Meeting & Agendas

Russell asked if there was a motion to adjourn the meeting. ACTION: Crystal moved to adjourn, Stephanie seconded, all agreed, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:10 pm.

Gail welcomed everyone and each person introduced themselves. Members present included: Crystal Glover, Sr. Graphic Designer, Asterisk Group Stephanie Romero, Jr. Art Director, Dell Russell Toynes, Creative Director, Studio Dzo Anne-Charlotte Patterson, Graphic Design, Southern Combustion Creative Oen Hammonds, Design Principal, IBM Anita Lam, Design Lead, Fjord Austin Chris Visit, Graphic Designer, Frank + Victor Anne-Charlotte Patterson, Graphic Designer, Southern Combustion Creative, was unable to attend. ACC faculty and staff present included: Gail Bayeta, Dept. Chair, Visual Communication Breanna Whitener, Ass’t. Dept. Chair and Graphic Design Section Leader Kimberly Greyer, Graphic Media Production Section Leader Johnnie Sielbeck, Graphic Media Production faculty Josiah Spence, Visual Design Section Leader Kimberly Aland, Program Specialist, Visual Communication Alida McCullough, Administrative Assistant, Visual Communication

Gail thanked everyone for attending the meeting, and briefly reviewed the role of the advisory committee.

ACTION: Stephanie Romero was elected committee chair, and Crystal Glover was elected co-chair.

Committee members received minutes from the previous meeting by email. ACTION: Russell Toynes asked for a motion to accept the minutes. Crystal Glover made a motion to accept the minutes, and Stephanie Romera seconded. All were in favor, so the motion passed.

Kimberly Aland presented information about our graphic design and visual design students- About 220 declared majors in Fall 2019 64% female, 36% male Median age 23; average age 27 18% are carrying a full course load (15 or more credit hours) 50% are white, 34.1% Hispanic, 4.5% Asian, 4.1% Black, 4.1% two or more races, 1.8% Non-Resident Alien A VisCom Student Survey administered in Fall 2019 received 170 student responses, 94 of them (55% of the total) from Graphic Design majors: Employment: Most reported that they were employed (about 13% full time, 37% part time, or looking (abt 12%). Education: About 60% do not hold a prior degree; 3.2 % have an Associate’s degree; 28.7% have a Bachelor’s degree; and 6.4% have a Master’s degree or higher. Job acquisition: Recent graduates/alumni have had success finding employment at companies such as The Austin Chronicle, Lewis Carnegie, Rocket Banners, the Frank Erwin Center, EBSCO, the City of Austin, Frank + Victor, Tilted Chair, and others.

The Visual Design degree approved by the Committee was implemented in Fall 2019. In this degree, students learn graphic design principles and apply them to digital experiences. Coursework includes existing graphic design and user experience design courses, as well as two new classes being developed for the degree, Typography for Digital Media (first offering SU 2020) and Visual Design for Digital Media (first offering FA 2020). Josiah Spence was hired for the full time faculty position for Visual Design. It was noted that in the future Visual Design may require its own advisory committee, but for now we are recruiting visual design professionals to serve under the graphic design advisory committee. Graphic Media Production at Texas School for the Deaf Eleven high school students are taking dual credit classes in Visual Communication at TSD, taught by Johnnie Sielbeck and culminating in an Occupational Skills Award certificate. This program is supported by a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission. Upon completion, students can continue on to VisCom with credit for the three foundational software classes in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Staff Update There are currently two faculty positions posted in eHire: for full time Vector Graphics lead, and for full time UXUI faculty. Also 8 new adjuncts were hired throughout the department in 2019-2019. Equipment Update We have leased an industry standard RICOH Pro C5200s printer. This printer provides advanced features such as an EFI Fiery raster image processor (RIP), high production capability, sheet size up to 13 x 19, and folding, binding and imposition features. This printer will be an integral learning tool for the students. Curriculum Updates Two new courses approved at the 2018-2019 meeting will be implemented in the upcoming academic year. ARTC 2373 Design Studio I will be offered for the first time in Fall 2020, followed by ARTC 2377 Design Studio II in Spring 2021.

