Words can become a visual expression of its own beyond regular drawings. As the student’s first assignment in Graphic Design, they were given the challenge of creating their own Typographic Alphabet based on a visual theme of their choice. Through the use of a Baseline, Cap Height, Mean Line and other areas of the anatomy of font and the use of the Principles of Design, students went through a detailed drawing process to create each letter as an individual creation of shape, line and color. Students either designed each letter to be representational, (For example: A is for Apple) or created an overall thematic theme with no associations to the letter itself. These completed alphabet examples from A to Z are sample models which will be used in their first project. Afterwards, they chose a phrase associated to the them of their alphabet and designed an interesting phrase utilizing aesthetically pleasing compositional elements.
TYPOGRAPHIC ALPHABET DESIGN
TYPOGRAPHIC PHRASE DESIGN
EXPLORATIONS IN ADOBE COMP
To prepare out transition from hand made Graphic Design work to a more digital realm, the students learned how to work with Adobe Comp, which is a basic version of InDesign. These are both Adobe programs which Graphic Designs use primarily for layout designs, such as websites and magazines/ newspapers. These are a variety of designs created through this app, which showcase their skills with aesthetically interesting compositions.
Recipe Design
Adventure Poster Design
Activity Poster Design
ADVENTURE EDITORIAL DESIGN
Our next unit in Graphic Design was based around Editorial layouts. Students learned about the anatomy and structure of an Editorial and applied them to their own designs. Based on what they learned in Adobe Comp and about Editorial Layout, the students created a two page spread with a balance of imagery and text based on the theme of ADVENTURE.
ARTIST RETROSPECTIVE
After the Editorial, students took the information they learned and applied it to design their own Artist Retrospective. A Retrospective is an exhibition or compilation showing the development of the work of a particular artist over a period of time. In this case, the students designed an article based on their art and the influences that brought them there. These were created in Abode Comp or Adobe InDesign
EXPLORATION IN ADOBE DRAW: PRODUCT RE-DEDSIGN
To prepare for our final Unit in Graphic Design, students learned how to use Adobe Draw, which is similar to the program Adobe Illustrator. This is a vector graphic drawing program. A vector graphic is artwork made up of points, lines, and curves that are based upon mathematical equations, rather than a solid colored square pixels. For this project, students had to take an existing product and redesign it in a completely new aesthetically interesting way through the use of the app.
After the students became familiar with Adobe Draw, we began out final Unit of the Semester. This Unit deals with Company Design, from logos to business cards to uniforms and package designs. The students were to imagine they inherited a lot of money and could start any company they wanted. As the Graphic Designer, they have to create a logo that is memorable, versatile, appropriate and timeless. From there, they created Personal Logotypes, which is their networking platform. They designed a letterhead, envelope, business card and a social media platform. These are the items that will help promote them as a new company. The final stage was to design a Corporate Identity, where they created the company's uniforms, transportation and package design that would be seen across the world. This final Unit allowed the students to explore one theme in multiple presentations.
LOGO DESIGN IN ADOBE DRAW
COMPANY LOGOTYPES IN ADOBE COMP (LETTERHEAD, ENVELOPE, BUSINESS CARDS & SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS)
CORPORATE IDENTITY IN ADOBE COMP (UNIFORMS, TRANSPORTATION AND PACKAGE DESIGN)