History of Design

Submit Your Case Study Final Draft by April 18th

For 60 points extra credit, submit your final draft by April 18th. The final draft without extra credit will be due May 2nd.

Oasis ID


Title: The actual title of your case study


Challenge: Think of this as the problem to be solved. Did the piece of design need to sell more cars, get people to donate money, etc.


Insight: Research is a huge part of design, so what did the designer(s) learn from their research that helped inform their design decisions. They didn’t do research isn’t an appropriate answer, trust me, they did. Look harder!


Approach: How was the challenge going to be solved? Think in generalities. To sell more cars, would they target younger generations? Did they shame someone into donating money, or did they tug at their heart strings?


Solution: This is where you show and talk about the specifics of the project. Did they create a web site or a guerrilla t-shirt campaign? Was this a poster and billboard campaign?


Results: Simply put, did the campaign or piece actually solve the challenge? It’s O.K. if it didn’t, just clearly state that and WHY!.


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Please hit the submit button only once. After all the images are uploaded you will see a conformation page.

Case Studies: Instructions

There is one case study due this semester. It will consist of two phases, a rough draft and and a final draft. For a prime example of a good case study read this one about Attik and Scion.

Now you do the same thing! Simply answer the five following questions.
The Challenge: What did the piece of design need to achieve? More sales, awareness of an issue, etc.

Insight: Through research, what did the designer learn? The target audience hates the color red. Elderly like polkadots?

Approach: How did the designer approach the problem? What was their idea to overcome people’s aversion to red. How were they going to change people’s minds?

Solution: What was the actual piece of the design? What did it look like? What imagery was used?

Results: Did it work? Was their a difference in viewer attitude?

So here is the rest of the information you need to know.

Case Study
Rough Draft Word Count: 750 words MINIMUM (about 150 per question)
Rough Draft Due: February 29th
Points: 100

Final Draft Word Count: 1750 words MINIMUM (about 350 per question)
Final Draft Due: March 21st for 60 points extra credit.
or Final due May 2nd for no extra credit.
Points: 200

Designers Can’t Write

…most designers cannot write. I don’t mean they can’t write like Faulkner. I don’t mean they don’t have a discernible prose style. I mean they cannot WRITE. They do not know where to put a subject and a verb and a capital and a period. They are functionally illiterate. Only the very top echelon of designers write. And let me tell you, that top echelon writes like the wind: read Stefan Bucher, read Michael Rock, read Michael Bierut, read Jessica Helfand, read Sagmeister–these people are not only literate, they are wonderful writers and they get their ideas across in ways that inspire people to agree with them. It should be noted that two of these people are writing in a second language.

Click Here to read the rest of the article.

Submit your Case Study rough draft by March 5th

Oasis ID


Title: The actual title of your case study


Challenge: Think of this as the problem to be solved. Did the piece of design need to sell more cars, get people to donate money, etc.


Insight: Research is a huge part of design, so what did the designer(s) learn from their research that helped inform their design decisions. They didn’t do research isn’t an appropriate answer, trust me, they did. Look harder!


Approach: How was the challenge going to be solved? Think in generalities. To sell more cars, would they target younger generations? Did they shame someone into donating money, or did they tug at their heart strings?


Solution: This is where you show and talk about the specifics of the project. Did they create a web site or a guerrilla t-shirt campaign? Was this a poster and billboard campaign?


Results: Simply put, did the campaign or piece actually solve the challenge? It’s O.K. if it didn’t, just clearly state that and WHY!.


Image 1


Image 2


Image 3


Image 4


Image 5




Please hit the submit button only once. After all the images are uploaded you will see a conformation page.