High School Precollege Workshop Course Descriptions

Please note: Not all courses are offered each semester

HSX 011: Jewelry Design Basics
This course provides an overview of jewelry design for both the hobbyist and aspiring jewelry designer. You will learn to use professional tools, develop techniques in filing, sawing, soldering, texture application, and the finishing skills needed to create final pieces.

HSX 021: Observational Drawing for Portfolios
Observational drawing is the most important skill any artist can have. The ability to see three-dimensional objects and translate them into two-dimensional drawings takes practice, patience, and good technique. Learn how to look at objects in a new way to create pencil sketches, contour drawings, and simple perspective renderings for your art and design portfolio requirements. You will work from still life and custom arrangements to satisfy your individual portfolio needs. (Perfect for students applying to Accessories Design, Communication Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Interior Design, and Textile/Surface Design). Observational Drawing Gallery

HSX 022: Portraits for Portfolios
Throughout history, the portrait has been the main focus of many great artists. The portrait provides emotion and insight about a person, not just what the subject looks like. Learn how to create an expressive self-portrait using traditional and experimental drawing materials in just four sessions. Portraits for Portfolios Gallery

HSX 025: Painting with Watercolors
Discover the essentials of watercolor, including brush and paper selection; watercolor paper stretching; flat and granulated washes; dry brush technics; basic color theory as applied to transparent mediums; use of a simplified palette; masking; and corrections and erasures (sgraffito). You will work from direct observation of still-lifes and, weather permitting, local city scenes from the neighborhood surrounding FIT. Painting with Watercolors Gallery

HSX 026: Perfecting Your Art Portfolio
Work from observation and reference while using traditional and experimental drawing materials to create a variety of artworks, from still-lifes to portraits. Excellent for students seeking to apply to Art and Design schools.

HSX 027: Wearable Sculpture
High fashion. High art. High drama. Perfect for the avant-gardist. Embrace your inner Gaga, McQueen, or Nick Cave by adding wearable sculptural elements to your fashion collection, costume creation or studio practice. You will create works on life-size armatures using found objects, fabrics, sustainable materials, or traditional artist materials. Document your final creation in an avant-garde photo shoot and a final critique! Wearable Sculpture Gallery

HSX 035: Model Building Workshop
Learn how to build a basic architectural model, either as a hobby or to satisfy the 3-D model-building component required for many admissions portfolios. You will explore classic model making techniques including skillful cardboard knife use, informed material choice, accurate measuring, scaling, gluing, and sculpting. Students can choose the subject of their final project as they create a simple 1:25 scale model. Model Building Gallery

HSX 037: New York Art Scene
Explore the exciting world of the New York Art Scene. FIT is in Chelsea, the gallery capital of the world. Learn about different art trends and up-and-coming artists. Go behind the scenes and speak to a gallery owner. Learn how an exhibit is curated. You will create an individual catalog to document your experiences. The class will include a trip to one of New York's great museums.

HSX 051: Exploring Graphic Design
Explore the world of a graphic designer either working for a marketing agency, as a freelancer, or in commercial fields. You will create fun graphics using key design principles and typography for print and web.

HSX 052: Introduction to 3D Model Making and Printing
Discover the exciting process of 3D Printing through new Digital Fabrication technologies. In this class, you will create rapid prototypes while learning how to manage the technical issues of choosing and operating a 3D printer. You will learn the fundamentals of CAD modeling and the challenges your design may face when going from the virtual model to a real-world object. Finally, you will learn to incorporate 3D printing resources into your work while maintaining realistic cost and time expectations for your projects. Students will create a model in class and will learn the information and resources needed to create additional objects when they return home. 3D Model Making Gallery

HSX 055: Exploring Interior Design
Delve into the world of interior design, where function meets fabulous! Learn how to use creative and technical solutions to design engaging spaces for home and commercial environments. Learn how color schemes, textures, materials, spatial planning, and lighting shape your vision while you develop floor plans, utilize color harmonies, source fabrics and furniture, and assemble sample client boards. Trips to showrooms and retail spaces will immerse you into the world of the interior designer.

HSX 056: Interior Design Studio
Learn about the interior design industry by working on a client-based project. You will design a floor plan, elevation, and rendering with surface and furniture samples for a specific customer. You will explore resources available to the NYC interior designer and get a feel for the industry.

HSX 075 Fast Fashion on Trial
We love finding good deals at a low price. But convenience currently comes at a social and environmental cost to people and the planet. Understand "how it's made" by decoding clothing labels, enabling educated buying decisions. Instead of endlessly searching for what you want, upcycle, and renew your sustainable closet. You will learn to create and inhabit a new world of slow fashion, informed by science, guided by your values.

