VCOM 50: Weekly Assignments
Only Three (3 – count’em) classes left before finals!
Posted Friday, May 4, 2012
Due 12:30 pm; Friday, May 11, 2012 – PRINTED
You will need to purchase a VCOM Print Card (not a Las Positas Print Card) at the book store for $10.00. Today I will show you how to set up a VCOM Print Form.
THE SMART PHONE APP Project: CLICK THE LINK phone-app-doc
1. Remember, design the structure of the app before you begin creating logos or buttons: you need to think about how the viewer navigates the five or six pages — study apps that do similar things
2. Is the app something that will be sponsored by an institution or offered by a larger company? Does it stand on its own?
3. Is there a need for GPS service in it?.
4. Does it need a “store”, shopping cart, and payment procedures? If yes, researching possibilities is optional, but study what other apps with these needs do to implement these functions.
5. TALK TO ME about your idea so we can brainstorm together
6. SAVE the file to your desktop often as you work, finish up by saving it to the server and then to your portable storage device. Remove the portable device from the the iMac before you leave.
ALTERNATE or EXTRA SEMESTER PROJECT
Assigned Friday, April 6, 2012
Due 12:30 pm; Friday, May 11, 2012 – PRINTED
THE SMART PHONE APP Project: details in class today
FRIDAY, April 6, 2012
Less is More Problem;
Go to the VIDEOS PAGE
Assigned: 4/6/12
Due: 4/20/12
A new set of videos for this project available here: | Photoshop Video 1 | Photoshop Video 2 | Bridge Video 1 | Marquee Selections Video |
click here for examples: less-is-more-examples
click here for files: less-is-more-photos
Make sure you look over the LESS-IS-MORE examples PDF to get the general idea of what we will be doing in class today.
1. Download and decompress the “less-is-more examples” and the “less-is-more photos” from the two links above. Take the “less-is-more photos” folder and drag it onto the ADOBE BRIDGE ICON on your dock.
2. Arrange the BRIDGE interface so that your CONTENTS WINDOW is narrow. Enlarge the PREVIEW window as much as possible and shrink the META DATA WINDOW to nothing. When you click each CONTENT IMAGE, you will see it in a large, high resolution image in the PREVIEW WINDOW.
3. Choose ONE of these image in the CONTENT WINDOW and DRAG it to the PHOTOSHOP ICON on the DOCK. This will open the IMAGE in the GRAYSCALE Mode.
4. Go to the IMAGE MENU and select MODE then choose RGB from the pop-out menu.
5. SAVE the file to your desktop.
6. Set your workspace to FULL SCREEN MODE WITH MENU BAR. NOTE! This step is essential to do this project efficiently.
7. As I will demonstrate in class and as is shown in the videos, DRAG the first LAYER to the NEW LAYER ICON on the LAYERS PANEL to create a copy of the first layer. ENLARGE this new LAYER.
8. Go: SELECT > ALL then EDIT > COPY and (with your second layer active-in blue) EDIT PASTE.
9. Now, either repeat step 7 on this new LAYER - or - repeat step 7 on the original Layer. The object here is to create a new, different, and larger ENLARGEMENT.
10. Whichever method used, repeat step 8 on this new layer.
11. HOLD THE COMMAND KEY and SELECT the TWO LAYERS YOU ENLARGED (steps 7 and 9), NOT THE TWO LAYERS YOU CREATED IN STEPS 8 AND 10. SAVE.
12. Choose your favorite of the three layers remaining and GO: Image > ADJUSTMENTS > INVERT. (Note: do not Go: Select > Inverse.) SAVE.
13. You now have FOUR VERY DIFFERENT LAYERS. DRAG your favorite of these four to the new layer icon to create a new layer that is a copy of the chosen one. CLICK on the BRUSH TOOL on the TOOLBAR. CHOOSE a HARD BRUSH from the BRUSHES POP-DOWN (second top left ICON on the menu bar) and set it to around 25 PIXELS. Set the MODE POP-DOWN (long, third ICON UPPER LEFT) to COLOR. Make sure the SWATCHES PANEL is OPEN on your desktop.
14. Choose ONE COLOR from the SWATCHES. Paint it onto your most recently made layer, emphasizing some aspect of its composition.
15. Repeat step 13 to create a Sixth Layer from the LAYER you just COLORED or another layer of your choice. This last layer should have at least two colors and at most five colors added to it.
