This is the letter I received from Corey Holms after he had a chance to look at some of the posters I sent to him that you designed announcing his imaginary lecture:

(note: I wrote him back saying it was my fault on the spelling errors but for those of you who corrected it, it makes a big difference as you will read here...)

J,

...

I've seen two of these already - we have a permanent google search that sends emails when things show up on the internet with my name attached to it. Two of those posters were flagged by google, and she sent them to me asking what it was. Took me a few minutes to work out what happened. I'm really glad you shared the others with me, thought it was really interesting. I think it's probably a really challenging project as my and Ed's styles as so disparate. Quite a few of the students have done an admirably job.

I don't want to single anyone out, but there are two comments I'll make. First, I thought it smart of the students to repurpose some pieces from my portfolio in the work. When the poster itself is not going to highlight the style of the lecturer, it's good to recontextualize some of the pieces so that people still have a point of reference. The second thing is that attention to detail is a designer's lifeblood. It's what we do, and we to be successful or to progress within your field, it's something that you must be aware of. One of the posters has a typo, which may not seem like that big of a deal, but it is - you can end up losing a job because of it. Case in point - my old boss was hired to do an album cover for Paul McCartney. He spent a good amount of time putting together a very solid presentation. He then went to meet Paul, and showed all the work, going into fine detail of how the campaign would roll out over the course of the singles for the album, how it would wok on concert shirts, etc. It was a complicated presentation for a big job. Paul said he liked it, thought that there was some smart thinking, but that they'd have been so much better if they'ed spelt his name correctly on at least one of the pieces. He didn't get the job. I can tell countless stories of this ilk - design agencies having to pay for the printing of an annual report out of their fee because they forgot to proofread it before it went to press.

So the much awaited description of the final project. We have talked about these two options in class but here is a more specific write up...

You have to use raster and vector images.
The final is going to be a movie showing of all your hard work.

There are two options:
1. 30 second stop motion animation (30 seconds per person if you are working in a group)
2. Create a mini-book

Option 1: Stop Motion
For the Mac users in the class (this would be at home, I realize) I want you to use Mac's iMovie. For the rest of you in the class and at home, the PC equivalent we are going to use is called Windows Movie Maker.

Specs:
- 30 seconds per person
- groups can be no larger than 2 people
- use raster and vector images --- so Photoshop and Illustrator will be utilized for the content
- this has to be some sort of narrative but it can be an abstracted narrative, meaning we are not seeing beginning to end, but in the middle of a story.

Option 2: Book Illustration
Illustrator will be a great way to layout out your ideas and then your final book designs.

Specs:
- 16 pages in the book (per person)
- groups can be no larger than 2 people
- use raster and vector images --- so Photoshop and Illustrator will be utilized for the content
- this has to be some sort of narrative but it can be an abstracted narrative, meaning we are not seeing beginning to end, but in the middle of a story.

Examples are coming soon.

Cookie Swap by Julia M. Usher

Cookie Swap, by Julia Usher, published by Gibbs Smith

This second chapter replacement in the classes series of 4 is more visually powerful- lots of photos!

You will be working on a chapter that will need to be created from scratch, with only the visual cues from the book's .pdf.

Redesign the book's chapter "Cookies Cum Laude."

Due: Wed, November 4th
Style of hand-in: Print out spreads in 4 color with crop marks. You can print the document spread to fit on a 8.5" x 11" page (landscape position).

The Playing Card Assignment: A study in the Principles of Design.

Using the definitions about the Principles/Elements of Design here, depict the definitions visually by creating one playing card per subject.

Due Date: Wed, November 11

Here are the specs:
- each playing card is 3.5" high, 2.5" wide
- you are making 12 cards; 11 cards total (bec. there are 11 principles and elements listed), one card will show the pattern you design for the back, a sort of representation to your theme
- the theme: there has to be a theme that cares over throughout this "set" of cards. This means we your audience could find a visual pattern from one to the next that communicates the matching of the 12 cards. It does not have to be a narrative theme. It could be an abstracted, randomized theme. Be creative!

Presentation of the final project:
- mount all 12 cards on a black matte board side by side.
- use spray mount glue so we do not see poor craftsmanship in gluing.
- cut the cards well too. Be professional.
- mount finals in critique room at the beginning of class.

Examples of previous student's projects are available here.

*** KINKOS may NOT have the paper I requested for this assignment! Use cheapest type you can! ***

My colleague, friend and artist, Jean Robison found this link which I think is very fabulous.

What do you think?
Top 10 Doctored Photos

Be the Change: How to get what you want in your community

Book Cover

Download information sheet for Be The Change
Link to book's website and see the Google preview

Assignment:
I am having you re-layout the 2nd chapter to this book.

You will be learning about paragraph styles, chapter page automization, margin and multi-page challenges.

Turn in a print out of this chapter with crop marks by Monday, October 26th.

Previous students have had this similar assignment. Here are a few of their pieces.