HSX 079: Illustrating Storybooks and Picture Books
Visual storytelling is all around us- in movies, advertising, cartoons, and children’s books. You will learn the basics of illustrating a narrative by creating a 7-page storybook or picture book. Learn the differences between the two formats, explore character, setting, and story arc, and create your own text and illustration for your final hand-bound book. You will be encouraged to be creative and note, these books don’t have to be for children!

HSX 080: Character Creation for Comic Books and Gaming
Have you ever wanted to create your own characters? Lectures, activities, and demonstrations will help you bring your characters to life! Character design, facial expressions, figure poses, turnaround drawings, and model sheets— these drawing and writing skills can be used in artistic fields such as animation, comic strips, comic books, game design, toy design, fashion art, etc. HSX 080 Gallery

HSX 082: A Week in the Life of a Comic Book Creator
Spend four days learning what it takes to work in comic books either as a writer or artist. Learn about the various jobs besides just artist and writer and about the sk'd knowledge needed for a career in this industry. Learn about writing, art, storytelling techniques, print production, marketing, networking, and raising money for your comic book projects. Learn the difference between comic books and graphic novels and get a peek at what editors and publishers do. Students will also produce a printed class comic book and go on a field trip to an actual comic studio, printer, or publisher. You will leave the course with the basic knowledge and the skills to pursue a future career in comics.

HSX 083: Haute Couture Mini-Collection
Haute couture is high-end fashion, made from quality, luxury fabrics and sewn by hand with extreme attention to detail. Learn how the international fashion houses like Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, and Versace create their mind-blowing haute couture designs. Get an introduction to this exclusive fashion niche while you develop your own collection from concept to color story, illustrating your design ideas on fashion croquis.

HSX 084: Designing a Fashion Mini-Collection
You will learn how to develop your own concept and intended audience for a fashion mini-collection, which you will then illustrate on a sample croquis. A great introductory class for students who are required to develop a fashion line for portfolio submissions, you will learn how to mix-and-match garments, fabrics, and colors to provide a variety of outfits using a limited number of pieces. Once you've developed and edited your final line, students are encouraged to further develop their own croquis and final renderings for portfolio submissions.

HSX 086: Menswear Mini-Collection
Learn how fashion designers take inspiration from anything and everything in the world around them. You will discover how to extract design cues and inspirations from everything around you. You will create a small collection and get a glimpse of the world of menswear. You will translate your ideas and inspirations to paper, learn about the importance of mood boards, being aware of communicating through your sketches, and the importance of effectively communicating your ideas through illustrations and presentations.

HSX 087: A Week in the Life of a Menswear Designer
Spend four days with a seasoned menswear designer and fashion business owner to experience how a designer works, day to day, in New York City. You will discover many of the resources designers use to create their collections and manifest their vision into a reality. You will create industry quality inspiration boards and fashion sketches inspired by the day's discoveries. You will learn how to build a collection, from concept through final execution of your garment production. The tricks of the trade that you will walk away with coupled with a journal of resources is an invaluable tool when considering a career in fashion!

HSX 088: Simply Sewing
With a simple but flexible pattern, you will learn how to sew and create a wearable garment with the most basic of skills. Learn to work on residential sewing machines that allow you to reproduce these easy-to-learn techniques at home. Projects include pants and an optional top using patterns that you can evolve into new silhouettes and styles. This course is a great introduction to sewing. No experience required.

HSX 089: Introduction to Draping in Half Scale
Ease your way into fashion draping using easy-to-manage small scale mannequins (often used in couture and bridal design to save time and money). You will learn the fundamentals of draping and flat patternmaking for the bodice and skirt, as well as unique design flourishes i.e.: ruffles, pleats, gathers, and tucks. Create stunning miniature looks that can be used for portfolio submissions or just to master three-dimensional design.

HSX 090: Finding Fashion Design Inspirations
Learn how fashion designers take inspiration from the world around them. You will discover how to extract details and aesthetic influences from world cultures, environments, architecture, artists, and anything else that sparks your creativity. You will illustrate your design ideas on fashion croquis, rendering fabric colors and textures using markers and colored pencils. Finding Inspiration Pinterest Board

HSX 095: Rendering for Costume and Couture
Lots of Sequins. Feathers. Fur. Velvet. Taffeta. Plaid. And the list goes on... Learn how to design and render many fabrics and understand how fabrication of design comes to life. You will learn the techniques of applying shadows and shadings and learn to render and understand women's wear costumes and the characteristics of various fabrics. Look to Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood as some of your inspirations. Rendering for Costume and Couture Gallery

HSX 096: A Week in the Life of a Fashion Designer
Spend a week with a designer to experience how a fashion designer works, day to day, in New York City. Each day you will visit the Garment District and discover all of the resources designers use to create their collections. Students will create inspiration boards and fashion sketches inspired by the day's discoveries. Explore fabric and trim sources, see the inner workings of a sample room and factory, and learn how a collection is really produced. You will walk away with a journal of resources and a body of knowledge that you can use throughout your fashion career.

