Great Poster Examples and Happy Thanksgiving!

We have finished up our project where students created a minimal movie poster, and had some very creative ideas.  Here are the 2 best projects that I had turned in to me.  Great job with these projects, and keep up the great work!

Also, I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving.  Safe travels to all, and we will see you next week!

Saul Bass Poster Project

We are nearly finished with our infographics which means it's time to introduce our next project.  As we learn about layouts and how to effectively fit design elements into a given space, we will be putting together a movie poster.  Saul Bass was a graphic designer who was also the father of animated/moving credits in films.  He also made iconic famous movie posters with his unique minimal style.  Students will be looking at some of the work of Saul Bass, then will choose a favorite movie of theirs to remake the movie poster for, but in the style of the great Saul Bass.  Projects will be 36 in by 24 in.  This will be a great project to allow kids great creativity to use appropriate space of a layout, appropriate color and type-face, as well as have exposure to a graphic design pioneer.

Infographics

This week we will start our next project which is our infographic.  Students will spend some time researching different kinds, then will gather information for their project.  Next, students will sketch ideas out, then assemble their infographic on Photoshop.  Students will need to include sources of where they got their information.

Below are a few examples of some student work from our typography projects that I thought turned out great.  Keep up the good work!

Good Work and Typography

Students finished up with their business stationery and identity standard/branding guide as we are finished with our identity design unit.  Here are a few good examples from the class.

Our next section is about typography.  Today we watched a TED talk about David Carson, who makes creative designs with typography.  Students then are finding an idiom and creating a design that integrates the words/phrase used to an illustration.  Student work from the past has been very creative with this, and I know that this term will be no different.

Good First Designs

As we are working on our identity design section in our introduction to graphic design course, I wanted to post a few designs I thought turned out well, especially for our first efforts.

We have had a lot of creative ideas, and we are building on our skills every day.  It's exciting to see how this group of students has grown already, and will be fun to see their work change as they progress through the course!

Branding Guide Assignment

Once we are finished with our business stationery, we will be ready to wrap up our identity design unit.  The last part of our identity design unit involves creating an identity standard document for our company.  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.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)

Once the identity standard document is completed, we will print it off, staple it, and turn it in.  The project is worth 20 points.

Photoshop Ninja Training

Now that we have finished our introduction to Photoshop CC, students are now ready to start showing me Photoshop skills for their technology competency grade for class.  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)

Stationery

Graphic Design students will be putting together their portfolio this week that we will be using to post our work.  The first post will include last week's logo along with a 5-7 sentence reflection.  Our next project for the portfolio we will be working on is a set of business stationery that is for our imaginary company that we created the logo for.  Students will create the following elements:

letterhead 8.5 x 11 in.
business card 3 x 2.5 in.
envelope 9.5 x 4.124 in.

We will look at some examples, talk about consistent identity, and will sketch some drafts, then will create our product electronically.  When we are finished we will make a presentation spread that will allow students to present their stationery in a professional way, then will post along our reflections.