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.

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 8)

Final reflections have been turned in and graded!  This week's graphic design student of the week did a great job with her typograph inspired by the First Things First Graphic Design Manifesto.  This student consistent with her work ethic all term long and turned in quality projects.  Another remarkable note is that this is her THIRD DESIGN STUDENT OF THE WEEK AWARD!  Great job all term, and thank you for all of your hard work!

Graphic Design Students of the Week (Week 7)

Photomanipulations are turned in and graded!  I really like what this student turned in for his project.  Students had to create a creative photomanipulation used of images that they took with a camera.  I thought this student did a nice job of taking usable photographs, and really took his time to put together a quality image using Adobe Photoshop.  Students sometimes have a hard time when forced to use creativity and abstract ideas, but that was most certainly not the case with this photomanipulation.  Great job and keep up the good work!

Final Week!

Today we are finishing up the final touches on our photomanipulations, and having student-teacher conferences over the project.  Next week we will be finishing up the term for Graphic Design.

On Monday and Tuesday we will learn how to take picture of a house, turn it into a winter scene, and finish it off with photoshoping Christmas lights onto the house.  Students will be given a brief tutorial, then will create one of their own by altering the techniques they were taught.  Wednesday and Thursday we will be looking at the First Things First Graphic Design Manifesto.  After we read through this, students will relate it to their learning in Graphic Design, and will have 2 days to put together their Final Exam.  Friday we will clean shop, make sure our network folders are cleared out.  Students should have all work transferred to their google drive and uploaded to their Capzle, which we used as a digital portfolio.

All make-up work needs to be in by the end of Tuesday of next week.  This will allow me time to get it graded, as well as the final exam so they can be entered in Friday before we leave for break.

Photomanipulation Assignments

We are to our last major project for graphic design this week.  Today we learned about photomanipulations.  We watched a brief TED Talk with Erik Johansson where he showed his work and gave steps to creating an effective photomanipulaiton.  We also saw a speed art of Alexander Koshelkov where he used similar methods from the first video.  Students then started sketching ideas that they wanted to use for their practice project.

The practice photomanipulation involves students creating an abstract image using free use pictures from the internet with photoshop.  This will give students some experience in combining photographs and finding ways to make them fit together.

The final photomanipulation will require students to create a photomanipulaiton using photographs that they take themselves.  They will start off with a sketch, photograph elements to be used for the sketch, then will put it together using photoshop.  We will finish up by uploading these to our Capzles and posting a reflection.

Graphic Design Student of the Week (Week 6)

I really liked this week's graphic design student of the week's work.  Often times graphic design students have a hard time deciding when to use an elaborate design or when to use a simpler design.  I thought that this student had an effective design that ties in well with it surroundings and was nicely photoshoped into the area where he wanted to see this design.