Great Week!

Students have been doing a great job learning Photoshop and demonstrating their skills and techniques to me.  I can't wait until next week when we get back to our business logos and create them on the computer!  Friday we will have a design challenge where students will be a making a bulldog logo that will be used for a fundraiser.  This will be a great opportunity to demonstrate where we are as young graphic designers and will also give some fun competition, which will provide for a real-life design situation.

Photoshop Week!

Yesterday we did a practice run through the design process, and used it to design a logo using our initials. The last step we need to complete for our logo is production. Before we can do that, we will be taking a break as we learn how to use some of our digital tools. This week we will be learning how to use Adobe Photoshop cs5.5. Students throughout the term will use Photoshop to complete their projects, and will also demonstrate skills with the program to earn points towards their Photoshop competency grade. Students will be recognized as they earn various amount amount of points in what I call the Photoshop Ninja Program. Here are the badges that the students will be earning this term:

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)

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is getting right to work by doing a short research project on what graphic design is. Students will answer the following information on their paper: Students will research and write a paper over the following information: What is your definition of graphic design? A brief history or timeline of graphic design. Where can we see graphic design today? Examples of fields or disciplines of study in graphic design. Careers that involve graphic design. Why did you decide to take a course in graphic design? The assignment listed above is due Monday when they walk in the door. Students will also need to bring their notebooks Monday as we will start our first design in class.

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school, and to graphic design class! I am Mr. Petersen, your graphic design instructor, and am excited for this 2015/2016 school year! Graphic design class has new computers to use this school year (yeah!!), and will also at some point be updating to the new adobe creative cloud. This will give students the opportunity to use cutting-edge, industry driven tools that are used in graphic design and digital design! I will use this blog to communicate important course information, as well as to post student work. I also stay active on twitter, so be sure to follow at @np_techbiz. I will also send home a syllabus with students on Wednesday. Other exciting news is that we now have advanced graphic design as both an independent study and as a full class. This will be perfect for those who are looking to further sharpen their skills, and learn how to apply their knowledge to industry-related projects. I'm looking forward to seeing all the creative work that this new class of young graphic designers will make, and to seeing everyone back to school!