ENG 5330: Visual Design
Dr. Gene Kannenberg, Jr.
Spring 2005: Wednesdays, 5:30-8:15 p.m.
CRN 20944
E-mail: KannenbergG@uhd.edu - However, during the semester we will use WebCT for out-of-class communication.


Building upon ENG 5317 (Rhetorical Theory & Criticism), this course provides further grounding in visual rhetoric, both in theory and in practice, to help students better understand effective design in print and electronic media.

Readings will range from historical ideas about the relationship between text and image to Kostelnick & Roberts’ nuts-and-bolts discussions of the rhetorical principles behind modern document design.

Projects will include re-designing an existing professional/technical document; creating an original, design-intensive document; and writing an analytical/research project which engages design theory from a critical perspective.  “From Laocoön to laser printing and beyond."™

Required Texts:

• Kostelnick, Charles, and David D. Roberts.  Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators.  Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.  ISBN 0-205-20022-2; approx. $65.00.
• Tufte, Edward.  Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative.  Cheshire, CT: Graphics P, 1997.  ISBN 0-9613921-2-6; $45.00

Also several reserve readings (still in preparation).

Note: No readings for the first class, but be sure to bring both texts to the first meeting!  (It wouldn't hurt to skim these books beforehand.)

revised 1/12/05