Bagnall, James  

he's a fuckity fuck fuck fuck

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This guy is OLD. 73, I believe. If you're an arch, try to avoid him but if you're arce, I'd suggest taking him because this series doesn't matter quite as much for us. The good about Bagz (as we all call him now): this guy can DRAW and you WILL get better at drawing over the course of the quarter. He's funny--half the time because of the random shit he says and half the time cuz of what he does. Now, the bad: he usually keeps you all 3 hours, except for a rare occasion like a guest lecture--which I rarely went to. It's extremely difficult to get a bearing on what the given project is sometimes because of how vague he is. He won't answer questions about projects sometimes also--half the time because it's a stupid question and the other half I have no idea. During critiques of the work, he can talk for up to 45 minutes so be prepared to grab a chair before everyone else gets the few that are available. *Other things to consider: if you can draw, he'll automatically like you better in the beginning of the course but if you show little to no improvement you'll probly get a C. If you suck at drawing and show improvement you'll probly get an A. If you do get him, use white space and dynamic balance on projects because that's a guaranteed B, at the least. Also, we went to his house during dead week and drew, which wasn't half bad--the design was good, though the outside of his house was pretty hideous. Really, this guy isn't that bad, but I was laughing half the time I was in class so that mighta made a difference. I'm going to take him for the rest of the series but I'm arce. If you're arch, look for someone else because I know there's a lotta shit you don't end up learning in here--shit you'll probly learn in Swearingen's class.

Bags is so legit, you just have understand his sense of humor. He's sort of nutty sometimes, but he really cares about students. I like it when somebody obviously didn't try on a drawing and turned in a horrible looking thing, and then Bags will go through and evaluate all the parts of it for 10 minutes. But hey, you do learn to draw and keep a journal and how to apply design principals.

very interesting teacher. he is very blunt. if he doesnt like your drawing, he WILL say so. we drew constantly, sometimes having two to three drawing due every day. but he's hysterical. It's fun to see a 70 something old man cursing and picking on slacker students. he repeated himself alot and was quite boring. you wont learn what you need to if your an arch. and i wouldnt suggest taking him unless you need to improve drawing skills. if you're already good, your time would be better spent learning perspective instead of measuring lengths and angels by holding your pencil out and eyeballing it (Bagz favorite method).

Bagnall, overall is a pretty good teacher. yes, he is harsh on his critiques but it's honest. he's not gonna look at a drawing that sucks and try to look for the "positives." He'll tell you want to improve on and he'll tell you what's good and what's bad. He knows his stuff and i noticed all the people in his class improved in the drawing area. He didn't go into a lot of detail with the technical stuff like perspective drawings and parametric drawings which was kind of disappointing. When he explains his projects, it's really hard to hear all the details. And his lectures, if you listen, there is some useful stuff in there but they can go on forrevvverrr.

for this being the first design class i had ever taken in college, it was definite turn off! he constantly is putting students down...unless you're his favorite (meaning you're a guy, can draw EXTREMELY well, and laughs at all his stupid and demeaning jokes). he makes comments like "women should be at home" and is constantly calling people's projects crap and shit and once threw someone's project on the ground. he never explains project guidelines yet criticizes that you did it wrong. this class is not the way you want to start your first year at cal poly.

ok, so i was the first one to review bagz. you can believe that if you want, but it's the truth. my opinion has changed somewhat: the first half of 122 we pasted paper on paper and made compositions and just a buncha other crap. it was useful for basic design, but tedious and just plain boring. the second half of the quarter was all 3-d stuff which was interesting. i had thought swearingen's class was better cuz that's what i had always heard but when i looked at what they were doing and when i looked at what we were doing, i thought bagnall's projects were much more useful. don is good for technical stuff with architecture, like precise drafting. but it seems like he doesn't know shit about design. bagnall is COMPLETELY about design and he makes you consciously think about every little decision you make, because as he would say "everything you do says something." you won't learn anything technical in his class though because he just flat out doesn't address those topics. i'd recommend taking both don and bagz, esp if you're arch, so you learn everything you need to know. then again, bagnall is emeritus so he probly won't be doing any more teaching for a while. all in all, he's good. you just have to get past how boring and annoying he can be (like others have said, he likes to talk--a LOT). you'll end up learning what you need to know for a good base if you take him though.

Bags is the WORST TEACHER IVE EVER HAD!!!!!!! i lost the little info i had before i took this class. he is OLD. half the time, i was worried he was gonna have a heart attack in class. he makes you stay the whole time. he picks favorites, big time. he says drawing is not architecture but all we did was draw. you cant use pencils. i would not take him over again and i hope he doesnt come back from retirement. very old, can't hear. hes pretty cool if he remembers you, if his alzihmers doesn't kick in.

