Graphic Design 1Graphic Design is a semester-long class with a focus on introducing students to basic computer design techniques which serve as a foundation for their creative practice. Students will produce original designs utilizing Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Class discussions will revolve around exposure to various graphic artists, concepts and styles from around the globe and throughout history, as well as best practices from the industry. Archives
May 2020
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Distance Learning Update: Week 55/18/2020 Hello Graphic Design 1!
This week we are continuing the start of the Photoshop unit. This week is based around one project: a surreal self portrait. Students will practice masking and compositing on Monday with a practice file from Adobe, learn a little bit about the history of surrealism and some examples of it from art and design, and then jump into the project feet first. This project can be completed with different techniques that we looked at last week. As it is a little more involved, I would recommend starting on Tuesday and tracking your time every day with a timer (25 minutes). Choose a simple idea at the beginning, and work on executing it well! I will be posting a video walk through of the project by Tuesday afternoon. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Best, Mr. Ensz
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Distance Learning Update: Week 45/11/2020 Hello Graphic Design 1!
I hope you had a great weekend. This week, students will be diving into Photoshop. We are starting slow with a daily series of projects from Adobe that walk through the basic functions of Photoshop. The reason for doing so is to allow students to establish fundamental skills and become at least a little comfortable with the software before we jump into a larger project. For Friday, students will post an original composition to the week 4 discussion. The only rules are that it should be created in Photoshop using some of the techniques they have learned from the projects during the course of the week. And it should also be interesting to look at! I encourage everyone to have fun with it and explore the techniques that are the most interesting to you as you go through the projects. Best, Mr. Ensz
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Distance Learning Update: Week 35/4/2020 Hello Graphic Design 1 and parents,
This week, we will be learning about space, shapes, and creating the illusion of depth in a design. Students are given a template of a room and tasked with creating their ideal quarantine room using the techniques and concepts from their reading. Students can explore what other illustrators and designers did with the room by following the link to #coronamaison. This assignment is pretty open, so I encourage everyone to choose a couple simple concepts and explore them as fully as possible while having fun. Next week we move into Photoshop by taking something we made in Illustrator and making it look 3D! Please let me know if anyone has questions or concerns. As always, stay healthy! Best, Mr. Ensz
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Distance Learning Update: Week 24/27/2020 Hello everyone!
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Another week down. Hopefully you and your family are able to find some silver linings in this situation. For my wife and I, we have enjoyed spending more time with our 2 year old twins. This week in Graphic Design 1, we are learning about Color. As alway, course content will be located in Canvas. Important questions are for this week: What makes up color, how do colors interact, what colors go together? For Monday and Tuesday, there is a lesson about color and a discussion about color schemes (review color harmonies, post a picture of one of the color harmonies in action, and tell us which one it is). For classwork, students will download an exploratory project from Adobe and explore it while following the links posted for increased understanding of how to manipulate color in Illustrator. Once they finish that, they can download one of the pages from a coloring book released by Adobe for the quarantine, and practice adding and manipulating colors and textures to the line work (I will post a short video showing various techniques by Wednesday). Beyond having a consistent color theme, they can color the art however they want! Concepts to keep at the forefront are how to use color and its attributes to create contrast as well as a sense of space or depth. Please feel free to contact me with questions or concerns! Office hours this week are Thursday and Friday 12pm-1:30pm, but I will generally respond to email as quickly as I can Monday-Friday. Best, Mr. Ensz
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Hello everyone. During the school closure I will update the course on Canvas. There are several learning opportunities to work on until we get back to school. Check discussions and announcements in Canvas for updates and to post work/get feedback. To work, you will need to download and install the Adobe Creative Cloud software. Adobe, due to the virus and shutdowns, has offered the software suite for free to students and teachers until the end of May 2020. Last week, our district IT set up access for students and staff on district and personal devices. A link to download the directions to download and install the software is pasted below. Follow the directions in the pdf to download and install the Creative Suite. Please email me with any questions or problems ASAP and I will forward to the school's IT support.
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Quiz 2 Study Material11/12/2019 https://create.kahoot.it/share/kahoot-for-formative-assessment/7fbe81d0-5f20-4613-b527-c55c77800d35 - Kahoot practice quiz Review for Pen tool
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A5 Texture/Pattern10/31/2019 This assignment looks at how to use patterns as fills in Illustrator, how to create custom swatches, as well as how to incorporate textures in your designs in Illustrator. We will further explore composition strategies by creating a design that has a foreground, a middle ground, and a background. We will also go more in depth with the pen tool, using it to create every significant element of a composition. Although any tool can be used, especially in the creation of your custom swatches, the majority of the shapes and structures in the composition should be created with the pen tool.
ASSIGNMENT: Students will create a composition with a creature/object and an environment. The composition will have a foreground, middle ground, and background. The creature/object should have significant complexity, at least 2 textures/patterns, be created with the pen tool, and be in the middle ground of the composition. The environment or background should be created with the pen tool and have at least 4 textures/patterns. The foreground object will also be created with the pen tool and have 1 texture/pattern. With a minimum of 7 non-repeating textures/patterns, at least 1 should be a custom swatch. Photos or existing art can be used for reference, be the final composition should show meaningful changes and a variety of sources (don't remake an existing artwork). By the end of the assignment, students should be able to: 1. Distinguish foreground, middle ground, and background in a composition. 2. Use the pen tool for creating basic and advanced shapes, including bezier curves. 3. Be able to apply patterns and textures as fills. 4. Be able to use the appearance panel to apply multiple fills and fx to a single object. 5. Have a basic understanding of blending modes in Illustrator 6. Know how to create custom swatches and edit them using the Swatch panel. Composition Ideas:
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Intro to Shapes: Build a World Project10/15/2019
Project:
In this class project, individual teams use basic shapes and use them to create objects based on instructions from Ed Emberly's book Make a World. Each team receives instructions from the book on how to create the things that will populate the world. As a team, they decide what will go into the world: the things, the colors, and the composition of the world. Teams will have 2 class periods to work on the individual components and one class to put them together as a team in a single composition. At the end, each class votes on their favorite "world". The winning team receives bragging rights and a special prize. Learning Outcomes: By the end of this project, students will be able to use shape tools in Illustrator to create objects based on a template (Ed Emberly's designs), how to manage and optimize digital media assets, how to break complex structures into basic shapes, and how to collaborate effectively as a team using a single design style. "Make a World" Period 4Voting: Period 4 "Make A World""Make a World" Period 5Voting: Period 5 "Make a World""Make a World" Period 6Voting: Period 6 "Make a World""Make a World" Period 7Voting: Period 7 "Make a World"
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Can I get Adobe CC at home?9/23/2019 Skyline has a license to install and maintain Adobe Creative Cloud on computers maintained and owned by the school. Unfortunately, this means the software can only be installed on computers that are physically at the school.
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