ART 321 Viscom II

Something scaly this way comes

This is the assignment I would have assigned on Monday...

Our favorite client (Truman) has come through for us again. I have a promotional poster design for the Herpetology Club, advertising an open house event on campus. What the H E doubletoothpicks is Herpetology? Research it and find out - you probably already know. The intent of the open house is to generate foot traffic in the Biology department and increase membership in the organization. These creepy little critters will be on display... you can't walk through the building without seeing them.

The copy and specs for the assignment is in my ART321 Viscom II/Public folder. Essentially, I need a poster design and a rotating animated gif website banner. Do you know how to do one of these? It is not hard - hint, you do it in Photoshop. Photoshop is capable of animation - there is a cool feature in the application drop down bar called Help. Try it, you will be amazed to learn that Help will actually show you how to do it. Or, try YouTube for demos. Don't freak out, it isn't hard at all, I have 7th and 8th graders doing this in JBA in the summer.

I have no existing images/graphics for you to use, so you will have to create, shoot or buy whatever you use in the layout. If you buy (acquire) photography or stock illustrations remember to cite the creator/owner of the imagery with a photography/illustration by line. Don't burn too much time on the final imagery or the animated banner until you get a go ahead on your concept

Budget: 6 Hours

Initial layout print out is due on Weds, February 1 too.

Concept, concept, concept... will make all the difference.

A slight design Detour

So far you have moonlighted once as a newspaper article designer along with working for me as an entry-level advertising designer on several assignments. Now you are moonlighting again at a publishing company and you are responsible for layout and design for two spreads for an article in Detours Magazine. Yes, more typesetting, grid and structure work.

Specs are in the copy in the Detours Magazine Spread folder in my public folder. Images to use in this article are also included in the folder. These images must be used in some manner, but you are not limited to only these images. If you want more - make or shoot supplimental imagery. This layout is informational, so don't make it look like an ad. The idea again is to create a design that stops the reader and allows for readability of the article - but make it kick-butt cool. Don't forget your grid. Look at other magazine article spreads and see what cool design motifs are being done. Oh, don't forget about the audience - who do you think reads this magazine? Does that influence how you should design this? Hint: it should.

Budget: 10 hours

Initial laser proofs due on Weds., February 1.

Another down and dirty poster or another design opportunity

Are you getting nimble yet? Getting things approved at round one proof stage? I know I'm picky as an Art Director. Don't forget to proof stuff I provide. I am like a typo generating nine-finger machine. Proof!

OK, for Friday - I have a fireball promotional design a local client needs. This is for the Kirksville Arts Association. Their problem they want solved is to have more student artists participate at Red Barn Arts and Crafts festival that is held each fall. You can get the KAA logo and the copy in my public folder.

Specs: 11 x 17, 4-color with bleed - printed on large-format laser printer - short-run - also retask the design as a web banner to be inserted in the KAA website (http://www.kirksvillearts.com) and the Truman website banner (figure out the size).

The doors are wide open visually, creatively and conceptually. The provided headline in the copy sucks, in my opinion. Write something better to get your fellow art students interested in displaying art and design at Red Barn. Remember, practice safe design...

Initial layouts on Friday.

Budget: 6 Hours

Summer Block Course Promotion

Now we are back from the newspaper designer stint and you again are in my advertising/promotion art department. Our favorite client has again drop on us a promotion in the form of a poster and information website for the Department of Health and Exercise Science and the ES465: Special Topics in Exercise Science - Physical Activity and the National Parks Summer Block course. Get the existing copy from my public folder. You do not have to use all the copy that was on the original layout. Make some decisions as to what you need to include on the promo poster layout. The remaining specific copy goes into the Health and Exercise Science website You can even do some of your own copy writing on this.

Need to have a concept for this promotion. The client is willing to do 4-color (CMYK), full-color with a bleed. Trim size is 11 x 17 inch. You can use photography. Use your own and/or "purchase" stock photography (add a photography byline in the layout). Remember you cannot just acquire photos from the web or rescan from books and magazines and use them in your layouts. Most if not all web images or rescanned images are protected by copyright and you either have to purchase them or get signed approval for usage of the imagery. We will imagine you have bought or gained approval for the imagery and give photography credit in the layout.

This poster needs to have stopping power when displayed on a campus bulletin board. The website imparts the details. What do you want the viewer of the poster to do - the "call to action"?

You have a 6 hour budget for the poster and information website (in the iPad vertical and horizontal graphic).  We look at initial proofs on Weds., 25.

Happiness is... another copy-heavy layout

OK... imagine this. You are now an entry-level designer at a newspaper and you have an article to design and layout. You can find the copy in my public/ART321 Viscom II folder (happinesscopy.rtf). This is another design using only type. Again, the intent is to create a design stops the reader of a newspaper as they flip through the paper. You have about 1 to 3 seconds to achieve this task. The information, once you have the viewer stopped should be inviting and readable. Again, there is a lot of copy that you have to organize and utilize in your design. The original designer did some interesting typographic gymnastics in their layout, which is why I chose this assignment for you (OK, that was to screw with your head - can't help myself).

Specs are in the rft copy: Newspapers are typically set up in a 6 column grid. (Go get a St. Louis Post Dispatch and measure it out if you don't believe me) This article isn't a full page though - I think it utilizes only 4 of the 6 columns on the page. 2-color - black and one spot. Is this making sense? Ask or measure yourself.