16. SAVE and copy the file to the server and to your ZIP drive.
Note: many of the videos were done for previous semesters, so some of what you see on them will look different from the current video and media page content. The meaning and the content are absolutely identical for our purposes. Ignore the time frames.
FIRST SEMESTER PROJECT: Smart Phone App
Assigned Friday, March 16, 2012
Due at 12:30 pm; Friday, April 6, 2012s
In this project the class will be working as a design firm to create a new Smart Phone App. We won’t be coding it, but we want to develop a number of aspects of the application and its use, the basics of its construction and look and feel, it’s app icon, splash page, and the rudiments of its navigation. If you wish, you may join the crazy group we were discussing in class today or you may, alone or with a small team, create your own theme for this.
For Friday, April 6. bring 3 to 5 initial ideas (small is good here) and prepare to throw them around and see what we come up with.
DESIGNING WITH TYPE PROJECT
Assigned Friday, March 16, 2012
Due at 12:30 pm; Friday, March 30, 2012 or Friday, April 6, 2012: depending on the class
Project 6: design with type-1 | Project 6: design with type-2 | Project 6: design with type-3
FOR FRIDAY, March 26, 2011: Our first project using TYPE starts. This project is a parallel to our first project, the BLACK SQUARE PROBLEM. Like that exercise, it involves your own creative approach and amusing or profound, illustrative instincts focused on the possibilities within some prescribed letter-forms. You need to really look at the letters in each of the six alphabets on the project file. In particular, look for differences in the way lines end, how the thickness and thinness of lines combines on the letters, how different types of curves are drawn, differences in the height of Capital and lower case letters, which letters descend below the baseline in different fonts. What suggestions of imagery do you get from different letters in different fonts?
Zoom in on each alphabet to start the questions and visual associations you can get from each fonts specifics. Then start “playing”.
Note: the videos all refer to Fall 2010. Just pretend you are hearing Fall 2011 and you’ll be fine.
Watch the videos!
The three videos will take you through the project as often as you need. In this project, you should probably divide your time about half and half between studying the shapes in each alphabet, looking for visual associations (real or imagined) and experimentally putting letters together on the work area until your idea really gels.
THE LIFE & DEATH PROJECT: continued if necessary
DESIGNING WITH TYPE PROJECT
Assigned Friday, March 16, 2012
Due at 12:30 pm; Friday, March 23, 2012 or Friday, March 30, 2012: depending on the class
Designing with Type files | Example Files by Visual Literacy Students | A Brief history of type | Using type in Illustrator | Anatomy of Type | Type references on the web |
Project 6: design with type-1 | Project 6: design with type-2 | Project 6: design with type-3
FOR FRIDAY, March 23, 2012: Our first project using TYPE starts. This project is a parallel to our first project, the BLACK SQUARE PROBLEM. Like that exercise, it involves your own creative approach and amusing or profound, illustrative instincts focused on the possibilities within some prescribed letter-forms. You need to really look at the letters in each of the six alphabets on the project file. In particular, look for differences in the way lines end, how the thickness and thinness of lines combines on the letters, how different types of curves are drawn, differences in the height of Capital and lower case letters, which letters descend below the baseline in different fonts. What suggestions of imagery do you get from different letters in different fonts?
Zoom in on each alphabet to start the questions and visual associations you can get from each fonts specifics. Then start “playing”.
Note: the videos all refer to Fall 2010. Just pretend you are hearing Fall 2011 and you’ll be fine.
Watch the videos!
The three videos will take you through the project as often as you need. In this project, you should probably divide your time about half and half between studying the shapes in each alphabet, looking for visual associations (real or imagined) and experimentally putting letters together on the work area until your idea really gels.
THE JACK & JILL PROJECT
Assigned Friday, March 2, 2012
Due at 12:00 pm; Friday, March 2, 2012
The Jack and Jill project files
Project 3: jacknjill-1 | Project 3: jacknjill-2 | Project 3: jacknjill-3
FOR MONDAY, September 19, 2011: This will be our first project that involves “telling a story”. Those of you raised in the English speaking west will be familiar with the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill”. Those with other backgroounds will probably be encountering this for the first time. No matter. There are six short lines to this little rhyme and there are six squares on the Template file.
This will also be the first project we will print out. THIS WILL BE OUR SECOND MULTI-SESSION PROJECT. We will work on it today and the first half of Friday. This is always a real favorite, and it does teach some Illustrator skills.
