In the fourth and final year of CalArts’ graphic design program, students start out with meditations on things larger than life. Questions such as “What is water to you?”, “Are we alone?”, “What is a universal language?” are posed, generating a collection of abstracted answers in the form of design. Responses range from deeply personal to metaphysical, though all shared a common trait: the need to be explained. 

The words we choose to describe what we see and feel can make or break the validity of our work, and so professional help was needed. Jennifer Hutton, Project Director of Online Education and Research at CalArts, spent a day with the BFA4’s. Not only is Jen the project manager of the Calarts Open Learning Initiative, she is also an award-winning freelance writer and art critic. Throughout the day, she provided specialist methods of loosening up the written word.

Starting out with the simple sentence, “I want to cross a small lake”, students developed and built phrases around and about the prompt. Next, exercises moved on to more intense and involved stages. Writing all caps only, switching the medium from paper to something unexpected, writing as fast as possible, writing with your opposite hand; results flourished as more was tried out. Students wrote abstract poetry, some wrote stories, others experimented with the nonsensical. At the end of the day, there was writing on the walls, some on a cup, and more on dinner plates, just as examples. 

Pleased with the yielded outcome, the texts will be used as a continuation on BFA4’s journey through designing with and for conceptual thought.