Exam project

I'm going to try something different for this year's exam project. Your exam will be decided by YOU. I'm going to leave this project totally open. You will decide what your final project will be, and therefore what your exam grade will be. Keep in mind that I will be grading these like exams and I will scrutinize them to make sure you are doing good work, hard work and your OWN work.

Some examples would be: pick several tutorials to try out (the more you do, the better your grade), do a totally digital self portrait NOT using a photo of yourself, creating a nature scene from scratch using Adobe Illustrator, etc. You can pick ANYTHING you want, but keep in mind that these are your exam grades. Pick something with some level of difficulty.

This will be an exercise for me to see what you're made of. If you pick something easy, I will know you aren't giving this class 100% and your grade will reflect that. It is also an exercise to show me your judgement and what sort of decision-maker you are. This is an important skill when continuing on into the following classes.

So, knock me out with your choices! You will have tonight's class and Wednesday's class to work on them, but they are due before you leave class on Wednesday. You will probably need some homework time to finish them up. Don't be lazy!

Continue working on WANTED posters

You all worked very well in class on Monday, so i'll be giving you tonight's class to finish up your WANTED posters. Do your best and make these really good/funny/cool to get the best grade!

NO HOMEWORK

Graphic Design's most wanted: YOU!

We're going to continue on with our photoshop tutorial lessons this week and create a WANTED poster featuring YOU! You will be watching some tutorials during class time to learn more about this technique and you will also have your photo taken to use in this poster.

The goal? To make a convincing WANTED poster that's looking for YOU! Please feel free to include your crimes (not real ones - funny graphic design-related crimes!) on your poster and the value that lawmen have put on your head. For instance, over-use of the font Comic Sans might fetch a $5000 reward, whereas intentional disregard for grid-structure in your designs may fetch $10,000! Be creative and have fun with the text in this poster!

Have a look over the following tutorials and see which techniques you prefer to use. They are all good tutorials, but feel free to find your own if you want something different!

• YouTube: Wild West grunge effects using photoshop

• Rugged Old West design

• Classic "Wanted" poster design

We will work on these all evening in class tonight. If you work hard on them, and are getting good results, I will allow you to work on them during Wednesday's class as well. If you don't work hard tonight, you will have to finish them for homework and they will be due at the BEGINNING of class on Wednesday. Please use your time wisely! I will be checking on your progress throughout the evening.

HOMEWORK:

• Work on your "WANTED" poster design

• Due on Wedesday, April 20th (Beginning or end of class is up to your progress.)

Finishing your concert flyer

Most of you seemed to work very hard on your concert flyers on Monday. As I promised on Monday's blog post, for those who did work hard during class time, I will allow class time tonight to finish them. For those who didn't work on these in class, as I asked you to do, these are due at the beginning of class today.

NO HOMEWORK!

Creating a flyer for a concert

You all have done a great job of finding tutorials that helped you learn different techniques using the Adobe Creative Suite. Now, we are going to test your ability to put that knowledge to good use.

This project involves you creating a flyer for an upcoming concert. It can be a real band, or a fictitious band. It can be for a real concert, or a made up one. There are only a few stipulations:

Flyer must be 8.5 x 11 inches

Flyer must include at least THREE photographs

Flyer must include a band LOGO (making one up gets you brownie points!)

You must use some sort of layer blending modes in this project

Flyer must have the name/address/date/time of the concert on it.

This should be a FUN project! Now, have at it and blow me away with the uber-creativity you're about to unleash!!! You will have all class period tonight to work on these and probably the class period on Wednesday. I will make that decision tonight, after I see how wisely you use your class time. Goof off tonight, you won't get Wednesday to finish them.

HOMEWORK:

• Work on these concert flyers!!!

Finish your tutorials tonight

Everyone in class did a wonderful job of picking out some interesting (and difficult) tutorials! I can hardly wait to see the results of this assignment! We will surely have more great work to post on the boards outside the classroom tonight!

Please take tonight's class to finish your THREE tutorials and make sure to save the URLs of your tutorial sites in a text file (using TextEdit on your mac) so I can go over them, and maybe even try a few of these myself! You will turn this text file in with your tutorial files. Without it, your grade will suffer GREATLY!

You will turn in everything on my flash drive tonight. PLEASE be sure to bring all of your class materials with you as well. Remember, I'm grading you based on having all your materials. This is part of your class participation grade and it WILL affect your final grade!

NO HOMEWORK!

Working on your own to learn

This week, I'm going to try something new. Up until now, you have been relying on your textbook or my teaching to learn the techniques you've been using. Now, I want you to head out on your own, search the world wide web and find some other sites that might help you learn some new techniques. I won't always be around to guide you in the direction you need, so you must learn how to find your own way and pick up the skills you may need in the future.

This week, you are going to find THREE different tutorials from three DIFFERENT places and complete them. I want these to be semi-advanced to advanced tutorials, NOT weaksauce, entry-level tutorials. These should take you some time to complete. We will work on them all night in class tonight, and I will be giving you input on your choices (and let you know if they are hard enough.) Though, I WON'T be telling you specifically WHAT to do, nor will I tell you where to find it. This is an exercise in exploration!

We'll see how these go tonight. If you all are picking really nice tutorials that take more time, I will give you until the end of class on Wednesday to complete them. If you pick quick, easy tutorials, I may make you do more than three. Probably more like 10, so don't mess around! Challenge yourself and learn something new!

HOMEWORK:

• Choose three different tutorials on the web

• Can be using Photoshop -or- Illustrator

• Each tutorial MUST be from a different website

• Each tutorial MUST be for a different technique.

• You will turn in the ORIGINAL files for each (PSDs or AI files.)