WELCOME! Throughout this course you will be learning terminology, presentation skills and the fundamentals of design. Today we'll be covering these topics: What is graphic design? What is visual communication? What is the process? We'll talk about the basic elements (dot, line, shape, pattern, texture) and principles (balance, emphasis, tension, rhythm) of graphic design.
*Lectures:
The Basic Elements of Design (pdf)
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*In class:
Read:
Design Critiques: Encourage a Positive Culture to Improve Products
Do:
You will create two, 10” x 10” compositions using one of your shapes from your in class exercise. The first composition should be stable and the second composition should be dynamic.
Xerox up to 50 duplicates of your shape (you may reduce or enlarge your 2 x 2 shape). Create two, 10” x 10” compositions using that shape, via repetition, overlapping and placement, etc. (Minimum number: use a minimum of 4 shapes or more to solve each composition) When the final compositions are turned in (Week 3), they will be pure black and white, photocopied, 10” X 10”.
Use the principles of balance, tension, rhythm, pattern, focal point, etc to help create your compositions.
Due next week:
Chosen 2”x2” shape and the two 10”x10” compositions should be ready for feedback next week. At this stage they can be taped together as a working comp.
Letter Shaping Game
The Bézier Game
Plotting Vector Points with Jessica Hische
Letter Building: Scaling & Shaping
Horizontal & Vertical Bézier Handles
Lettering Tutorial
Vector Lettering Techniques
This week we'll be learning some of the terminology and language of design by looking at work by Armin Hoffman.
Then we'll review the design process and how to successfully evaluate and critique design work. Feedback for your 2"x2" shapes and 10"x10" compositions will follow.
Principles of Gestalt presentation followed by show and tell of student work using gestalt as inspiration for their projects.
*Lectures:
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Read & Watch:
How to mount your project (pdf)
How to use adobe fonts (formerly typekit) (video)
Do:
Refine and finish your 10” x 10” compositions.
Then generate a new 11” x 17” composition inspired by either of your 10”x10” compositions (or by your original 2”x2”shape). See if you can enhance your composition with gestalt principles. When you have created your composition, add one color and text (using few words, e.g. Slow Motion or Visual Focus) to help direct the eye and describe the composition.
What to do for the 11” x 17” composition:
Direct the viewer's eyes. You might try modifying some aspect of your composition from last week by using some of the following ideas: adjust the figure/ground relationship, play with symmetry/asymmetry, closure, proximity, similarity. Use any of the rules of gestalt to inspire your creativity.
Or you might try cropping or enlarging parts of your composition to help you find a solution. Or you might simply be inspired by the idea(s) behind your 10” x 10”s to create a new composition.
Due next week:
Finished work is due next class for presentations and critique. Last week's project (including the 2x2 shape) and this week's project should be mounted on a 15” x 20” black boards (use the front and the back of the boards, if needed).
We'll be reviewing Basic Roles/Levels for Designers and how the roles might work within a company. After a small break, there will be a slide presentation of Edward Fella's, Paula Scher's, and Ji Lee’s work.
For the remainder of the class we will have presentations and a critique on Project 1.
*Lectures:
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Do:
Use type/lettering to create a visual representation of an assigned word or of your initials. The finished work must be in black an white (or shades of grey) on an 9” x 12” sheet of white paper. (I say 9”x12” only because I want the visual word to be large enough for the entire class to see it from a distance.)
What to do for your initials:
Using only your initials, visually capture how you are feeling today. Adapt, distress, deconstruct, flip, cut, texturize, or personalize the letters to capture the feeling. Use what you are learning about stable/dynamic and gestalt principles to help you strengthen your work.
Incorporation of icons and/or images within the visual representation is not permitted. You can work in any medium: pencil, xerox, construction paper cut outs, etc but the finished work must be in black an white on white paper.
What to do for the visual word:
You wlll be working with type to create a voice and personality. Adapt, distress, deconstruct, flip, cut, texturize, or personalize the typeface chosen to create a visual representation of the assigned word.
Incorporation of icons and/or images within the visual representation is not permitted. You can work in any medium: pencil, xerox, construction paper cut outs, etc but the finished work must be in black an white on white paper.
Due next week:
Work will be due next week for review and group discussion. Non-graded.
Today we’ll be covering what kind of career paths are available in our industry and how does the program feed into industry needs.
We will be reviewing your in class exercise and your homework.
There will be a presentation on the works of Chermayeff & Geismer & Haviv. A brainstorming exercise using a matrix will follow the designer presentation.
*Lectures:
Read:
Do:
You will be creating a stylized fruit illustration or icon, vegetable image/icon, or animal/insect image/icon which is appropriate for an industry.
You will need to show your initial sketch as well as your refinement steps and the final iteration in black and white (shades of grey are permitted), 8.5” X 11” sheets of paper.