CLICK here to download a PDF of examples: Jack-Jill-Examples.pdf
The SAMPLES are all student work from the book we were going to use.
The three videos will take you through the project as often as you need. This project introduces a new concept – the storyline, a new artistis techniques – found object collage, and a new technical aspect of Adobe Illustrator – SYMBOLS. Look over the samples in the Jack-Jill -Examples PDFG carefully and thoroughly. Look at how the use of humor, crazy associations, reuse in a wierd place, and other elements of collage explored by Picasso, Braque, and the other early 20th century cubists are used to bring absurd and wild meanings to this old nursery rhyme.
You will also be struggling with CLIPPING PATHS and CLIPPING LAYERS again. Make sure you keep the LAYERS PANEL open and check to make sure you are using the correct LAYER and SUBLAYER.
FRIDAY, February 24, 2012:
CLASS #3 — Presenting the BLACK & WHITE Problem
This is to be done in traditional media; pen & ink or marker or opaque paint on heavy paper or illustration board.
MAKE SURE YOU BRING in a DRAWING PAD, a PENCIL, BLACK MARKERS and/or BRUSH & INK, A STRAIGHT EDGE and/or RULER, and a KNEADED ERASER to class.
THIS WILL BE OUR FIRST MULTI-SESSION PROJECT. We will work on it today and the first half of next Friday. I want these to be extra good.
CLICK here to download the Black and White Flash animation: true-cuppa-movie2.mov
CLICK here to download a PDF of examples: black-white-examples
The SAMPLES are all student work from the book we were going to use.
The movie is a VERY CONDENSED version of the project, but will give you an idea of what the final outcome should be.
In this assignment, you will be focusing on two main components of Visual Composition: LIMITING FOCUS and NEGATIVE SPACE. Limiting focus involves zooming in on the most salient part of any image, the smallest part that still contains the content of the image: the subject may not be immediately apparent, but it is not hidden. NEGATIVE SPACE is what we call the background or the spaces between the “foreground” shapes when it (or they) becomes “active”. In other words, when it takes on a active role in defining the image rather than merely giving it a frame or a place to be. When the NEGATIVE and POSITIVE spaces are equal or almost equal, we can create the “optical illusion” of an image which “flips” or reverses itself.
This project will be done using “traditional” media; in this case, paper, a pencil for sketching, and either a fine pen, marker, or brush, and a broad pen, marker, or brush. If you use “drawing pens” (nibs and shafts) or brushes, you will also need “drawing” ink (you can be truly retro about this and call it “India Ink”). The easiest of these to find and manage, especially for beginners, are markers. I suggest a fine Sharpie and a broader marker — and I don’t like the washable or water-based markers because they smear.
THE PROCESS:
1) If you are certain that you cannot draw, comfort yourself. You can certainly see and you can certainly trace. What is important here is that you can hold your image in your mind.
2) Consider a number of everyday objects such as shoes, fruits and vegetables, fish, dishes, etc. or everyday images like a bear’s head, a whale’s tail, smoke coming from a chimney. The range is nearly infinite.
3) Choose two or three ideas that are within your ability to draw (or trace).
4) Create a page each of “thumbnail” sketches of each idea. In your mind and then on the page, simplify the idea into a composition of pure black and pure white shapes. Avoid LINES. Avoid OUTLINES. Let the BLACK next to a WHITE SHAPE define the edge of the White shape and let the WHITE next to a BLACK SHAPE do the same. See how many details you can leave out without losing the identity of your shape.
5) Consult with your classmates, especially those who are more advanced artists, to help decide which of your ideas has the most potential.
6) Create a page of “thumbnail” sketches of your best idea, focusing on parts that might make an interesting abstract composition without hiding the nature of the image. Focus in on different parts. Draw those parts larger and larger, rotate them, reverse the dark and light parts. You want to create an “interesting” BLACK and White COMPOSITION that is not immediately recognizable. Rather, the viewer’s immediate reaction will be, “that’s interesting, let me look closer.” Then, in that “second look”, the subject of the composition comes into focus as a pleasant little surprise.
7) When you have decided on your final image, create it as a final image on a separate sheet of paper. The image should not exceed 6.5″ in any dimension. Sketch it lightly in pencil. Then, using your fine marker or brush, color in any tight corners or the edges of multiple shapes that are close together.
