Our spring course for the general public is a look a some key moments in the history of graphic design. Bard Graduate Center’s public education course, Highlights in the History of Graphic Design is a five-week course taught by our world-renowned faculty and alumni. Using hands on materials, this course allows participants to discover different histories of design and media production through sensory engagement.

Classes begin April 1
Mondays 7–9 pm

Week 1-5: $450 Adults; $375 Students and Educators; $350 BGC Members
Individual classes: $100 Adults; $85 Students and Educators; $75 BGC Members
Space is Limited.

Week 1 (April 1)
The Wiener Werkstätte
With Michelle Jackson-Beckett, Bard Graduate Center Doctoral Candidate and Professor of Industrial Design at Parsons.


Week 2 (April 8)
The Bauhaus
With Paul Stirton, Associate Professor of 19th and 20th century European Design and Architecture.

Building from Week 1, this course will take a lively look into the Bauhaus, the famed school of modern architecture and design, celebrating the 100th anniversary since its 1919 foundation in Weimar, Germany. Topics will cover the school’s founding pedagogy and changing philosophies from Weimar to Dessau, as well as the rise of abstraction and modern communication theories related to typography. The course will look closely at the graphic work of significant figures such as László Moholy-Nagy, Joost Schmidt, and Herbert Bayer, as well as Jan Tschichold’s relationship to the school and its exhibitions.

Paul Stirton is an Associate Professor at the Bard Graduate Center. He has a particular interest in graphic design, interiors, and print culture, although his recent work has been concerned with public monuments and cultural transfer or emigration. His current research and publications are mostly concentrated in two areas: architecture and design in Britain and in Central Europe (primarily Hungary) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


Week 3 (April 15)
American Corporations and Countercultures: Postwar Graphic Design
With Colin Fanning, Doctoral candidate at Bard Graduate Center and Project Assistant Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


Week 4 (April 22)
Politics and Culture in Latin American Graphic Design
With Christina De León, Doctoral Candidate at Bard Graduate Center and Associate Curator of U.S. Latino Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.


Week 5 (April 29)
Computer as Tool, Computer as Medium: Design after 1980
With Juliette Cezzar, Assistant Professor of Communication Design at The New School’s Parsons School of Design.


We are also pleased to extend complimentary need-based community tickets by request to all ticketed events. To learn more, please email [email protected].

Leading support for Public Programs at Bard Graduate Center comes from Gregory Soros and other generous donors.