The Fundamentals of GRAPHIC DESIGN is an entry-level course to introduce students to graphic design. This is a lab-based production course that teaches design principles and techniques for producing visual communication design projects for print and digital media. It emphasizes the visual aspects of communication by focusing on the creative process of using art and technology through computer-assisted page design and layout to convey denotative and connotative meanings.
Students will learn about the creative process, graphic design terminology, and technology to assist in product creation. The assignments will introduce conceptualization through drawing and digital photography as well as the most current computer applications used in the graphic design profession, especially those found within the Adobe Creative Suite.
The course is structured to gain skills in page layout and image manipulation as well as learn design elements of line, shape, direction, size, texture, and color. Students must consider and test the connection between image and text as they examine typography, balance, and composition. The class will work to understand the context, audience, and publishing medium of each document they create within this course.
Over the semester, students will produce a series of computer-generated print media and, upon completion, a portfolio showcasing their best work, using the Adobe Creative Suite, including Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign.
In this course, students will:
Learn the fundamentals of graphic design (Adobe Creative Suite).
Acquire and apply technical skills in a range of audio/visual equipment and software in service of your original creative research or story ideas.
Explore and immerse into the processes of creative media storytelling (studio and independent) to develop an arsenal of production tools to effectively make meaning and tell your stories.
Develop an understanding of the techniques, concepts, and history of visual communications, how to critically interrogate them with current thought and practices; and how contemporary works can be contextualized through these concepts and history.
Recognize power imbalances that have allowed certain voices to dominate the media industry, art world, and discourse, and continuing and historical inequality of access for diverse media makers.
Build a vocabulary for speaking and writing about Graphic Design and related forms, learn how to prepare proper and effective design and execution materials, and creatively translate and transform ideas into media.
Discover and develop your own personal style, aesthetic, and original voice by experimenting with subject matter and aesthetics, taking creative risks, and making projects that mean something to YOU. But always remember, you are telling your story!
Learn to GIVE, RECEIVE, and USE creative notes to your own and your colleague’s creative work. Once you have done the proper research and immersion in a project, then you can offer your constructive criticism.
Create and present several graphic design projects.
Have FUN!