Design Tools and Skills is aimed to develop students’ spatial understanding as technical and conceptual methods of representation and communication across a variety of media. In this course students formed integral connections between hand, eye, mind and mouse in the study and practice of freehand drawing, constructed drawings, construction of models, the testing of ideas at varying scales and document + graphically communicate the process and product of their inquiries. Students learned how to produce fast and conceptual representations as well as spatial arrangements. Basics to computer representation were introduced as well during this course.

The learning content of DTS is tightly coupled with the concepts introduced and projects conducted in the Design One Studio. While the two courses are separate, they act as a feedback loop to reinforce and contextualize the other’s content. By the end of the course, students learned new vocabularies, were equipped to create analytical drawings with 2D and 3D parallel projection drawings, and constructed models and drawings to clearly articulate their concepts.