Overview

Schedule

Resources

Graphic Design: Digital Layout

Art 51.4

Spring Semester 2003

Location: Barnett Hall Room 1261

Course Syllabus

Instructor:  John Sappington  - 707.874.9786

Class Schedule: Tues. 1 - 4pm -Thurs. 1 - 4pm

The instructor will be available to assist students in Barnett Hall Room 1261, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm on class days.  For additional assistance or consultation please arrange to meet with the instructor during office hours.   Appointments are preferred though not required.

DESCRIPTION:

Basic understanding of computer operation is necessary. Extensive use of the computer as a design tool to develop creative page layouts for print and screen. Several popular Mac-based software programs are explored to design with text and display type in a variety of formats. Projects include the layout and design of ads, newsletters, and booklets. Topics include: the art of typography, design and composition, aesthetics, and an overview of past and present design styles.

Outcomes and Objectives:
1. Create original layout designs in a digital format.
2. Explore various design concepts and design principles for page layout.
3. Become familiar with page layout software, and other graphics programs, specifically intended for designers.
4. Gain an understanding and appreciation of good design through practice.
5. Understand effective use of white space as a design element.
6. Become familiar with a wide variety of type fonts and their use for effective communication.
7. Refine design thinking skills (analytical and intuitive) and the ability to use one's creative imagination.
8. Learn to use the digital scanner, laser printer, photocopier and other design tools.
9. Become familiar with visual resources: books, magazines, and other publications for the graphic design field.
10. Learn about the World Wide Web/Internet as a graphics and information resource.
11. Gain an historical perspective of the important events, individuals and art/design movements relative to typographic design.
12. Exercise the ability to make critical aesthetic judgements through participation in class critiques.
13. Become familiar with the vocabulary and terms used by designers.
14. Define health and safety issues that could arise from the use of artist's tools and materials.
15. Develop projects to build a design portfolio.

Topics and Scope:
The primary intent of Art 51.4 is to develop the foundation for students wishing to pursue the study of graphic design while continuing to refine visual literacy and performance using digital tools and media.

This includes:
1. The ability to integrate new technology into the design process (computers, scanner, laser printer, photocopies, etc.)
2. Develop an understanding of visual communication concepts and problem solving for graphic design.
3. The ability to develop design work progressively from rough ideas to more resolved comprehensives.
4. The practice of design principles and visual elements central to art and graphic design.
5. The ability to make aesthetic decisions and judgements about design in the development of visual compoisitions.
6. The ability to perform specific techniques using the computer to demonstrate these elements (produce thumbnails and finished comprehensives using the computer, scanner, and laser printer; precisely assemble presentations using cutting tools, mat board and mounting adhesives; scale artwork and produce multi-color prints using the photocopies).
7. The ability to intelligently use and care for the tools and materials of Art 51.4 (disks, computers, scanners, laser printer, color printer, color ink cartridges, and papers).

The scope and sequence of the course will be presented as follows:
1. Through lectures concerning the concepts, elements and historical precedents of art and design.
2. Through lecture/demonstrations of the proper use of equipment, software and techniques.
3. Through student practice and demonstration of compositional, expressive and technical concepts.
4. Through evaluative one-on-one discussions with individual students.
5. Through group critique discussions and presentations of in-class and homework visual compositions.

Specific areas of student within Art 51.4 include:
1. An overview of the computer and page layout programs.
2. Demonstrate several ways graphics software can be used to create original graphic designs.
3. Demonstrate basic design principles for the layout and design of the printed page.
4. Demonstrate and use the digital scanner to capture images.
5. Explore the design process from preliminary studies (thumbnails) to more finished designs.
6. Review the aesthetic concerns of typographic design.
7. Study the grid concept as a layout structure.
8. Demonstrate designs which successfully integrate text with graphic elements.
9. Create designs in a variety of formats: ads, newsletters, booklets, Web pages, etc.
10. Experiement with type as an expessive design element.
11. Study a variety of typeface designs and their unique aesthetic qualities.
12. Review digital type designs from the large (Adobe) and small (Emigre) type distributors.
13. Examine typographic and layout designs from varous historical periods.

Assignments:
May include the following:
1. Create a simple lettermark design (monogram).
2. Explore several typographic designs for a business card.
3. Create a set of three ads (such as a dance center) using type only.
4. Create a series of three different ad layouts combining text and image image.
5. Create page layouts which express four important historic styles: Classical, Industrial Revolution, Modernism and Post-Modern.
6. Develop a set of "type pictures" for a class booklet.
7. Develop a set of thumbnails which explore the grid structure.
8. Design a newsletter using the grid concept.
9. Design a half-sheet order form.
10. Design a home page for the World Wide Web.
11. Design an exhbition schedule for the campus Art Gallery.
12. Experiment with type for a broadside layout (tabloid format).
13. Create a small personal book/Web Site combining text and images.