HSX 098: Wearable Technology: Fashion Meets Function
Sportswear that monitors vital signs, club clothes with LED lights, smart-shirts that allow you to interact with a program you're viewing, and 3-D body scanning are just some examples of wearable technology. Your future as a designer may be highly influenced by these innovations as the industry begins to redefine fashion. This course will introduce students to emerging technologies that will be used as the inspiration for their original women's wear fashion designs. At the end of this course, students will have rendered fashion illustrations that depict how they would use technology as designers of the future. Illustrations may be used in portfolio submissions if created on students original croquis. Wearable Technology Gallery
Watch a video about wearable technology.

HSX 100: Accessories Crafts and Embellishments
Expand your crafting techniques and develop simple but dramatic accessories of your own design in this hands-on workshop. Students will learn how to use home die-cutting machines along with professional techniques such as pave stone application, velvet flocking, hand-beading, and lace-cutting leather.

HSX 101: Making Sandals and Slides
Create your own pair of unique slides or sandals using professional footwear techniques. You'll explore materials, tools and construction methods while working in our professional footwear studio. Connect with other footwear enthusiasts, exchange ideas about future trends, and explore potential career paths as you craft shoes of your own design.

HSX 102: Leather Accessories Design and Construction
Is accessories design a career for you? Explore accessories design and fabrication while you develop your own belt, wallet, and footwear. You will learn about different belt, wallet, and shoe styles while you sketch out unique ways to customize your project. You will then bring your ideas to life as you construct a belt, wand footwear of your own utilizing leather and basic stitching techniques.

HSX 109: Darkroom for Beginners
Learn how to use a 35mm analog camera and develop the technical skills required to develop black and white film in the darkroom. You will first learn how to shoot in the studio using various shutter speeds, apertures, depth of field, and some basic lighting techniques. Then you will take your film into the darkroom where you will learn how to develop film, make contact sheets, and enlarge negatives. Students may bring their own analog camera or borrow one from the school.

HSX 110: Portrait Photography
Develop the technical skills and the photographic strategy needed to create dynamic portraits. You will use a variety of lighting equipment, including tungsten [hot lights], on-camera electronic flash, and strobe lights in a studio environment and will create portrait images in an outdoor location. The use and control of lighting techniques, white balance, and color mixing to enhance a portrait will help you understand how to see and utilize the natural shape of facial features and character of models. Students may bring their own a DSLR camera or borrow one from the school. Portrait photography Gallery

HSX 111: Fashion Photography
Discover the renowned fashion photographers of the twentieth century and the professional techniques, tips, and tricks used to create their works as inspiration for your own pieces. You will be taught how to engage with a model on set to achieve desired results while working on in-class photo projects. Students will be introduced to basic functions of a DSLR camera and in-studio lighting equipment, such as tungsten light, on-camera electronic flash, strobe lights, and natural light to realize their personal images. Students may bring their own DSLR camera or borrow one from the school.

HSX 116: Stop-Motion for Photography
Through stop-motion animation, creatives have been able to find a way to uniquely express their story by coupling the visual aspects of a great image with the excitement of movement! During this class, you will learn how to brainstorm animation ideas and use photography equipment and software (Photoshop) to bring them to life. Excellent for photographers, animators, graphic designers, and students interested in video content production. Stop-Motion Animation for Photography Pinterest Board

HSX 118: Welcome to My Channel: YouTube Filmmaking
YouTube is one of the hottest video-sharing websites in the world. Whether it's unboxing, critiques, vlogs, or tutorials, many individuals have found success by developing viral followings, while businesses use video-sharing to extend their brands in a creative and cost-effective way. Whatever the use, its social impact cannot be ignored. In this class, you will learn how to develop your own video content with equipment you already have! You will explore the different types of video formats, build a portfolio of videos, and have fun while you're doing it!

HSX 119: Creating Your Personal Image for Social Media
Learn how to define and develop your camera-ready visual presence through presentations, hands-on demonstrations, and assignments. You'll explore the most effective beauty skills and tools including on-camera beauty brands, hair cuts, wardrobe choices, fashion trends, and overall color correction to create a strong on-camera image. You'll explore how lighting and settings contribute to more effective selfies, short videos, and social media content. Discover your strongest attributes and how to feature those qualities while honing a sense of personal style and developing the skills to keep your image ever-current. This class is for any student who is building an online presence or who envisions a career in media.

