Spring 2027

History of Graphic Design and Typography

Examines major developments in graphic design and typography across the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, focusing on field emergence and self-definition.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Claire Tomkiw

Students completed approximately 200-300 words of writing and reading per week, along with occasional discussion posts and a 6-page final essay.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Foster respect and appreciation for the achievements of graphic designers and typographers.

  • Identify the major designers and graphic works of each period covered.

  • Recognize the major aesthetic movements and ideas that have influenced graphic design and typography.

  • Understand the social, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped graphic design and typography.

  • Appraise these influences and learn how to strategically, creatively, apply them to your own work and research.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(ART 102 or 107), and ART 346 or concurrent enrollment; or declared in Art MFA or Design + Innovation MS

ART 438 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CLAIRE TOMKIW is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DENNIS MILLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 420

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Claire Tomkiw

The course included weekly writing, discussion posts, and a final essay, with only one lecture video posted for the semester.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=38 letter grades); Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=40 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.84 GPA, 89.5% A/AB (n=38 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Claire Tomkiw

Students completed approximately 200-300 words of writing and reading per week, along with occasional discussion posts and a 6-page final essay.

Past student reviews · Claire Tomkiw

The instructor graded only five of twenty-one assignments and did not respond to emails, despite saying she would have all grades in by the end of the semester.

Topics

  • Major developments in graphic design and typography.
  • Emergence and definition of design and typography fields.
  • Historical timeline covering the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Skills

  • Identifying major designers and graphic works from historical periods.
  • Recognizing aesthetic movements and ideas influencing design and typography.
  • Understanding social, cultural, and political contexts shaping design.
  • Strategically applying historical influences to personal work and research.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ART 438 · Spring 2027

History of Graphic Design and Typography

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:168:024130",
    "course_id": "ART 438",
    "course_uid": "course_31177e1a6d767eadbd554ffe",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024130",
    "source_subject_id": "168",
    "title": "History of Graphic Design and Typography",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "dda79a672cad0a6b4809b2c05cd2d35b972f6a67e3fed23991915fe8e515ed68",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}