California University of Pennsylvania
Guidelines for New Course Proposals
University Course Syllabus
Department of Art and Languages
UCC Approval date: 4/23/2018

A. Protocol
Course Name: Surface Design.
Course Number: ART 295
Credits: 3 (repeatable to 18 credits)
Prerequisites: none
Maximum Class Size (face-to-face): 18
Maximum Class Size (online): 18
B. Objectives of the Course:
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
1) Upon completion of the course, students should be able to: 1) Students will be able to employ critical
thinking techniques to systematically create both ‘unique’ designs and ‘pattern’ designs.
2) Students will be able to create surface designs considering a variety of materials and processes.
3) Students will demonstrate an entry-level competency to design for a variety of specific surface
applications involving different size and scale.
4) Students will be able to critically construct and deconstruct essential surface design strategies using
correct design vocabulary and design grammar (the visual elements, and key surface design principles.)
5) Students will explore a sample several best-known archetypal cultural styles and applications in surface
design.
6) Students will be able to identify key areas of surface design career applications.
C. Catalog Description:
Surface Design is a great hands-on course for anyone – with or without experience – and could be the
beginning of a new career or a great source of side income. Surface design is everywhere we look: from
clothing, to the interior and exterior coverings of where we live and work. Even online careers in surface
design are a boom market that will only get bigger every year. In this course students discover how to identify
and use the visual elements and principles in a variety of applications, and on a myriad of materials – not just
cloth and paper. Students also will explore a cursory history of materials and processes from around the world
as they are applied to unique and patterned surface designs. Students will see what they are learning applied
to several “field trips” to real-life places to identify and deconstruct specific surface design applications and
design strategies. (Course is repeatable up to 18 credits.)
D. Outline of the Course:
Week 1-3: Intro to Surface Design – The big picture. Identifying the Essential Visual Elements and how they
are organized into: Unique Surface Designs and Key Pattern Strategies - a general intro to Unique and Pattern
Surface Designs across the world. Identify and document samples of the basic categories seen in the world.
Week 3: Survey of common surface design materials and material applications: soft, pliable, hard, permanent,
and ephemeral. Depending upon the format (face-to-face or a form of distance learning/online) the following
sessions will explore as many materials and applications as possible through the different pattern and nonpattern surface design strategies below.
Week 4-6: Linear Progression pattern design, applications and materials. (Designs for tape, ribbon, wall paper
trim, border designs…any pattern that is long and thin.)
Week 6-8: Open Patterns: Students construct and deconstruct Simple, Complex, Layered, Manipulated and
Special Open Pattern Systems such as fractals, Fibonacci number patterns, etc.

Week 8-10: Closed Patterns: Students construct and deconstruct patterns with borders. Closed pattern designs
covered here include concentric, spiral, radiating and vortex construction in fine and decorative arts.
Examples include spirographs, hex signs, stained glass rose windows, etc.
Week 10-12: Western examples of unique surface design from geometric, organic, and emergent design
sources.
Week 12-14: Eastern examples of unique surface designs from geometric, organic and emergent design
sources.
Week 14: Pattern Design across the world. Designing the visual unit as the key to all pattern design.
Exploring essential design strategies for linear progression pattern, closed pattern, and open pattern.
Week 15: Review and Final Exam
E. Teaching Methodology:
1) Traditional Classroom Methodology
Insert YOUR text here or N/A if not applicable!
2) Online Methodology
Distance learning follows the outline of the course above using materials and processes more easily
executed at home.
F.

Text
Recommended: Day, Lewis F. Pattern Design; Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola NY, originally published
1903, revised and enlarged 2nd Edition by Amor Fenn, 1933, and reproduced verbatim here in 1999.
Grunbaum, Branko, and Shephard, G.C. Tilings and Patterns, 2nd Ed., Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola,
NY. C. 1987 & 2016. Insert YOUR expected choice of required or recommended textbook(s) here along with
the following statement: “….or similar text.”

G. Assessment Activities:
1) Traditional Classroom Assessment
I Several major creative surface design projects with prepared rubrics/assessment criteria clearly
explained with students ahead of time. Daily homework assignments consisting primarily of surface
design creation or finding/identification. Presentation to the class of a specific historical/cultural style of
surface design. Short quizzes on key terms and definitions. Mid-term and/or final Exam.
2) Online Assessment
Same as traditional classroom assessment.
H. Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:
OSD
Revised June 2015
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Students reserve the right to decide when to self-identify and when to request accommodations. Students
requesting approval for reasonable accommodations should contact the Office for Students with Disabilities
(OSD). Students are expected to adhere to OSD procedures for self-identifying, providing documentation and
requesting accommodations in a timely manner.
Students will present the OSD Accommodation Approval Notice to faculty when requesting accommodations that
involve the faculty.

Contact Information:
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I.

