Above: Detail from the cover of “This is Not a Manifesto.”

Work together to produce 16 copies of a printed journal. Each of you will get 1 copy. Send 1 copy to me at the address below by the due date. The remaining copy will be filed with the office.

The journal’s pages will be in 6 x 9 inch format, tape- or glue-bound. Each student will be responsible for 12 pages plus a short contributor bio with email/contact info. The content of your pages must include at least 2 and not more than 6 of your individual assignments from this class. You may also use portions of your reading responses, graphic/visual experiments from other classes this semester, and other students’ assignments from this class with their consent.

One student will be nominated and voted by the others as the Publisher. The Publisher’s primary responsibility will be to publish and distribute the journal accurately and on time. The Publisher must be someone you trust to accomplish this task. To ensure the task is completed, the Publisher may choose to submit fewer than the total number of pages required above. The only way I will accept your final assignments is in a bound journal from the Publisher by the due date.

As you complete your pages, please file 16 identical copies at the Publisher’s desk. All pages submitted to the Publisher must be double-sided and trimmed. You must also email the Publisher PDFs with crop marks of your pages as you submit them. The Publisher will publish pages in the journal in the order they are received. You do not need to file all 12 pages at the same time, but you must file all 12 pages by the Publisher’s deadline. You may collaborate with one another on the time of your filing so that groups of pages appear sequentially. The Publisher may reject pages that are not in the appropriate format or quantity.

The Publisher’s decisions are final.

When all the pages have been filed, or when the Publisher’s deadline arrives, the Publisher will do the following: 1) Paginate the journal’s content; 2) Create or assign someone to create at Table of Contents; 3) Create or assign someone to create a Contributors’ page and Colophon; 4) Name or assign someone to name the journal; and 5) Design or assign someone to design the cover of the journal. The Publisher will also write a short introduction to the journal.

Once the content of the journal has been finalized, the Publisher will do the following: 1) Assign a Treasurer to handle funds either from the office or from participating students for the journal’s binding; 2) Assign a Printer to oversee the binding and finishing of the journal; and 3) Create or assign someone to create a digital version of the journal from the PDFs provided. The Treasurer and Printer may be the same person. The Publisher will also write a cover letter advising me of problems with the journal, including missing/rejected pages, incomplete contributions, etc. That letter and 1 copy of the journal should be sent to me at my studio address.

Good luck.

This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.

Note: My first group of students at RISD did an extraordinary job with this project. Spreads from their response to this project, which they titled “This is Not a Manifesto,” illustrate each of the project pages associated with this class. To see their entire project as a PDF, or order a printed copy for yourself, click here.