College & Adult Summer Intensive Studies: Parsons Paris

Half-Day Course - Summer 1

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

This course is an immersive introduction to the fashion industries and strategies for managing them. Students explore the relationships between innovation, design, production, and marketing. The course also provides an overview of the Parisian high-end fashion market and its key actors, from designers to retailers. Through visits to Paris luxury stores and showrooms, students gain an overall understanding of today’s fashion business.

Half-Day Course - Summer 1

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

Collaborations in the Creative Industries is a course investigating how things work in the creative business world. Students are guided through the visual and performing arts, architecture, cinema, music, literature, and fashion, considering the history of strategies and today’s synergistic influences and investigating key players as they maneuver through our fast-paced global culture. We study the creative industries that form the essential bridge between art and commerce while addressing sustainability in the broadest sense of the word: environmentally and historically.

Our objective will be to travel along the various roads linking the locked door of the design studio and the top secret boardroom, winning over the critics, fans, highest-bidding collectors, endorsers, adoring followers, and money-spending consumers. And as we raise questions about creativity and collaborative strategies required for success, students will develop a solid understanding of what makes these complex and highly creative fields tick.

Full-Day Studio Course - Summer 2

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

This course introduces students to drawing as both a fundamental part of the design process and an essential tool for media arts of all kinds. Students approach drawing as a way of thinking, a critical tool, and a means of observation, storytelling, and representation. Traditional and nontraditional methods, media, and theories of drawing are all explored.

Full-Day Studio Course - Summer 2

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

This course introduces students to painting as both a fundamental part of the design process and an essential tool for media arts of all kinds. Students learn basic concepts of painting, such as color theory, composition, and techniques for using water-based paints. Drawing is also taught as a means of observation and representation. Traditional and nontraditional methods, media, and theories of painting are all explored. Time is set aside for students to develop a personal project.

Half-Day Course - Summer 2

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

This course is an immersive introduction to communication strategies in fashion and luxury companies. Students learn how to create and foster dialogue between a fashion brand and consumers. The seminars and workshops cover a range of topics such as semiotic resources for brand identity, advertising and event management, experiential marketing, digital and interactive marketing, fashion journalism, and fashion public relations in the digital age. In addition, the course offers a Parisian perspective of luxury company strategies and investigates heritage management strategies from a communications perspective.

Full-Day Studio Course - Summer 1 and 2

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

This course introduces students to various approaches and techniques involved in the design process for fashion products. Students are encouraged to experiment as they research and find inspiration for a fashion collection and devise innovative 2D and 3D production methods for their fashion pieces. Working on projects individually and in groups, students develop fashion concepts for which they draw on the unique resources of Paris and explore how fabrication methods and color affect collections. 

Full-Day Course - Summer 2

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

Students learn to approach management as a strategic process that combines design innovation and business knowledge. In collaborative projects, they develop problem-solving skills and familiarity with design strategies through the application of research methods, prototyping, and quantitative analysis. Emphasis is placed on developing an understanding of the European setting and perspective and the way entrepreneurs, business innovators, and designers operate at the intersection of design and management. Students engage in design thinking and business strategy exercises, applying these approaches in a broad range of enterprises and real-world business contexts.

Full-Day Course - Summer 2

3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English

Students master photographic techniques and learn about the aesthetics and theory of the photographic image. Course field trips to various Parisian neighborhoods provide points of departure for creative exploration of documentary, urban landscape, portraiture, and reportage. A variety of assignments, readings, field trips, and lectures encourage students to experiment with different modes of photography and inform a final project based on individual interests.

Full-Day Studio Course - Summer 2

3 U.S. credits recommended (non–liberal arts)
Language of instruction: English

This summer course provides an insider view of the design industry in Paris. Each week, students visit locations in the city that specialize in different areas of design, ranging from creative entrepreneurship to design technology, from gastronomy design to human services. By interviewing practitioners at design firms, creative studios, artistic ateliers, showrooms, retail locations, co-working spaces, companies, and nonprofits and in other settings, students gain insight into the state of the field in Paris and Europe. From these interactions students collectively create editorials, interviews, images, and video as documentation of their Safari exploration, writing the questions, interviewing designers, editing content, and producing the daily posts.

In this course, students are introduced to fashion film and its many facets. Guided by the faculty, they watch, analyze, and discuss various fashion films, from commercials and campaigns to independent artistic projects, multimedia art, and documentaries. This serves as the research basis for the collaborative realization of various cinematic ideas. After creating visual concepts and short storylines and receiving a brief introduction to filming and editing, students develop several moving images on a sketch-based level. Serving as subjects for the students' own filmic material are (for fashion students) their own previous projects or collections; brought, bought, or borrowed ready-to-wear or vintage clothing; or even simple pieces or sketches of clothing of their own creation (limited workshop availability).

In this course, students work in teams to produce a short movie. They master the fundamental steps of audiovisual production through theoretical lectures and practical workshops. They learn the basic principles of film analysis and screenwriting for fiction, essential for understanding the essence of storytelling. Working in groups, they write a short movie script, prepare and organize the shooting, shoot scenes, complete each step of the post-production process, and deliver the master. They engage in hands-on workshops on screenwriting, learning to direct the actors, use the camera, adjust lighting, make sound recordings, and edit the film. Lectures and workshops as well as productions are presented by industry professionals.