EVALUATION:

This is a degree-applicable course, but substantial writing assignments are not appropriate because the course primarily: Involves skill demonstrations or problem solving

The problem-solving assignments required:
Homework problems

The types of skill demonstrations required:
Class performances

The types of objective examinations used in the course:
None

Other category:
Portfolio of completed work, attendance, effort, growth, participation.

Writing assignments: 0% - 0%
Problem-solving demonstrations: 10% - 30%
Skill demonstrations: 10% - 30%
Objective examinations: 0% - 0%
Other methods of evaluation: 40% - 80%

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Units: 3

Recommended: Art 18, or Art 51.1, or Art 51.2, or Art 51.3, or enrollment in the Applied Graphics Program

Grade code: CR/NC option

Repeat code: 8

Transferability: CSU

Cost: $5

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Design Writing Research Writing on Graphic Design, Elen Lupton & Abbot Miller Phaidon, 1996

Great Type and Lettering Designs, David Brier, North Light Books, 1992.
Creative Typography, Marion March, North Light Books, 1988.
Type Design, Color, Character & Use, Michael Beaumont, North Light Books, 1987.

STUDENTS PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT BUY TEXTBOOKS before checking with the SRJC Bookstore.
These titles are representative only, and may not be the same ones used in your class.

REQUIRED SUPPLIES:

Students are required to obtain a 250MB Zip disk formatted for either the Macintosh or PC to store small project files.

Students should also purchase several blank recordable CDs to store larger movie files.  Ideally the student will have a minimum of 4 CD’s to last the length of the semester.  Some students may need significantly more, others significantly less.  Recordable CD’s are especially recommended for students who intend to work on assignments at home.

Students are also required to have an e-mail account.  This can be accessed through the lab and may be a free account like those available from Hotmail, Yahoo, Freemail, Excite, etc.  The instructor will assist students in obtaining an e-mail account if necessary only on the first day of class.  Students will be expected to check this e-mail account at least once a week.  Assignment grades, class progress, and general class announcements will be reported via e-mail.

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

Students are expected to attend all of every class meeting unless they have received prior permission from the instructor. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting. Anyone absent when attendance is taken will be assumed absent from the class.   If you are late to class it is your responsibility to make sure your attendance is acknowledged by talking to the instructor. 

If a student misses two weeks of class without being excused, it can be assumed that the student is intending to drop the class.  Because this class meets only once a week that means two absences will be grounds for the instructor to drop you from the class. 

If you are intending to drop the class, it is your responsibility to drop the class.  You should not assume that the instructor will automatically drop you because of absences.  If you stop attending classes, you do  not drop the class, and the instructor has not dropped you from the class; the instructor may be required to give you a grade of F for the class.

Graphic Design: Digital Layout

Art 51.4

Course Schedule

Spring Semester 2003

Instructor:  John Sappington  - 707.874.9786

Class web site:  http://www.basearts.com/design.htm

 
Date
Activities/Assignments:
Week 1       
Week 2      
Week 3      
Week 4    
Week 5     
Week 6      
Week 7    
Week 8    
Week 9    
Week 10    
Week 11    
Week 12    
Week 13    
Week 14    
Week 15    
Week 16    

Graphic Design: Digital Layout

Art 51.4

Resources

Instructor:  John Sappington  - 707.874.9786

Technical Type:

Type Topics
http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/main.html
http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/glossary.html

Webmonkey Fonts
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/design/fonts/index.html

Web Typography Tutorial: Overview
by Nadav Savio
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/design/fonts/tutorials/tutorial3.html


Upper and lowercase Magazine
http://www.itcfonts.com/ulc/default.asp?sid=0SW23EEFSMF19KVS3JWWCFCWG4S6DKRF

Counterspace
http://counterspace.motivo.com/

Microsoft Typography | Developer information
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/creators.htm

Type Producers

Emigre
http://www.emigre.com/

ITC
http://www.itcfonts.com/

T .26 Digital Type Foundry
http://www.t26.com/

Type Creation

FontLab
http://www.font.to/

FontLab Ltd: FontLab
http://www.pyrus.com/html/fontlab.html

ParaType
http://www.paratype.com/shop/default.asp?page=soft/software.asp

Dave Emmett's Softy
http://users.iclway.co.uk/l.emmett/

Font Avenue
http://www.fontavenue.com/

Chank
http://www.chank.com/howto/

From [Divide By Zero] Fonts and the Tom 7 Institute of Computer Knowledge (TICK):
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~twm/makefont/

 

Electronic Publication(s)

Project Gutenberg - electronic books
http://gutenberg.net/

Night Kitchen, Inc. - Multimedia Software
http://www.nightkitchen.com/

Technical - HTML

Bare Bones Guide to HTML
http://werbach.com/barebones/
http://werbach.com/barebones/download.html

