Students from UTSA pin up their posters in KRTU's Studio B for critique.
Mark A. Blizard, Guest Author
When we set out to explore a new territory or idea, everything appears mystical, unknown. We are enchanted and drawn into the study. It is then that we begin to build a working knowledge of vocabulary, practices, tools, and theory. It seems to me that we spend the rest of our life searching for the mystical and that feeling that we had of approaching the unknown.
Jazz, and specifically improvisation in jazz, is a rich corollary for the graphic design process. Working knowledge, intense practice, explorations of boundaries, study of precedents and rules, an almost playful exuberance, and of course, discussion––these define the design process as a close kin to improvisation. Perhaps this is why I have long been mesmerized by hard bop and fusion. So much so, that every year a poster assignment that focuses somewhere on the vast territory of jazz has always found its way into the graphic design course that I teach to architecture students at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
This year, something distinctly different happened: I called JJ Lopez. In June, I had already commenced a serious redesign of the course projects––beyond the evolution and adjustments that accompany every year. The possibility of drawing KRTU into the mix was more than interesting. It seemed an appropriate step. Most of the seven projects that structure this course are inventions––with clients and situations and programs that are equal parts invention, actuality, and theory. The purpose, after all, is to teach graphic design. The call to JJ Lopez led to a project proposal. The proposal led to a meeting. The meeting led to a new relationship with KRTU––one that I could share with my students.
Each poster in the fifteen-week semester is framed around a series of rules, a particular process, and a set of elements––together, these define the field of exploration. With JJ’s help, KRTU’s shibboleth, music for independent listeners, was woven into the course of study. Everything changed. The fourteen students intensely listened to Jazz––some for the first time. They tuned in to KRTU and submerged themselves in its content and philosophy.
The structure for each project follows a pattern that repeats through the entire semester: after receiving the project brief, the next class period they present research; the second class, they present a range of five distinctly different posters (or explorations); the third class, they present five related iterations (or refinements); the fourth class period, they present a single mock-up at full scale of the poster and receive the next project brief. Every presentation is accompanied by critique and discussion whose traces are left in the lines of a wide, black sharpie on each page. In this way, iteration after iteration and the constant dialog between proposal and assessment, the projects evolve.
On the first day, the research was presented. Color studies, precedent studies, notes on jazz forms and sub-genera, photographs and images were presented. As our client, JJ made a guest appearance and offered tremendous insight into KRTU, its philosophy and jazz itself. He engaged the students and their presented findings. The students took it all in.
Two weeks later, at the close of the entire process after the students were well into their next poster, they presented final versions at the KRTU studios. The success of this project was measured not only in their final posters, but also in the following four projects. The students had gotten serious about the improvisational design process. As with any corollary or analogy, the connection between design and jazz expands our minds––opening them to new possibilities. Looking back, I see that the students had changed––some even continued to listen to jazz and KRTU! For all of us, the entire process was intense and rewarding. Explorations tend to lead to discoveries––discoveries that frequently suggest something that we had not noticed before, or something that was unexpected. We are lead into the unknown, following threads, searching for the mystical.
Mark A. Blizard
Graphic Designer, Architect and Associate Professor
Department of Architecture
UTSA