Spheres – In-class exercise – due sept. 8 at the beginning of class.
Objectives:
HOMEWORK:
Lab times are generally announced in the new semester once schedules are set and new lab assistants are hired. Once this is done, the hours will be posted on the classroom door.
We begin the semester learning how to capture images and manipulate them in Photoshop.Discussion and hands-on exercises will explore:
Why Design Wise words from design authorities, reading assignments, et al.
(Be sure to follow this link to additional reading assignments and exercises.)
Due Wednesday, May 12th.
Wednesday’s class (the 12th) is our last meeting before our final on May 19th. Everyone is required to send a high resolution press quality pdf to the instructor today, Monday May 10th. Your files will likely be too large to send using the normal process of attaching to an email, so you may need to use a service like You Send It, a website where you can upload large files. The recipient is notified by email with a link to download the large file. Simple, done.
All files should be sent to the instructor, nancy@desktopdesign.net. They will be reviewed and printed and brought to class for you on Wednesday the 12th with feedback so that you are prepared to print and bind for the final next Wednesday, the 19th.
Moorpark College students and faculty can get an outrageously cool deal on Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium. The link is for Mac, but it’s available for the same price for Windows platform. If you decide to look at the academic pricing on the new CS5, take special note of the variety of CS5 offerings. Each collection serves up a different mix of programs. For example, CS5-Design Premium includes InDesign, making it the ideal suite of programs for graphic design for print and on the web. You can see a comparison chart detailing the contents of each of the CS5 collections on the Adobe website.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges’ site, www.collegebuys.org, has unbeatable prices on Adobe and Microsoft software for community college students and faculty, plus more great buys too numerous to mention. Check it out for yourself.
For the purposes of our final project, we’ll refer to any multiple page publication as a “book.”
The minimum number of pages in your book should be 20 pages including front, back and inside covers. You can, of course, go over the 20-page minimum.
The topic of your book is your choice, with one of the choices being an art and design portfolio. If you choose this topic, please include every project and exercise that we did during the semester. The accompanying text should explain the objectives of the project and an overview of what you learned from the project. You book can also include projects you worked on outside of class.
Step 1: Create a Dummy book. We’ll learn how to do this in class today. You’ll create a “mock up” of the finished product, beginning with either the minimum, or anticipated number of pages. Use your Dummy to plan out page numbering and content, remembering that even pages are always on the right and odds on the left.
Step 2: Choose a ‘Style/Format’ for your book. Examples: Magazine, Newspaper, Comic book, Newsletter, Novel, etc. Your book should include the appropriate sections that comprise the style of book that you have chosen. For example, a book is not printed on the inside front cover, while a magazine is. A book has a title page and the copyright page is on the reverse or in book language, “verso.”
Step 3: Choose the appropriate type of bindery for the type of book you’ll be creating. Consideration should be given to the way in which the book will be handled and used by the intended readership. The type of binding determines the publication’s final page count and dictates the size paper and style of printer or printing press on which the book is printed. Bindery and usage are of critical importance in the production of the artwork in InDesign, the final step before outputting PDF files to send to “the printer.”
In designing the look of your book, you will be choosing everything! This may be the last time you are given choices, which means…let those creative juices flow. Among your choices as a designer are:
Final – Wednesday, May 19th from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Your presence and participation is required.
Today we will discuss and finalize the criteria for your final project. Because some students have expressed interest in working on a project that doesn’t quite fit the guidelines discussed in last Wednesday’s class, we will talk about possibly expanding the scope for the project. Therefore, be prepared to come to class Wed., April 14th, with a Printed Proposal for your Final Project. (You can print it out at the beginning of class.)
Search the blog for specifications on the greeting card assignment. All sizes are listed. Today we will review the requirements for the greeting card project and we’ll cover the project workflow…Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat. We’ll also review text setting in Illustrator and compare it to corresponding features in InDesign. You’ll also find a link in the “extras” to a short article on Painting in Photoshop, which summarizes a demo on painting in Photoshop from last week.
Due: Wed. April 7th
Today we will take a look at our Illustrator progress, review and come up to day. We’ll examine the criteria for the set of 4 greeting cards, with the upcoming deadline of March 25th for completed folder and tight comps.
Development Stages:
Tight comps are a representation of the final, printed products.
Download the image of Otto the Weinerdog to use as a basis for an illustration. Do not use the live trace tool.
The purpose of this exercise is to familiarize you with Illustrator’s layers and how Illustrator manages the stacking order within each layer.
This lesson also includes a review of transformations and an introduction to patterns.
