graphic design branding guides then typography (week 4)

We are just about all finished up with our business stationery and will then be ready to create our branding guides for our imaginary companies.  We will look at several good examples of identity standards, and will discuss the importance of a brand and identity and will see how everything fits together.  Once we finish up this document, students will be ready to start learning about typography.  We will see some examples including work from David Carson, then students will create a few types of typography work.

I'm really pleased with how students have been working this term, and look forward to start posting some of their work online within the next week!

Advanced Graphic Design Project Work (week 4)

Students have turned in their project proposals, their project time-lines, and their project boards.  Students have also been doing their weekly conferences with me allowing us to have conversations about the progress of their work.  For the next several weeks, students will be working on their independent term-long projects.  The only thing students need to worry about is being as productive workers, staying on schedule, and continuing to have their weekly conference with me.  Each conference is a 5 point assignment, so they really add up by the time we get to the end of the term.

I have also sent home a permission slip for a field trip.  On Tuesday, May 2nd, we will be visiting Pro Printing here in town.  This will give students the opportunity to see what graphic design looks like in a real-world/business setting.  Students will need to have their permission slip signed by parents/guardians and turned back in to me by April 28th.  This is a great experience for the kids, and very generous of Pro Printing to donate their time and open their doors to us to teach us about the career of graphic design.

Advanced Graphic Design Mood Boards (week 3)

Students have their project proposals turned in, their outlines with their components of their term-long projects finished, along with a term outline that they plan to follow.  The next part of their projects will involve their mood board.  This will be a collection of resources and various inspirational pieces of work the students will be using to guide their project as they work on it.  It can also include font-types, color combinations, and sketches.  This project will be due at the end of the week, and is what the students needed a poster board as listed in the course syllabus.  Projects are off to a good start, and soon we will really be into the project work itself.

Graphic Design Branding (Week 3)

Graphic Design class will be finishing up their logos on the computer at the start of this week.  We will then start looking at branding and finding a way to incorporate their identity design to a set of business stationery and promotional materials.  We will finish up by creating a branding guide or identity standard.  Great job so far by the kids this term!

Advanced Graphic Design: project components, timeline, project board (week 2)

Last week, students finished up their project proposals for their term-long work they will be doing.  This week, we will divide up that term-long project into smaller components.  Students will break it down to everything they will need to do to accomplish everything for their work.  Once students have this finished, they will create a detailed time-line showing what they will get done each day/week in class this term.  Once students have this finished, they will need to collect resources for their project and inspiration work that they will then assemble into a project board or mood/inspiration board.  They will use this board as a guide to help give them direction for many aspects of their project from this term.  The class has had a lot of creative ideas for their projects, and I am excited to see them work through the final product!

graphic design: design process and digital design (week2)

Students will be finishing up their research work on Monday and will turn it in at the end of the class.  On Tuesday, we will introduce the design process, and will do this while learning about identity design.  Students will be creating logos for a brand.  Once we get to the part of the process that deals with creating the work digitally, we will get familiarized with the Adobe Creative Cloud suite for the rest of the week.  When we return the following week, we will then be ready to create our logos using digital tools.

Adv. Graphic Design (week 1)

Advanced graphic design starts class on Thursday when we get back from break.  We will get our syllabus, and look at the outline schedule for this term.  Students will then have some time to start brainstorming ideas for their term-long project that they will be working on.  Once they have an idea, they will type of a proposal and we will have a conference about their idea and how they will accomplish it.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what we create this term!

4th term graphic design (week 1)

Next week on Thursday we will have a new set of students ready to be learning about visual story-telling and graphic design.  We will get the syllabus and discuss our topics we will be learning about.  We will then do a research project to find out the role that graphic design plays in today's world.  This class will be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see the creativity that my students display in their work this term!