Degree Plan proposals As previously discussed, students are unable to make strategic career choices early in their studies, because information about their options is delivered informally and in a scattered manner. VisCom requested to develop a customized version of the required POFT 1300 class to include information about careers in graphic and visual design, but the College Curriculum Committee would not allow this. So faculty propose to introduce a 1-credit career info class in semester 2, and reduce the capstone 3-credit Portfolio class in semester 5 to 2 credits. (We are not allowed to require more than 60 credit hours for the degree.) Curriculum updates and discussion: Proposal: NEW course - ARTC 1171 Career Exploration in Visual Communication Institute a new 1-credit course, ARTC 1171 Career Exploration in Visual Communication, with no prerequisite, meeting once a week for about 2 hours, required in the second semester. Justification: To ready students for the workforce by introducing them to careers in the industry, portfolio and resume building, applying for jobs and internships, and practicing interviewing. Discussion: Committee members agreed that students would benefit from learning early in the program about what they’re getting into in the graphic/visual design business. Students aren’t aware of the various job options, have not had a chance to learn enough about themselves to understand what they’re best suited for, don’t understand that all of the design work they’re doing in studio classes could be included in their portfolio and therefore should be well-developed. Also, students don’t have any idea how to prepare for a job or internship interview, including how to dress and present themselves, and what questions to ask. Currently they don’t receive this information until they take the portfolio class in the final semester, and then it’s too late. ACTION: Stephanie Romero moved to establish a 1-credit Career Exploration class. Anita Lam seconded the motion. All voted to approve. Proposal: Reduce Portfolio Development class to 2 credits Modify ARTC 2335 Portfolio Development for Graphic Design- Reduce from 3 credits to 2, to make room in the degree plan for the 1-credit career class described above. Discussion: Faculty agreed that students would come into Portfolio better prepared if they had received information about saving work for portfolios early on. Also they would benefit from having worked on résumés and interview skills, thus requiring less time for this in the portfolio class. ACTION: Oen Hammonds moved to reduce the Portfolio Development for Graphic Design class to 2 credits. Anita Lam seconded the motion. All voted to approve. Proposal: remove the option of IMED 1316 Web Design I Current degree plan requires students to select either IMED 1316 Web Design I OR UXUI 1373 Responsive Design I. VisCom proposes to eliminate the IMED 1316 option. The two courses are essentially the same, and the goal is to align to all of the other content areas in Visual Communication so that we can have a single HTML/CSS course throughout the department. Discussion: Committee members had questions about what’s covered in the classes, and a short debate about which is the more relevant course title. ACTION: Crystal Romero proposed to eliminate the option of IMED 1316 Web Design I on the degree plan, requiring all students to take UXUI 1373 Responsive Design. Anita Lam seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously. Proposal: Update prerequisites for UXUI 1371 Visual Design. Update prerequisites for UXUI 1371 Visual Design. Current prerequisites are UXUI 1374 Intro to UX Tools OR Instructor’s Approval. The proposal is to ADD ARTC 1302 Digital Imaging I OR GRPH 1359 Vector Graphics. The reasoning is that students should have some training in vector or raster software in order to create prototypes. ACTION: Crystal Romero moved to approve the additions to the Visual Design prerequisites. Anita Lam seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously. Discussion: Updates to curriculum in Basic Illustration (Gail Bayeta presenting for Andrew Saldaña) Andrew Saldaña has been working to modify the Basic Illustration curriculum, course projects and learning objectives too provide the needed skills and knowledge for the contemporary graphic designer, visual designer and UX designer. The goal is to improve skills to communicate ideas to others through sketches, with an understanding that sketches are not a finished project, but a stage of creating an idea. Idea sketches are a valuable part of the creative process because sketches are: quick, easy, cheap to produce, disposable and flexible. The course will have the following competencies: Competency #1: Demonstrate Line, Blocking-out and construction process Competency #2: Demonstrate Perspective Fundamentals (1 point and 2 point perspective, orthographic projection drawing) Competency #3: Demonstrate rendering form with light, value & texture Competency #4: Human Figure & Explanatory Sketching (incorporate iPad and ProCreate) Competency #5: Demonstrate knowledge of design sketching fundamentals Competency #6: Demonstrate composing a Visual Design layout

Industry Trends- Open Discussion Committee members were asked to comment on what they see as upcoming trends in the Graphic Design industry. Agencies moving to a more holistic experience, design as part of a fuller plan. Branding is becoming a much bigger picture. Clients bring an awareness of the entire experience. Brand extensions- not just a logo to print on various things. Each item has a touchpoint. Branding but at the same time considering what the user/audience needs. The importance of understanding your audience, what the user needs, more about concept, and doing design research, building low fidelity at first. A client may come in asking for a brochure, but it’s important to understand the audience, and figure out if that’s what they really need. Teach strategy- what are you trying to get people to do? Often working on a campaign level, moving beyond just creating a logo and sticking it on things. Clients want discovery, design, social media strategy in a single package. PR, merging design and advertising. Copywriting was mentioned, currently not taught in Visual Communication. How to tie research back to design, how to tell the back story behind the design.