Foundation, 1948-2001

Foundation courses and workshops were meant to give students a basic understanding of design materials and help them feel comfortable enough to create freely. All ID students took foundation regardless of whatever specialized field they chose. This subseries includes 4 x 5" prints and negatives of 2-D and 3-D drawings and sculptures, wood structures, straw structures, pens. ; The foundation workshop can be described in three parts: ; 1. A visual fundamentals work in two dimensions using color media.; 2. Basic workshop of three-dimensional projects using paper, wood, metal, plastics, clay and plaster.; 3. Sculpture "treated as a fundamental part of every designer's experience and not necessarily an art end in itself. Relatively simple techniques used at the beginning allow analysis of three dimensional form to be made with emphasis on plastic rather than technical properties. In the process, the student is involved in basic consideration of sculpture in relation to space, light, material, scale. This in turn leads to analysis of structural methods." These three parts can all be identified in the 4 x 5 photographs and negatives. Larger foundation works are mainly drawings in pen, pencil, and crayon. Among the most interesting pieces in these boxes is a sketch book titled "Brie Taylor IIT workshop 1983." It contains charcoal drawings of human figures and was probably created in one of Benjamin De Brie Taylor's classes.