Typography

We are officially done with identity design, and on to typography.  We will be watching a TED talk with David Carson and looking at a lot of cool examples of typography.  We also have done a scavenger hunt to find example of typography in the world around us that we will look at as a class.  We posted our examples via twitter and on our class bulletin board and have some great samples to work with!  Eventually, we will start working on a typography project using a play on words in a picture form.

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 2)

Graphic Design Student of the Week isn't only about turning out solid projects.  The end result is obviously very important, but other traits are important to being a good graphic designer.  Attitude, work ethic, and problem solving are all extremely important.  If you lack these traits, you cannot consistently turn out quality work.

This week's graphic design student of the week was gone from school for a week.  When he returned, he not only worked his tail off to get all of his work caught up, he didn't take any short-cuts in the design process.  He tried many different ideas, chose challenging elements for his work, and finished up with a great identity to use for his graphic design company.  I posted some sample work from some promotional materials he created.  What impressed me most was after I was gone from school Friday, the substitute note said that he was very helpful in class.  So not only did he get all his make-up work turned in, and finish with quality work, he was able to help the class and substitute teacher after he was finished.

Great job, and keep up the great work!  Thanks for being a positive necessary part to our classroom culture!

Identity Standard (Identity Design Final)

As we were creating our logo and business stationary, I we were actually creating an identity for our graphic design company.  What we will do next is create an Identity Standard document.  First, I want you to look at an example of one from Chadron State College (http://www.csc.edu/collegerelations/identity.csc).  

For an example of what your identity standard will look like, check this link http://graphdesportfolio.blogspot.com/2012/10/identity-standard.htmlOpen 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.  I also would like you to print this off and turn it in.  You do not need to add a reflection to this project, as the work itself is a reflection of our identity design unit.

Promotional Matierials

This week we are continuing to learn about Identity Design, and will be working on putting together some business stationery for our imaginary graphic design companies.

Purpose: Create business stationery for your graphic design company (letterhead, business card, and envelope).
Research:  Look at class examples and do image searchesPlan:  Come up with procedures how you will budget your time with this project.Sketches:  Make several sketches for each element of this project, draw Mock-ups on paper.Draft/Critique:  Class 5 Square ActivityProduction:  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.

This week's Photoshop Ninja Achievement Badge Winners!

Great job to all the graphic design students learning essential photoshop skills that will help them to be more successful this term!  Congratulations to the students who have earned two points, which earned them their Hong-Kong Phooey Photoshop Ninja Achievement Badge....
Grace, Levi, Will, Cade, Shalee, Will, Aspen, Jessica, Richard, Katei, Vanessa, Sissy, Ian, and Bryce!

Also, Congratulations to Shalee on earning her Michaelangelo Photoshop Ninja Achievement Badge!

Congratulations to you all!  You should be very proud of yourselves.  You are well on your way to becoming complete Photoshop Ninjas!

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 1)

Congratulations to this week's graphic design student of the week winner!  So many students started off the quarter the right way by really doing a great job with the whole design process, and we had a lot of great creative logos.  I really liked this week's winners logo because of the colors and hand-drawn style of the actual logo.  Great job and keep up the great work!

Creating an Identity

This term we have started our identity design work.  Each student is creating a logo for their imaginary graphic design company, using their initials.  This also gave us a chance to model how to properly use the design process (purpose, research, plan, sketches, draft/critique, and production).  I have looked at our paper draft copies of the student work and was really happy with what I have seen so far.  Here are a few examples that I thought were the most creative and well-done so far in the project.

We are learning the ins and outs of photoshop and hopefully by the end of the week will have our logos put into digital format.

Photoshop Ninjas!

We have completed our sketches and drawings for our logo project as we are learning about identity design (I will post pictures in upcoming week).  We are now ready to create our logos on the computer, but first, we need to learn a little Photoshop!

This term I am trying something new.  Students will have a list of Photoshop skills that I feel are essential for a strong foundation of the program.  Students will demonstrate me these various features throughout the term.  When they have successfully demonstrated a feature to me, they are awarded points.  Finally, after a certain amount of points, they will be recognized with Photoshop Ninja Achievement Badges.

Here are the badges...

Hong-Kong Phooey Badge  (2 points)

Michaelangelo Badge          (6 points)

Steven Seagal Badge         (10 points)

Bruce Lee Badge              (12 points)

Chuck Norris Badge          (16 points)

Yoda Badge                      (20 points)

Students will be recognized for badge achievements each week along with the Graphic Design Student of the Week!  Have a great rest of the week!  Photoshop Ninja Training starts.....NOW!

Term 3 Graphic Design

I hope everybody had a great Holiday Break and a Happy New Year.  Now that we've had a chance to take a break from school and recharge our batteries we should be ready to attack the second half of this school year!  Graphic Design students will learn rules, procedures, and expectations, then will get started with an introduction to the design process.  By the end of the week we will be creating our first design.  Students will need a sketchbook/journal every day and will need to be able to access their school email.  Be sure to be prepared and have these materials ready to go.