End of the Year, First Things First

Next week is the last week of the term, and of school for the year.  We are finishing up our photo manipulations today.  Monday - Wednesday students will work on their final exam.  I will give the details for it down below.  Thursday we will clean shop, make sure images are all on our google drives and off the computers.  We will also clean out our folders and reset passwords.

Final Exam Details:

The First Things First Manifesto is a document that was created by a group of graphic designers in 1964. The purpose of it was to be a proud proclamation about the intent of graphic design being a way to express creativity and feeling in stead of as only a way to make money through advertisements.

You need to go to the following link http://www.designishistory.com/images/publications/manifesto.jpg and read this document. After you read the statement you will open up a word document and complete each of the following:

1. Make sure your name is at the top in the header section.

2. Type a 5-7 sentence paragraph explaining what the First Things First Manifesto means to you as a young graphic designer.

3. Type a 5-7 sentence paragraph explaining to me how you have grown as a graphic designer this quarter.

4. Type a 5-7 sentence paragraph explaining what grade you feel you have earned this quarter, and why.

5. Copy the picture of the document from the link, paste it into photoshop. You will then create a graphic using only that picture (cutting and moving around letters into a shape would be an example.

6. Shrink the picture to fit on your word document and place it above your paragraphs.

7. Spell check, make sure it all fits to one page, and make sure your name is on it.

8. Print to printer 1537, hand it in to me.

9. Place the paragraphs AND THE PICTURE on your blog.

10. All of this needs to be done in order for it to get any grade at all.

It has been a good term, and a very fast school year.  Each year seems to go quicker than the one before.  It's always tough to see terms end and say good-bye to our seniors, but it's just as exciting to know that we will be welcoming a new batch of students next fall.  Have a great summer!

Recent Student Work

Here are some projects that have been recently turned in that I thought were well-done.
These first two projects are environmental design experiments where students re-designed an area of our school.  I thought both ideas brought creativity to an area of our school in unique ways.

This next project is where students made a Saul Bass or a minimalist movie poster for a movie that they liked.  I thought that this poster turned out really well.

Congratulations to these students for their quality work!  We're nearing the end of the term and it's amazing to see how far some of these students have grown.

Photo Manipulation

I think the best thing about any kind of digital media is how it allows us to create anything we can see in our imagination.  The last major project we will be working on in graphic design class involves creating a photo manipulation.  We will watch a TED talk from Erik Johansson where he explains where he gets his inspiration, and how he creates his work.  We will also watch a few speed-art demonstrations from Alexander Koshelkov who creates very dynamic and detailed work.

Students will then come up with an idea, sketch it out, then use photoshop to make a photo manipulation of their own.  This comes near the end of the term, so students should really show off the extent of their photoshop skills they have learned during this class.

Environmental Design

Today we start learning about environmental design.  Environmental design is one of my favorite disciplines in graphic design because it really allows for designers to make a more creative and fun looking world.

Today we will look at examples of environmental design, and will put together a collage of our examples.  We will then create a meaningful working definition of what we thing environmental design is.

Next we will create a design that we would like to see turned in to an environmental design.  Once we complete this, we will find a photograph of a blank boring area and will photoshop our design into that area.  Here are a few examples of what the final product should look like...

When we are finished with our project, we will upload them to our portfolio and post a reflection.

Saul Bass Movie Posters

Saul Bass is considered by many to be the father of motion picture credits.  Some of his early work was with the movie Vertigo, Psycho, and the original Oceans 11.  His innovation and creative ideas made opening and closing credits be seamless and one with the movie itself.  It's easy to see his influence even today in modern movies.

Saul Bass also designed some great minimalist movie posters.  The next project students will be working on is to create a Saul Bass-inspired movie poster for one of their favorite movies.  We will start off by observing and comparing examples of Saul Bass work.  Students will then decide what movie to make a poster of.  Next, students will create a series of sketches of what their poster will look like.  Finally, students will create their poster (12 in. wide by 18 in. tall) on photoshop, post it to their portfolio, then type a reflection.  Here are some examples of what an effective Saul Bass-inspired poster may look like.

Remember, bold colors, solid recognizable shapes, creative layout, and creative typography all come into play here.  These are things we have been leaning about all term, and here is another way for us to demonstrate our ability to effectively put them together as a tribute to a legend in design.

Creative Designs from Class

Students this past week have really been working on creativity and it is starting to show in their work!  Here are some of my favorite designs that have turned up in class recently.  Keep up the good work!

Collateral Design

Next week we will be working with print and collateral design.  The important terms students will come to know are layout, margins, columns, gutters, horizon lines, and grid.  We will start off by learning how these terms come into play with collateral design.  Students will then take a magazine cover and measure all of the components and make a diagram/sketch of it on paper.  Once this is done, we will double check to make sure everything is measured and labeled on their sketch properly.  Students will then put the magazine cover away and use their sketch to make a magazine over content of their choice, and will fit it to the parameters of the measurements they diagrammed out.  After students sketch their created magazine, they will make it on photoshop.