2018 Term 1 Week 1

Welcome back to another great school year at NPHS!  I can't wait to get started with graphic design courses!  We will spend the first week of class getting to know each other and researching career field and educational opportunities in digital design.  We will also get our login and passwords so we can access the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite which we will be using for our projects throughout the term.  I'm looking forward to seeing you all and your creativity in class!!

NPHS TERM 4: GRAPHIC DESIGN

We are already in term 4!  Crazy!  Graphic Design students will become familiar with classroom expectations and procedures.  We will then start doing some research about careers and education in graphic design.  This is a short week, so we will work hard to get this done by the end of class on Friday, then next week will start our first designs!

Advanced graphic design will look at the schedule for this term, then will start brainstorming ideas they want to use for their term-long projects.  Possibly by the end of the week, we will start working on our project idea proposals and having conversations about the realistic and challenging expectations for what we all want to accomplish.

I hope everybody had a great break, and is ready to come back and get to work!!

NPHS graphic design 1: term 3: week 3: stationery

Graphic design students have finished their first projects, which was to make a logo using their initials.  This was to meet our standard CIS.HS.1.11: Identify project's message and mission.  The students did a very nice job, especially for it being their first project, and being new to the design process.  Here are a few samples of some logos they put together that I really liked.

The next step we are going to work towards is creating an identity for this logo.  We will be paying attention to styles, colors, type-face, etc.  Students will be using the identity they create to design a set of business stationery.  They will make an 8.5 x 11 in. letterhead, a 9.5 x 4.125 in. envelope, and a business card (sizes on this one may vary, but a popular size is 2 x 3.5 in).  Students have researched ideas that they like, then will start sketching ideas and will get into groups to collaborate and critique ideas that they have come up with.    I can't wait to see how they turn out!

graphic design: term 3: week 2: Design Process

We've made it through our first week of graphic design!  Students have turned in their papers where they researched careers and fields of graphic design.  We are now working on our design process which includes the following steps:
1. Purpose
2. Research
3. Planning(outlines, sketches, draft, feedback)
4. Production

Your students should be able to explain what each of these steps mean, and what we do at each stage.  We have been going through this process for the first time with our first design, which is an identity design.  We are creating logos using our initials.  Students played some logo identification games for their research, then we discussed what rules we feel we need to follow to create effective logos.  We then sketched ideas on paper.  We did a gallery walk to give everybody feedback, then went into small groups to have conversations about our work and what direction we want to go with our projects.  The next step is to create our designs on the computer.  We are learning to use our digital tools at the same time as this, so we have a lot of new things going on at once here.  Below is a brief tutorial of a logo design we will do together as a class.

Once we are finished with our digital design, we will create portfolios on crevado.com, then will upload our design with a reflection to be graded.  Students have been doing a great job so far, and I'm excited to see how these first designs turn out!

Term 3: Graphic Design: Week 1

We are all ready for another section of visual storytelling, or graphic design!  Students will be creating a great assortment of visual projects that can be used in a large variety of settings.  This week we will learn about the topics and disciplines of graphic design.  We will also spend some time getting to know each other.  The next part of this week will deal with learning about the history of graphic design and its role in our daily lives.  Students will research information about graphic design, and we will finalize it into a report.  Students should have a very good idea of all of the career opportunities that are available in graphic design.  I can't wait for class to start and to see everybody on the first day of term 3!

graphic design: Typography

Graphic design students have finished their work with branding and identity designs, now we are on to typography.  Be sure to ask you kids about Mr. Petersen's commandments of typography!!    We have been discussing effective typography practice, and how a different message can be delivered just by changing the space and weight of the letters.  We have also looked at some different styles including grunge design by David Carson.  We are practicing putting together some typography prints and will then finally put together one of our own.  This is such a great group of students, and I am really enjoying seeing their work this term!

adv graphic design Project Work

Students have all turned in their project proposals, their outlines, and their mood boards.  Now it is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on our projects.  For the next several weeks, students will be working on their projects.  They need to have a one on one meeting with me at least one time each week where we can have conversations about our work and progress to see if any changes need to be made to our timeline or overall project goals.  Students have great ideas and now it's time to start making them become a reality.