What to do for your stylized fruit or vegetable or insect or animal:
Render & Stylize. You will acquire a fruit or vegetable or animal and an Industry through random selection. Start by sketching ideas. Chose your strongest idea. Use tracing paper to help you refine and stylize your idea.
Sketch iterations could play with positive/negative space, distortion, exaggeration, simplification, dimensionality to distill the essence of the subject chosen. You may simplify your work, giving it grace and/or movement, While your final solution needs to be black, consider different media in your process; Xerox machine, marker on newsprint, charcoal, texture, scribbling (no computer yet).
You will go through different iterations of tracing/exagerating/reducing as you continue to refine and stylize your fruit or vegetable. While your intermediate steps can be rough, your final comp needs to be crystal clear, black and white (shades of grey are permitted).
Due next week:
Finished work will be reviewed in our next class. Non-graded.
Chermayeff, Geismar and Haviv (video)
Visual Identities: More than just a logo (video)
Small:
Medium:
Large:
This week we'll be reviewing your fruit/vegetable /animal/industry symbols.
There will be a presentation which will show the progression and direction of our projects from simple lettermarks to more complex symbols. Student work will be showcased.
*Lectures:
Read:
Choose one from the following options:
Savage Moose Sports Pub: A sports bar in Lake Forest Park, Washington would like a logo for the signage of their brick and mortar pub and website. They would like to combine a moose with some aspect of drinking/food/or a feeling of sports.
Sud Woofers Grooming: A dog grooming store would like a logo that could be used for signage as well on their gear and their website. The client would like some reference to a dog and to music and/or grooming.
Hipmunk Travel: A budget travel app that will help you find great fares would like a logo for their corporate headquarters. The image portion of this combination mark should be able to be used as their app icon. The client would like some reference to a chipmunk and/or travel.
Saturn Car Company: Saturn car company wants to be known as the ”no haggle” car company, giving buyers safe, fuel efficient cars and/or hybrids at a fair, set price. They would like to combine an image of a planet with sleek, futuristic efficiency.
Do:
Create a combination mark for two unconnected subjects. Your work for next week will consist of 2, 8.5” x 11” pieces of white paper. The first piece of paper will have a refined sketch image for your combination mark. The second piece of paper will have the typed name (e.g. Sud Woofers Grooming, or Hipmunk Travel, or Savage Moose Sports Pub, or Saturn) using 3 different typefaces.
What to do for your combination mark:
Brainstorms ideas using your own method of sketching, word lists, and/or a matrix methoed and then sketch out your concepts. Create around 30 thumbnail sketch ideas.
Choose one of the sketches and refine it using any of the design processes we have been learning in class. Once you have sketched your ideas, choose 3 different typefaces from the following list which could best work with the style of your design.
Potential Typeface choices (pdf)
Due next week:
For this week solidify your idea and refine your image. Typeset the name of your store on a separate piece of paper in the three font faces which you think would possibly work with your image. For now, work only in black and white (greys are permitted). Bring all sketches and refined work-in-progress design to class for small group discussions and critique.
Show & Share a simple Brand Standards Manual/Guide Book.
Refining your work using grids & geometry. Small group feedback sessions.
*Lectures:
Watch:
Do:
This week you will refine your project based off of feedback. If you haven't done so already, please take your logo to the computer, working in Illustrator – make it into vector art. You may also add color(s) to your design.
Then take your logo design and scale it to 2 sizes. The first size will be ~ 1” x 1” (The smallest side is 1”) and the second size should almost fill an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper.
Due next week:
Print out both sizes of the refined logo design and bring them to class next week.
For students working on apps:
In addition to the above, please use this template and scale the image from your logo appropriately to create the app icon.
We will be reviewing your refined logo designs.
After a break there will be a brief presentation to show the AIGA symbol sets. Student samples will be showcased for the class.
*Lectures:
Read:
Do:
Create 3 symbols for your business. Your 3 finished symbols will most likely be b&w (you may use color, but don't make color the only way to unite your icon set). Size of each symbol: around 3" big.
What to do for your symbols:
This week you will refine your logo and create a series of symbols which the company would use for their respective businesses. These symbols should be universally recognizable – anyone in the world with a grade school education could recognize the symbols.
The look and feel of these symbols should fit in with the style and brand of the logo you already created. Take your symbol set concepts to the computer, working in Illustrator – make them into vector art.
Savage Moose Sports Pub: Create 3 symbols: For the interior of their sports bar they would like symbols to help people find 1. where to buy drinks/the bar 2. where to pay/the cash register and 3. the bathroom
Sud Woofers Grooming: Create 3 symbols: For their store they would like symbols for 1. the grooming area 2. the cash register 3. the bathroom
Hipmunk Travel: Create 3 symbols: For their app they would like symbols for 1. Flights 2. Hotels 3. Calendar (for finding best dates to fly) For students working on Hipmunk: Please do the above requirements, plus use your Hipmunk template to scale and showcase your icons within the screen size.