HSX 120: Fashion Forecasting
What will consumers be wearing next year? What will be the hot new fashion styles and next season's "must-haves?" Welcome to the exciting and ever-changing role of Fashion Forecasting! Learn the importance of fashion forecasting as research in designing and developing products from textiles, ready-to-wear, accessories, retail. Projects will include producing creative fashion forecasting presentations: seasonal color cards, silhouette/fabric trend boards, and multi-media presentations. We will also focus on the diversified career opportunities of fashion forecasting within the fashion industry.

HSX 121: Exploring Fashion Styling
Do you wonder what it takes to be a successful Fashion stylist? Is it like what you see on TV? You're in luck! The answers to those questions and many more will be explored in this workshop. Working stylists will discuss the different areas of styling from fashion shoots to home fashion shoots. You will discover the various educational paths that can be taken to achieve your dream job. Learn fashion trends, resources, and savvy business skills needed to be at the top of your game. Students will create individual and group projects during this workshop. Exploring Fashion Styling Pinterest Board

HSX 123: A Week in the Life of a Merchant
Spend a week learning who merchandisers are and what they do. You will work together in teams to understand the most important concepts of this industry. You will shop the stores, visit fashion companies and museums, and see who is wearing what on the streets. Class projects and field trips will help you develop an idea of a merchandiser's role in today's global fashion world.

HSX 124: Personal Branding and Self-Promotion
Making a name for yourself in the fashion industry is practically impossible if you don't have the right skills and strategies. Learn how to use media, track current trends, and dress the part to get the attention of the right people. You will learn to discover what fashion careers are best suited for you as well as how to deliver your perfect elevator speech. But most importantly, true style comes from the inside, so we'll teach you how to define yourself, your personality, your skills, and how to create the brand called YOU!

Instructor's comments: A great class for building student's self-esteem and preparing them for upcoming college and career interviews. Students will be taught how to convince others that they are the best choice using more than just words.

HSX 131: Public Relations for Fashion: The Industry in Action
Learn about the roles & responsibilities the fashion, beauty, or luxury goods PR professional must assume during their career. Learn industry best practices, the essence of press release writing and compelling pitch letter construction through case studies and projects. Also learn about major media outlets, how to pitch products, personalities, services, and events, and develop an authentic PR campaign with measurable results. Whether you're considering a full-fledged career in public relations, or just want to gain an understanding of how to market yourself, this workshop is not to be missed.
Details about specific visits, guest speakers and showrooms will be provided on the first day of class and are subject to change each semester based on availability.

HSX 133: Fashion Journalism
As we become a more content-driven society, there is greater demand for a well-developed editorial on both print and digital platforms. You will discover the many facets of journalism in fashion and related fields, and the extensive career opportunities affiliated with it. Through a variety of projects, you will develop an understanding of editorial and written content as you conduct interviews, gather news, and develop content concepts. Hone your journalism skills by writing and editing fashion news and feature stories. Basic knowledge of copy editing, headline-writing, captions, and journalism etiquette will also be covered, and you will meet industry professionals from various media outlets.

HSX 139: A Week in the Life of an Events Director
Spend four days with a Director of Events to learn about New York City's innovative and competitive event industry. You will be exposed to the multi-faceted process of event conception and execution from start to finish, understand many of the roles and responsibilities an Events Director must assume in multiple industries, and how to leverage social media to promote and market your event. You will visit premiere event spaces in Manhattan and meet with and be inspired by fashion PR and event representatives and wedding planners. You will leave this course with the ability to organize an event, create a timeline, source effectively, write invitation copy, understand how to style a space, and manage an event budget.

HSX 143: Coding for Animation
Learn how to manipulate images and create animated actions using JavaScript. Coding has never been so much fun as you use animated tutorials to walk you through effects such as "wiggles," attaching image movement to music, and other popular features found in gaming and animations. You will be able to read, use and manipulate Java Script in Adobe After Effects to create film credits, web animations, and commercials. Recommended for students already familiar with Adobe Photoshop basics. Coding for Animation Gallery

HSX 190: Beauty Entrepreneur
You will spend four days investigating the joys and challenges of entering the beauty business and what it will take to become a beauty entrepreneur. Learn all of the beauty categories and chemistry and art of designing for them, how to generate ideas for new products, how to identify suppliers and manufacturers, and how to get product to market. From trend-spotting to product evaluation, to creating a business plan and understanding how to develop a "hero" product for the beauty consumer, students will be immersed in all things beauty business-related.