This layout is due laser printed on Monday 23rd. Scale to fit on an 11 x 17" paper. When you print your layout, print it with the grids turned on in the print dialog box. I want to see your grids from this point forward. Some of you are refusing to embrace the grid. I know who you are. 6 hour budget.

 

Heads Up - Newsletter from Hell!

The snowball is now rolling... We have worked on three promotional designs so far. You should be working to revise and rework in an effort to get your layouts "approved". We have worked with grids in type only designs, worked with supplied imagery of varying quality, and have had to develop a concept driven layout with a "striking" vector graphic in two colors.

The next assignment is to focus on typesetting and working with a grid layout. The device is a newsletter. Specs are: 1-color, no bleed, 2-sided (duplex printed) on 11 x 17 to fold to 8.5 x 11 inch. Make sure when you set up your InDesign document to use 8.5 x 11 document size with 4 facing pages. This is crucial when setting up margins, grids and gutters for the layout. You will print on 11 x 17 paper in spread mode. Confused...? Ask.

The content is bland, so that you have to confront the fact that you will have absolutely no personal interest or initial inspirational, visionary ideas to rely on. This newsletter is informational and promotional to a degree. The original was very poorly designed and butt-ugly. Hopefully, you will do better than what was originally done simply by utilizing good design structure and typesetting skills to organize the content. This is a type only assignment - no graphics or photography to rely upon.

So, let me set this up... slipping into my time machine to a time in Kirksville before there was a four-lane highway. Yes, not that long ago. This device is an informational/promotional newsletter to provide voters in the Kirksville area information concerning the efforts to fund and build the four-lane highway from Macon to Kirksville. Sexy, hum? What I need you to do as my entry-level design staff, is to layout the content you can get from my public/ART321 Viscom II folder (hiway63copy.txt) into an attractive, well-designed newsletter. Simple, right?

There is a lot of content for you to organize and make hierarchial decisions about. It is roughly in the order is was originally used, but feel free to reorder if your design mandates the change. Read the copy and proof carefully for typos... again, I typed it and I only have nine fingers - typos are extremely possible. The typesetting rules of thumb we talked about in class will be helpful or at least totally confuse you.

Budget: 6 hours

Full-size 11 x 17 in, duplexed, laser print proofs due: January 20

So, if you do well on this, we might be able to promote you all to assignments that are more fun. Remember, your job is to design a newsletter, have me as your Art Director look at and approve it with little or no changes. My job as Art Director is to proof and nit-pick all the concept, design, layout and typesetting problems that exist in what you show me. I'm looking for the problems - you are trying not to give me any problems to find. Pay attention to all the little details.

Want some inspiration?

This is for the Type Specimen assignment... but, if you want some ideas try googling "Type Specimen" and look at all the pretty layouts. Same works when you type "Jazz Poster". Although, most are thin on concept - but they are cool looking. Should give you an idea of the quality level expected for the "striking" graphic you need to develop.

Resources

Just wanted to remind you that there are a number of design resources in public folder for you to read. Really good tips and design suggestions that you can try in your assignments, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time. But, if you don't want to and want to make it that much harder this semester, ignore this post. Guilt, it's a lovely thing.

OBW - Oh, By the Way

If you didn't get a little red OK on your typeface assignment, you need to rework and resubmit on Weds. Just B/W laser proofs. Use your grid, trust your grid!

Jazz Combo Concert

OK, back to reality. You just designed the typeface poster for a major corporation. Now time to wake up from the dream. You are still only an entry-level designer trying to prove yourself designing the the jobs the experienced designers in the firm deem too insignificant for their time. So, I have found a promotional design for you to work on for our re-occurring client - good old Truman State University - one of our best clients. This design is for the Department of Music promoting an event in OP - The Jazz Combo Concert.

This design is going to be light on type required in the layout - you can find it in my Public/Viscom II folder. This poster will be used on- and off-campus in the 'ville. So, you have a student audience and a more general audience to take into account in your design. I have no budget for decent photography on this assignment, but the client wants to have a striking visual graphic in the layout. So make one - let's say a vector graphic of some sort. You all know how to work with spot colors in Illustrator?

I also want to see a creative concept utilized in this design. Just having the event title as the headline is not a concept. So, wrap your head around what you can say in a headline and show in a graphic (hopefully the two will work in conjunction with each other) that creatively promotes this event - this is the hard part and the one most likely to shoot down all your efforts - it can't just look good, it has to have a creative "hook" for the audience(s). This poster will be posted on bulletin boards and will be competing with a lot of visual noise - so, it has to have visual impact to stop the viewer and pull them in - you have about 5 seconds for the design to suck them into your little promotional world. Can you do it?

So, have I made a simple promotional design sound intimidating? Good, I've done my job.

Project Specs:

Poster Size: 13 x 19 in, 2 color - black and one spot color (your choice - just not frigg'n baby blue, geez), with full-bleed. Also, retask (retasking is not just saving a version of your print layout and pasting into the browser window) your layout to fit on the Music Department website being displayed on an iPad in both vertical and horizontal format. I have iPad graphics (psd) with a Music browser window in my public folder.

Budget: 10 hours for the three layouts.

Track your time - break out your time to the specific activities you doing. Track as you go. See what activities eat up your budget. Being constantly under budget is as bad as being constantly over budget. You have 10 hours, so use it. If you don't use your budgeted time and your layout sucks, you didn't do enough for it not to suck. Simple, right?

We will look at your laser proofs (B/W only) on Weds, 18th.