Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 2)

This week's graphic design student of the week did a great job with the design process throughout the business stationary project.  I thought she did an outstanding job of making her promotional materials fit her logo by using similar colors, designs, and font type.  The overall design was great and the use of the lava-lamp theme was very effective.  Great job and keep up the great work!  Some of her work from the identity design/business stationary projects can be seen below.

Assignment: Identity Standard

Now that you have a business name and a logo, you need to create a Identity Standard.  First look at an example of an identity standard for Chadron State College (http://www.csc.edu/collegerelations/identity.csc).  For an example of what your identity standard will look like, check this link out:  http://graphdesportfolio.blogspot.com/2012/10/identity-standard.html

Open up Microsoft Word.  You will create an Identity Standard for your business.  Your Business Stationary needs each of the following:

·         Title Page

·         Introduction (who you are, why it’s important to have a consistent identity)

·         Typography (what types of fonts, font colors will your organization be using in various forms)

·         Colors (what colors are you using for your logo?  Unofficial names, RGB and CMYK values)

·         Logos (Show logos, include examples and description of inappropriate and appropriate logo                 usage)

·         Promotional Material (include business stationery, banners, flyers, etc…)

·         Web Content (list a web page where your business would be found, list page colors, fonts,                   content, web banner, etc…)

·         Conclusion (Tell how you find it important to ensure quality with your brand, give a contact                 where someone can find help when wanting to use your brand and identity standard)

When finished, save as a .pdf and upload to your capzle.  You do not need to add a reflection to this project, as the work itself is a reflection of our identity design unit.

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 1)

This term is going to be really hard to narrow down the graphic design student of the week, as I have 2 classes to choose from.  This week had a lot of great work, and many students did a great job of displaying their skills at using the design method.  This week's student did a great job with the whole planning process, made a great logo, and wrote a solid reflection over her work.  Here is the logo she created, and I'm excited to see what else she creates this term!

Assignment: Business Stationery

Now that we are finished with our logo project, we are ready to start our next project.  When we finish this project you should be able to say, "I can apply identity design concepts to create business stationery."

Purpose: Create business stationery for your graphic design company (letterhead, business card, and envelope).
Research:  Look at class examples and do image searches
Plan:  Come up with procedures how you will budget your time with this project.
Sketches:  Make several sketches for each element of this project.
Draft/Critique:  Have a conversation with your class-mates and myself about your project.
Production:  Create it with photoshop, post it to your capzle with a reflection.

The dimensions for the project are as follows:
letterhead 8.5 x 11 in.
business card 3 x 2.5 in.
envelope 9.5 x 4.124 in.

Think about what should go onto your business card.  It is for your graphic design company.  What are some trends that you noticed in stationary during your research?  How can you apply those to any ideas you have?  Business stationery is probably more important for designers than anyone else because the stationery its-self is an example of your work.  Be as creative as you can, and have fun with it!

Portfolio Set-Up

As we are getting finished with our identity designs, we created our digital portfolio using capzles as a cool way to display our work.  Here is a tutorial on how to set up a capzle and how it can be used.

Once students have their capzle finished, they can start uploading their work with their reflections for others to see, and for me to be able to grade.

Design Process

This was a busy first week of the new term!  Classes are full of great kids who seem excited about what we will be doing this quarter!  We started off learning about what graphic design really is (visual communication), and looking at some examples of the various disciplines that are included in the world of graphic design.  We then learned graphic design as a process, and applied it to how we will be solving problems/projects throughout this course.

Design Process:

Purpose

Research

Plan

Sketch

Draft/Critiques

Production

By going through these steps with each of our assignments, we can assure that we will turn out quality work, and have skills that will help us problem solve in other areas as well.

We started with our first project, which is with identity design.  The class is creating logos for their "graphic design company" which will be used as an identity for all of their work from here on out.  The sketches have looked promising so far, and I'm excited to see how they turn out!

Second Quarter

New term for graphic design is here!  This quarter I have 2 periods of graphic design students and am really excited to get this thing rolling.  We will get started on the introduction to graphic design, students will be able to define graphic design as a field, and identify various disciplines of the field.  We will also be introduced to the design process which has these major steps....
1. Purpose
2. Research
3. Plan
4. Sketch
5. Draft/Critique
6. Production/Reflection
We will probably end the week with an introduction to identity design and start putting together ideas for our logo project.

Be sure to follow @np_techbiz for class assignments and announcements, as well as updates with various school activities at NPHS.  I'll see you all on Tuesday!

End of Term Reflection

I have all of our projects graded and updated, and now am at the end of the term for this Graphic Design class.  I had a wonderful class full of great students.  They turned out a lot of great work that got uploaded to the digital displays in the room.  They will be great examples for future classes to see and hopefully will inspire them to great projects of their own for years to come.  I enjoyed teaching this second period each day, and really enjoyed our conversations and getting to know you more this term.  Best of luck with your classes the rest of this term, and be sure to stop by and say hello from time to time!

Next term I will have 2 graphic design classes, and am excited to see what projects they create!

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 8)

This week's graphic design student of the week did some unique lettering for their reflection on the First Things First Graphic Design Manifesto.  Great job on the picture as well as your final reflection!  Way to end the term on a great note!

Final Week

Last week of the term!  It goes by fast!  This week we are finishing up our photomanipulation projects, then will do our final project which will be over the First Things First graphic design manifesto.  This has been a great term for me, and I will miss this class as they were all fun to be around, and turned out some really creative and quality work.

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 7)

I really liked this week's designer of the week's practice run on the photomanipulation.  Combining an illustration from the movie Cars, and a photograph of an actual truck and making it into one image.  I thought the idea was very creative, and pulled off quite nicely!  Great job, and keep up the great work!!

Photomanipulation

Our class finished up our environmental design, and have now been introduced to photomanipulation, which is combining multiple photographs to make something new.  We watched a few speed-art videos on youtube of Alexander Koshelkov's work to show students some dynamic photomanipulations created using the same software we use.  We then had a practice run with free-use pictures off the internet.  Today we watched a short TED talk featuring Erik Johansson and his work, and students began planning and sketching what their final photomanipulation project will look like.  After planning, students will take photographs of the elements they want to use for their final image, then will use Adobe Photoshop to combine them into photomanipulations with content created entirely themselves.