Lake Walk University
(Lake Walk Tour project)
- Be sure you complete both Parts A and B below
A The Project Itself
Take a
stroll along the Duluth Lake Walk, which follows the Lake Superior shore
for over a mile from Canal Park up to 26th Avenue East, and you will see
exposed strata of earth, boulders of volcanic rock, and buildings perched
atop sheer rock faces. The Lake Walk marks a borderline or interface not
only between land and water, but also between the human, social order and
the natural order. Both society and nature are brought into relief—made
more visible by contrast—along this interface.
In this project, you will create a tri-fold brochure
(on a single 8.5 x 11 page, front and back), which will focus on how specific
sites and locations along the Duluth Lake Walk can teach us about how
our society is organized, built, and managed. Specifically, since a university's
mission is to produce and disseminate knowledge, your brochure should
use the Lake Walk to teach some introductory "lesson" in a university
discipline or field of your choosing—ideally, your own major—in
a first-hand, visual way that would appeal to the average tourist or resident.
Such disciplines might include:
- engineering
- architecture
- history
- biology
- art
- urban planning
- advertising
- cultural studies
- English
- economics
- business
- math
The ultimate goals are to increase the general public's understanding and appreciation of your field, and to promote your chosen academic program and UMD in general.
Readers will find your brochure inside lakeside businesses (e.g., The Marketplace, Fitgers) in racks marked with signs for the "Lake Walk University." Your brochure should be designed for someone to carry it in his or her coat pocket and actually consult it on the Lake Walk. It should include the following.
- contact information for the relevant UMD department
- UMD's name and logo
- pictures and color
- directions for finding and understanding specific sites, objects
- a few key terms introduced and explained from the discipline
- text that makes clear that you're using the Lake Walk to introduce the discipline, and not just applying the discipline transparently to explain something on the Lake Walk.
You will turn in 1 color copy of the brochure to me. (Delays in the availablity of software in Campus Center 42 will preclude our workshopping this project in class.)
B. Self Commentary
As before, this is your chance to explain to me, your professor, the many ways that your work demonstrates your grasp of the ideas and techniques we've been talking about so far.
Write a two-page (double-spaced) commentary about your work on the brochure. Try to specify and reflect on the principles or techniques of rhetoric and design you used. Claim credit for anything you see, even retrospectively, whether you were aware of using technique in your process or not. In this sense, your commentary may be partly a work of fiction, but, like all good fictions, it should lie convincingly to tell a greater truth.
Use and underline terms and ideas from Williams and Schriver to describe these principles and techniques (you might even use these terms as the headings of sections within the commentary). If you use terms from other classes you've had, underline them as well, and define them at the end of the commentary.
Be sure to mention and describe any models of good design or writing that you kept in mind as you worked on your revision of the ad. Basically, explain what you learned—beyond the mechanical skills—from the process of working on this project. If you have questions or point of concern that you'd like me to ask your classmates to address during the workshop, please include these questions at the end of the commentary.