8) Fill in the Black areas of your composition with the broad brush or marker, including any “background”. Don’t be real careful about the rectangular frame. It’s more important to make sure that any black that goes to the edge of “frame” is solid. Since we will be trimming the rectanguler frame either by cutting it or hiding it behind a rectangular “frame” as in the video, make sure that the black edges go over the edge.
9) Trim and/or frame as in the video.
10) Mount on the wall ion Room 300.
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FOR FRIDAY, February 25, 2012: Bring in a PRINTED (commercially printed, NOT a file from the web printed on a small printer) that has a design based on three to six similar shapes in a simple composition. For this Design Journal homework, remember that SIMPLE is BETTER.
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FEBRUARY 10: class 2
THE FOUR SQUARES PROJECT
Assigned Friday, February 10, 2012:
Due Friday, February 24, 2012
In this assignment, you will be working to make 6 coherent, attractive, and, hopefully, meaningful compositions that are combine both a word and an image. They are all created on a separate LAYER or ONE ILLUSTRATOR DOCUMENT (file) and are composed of 4 squares each. Download the example files to see many examples of student work on this project. It will introduce you to Illustrator’s LAYERS PANEL, FILL & STROKE, SELECTION TOOL, and RECTANGLE TOOLS, as well as some other aspects of the Illustrator Interface. Follow the in class lecture carefully, and then watch the videos. Do not ad lib. This is a fully defined project; the intent is for you to create within the set constraints. Thinking “outside the box” is encouraged. Going beyond the defined scope of the project will incur negatives. We will discuss this aspect of creativity as it is applied in design in class.
The Six Squares Project is our first real attempt at mixing words and imagery to the betterment and specification of both. There are innumerable “right ” answers for each of the six. To really dig into this problem, stick with squares and rectangles. DO NOT USE ELLIPSES or CIRCLES, POLYGONS, STARS, or the FLARE TOOL. DO NOT USE ELLIPSES or CIRCLES, POLYGONS, STARS, or the FLARE TOOL. DO NOT USE ELLIPSES or CIRCLES, POLYGONS, STARS, or the FLARE TOOL.
Focus on the abstract shapes and your growing awareness of their position, size, relationships to other shapes and the negative spaces between them. This a project I do myself 6 or 7 times a year,with these constraints. It is a great refresher for advanced students and an essential learning tool for beginners. The videos explain all and you have a full week (there is no school this coming Monday) to come into Room 300 and complete it.
We will view and critique these two weeks from this Friday.
Download the project file and the examples PDF of student solutions to this project: 4-6inch-box-project.ait | 4 Squares example files
Watch the following videos:
Downloading Project 1 from the website|
Project 1: Video 1 | Project 1: Video 2 | Project 1: Video 3
Project 1: Video 4 | Project 1: Video 5 | Project 1: Video 6.
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FOR FRIDAY, February 3, 2012: Bring in a PRINTED (commercially printed, NOT a file from the web printed on a small printer) that is based on Basic Word/Simple-abstract-shape composition. For this Design Journal homework, remember that SIMPLE is BETTER.
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THE FIRST CLASS
FOR FRIDAY, February 10, 2012, unless you brought it with you on the first day: Bring in a PRINTED (commercially printed, NOT a file from the web printed on a small printer) that is based on Basic Word/Simple-abstract-shape composition. For this Design Journal homework, remember that SIMPLE is BETTER.
Assigned Friday, February 3, 2012:
Due Friday, February 10, 2012
In class this Friday, we will begin discussing the Principles of Design. Go to the Media Page in the Right Side Bar to download the file: “Fundamental Design Principles”(click this link: Fundamental Principles of Design). Also, make sure you have a PDF or hard copy of the VCOM 50 Syllabus so that you can participate in the discussion.
Please watch the following videos: Introduction and Welcome! | Using the VCOM server in Room 300 | Opening Adobe Illustrator CS5 |
Go to this web site: http://www.designhistory.org/index.html and click on item number 6 -> The Poster’s Development and Social Impact (http://www.designhistory.org/The_History_of_Posters.html)
Look over this entry and familiarize yourself with the general out line of the evolution of Poster Art. This is for “deep” research: new knowledge, not necessarily immediately needed, to keep in the back of your mind for future use in the course.
Then, choose either one aspect of the symbols page or one poster and prepare a short, one to three minute presentation about. Do you like it or hate it (don’t be wishy-washy)? Why? What is the most or least interesting aspect of it? If you were to re-design it, what would you do?