Saturn Car Company: Create 3 symbols: They would like these symbols for their car dashboard 1. Low Fuel light 2. Check engine light 3. Open doors light
Due next week:
Final business logo and symbol sets will be due next week. Final work should be mounted on 15” x 20” black board. You will present your work in class next week.
Presentations of your logo and symbol sets
After the break there will be a presentation and lecture on student research, brainstorming and creating strategic design work.
Read:
(click on the choices below to see each website)
The Carolina Renaissance Festival, 2019
Solid Ground, 2020 (the poster will be a call for volunteers)
Earth Corp, 2020 (the poster will be a call for volunteers)
Do:
Final Project for the quarter.
Over the next few weeks you will be creating an 11” x 17” color poster for one of the above events. The final poster should have very few words. For example, if you choose to work on the Emerald City Comic Con, these words could be your headline: Emerald City Comic Con and 2020.
The poster's strength should come mainly from the concept, the composition and the impact of it’s image(s). If you create a tagline/ concept and it is strong, you may want to use that as your primary text for your poster (instead of ”Emerald City Comic Con 2020”).
What to do for your posters this week:
As a client group, research your chosen project to see what the event is about. Figure out your audience, what the venue is like, what is expected to happen during the event, any historical details about the event might also be helpful to brainstorm ideas. As a team, answer the Who, What, Where, When, and Why document provided to you.
Then each member of the client group/team will separate off and sketch out any idea(s) you might have for promoting the event. Next week bring your group’s research brief and your personal/individual sketches to class.
(The research brief is what the group created in the written Who, What, Where, When and Why Document. Your sketch ideas are your own and not part of a group. Don't worry about doing a mood board yet)
Due next week:
Next week bring your research and sketches. During class next week we’ll be brainstorming more ideas in teams and creating more sketch ideas for the poster.
Show & Share: Saul Bass.
After a break we will run through a couple of brainstorming exercises and then break into teams to generate possible concepts/ideas/ taglines/headlines. Afterwards, the team can vet the best ideas. Each individual will take an idea (or more than one idea) they would like to work with and start sketching. By the end of class each person will chose a direction to make their own poster/ digital comp.
*Lectures:
Do:
Tuesday’s class: Create a mood board (an inspiration board for visual style direction) First draft of poster due next week. Work in progress feedback session will be held during the next class. Bring color print outs of what you have to the next class.
Thursday’s class: Create a mood board (an inspiration board for visual style direction) First draft of poster due week 11. Work in progress feedback session will be held during week 11. Bring color print outs of what you have to the next class.
CSS KEYFRAMES:
BLEND MODE:
CSS background-blend-mode Property
Advanced effects with CSS Background Blend Modes
CSS CLIPPING PATHS:
CSS Introduction to Clipping Using Clip-path
Wrapping Content around Images Using CSS Shapes
How to make your HTML responsive by adding one line of CSS
Tuesday’s class: Feedback groups and lab day.
Thursday’s class: Holiday
Read:
Tueday’s class: How to mount Project 3 (pdf)
Check out the Resources & Links tab for local poster designers’ work/inspiration.
Do:
Tuesday’s class: Final draft of poster due next week. The final poster should be printed in color and mounted on 15” X 20” black board. On the back of your board please type up and attach the following write up: The name of your event, your concept/idea to speak to your audience about the event, and the visual tone you were trying to capture.
Good luck everyone!
Thursday’s class: First draft of poster due next week. Work in progress feedback session will be held during the next class. Bring color print outs of what you have to the next class.
There will be a presentation which will show local poster designers: Art Chantry, Jeff Kleinsmith, Frieda Clements, Julia McNamara, Robynne Raye, and Invisible Creature. Student work will also be featured.
Tuesday’s class: Final presentations will be happening during class. Final project due, printed in color, mounted on 15” X 20” board. Have a great break!
Thursday’s class: Small group feedback sessions for first draft of poster. Most of the class will be a work session for students to work on their projects.
*Lectures:
Read:
Thursday’s class: How to mount Project 3 (pdf)
Do:
Thursday’s class: Final draft of poster due next week. Final presentations will be happening during the Wednesday Finals time slot. We’ll meet at 9am in class. The final poster should be printed in color and mounted on 15” X 20” black board. On the back of your board please type up and attach the following write up: The name of your event, your concept/idea to speak to your audience about the event, and the visual tone you were trying to capture.
Good luck everyone!
Thurday’s class: Final presentations will be happening during the Wednesday Finals time slot. We’ll meet on Wednesday,12/11, at 9am in class. Final project due, printed in color, mounted on 15” X 20” board. Have a great break!
No homework.
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