Graphic Design, Block 3
Mr. Martin, Marking Period 4, 2019-20
Digital Graphic Design is an advanced course in which students investigate professional practices of idea development and the design process. Students in the course execute finished work through the use of traditional media, photography, and computer graphics utilizing the content creation and organization functions of the Adobe Creative Suite. A key component of the course is documentation of the design process: collected design process materials are graded with a weighting similar to that of the finished design grade.
Week One: What Is Graphic Design?
"Graphic design, also known as communication design, is the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The form of the communication can be physical or virtual, and may include images, words, or graphic forms. The experience can take place in an instant or over a long period of time. The work can happen at any scale, from the design of a single postage stamp to a national postal signage system, or from a company’s digital avatar to the sprawling and interlinked digital and physical content of an international newspaper. It can also be for any purpose, whether commercial, educational, cultural, or political."
~AIGA, the professional association for design
~AIGA, the professional association for design
Graphic design is the most public face of visual art, and one of the creative employment areas that is most easily and clearly mapped, but "graphic design" is an umbrella term under which entire sub-industries are gathered. Who designs ads? Who designs motion graphics for the titles of films and t.v. shows and sports events? Did it ever occur to you that someone had to design every character of every font? Who did that? In this first week, we will explore those questions and more.
Additionally, we will discuss classroom expectations, open Edmodo accounts (or link this class to our established Edmodo accounts), and create personal avatar graphics for our Edmodo profiles.
Additionally, we will discuss classroom expectations, open Edmodo accounts (or link this class to our established Edmodo accounts), and create personal avatar graphics for our Edmodo profiles.
What is Graphic Design, what does it do, and how does it work? This video is a fascinating introduction from
the PBS series Off Book (about 6 minutes). |
Here is a link to the EDMODO log in page. Edmodo is the classroom social media service we will use in class to report and exchange ideas.
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WEEKS one & two: typography
Typography is the study and design of typefaces (often mistakenly called "fonts"). Understanding the design and psychology of type helps graphic designers to communicate ideas more effectively. In addition, the world of typography has its own take on the design elements and principles, the balance and contrast of type. During this two week unit, we will explore how type is created, and the components of type by creating a typographic illustration and designing the most important letterforms in our own custom typeface.
Week three:
Drawing On history
Historically, there have been trends within graphic design that demonstrated strong influence on all of advertising and even the entire culture of a period. Some design trends were so strong that they've become cliché... a visual representation that quickly evokes an entire historical period. We will use this concept to investigate design history.
THE ASSIGNMENT:
Given a modern-day product, service, or company and a randomly selected decade, from the early 1900's to the 1990's, each student artist will create a period magazine advertisement.
THE ASSIGNMENT:
Given a modern-day product, service, or company and a randomly selected decade, from the early 1900's to the 1990's, each student artist will create a period magazine advertisement.
- Artists willl research the period in terms of design, typography, trends, and world events, keeping notes, images, and sketches in a journal.
- Thumbnail sketches will be executed examining a variety of advertising layouts.
- Photos, illustrations, logo updates, and other components will be generated (by hand or using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator) as needed.
- Final advertisement layout will be created in Adobe Illustrator.
Here is a link to the award-winning documentary, "Helvetica" which illuminates the history of the world's most frequently used typeface, as well as provides insight into the changes in graphic design over the decades, from the 1940's to today.
Fontshop is a great type store, as well as a fantastic educational resource with great programs for students. You might even find a few free fonts here, too.
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Without a doubt, the best typography fan site! Great educational articles, tips and tricks... AND some free fonts!
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Want to create your own, fully-functional font?
Fontstruct is a FREE online font creation tool.
It's easy to use, and powerful, too.
Fontstruct is a FREE online font creation tool.
It's easy to use, and powerful, too.
WEEKS six, seven & eight: with clients
During this portion of the course, we will work to fulfill the needs of actual clients. These clients may be within the school or from the outside world. They may be businesses, individuals, or organizations. Practical experience in communicating with clients, including creating questionnaires, qualifying a clients concerns, and creating visual responses to client prompts is stressed, as is professional execution of appropriate design products.
Here is a well-done article from lettershoppe.com on writing a logo design questionnaire so that
you and your clients will be on the same page. The techniques and questions that the author suggests
are for a hand-lettered logo, but could be adapted to all most any type of design work.
you and your clients will be on the same page. The techniques and questions that the author suggests
are for a hand-lettered logo, but could be adapted to all most any type of design work.
WEEK NINE: layout design final exam
The final exam is project-based and varies from year to year. Expect to create a layout design that incorporates the use of all three covered Adobe Creative Suite tools and includes both imagery and typography components.
You may be asked to create a magazine cover, an article splash page, a magazine table of contents, or an infographic. Basic images and text will be provided.
This project is worth 10% of your final course grade and will be scored as the final exam.
You may be asked to create a magazine cover, an article splash page, a magazine table of contents, or an infographic. Basic images and text will be provided.
This project is worth 10% of your final course grade and will be scored as the final exam.