Tsk tsk, Bagnall. I really tried to go into his studio with optimism despite all the bad things I heard about him but I can't help it. Bagnall is a really bad teacher. He has no consideration or sense of professionalism. I can never hear what he's saying. He doesn't get to the point and by the end of class, people don't really know what he wants. There are a few things, however, that I feel I have learned in his class. First, an appreciation for water-coloring. I hated water-coloring before his class but now I love it. My sketches just don't feel complete without a little color. Second, how to present your work. He puts a lot of emphasis on presentation boards and sketching. Take him if you really have to focus on GEs or support classes.

Bagnall belives that the 120 series should be ENTIRELY focused on hand drawings done in pen. Not only does he make you draw constantly, but you have to draw in his style or it is wrong. He is obsessed with the abstract and if you are an ARCE like me I strongly suggest you avoid him at all cost. He doesn't take into consideration that you are not an architect and will never need to do the things he teaches. This was by far the worst class I've taken in college and I dreaded attending.

If you can avoid Bagnall do so at all costs! Maybe he was a good professor back in 1950 but not anymore. He\'s way to old and although he can draw really well and watercolor he doesn\'t know how to teach his students at all. He was missing some of my grades in his grade book at the end of the quarter when we did our one on one evaluations and had me at a B- for the quarter and although I still had the assignments (mind you there were only 7 assignments all quarter and he was missing grades for 3 of mine) and all of which were A\'s and I showed him these - he straight up said \"well I think that keeps you at a B-\".... This man is terrible, he arbitrarily comes up with a grade for you even if throughout the quarter you\'ve gotten A\'s. Do whatever you can to not take him!

The evaluations on this professor are pretty accurate. You might not believe it at first, especially when you first meet him, but over the quarter you will realise how big of a dick he actually is. He really wont seem bad at first, in fact hes a pretty "easy" guy and makes the class chill, but then you start to get tired of him. Over the course he may pick on you and just be a complete dick to a student or two by teasing them. I dont think he realises that what he says is actually offensive in many ways. The most frustrating part about his teaching is that his voice is so soft to the point where you have to stand close to him in order to hear him. The second frustrating part is that he doesnt really make announcements to everyone in the class, rather he does it to a part of a room (which is why I say, always stick close to him). His assignments arent clear, but so are many of the other ARCH professors. In a way youll hate this guy, but in a way youll respect him because he does have a point. He does make you draw in pen and be expected to sketch, a lot. Honestly, if you take him, have fun, hes not that bad, but hes not that great either. Settle for another.

Bagnall is seriously hysterical. At first, I hated him because I thought he was a total dick, but about half-way through the quarter, I started to love him. You learn to take his jokes and blows and just dish it right back. Also, by the middle and end of the quarter, its mostly just work time in class so he would just hang out and talk to us if we needed him, and then leave randomly without really telling him. His class is a little frustrating because he never really knows whats going on and he sometimes makes up his own assignments, but later in the quarter its awesome. If you can get on his good side, then he's the best.

This professor is the best first year professor at Cal Poly. Although he has been getting quite a bit of hate on this here rating site, if you are serious about design, take him. He will teach you more than you could imagine about how to go about designing, and it's not a direct teaching but he sets you up to learn the process yourself. With him as a teacher, it's about you. It's about how much you are willing to get out of the class, how much work you are willing to work, and as long as you're in it to win it, you'll learn an absurd amount. He may at times be kind of a prick, but he's an old guy so in my opinion he's allowed to do it. He's the best, although he only teaches one quarter a year, so if you can take him, do it. trust me, he's the best.

I absolutely love Bags. Honestly, I hated him at first. He was really harsh on critiques but I just realized that he was being blunt. He always told us what he thought and gave us good feedback. Our class ended up being so close to each other and him at the end that we got together as a class and made him a book of some of his quotes. He never knows what's going on though so you are sometimes doing stuff that's different from the other classes. But I ended up liking those assignments better than they would have been anyways. He is a really chill guy that really cares about his students. I am so glad that I ended up taking him.

At first I really hated Bagnall. Nothing you do will ever please him, and if during criticisms he doesn't talk about whatever you did than that means its one of the very few works he hates least. He gives extra work than the other teachers and he grades pretty tough. He also goes crazy over sketching by hand and how "incredibly important" it is. However by the end I loved him and he is one of my favorite teachers that I have had. I definitely am not as talented as some of the other students in my class but he notices when you work really hard and put in ALOT ALOT ALOT of extra time working on stuff. He even offered to drive me back to my dorm in the middle of class because he noticed I hadn't slept in 3 days. I would recommend him to anyone who is up for a challenge and wants to really learn!

Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life.