Design Courses
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Enrolment in the Major in Design is required. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.Description:
This studio course engages students in the study and application of graphic composition and visual communication. It focuses in particular on the elements and principles of layout and colour theory.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
- Students are required to take this course within the first 24 credits of their degree pathway.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Enrolment in the Major in Design is required. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This lecture course examines key themes in the history and theory of visual communication and the built environment from industrialization to the present day. Emphasis is given to current as well as future implications of design practice. Research methods in the discipline are introduced to facilitate development of students’ analytical and critical abilities, both oral and written.
Component(s):
Lecture; WorkshopNotes:
Students are required to take this course within the first 24 credits of their degree pathway.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be taken previously: DART 261. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This theory course introduces students to innovative and creative ways of thinking about design, and offers means of organizing their ideas effectively and convincingly. Referring to both historic and current examples of design theory and practice, coursework and assignments explore existing frameworks or models for design studies, enabling students to investigate critical aspects of visual communication and the built environment.
Component(s):
Lecture; WorkshopPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be taken previously: DART 261. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This theory course offers students a reflective space to explore sustainable design theory and practice through historical artifacts, and thereby expand their intellectual engagement with key issues in past, present, and potential future approaches to design complexity and design for sustainability.Component(s):
Lecture; WorkshopNotes:
Students who have received credit for this topic under a DART 298 number may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 221. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course focuses on typographic design and explores the functional and expressive aspects of typography. Process‑based assignments emphasize the principles of typography, information hierarchy, multiple‑page content, and text‑image relationships.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Enrolment in the Major in Design is required. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course concentrates on the design process and provides students with communication strategies including sketching in perspective and technical drawing. Assigned projects address creativity, sustainable materials, and construction techniques.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
- Students are required to take this course within the first 24 credits of their degree pathway.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 291. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course advances the study of materials and construction methods. Assignments emphasize research and research methods specifically within the study of bionics. Students explore nature as inspiration to facilitate innovative and effective life cycles of designed objects.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Enrolment in the Major in Design is required. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
Specific topics for this course, and prerequisites relevant in each case, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 280. Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course focuses on type and image in the built environment. Issues of space, materiality, and legibility are examined within architectural and urban landscapes. Students engage in projects ranging from wayfinding and signage to exhibition design and installations.
Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 280. Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course focuses on the conceptualization, process, and production of printed projects. Assignments relate content and narrative to the material nature of printed matter, printing techniques, and the responsible use of resources.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 380. Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course develops strategies for interactions in the public sphere. The application of scenography, planning of space and the integration of content orients the student towards the design of museum installations, mobile exhibitions, and performative events.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course contextualizes the making of and the concepts relating to soft surfaces, objects, furniture, and sculptural forms. Students are also encouraged to explore the sensory interfaces between surface and structure in design by investigating alternative material use and new technologies for innovative textile design, electronics, and body wear.
Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling or be currently enrolled in the Microprogram in Web Design and User Interface. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course introduces students to such aspects of web design as graphic user interface; navigation and information hierarchies; the differences between screen and print; and user experience; and explores the challenges facing designers working in an online environment. Students create websites for multiple platforms and mobile devices, as well as experiment with innovative ways of organizing information.Component(s):
StudioNotes:
- Students who have received credit for this topic under a DART 398 number may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 280. Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This computer lab course introduces students to computer‑assisted 3D design concepts. Practical exercises advance technical skills and are combined with thematic proposals for virtual object representation. Scaled object production is encouraged in the final stages of the studio.
Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this studio course, students generate concepts, thematic proposals, storyboards, and narratives for audiovisual presentations and creative works with a focus on online or web applications. Students develop projects for motion graphics, kinetic typography, as well as audio components.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course contextualizes the significance of research in the development of socio-cultural environmental design practice. Students work in collaboration to explore soft surface concepts and making. Workshops introduce textile and cloth explorations, patterning, sewing techniques, fabric printing, and body wear.
Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 391. Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course further develops soft surface design and applications through specific sustainable projects and community initiatives. Students work in collaboration with different stakeholders in the research, conceptualization, construction, and analysis stages of project design.
Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 24 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This course provides an opportunity for the study of special issues in design art. Specific topics for this course, and prerequisites relevant in each case, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course focuses on producing a series of self‑directed conceptual or thematic book works. Projects are informed by studies of the history, craft and cultural significance of limited edition publications, unbound/bound bookworks, livres‑objets and zines.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
Students who have received credit for this topic under a DART 498 number may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this studio course students analyze the impact of images through the study of popular culture and the persuasiveness of advertising in image-saturated and information-dense societies. Projects address strategies for effective visual communication as catalysts towards transformative socio-cultural environments.
Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course engages students to explore the diversity of typographic expression within a visual and literary context. Assignments are designed to address the significance and complexity of words for persuasive messaging, multilingual information exchange, and typographic play in visual communication.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this course, students represent their design practice in a series of portfolio materials. Visual and written documentation are developed for print, digital media, and exhibition.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 380. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this course, the mythic potential of objects as personal and cultural markers is considered in the context of everyday life. Students construct meaning through objects, responding to the potential for expression inherent in materials, structure, and form. The rigour of observation, analysis, and interpretation of object stimulates opportunities for multiple readings.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this theory course, students explore physical space as a complex dynamic in which nature, architecture, things, and people continuously interact and influence each other. Students develop skills to explore such concepts as spatiality and materiality, to enhance their understanding of, and contributions to, the built environment.Component(s):
SeminarPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 380. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course encourages students to analyze the integration and impact of digital technologies in the production of three-dimensional objects and space design. Students examine current technologies and production and explore concepts for objects, enhancing the long-term value and use of objects within the built environment.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 380. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.Description:
In this course, students examine natural systems to uncover design potential for the built environment. Students develop innovative approaches that advance sustainable design thinking through the study of intrinsic environmental geometries, behaviours, narratives, and life-cycle flows.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 349. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling or be currently enrolled in the Microprogram in Web Design and User Interface. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this studio course, students develop online applications and innovative methods for organizing and disseminating information. Issues of interactivity, navigation, and open‑source media are emphasized.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 349. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this studio course, students create socially engaged online interventions. Projects are informed by open‑source culture, social media, and the effects of technological democratization.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling; or must have completed 24 credits in a Major in Fine Arts prior to enrolling; or must be enrolled in the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability's Minor in Diversity and the Contemporary World. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
A special project‑based studio that provides students the opportunities to dialogue with and engage with Montreal‑based outreach programs, community centres and not-for-profit organizations. Concordia students apply their communication and technical skill sets to collaborate with community partners and participants on specific design projects.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course focuses on rhetoric, visualization of information, instructions and complex text-based content. Issues of communication, simplification and clarification of content, and information architecture are addressed through diagrams, maps, and visualization of statistics.Component(s):
StudioNotes:
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 349. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this studio course, students study how audiovisual information is received, perceived and utilitized, with a focus on online identity through networked strategies. Modular and flexible frameworks are implemented so that communications/portfolios are sustainable, diverse and dynamic documents, which can be expanded, revised and abbreviated for a multi‑sensory experience via computers, mobile devices or as printable documents.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling and also receive permission of the Department.
Description:
This course provides an opportunity for a limited number of students to pursue advanced studies in a design research and creation project under the supervision of a full-time faculty member.Component(s):
Independent StudyNotes:
Students may count a maximum of six credits in independent studies towards their degree program. A written proposal/work plan and a detailed written agreement between the student and the faculty supervisor are required before the independent study is approved.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 461. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling and also receive permission of the Department.
Description:
This course provides an opportunity for a limited number of students to pursue advanced studies in a design research and creation project under the supervision of a full-time faculty member.
Component(s):
Independent StudyNotes:
Students may count a maximum of six credits in independent studies towards their degree program. A written proposal/work plan and a detailed written agreement between the student and the faculty supervisor are required before the independent study is approved.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling and also receive permission of the Department.
