills will benefit from this course. The Digital Design course is an introduction to design, intended to help the student develop their understanding of basic design concepts and to develop basic design skills. Students will also get the opportunity to apply these principles to a variety of visual products such as advertisements, logos, brochures, resumes, etc.

This course introduces non-science majors to the primary imaging technologies currently used in the field of cultural heritage, in support of the preservation and conservation of artifacts in museums, archives, libraries, and other institutions. Understanding historical manuscripts and artifacts of historical and cultural heritage significance is an important part of studying both past and present cultures. The use of modern imaging technologies to discover, understand, and preserve these artifacts is becoming an important and rapidly growing field of exploration, and combines aspects of history, languages, material science, and specialty imaging. This course will introduce students to the basic concepts behind the primary imaging technologies used in the field of cultural heritage research, with a focus on passive spectral imaging. The course also provides a more detailed description of various imaging modalities, e.g., spectral, x-ray, 3D, etc., and basic image processing concepts used to extract information from spectral imagery. Real data from cultural heritage image collections will be used as examples for in-class demonstrations, whenever possible. Students also will work on projects related to image collection and processing, as applied to data from works of cultural value.

Students use vector and bit-map imaging software to design a range of graphic projects suited to web and print formats. Projects include photographic imaging, layout, vector editing, digital painting and retouching, typography, internet graphics, and collaboration. Class discussions cover current professional design topics.

Students will use photographic imaging software to create, combine, and modify graphic imagery. Topics will include retouching, tonal adjustments, custom brushes and pattern, raster text, spatial illusion, masking techniques, animation, and compositing. Students will research and discuss professional design, effective visual communication, copyrights, and photographic illustration.