1. Why coding is a super power

a tired battle between design and technology

Modern digital design, is a complex landscape of fast changing jobs, even faster changing software tools and a constant flux of "best practice".

1. Why coding is a super power

If you google "do designers need to code" you'll quickly regret ever thinking you could solve the worlds problems with a little bit of JavaScript and a few post-it notes.

this / is / getting / old

In this class, we're not going to tell you need to code to be a designer. But we don't think its a bad idea at all..

The stats make a compelling argument

Designers surveyed in the Design In Tech Report (John Maeda, 2015) found that 1/2 of all design professionals can code to some degree and that 93.5% of designers say that coding is essential or valuable.

Designers who code - are dangerous

Using code as a prototyping tool you can test almost any of your ideas, from a single page website to an interactive webapp. You can take a design from nothing to something all by yourself.

Importantly as you get to learn more about how screen-based design works, you'll quickly realize, moving from paper to wire-frame, to implementation. Requires lots of different skills, coding is a core skill that can be applied at almost every point of this process.

JavaScript via P5.js

JavaScript is a scripting language that drives the internet. We are going to be learning this through the scope of P5.js over the next 13 weeks.

P5.js is a creative coding library which allows beginner programmers to quick draw shapes to screen. It's what were going to use as a starting point for programming.

2. Coding as an artform

What is generative design?

One way designers sometimes use code is to explore the space of possible designs based on a set of rules that they exprismss in code.

We call these algorithmic processes and they can assist in the creation of designs that are difficult to illustrate or even conceive. We can also use these algorithims to create simple animations or iterations of a design as we search for something we like.

Harold Cohen and Aaron

Artists have been exploring code as a tool to make art for a long time. Pictured on the left is a painting called Meeting On Gauguin's Beach, 1988 by Harold Cohen. This artwork was produced via a collaboration between Harold and Aaron.

Aaron is software / hardware

Harold Cohen initially developed Aaron to create outlines of artworks that he would color and finish. Later iterations of Aaron were able to choose colors on their own and form human figures. As this system became more sophisticated Aaron transitioned from a tool to a creative partner for Harold.

Aaron

This system he built was able to make a distinction between foreground, background, human figure, and facial expression. With this ability, Aaron was tasked with making key visual composition choices in each artwork. Note that the most complex artworks were generated in the early 1990s far ahead of its time and shocking that it was drawn primarily by a robot. Before machine learning, object detection, or any other sophisticated AI.

Aaron

In this subject we will be creating "artist machines" ones like Aaron, that create visual designs based on rules that we program using javascript. We will be taking inspiration from historical examples of computer based art and using them to better understand how to program.

Modern Examples of Art and Code

Algorithmic design can be found everywhere, here are few modern examples of how "creative coding" has lead to new and amazing works of art and design.