Description:
This course provides an opportunity for a limited number of students to further develop their design skill sets as an intern in a design firm or cultural organization such as a museum or graphic and industrial design association.
Component(s):
Practicum/Internship/Work TermNotes:
Students may count a maximum of six credits in professional internships towards their degree program. A written proposal/work plan and a detailed written agreement between the student intern, the employer, and the full-time faculty supervisor are required before the internship is approved.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 471. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling and also receive permission of the Department.
Description:
This course provides an opportunity for a limited number of students to further develop their design skill sets as an intern in a design firm or cultural organization such as a museum or graphic and industrial design association.
Component(s):
Practicum/Internship/Work TermNotes:
Students may count a maximum of six credits in professional internships towards their degree program. A written proposal/work plan and a detailed written agreement between the student intern, the employer, and the full-time faculty supervisor are required before the internship is approved.
(also listed as CART 480)
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This interdisciplinary course invites students to creatively explore the intersection of arts, neuroscience, and society and how these domains shape the understanding of oneself and others. Concordia students work with science students from external universities to create self-directed, collaborative projects which converge artistic and scientific research. Through lectures, debates, site visits, and independent study, all participants are encouraged to understand and discover territories outside their artistic or scientific comfort zones.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
(also listed as CART 482)
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This course is an advanced research/studio course that opens up new perspectives and develops shared methodologies between the Department’s programs. With a special emphasis on material engagement, making, and process, students engage with objects, narratives, visual, environments, and performances to develop artistic and public responses to socio-environmental topics linked to materiality and material engagement.Component(s):
StudioNotes:
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This course operates as a student-driven and faculty-mentored design studio/lab/workshop. Working in small teams, students develop actual design projects for cultural organizations within and around the University. Projects may include publications, websites, visual identity programs, or campaigns. There is a strong focus on ethical methods, processes, and production, as well as collaborative learning and collective development of the Design Lab.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
(also listed as CART 484)
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 449 . Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This studio course focuses on User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design projects with a strong focus on inclusion and accessibility, integrating participatory and co-design methodologies. Students are presented with unique opportunities to engage with real-world challenges and design needs of disability organizations, their members, and individuals in their community. It encompasses a comprehensive exploration of theoretical concepts integral to inclusive design, including accessibility principles and universal design.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 392. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This core theoretical course combines lectures and discussions, emphasizing the contextual and societal implications of the design process from conception to production. Multidisciplinary approaches to design research and methodology allow students to advance the discourse of their own emerging design ethic and aesthetic.
Component(s):
LecturePrerequisite/Corequisite:
The following course must be completed previously: DART 491. Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This core course explores the interstices between visual culture, material culture, and related theoretical discourses as disciplines which profoundly influence the design process. Particular attention is devoted to multidisciplinary engagement as applied to individual design scenarios. This course is a continuation of DART 491.Component(s):
LecturePrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
In this course, students have the opportunity to explore subject matter related to both professional practice and graduate studies. Topics related to the former include eco‑focused business or sustainable business models, eco‑conscious design practice, time‑planning strategies, intellectual property (copyrights, patents), funding models and business start‑ups. Topics related to potential graduate studies include grant writing, selection of graduate programs, and research project proposals.Component(s):
Seminar(also listed as CART 494)
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
This course focuses on the conceptualization and coordination of the annual undergraduate exhibition. Students are introduced to the basics of exhibition design while critically engaging with interpretive experiences of art, media, and objects. The course addresses exhibition design as a multidisciplinary, complex, and rich medium of communication, and how it is applied to different contexts of professional practice.
Component(s):
StudioNotes:
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.
Description:
A course for advanced students which provides an opportunity for the study of special issues in design art. Specific topics for this course, and prerequisites relevant in each case, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.Component(s):
StudioPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Students must have completed 48 credits within their degree pathway prior to enrolling. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the Department is required.