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Graphic
Design: Digital Layout
Course Syllabus
Art 51.4
Spring Semester 2003
Instructor: John Sappington - john@basearts.com
- 707.874.9786
Location and Schedule:
Tuesday
1 - 4pm
- Barnett
Hall Room 1261
Thursday
1 - 4pm
- Barnett Hall Room 1261 and/or Analy Hall708
http://www.basearts.com/typography.com
The instructor will
be available to assist students in Analy Hall - Digital Lab, from 12:00 to 1:00
pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For
additional assistance or consultation please arrange to meet with the instructor
during office hours.
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 judgments 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 judgments about design in the
development of visual compositions.
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.
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 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. Experiment with type as an expressive 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 various 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 exhibition 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
REQUIRED SUPPLIES:
Students are required
to obtain a 100 MB Zip disk formatted for either the Macintosh or PC to backup
project files.
Students are also
required to have an e-mail account. These are available through the school
*see below or may be a free account like those available from Hotmail, Yahoo,
Freemail, Excite, etc. Students will be expected to check this e-mail
account at least once a week. General class announcements will be reported
via e-mail.
If you are a
current SRJC student, you're eligible for an account on the server Student.
Student offers many Internet services, including access to Internet e-mail,
remote login (ssh), file transfer (scp, sftp), Usenet news groups, and the text-based
(i.e. no graphics) World Wide Web browser, Lynx. Student does not support dial-in,
telnet, or ftp access. You must use an encrypted access method such as SSL or
SSH.
http://student.santarosa.edu/
<--- click here
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.
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
READING LIST:
DWR - Design Writing Research Writing on Graphic Design,
Elen Lupton & Abbot Miller Phaidon, 1996 *Required
TonT - Texts on Type, Critical Writings on Typography,
Steven Heller and Philip B. Meggs, Allworth Press, 2001 *Required
---
Recommended Technical :
Illustrator
10, Visual Quickstart Guide, Elain Weinmann & Peter Lourekas, Peachpit
Press 2003
Photoshop 7, Visual Quickstart Guide, Elain
Weinmann & Peter Lourekas, Peachpit Press 2003
Web
Style Guide, Patricia J. Lynch and Sarah Horton, Yale University Press,
2001
Recommended Reading
(Theory):
The Thames &
Hudson Manual of Typography, Ruari McLean, Thames & Hudson, Ltd., 1980
the abc's of (symbols - triangle, square, circle) : The Bauhaus and Design Theory,
Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, editors, 1999 *reprint.
The
New Typography, Jan Tschichold, University of California Press, 1995
Looking Closer 2, Critical Writings on Graphic Design, Edited by Michael
Bierut, William Drenttel, Steven Heller, and DK Holland, Allworth Press, 1997
Graphic
Design Cookbook: mix and match recipes for faster, better layouts,
Leonard Koren & R. Wippo Meckler, Chronicle Books, 1989
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.
Graphic Design: Digital
Layout
Art 51.4
Course Schedule
Weeks 1-9
Course
Calendar and Assignments
Class Projects:
1) Chef Franco's
- Menu / Web Site? /
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/business/article/0,1375,VCS_128_1652354,00.html
2) Redesign
Sonoma County Museum
http://www.sonomacountymuseum.org
3) StrollAbout
- SF Startup
Materials
in Class Folder (MCL Server)
Weeks 10-18
Course Calendar and Assignments, Weeks 10 - 18
Graphic Design: Digital
Layout
Art 51.4
Resources