Location:
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Web Site:

Carter Hall - G-35
(724) 938-5781
(724) 938-4599
osdmail@calu.edu
http://www.calu.edu/osd

Title IX Syllabus Addendum

Revised December 2019
California University of Pennsylvania

Reporting Obligations of Faculty Members under Title IX

of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §1681, et seq.

California University of Pennsylvania and its faculty are committed to assuring a safe and productive educational
environment for all students. In order to meet this commitment and to comply with the Title IX of the Education
Amendments of 1972 and guidance from the Office of Civil Rights, the University requires faculty members to
report incidents of sexual violence shared by students to the University’s Title IX Coordinator, Dr. John A.
Burnett, Special Assistant for EEEO, Office of Human Resources, Dixon Hall, Room 408, Burnett@calu.edu,
724-938-5425. The only exceptions to the faculty member’s reporting obligation are when incidents of sexual
violence are communicated by a student during a classroom discussion, in a writing assignment for a class, or as
part of a University-approved research project. Faculty members are obligated to report sexual violence or any
other abuse of a student who was, or is, a child (person under 18 years of age) when the abuse allegedly occurred
to the person designated in the University protection of minors policy.

The University’s information regarding the reporting of sexual violence and the resources that are
available to victims of sexual violence is set forth at:

·

Office of Human Resources, 724-938-5425

o

Social Equity Home Page

www.calu.edu/SocialEquity

o

Social Equity Policies

www.calu.edu/SEpolicies

o

Social Equity Complaint Form

www.calu.edu/SEcomplaint

·

Counseling Center, Carter Hall G53, 724-938-4056

·

End Violence Center, Natali Student Center 117, 724-938-5707

·

Student Affairs, Natali Student Center 311, 724-938-4439

·

Wellness Center, Carter Hall G53, 724-938-4232

·

Women’s Center, Natali Student Center 117, 724-938-5857

·

Threat Response Assessment and Intervention Team (T.R.A.I.T.) & Dept. of Public Safety & University
Police, Pollock Maintenance Building, 724-938-4299
o

J.

EMERGENCY: From any on-campus phone & Dial H-E-L-P

Supportive Instructional Materials, e.g. library materials, web sites, etc.
A list of sample websites from major museums who collect and display major examples of surface design will
be provided to the library on the course-specific portion of CALU library resources.
Temporal Exhibition websites for surface design will also be listed on same CALU library resources page.
Books on specific surface design applications, cultures, and history will also be provided on the same CALU
library page.
Additional
Additional Information for Course Proposals

K. Proposed Instructors:
Qualified instructor, as approved by the Department of Art Languages.
L. Rationale for the Course:
The foundation preparation and background in Surface Design will feed both the multiples-making fine art
area and the more commercially applicable “making” careers. It is also a growing career area with many
avenues of participation and has many options for online/at home careers. This course supports the new
direction of the Art and Languages Department where we are adding more strong and broad options for art
and product design. With the upgrading of the new Printmaking Studio to include silkscreen and digitallymastered lasercutting-and-etching technology, we can better prepare our students according to the mission of

this University. The focus here is also on the many ways to consider Surface Design in size, scale, and
diversity of materials and applications in multiples media. It also strengthens the printmaking studio
offerings and the uniqueness and purpose of our Department at CALU among other art departments across the
world. All ART studio courses are capped at 18 students due to process-oriented content and intensive
student interaction – it is also a NASAD accreditation requirement.
M. Specialized Equipment or Supplies Needed:
No – we have them in the renovated Coover 240 Printmaking Studio, and dostance/online is tailored to home
studio projects.
N. Answer the following questions using complete sentences:
1) Does the course require additional human resources? (Please explain)
No
If Yes, click here to answer Question N1, above.
2) Does the course require additional physical resources? (Please explain)
No
If Yes, click here to answer Question N2, above.
3) Does the course change the requirements in any particular major? (Please explain)
Yes
If not in place already, it should be added to another of the options for a required “printmaking” course
for BA, BSEd art Education, and BFA program majors, minors, and certificate students.
4) Does the course replace an existing course in your program? (If so, list the course)
No
If Yes, click here to answer Question N4, above.
5) How often will the course be taught?
As needed
If this course becomes more popular, it will be offered more often.
6) Does the course duplicate an existing course in another Department or College? (If the possibility exists,
indicate course discipline, number, and name)
No
Click here if the answer to Question N6, above is YES. Indicate the other discipline/department and the
other course number and name.
O. If the proposed course includes substantial material that is traditionally taught in another discipline, you must
request a statement of support from the department chair that houses that discipline.
N/A if not applicable. Identify the OTHER course and department here where this course content might more
traditionally be taught! Include supporting documentation from that department as an appendix to this
document.

P.

Please identify if you are proposing to have this course considered as a menu course for General Education.
The General Education Committee must consider and approve the course proposal before consideration by
the UCC.
Yes

Q. Approval Form
Provide the Approval Form (Signature Page) with the signatures of your department
Chair AND college Dean (electronically).