NCSA GUIDE to HTML
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html

WEBMONKEY
http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/html/

 

 

 

Designers


John Maeda
http://www.maedastudio.com/
http://dbn.media.mit.edu/
http://www.maedastudio.com/indexold.html
http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/maeda/

Institutions

Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum
http://ndm.si.edu/

http://www.cooper.edu/art/lubalin/

Project Management

Charting Multimedia: The Process Between Concept and Creation
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/rta/flowchart/samples.html

NET ART Groups/Institutions/Artists

Arts Listings
http://www.diverseworks.org/home.html
http://www.rhizome.org
http://www.theredproject.com


The Calls and Opps List
http://www.artswire.org/Artswire/www/awfront.html
http://bbs.thing.net/login.thing
http://adaweb.com/home.shtml
http://adaweb.walkerart.org/context/events/moma/technology.html
http://www.artnetweb.com/
http://www.artnetweb.com/projects/projects.html


Artists

http://www.turbulence.org
http://rhizome.org/fresh/artists_A-Z.rhiz

http://www.artnetweb.com/projects/projects.html

John Maeda
http://www.maedastudio.com/
http://dbn.media.mit.edu/
http://www.maedastudio.com/indexold.html
http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/maeda/

Richard Rinehart
www.coyoteyip.com

Julia Scher
http://adaweb.walkerart.org/project/secure/sec1.html

Dirk Paessman and Joan ?_
http://www.jodi.org/
http://404.jodi.org/index.html

Jeffery Shaw
http://www.jeffrey-shaw.net/html_main/frameset-explore.php3

Victoria Vesna
http://www.bodiesinc.ucla.edu/

George Legrady
http://www.georgelegrady.com/
http://www.pocketsfullofmemories.com/

Lisa Jevbratt
http://cadre.sjsu.edu/jevbratt/

Tina LaPorta
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/i/ga2750/tina/portal.html

Ken Goldberg
http://teleactor.berkeley.edu/
http://ouija.berkeley.edu/
http://queue.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/garden/Ars/
http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/

Collaborative Groups

C5
http://www.c5corp.com/

Group Z
http://adaweb.walkerart.org/~GroupZ/

http://art.teleportacia.org/

Brick and Mortar

Visual Studies Workshop
http://www.vsw.org
http://www.afterimageonline.org/

New Langton Arts: NetWork
http://www.newlangtonarts.org

Zentrum fŸr Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe
http://www.zkm.de/

Pompidou Center
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Home.nsf/docs/fhome
http://www.newmedia-arts.org/cgi-bin/sommaire-dev.asp?LG=GBR&FILE=encyclo

Walker Art Center
http://gallery9.walkerart.org/
http://adaweb.walkerart.org/usage/reach/

Whitney Museum of American Art
http://www.whitney.org/artport/
http://www.whitney.org/exhibition/biennial.shtml

Dia Center
http://www.diacenter.org/rooftop/webproj/index.html

Eyebeam
http://www.eyebeam.org/

Franklin Furnace
http://www.franklinfurnace.org/

GroundZero
http://www.groundzero.org/zeroone.html

TAM
http://www.alternativemuseum.org/home_nodon.html

ArtNet
http://www.artnet.com/index.asp?N=1

C3: Center for Culture & Communication
http://www.c3.hu/

SFMOMA
http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/espace_overview.html

TATE
http://www.tate.org.uk/netart/default.htm

Austin Museum of Digital Art
http://www.amoda.org/about/digitalart.php

 

Net Art Topics

Historical Links
Hypertext
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/historical

Internet
http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
http://www.forthnet.gr/forthnet/isoc/short.history.of.internet
http://www.pbs.org/internet/timeline/timeline-txt.html

http://www.elsop.com/wrc/h_web.htm

New Media/Internet Theorist/Historical Figures

Computational Design

http://proce55ing.media.mit.edu/
http://www.media.mit.edu/

Marshal Mcluhan
http://www.mcluhaninstitute.org/

Marvin Minsky
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/

Ted Nelson
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0155.html
http://xanadu.com/
http://ted.hyperland.com/

Timothy Druckrey
http://users.rcn.com/druckrey/
http://users.rcn.com/druckrey/texts.html

Global Ideas Bank
http://www.globalideasbank.org/

Intellectual Property (Copyright)

Copyright Website
http://www.benedict.com/fair.htm
http://www.benedict.com/digital/webIssues/webDesign.asp
http://www.benedict.com/info/fairUse/fairUse.asp

United States Patent Office - Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/doc/ipnii/index.html

Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org

Stanford University Copyright and Fair Use
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

Fair Use and Multimedia
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/multimed/

Intellectual Property Law Primer
http://www.timestream.com/stuff/neatstuff/mmlaw.html