Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Identity System

Create a BUSINESS CARD, LETTERHEAD AND ENVELOPE that represent YOU.

Identity :: Branding :: Message.
What do you want your identity system to tell others?
Who in particular do you want to tell?

As you work on your concept board, remember this about fonts:
SERIF: Have the extra lines at the edges of the letters.
SANS SERIF: Don't have the extra lines at the edge.

Decorative
(Jokerman, Chiller, etc) and Script (Cursive Look) fonts are tough to read in large doses. USE SPARINGLY!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

STEP Icon Comps

1. Refine your favorite idea.
2. Do a mock-up of it in 3 Color schemes (B/W should be one of them)
See colornotes.ai in shared folder for quick review.
3. Apply a different typeface to each mock-up.
Explore serif and sans serif fonts. Avoid decorative and script selections.
Choosing a Color Harmony:

  • Make sure it is one of those assigned (Complementary/Analogous/Split Complement/Triad/Tetrad)
  • Make sure it enhances your design.
  • Make sure it helps carry the 'attitude' of your symbol. (E.G.; warm colors [Yellow-Orange-Red] are often more energetic, cool colors [Blue-Green-Violet] more relaxed.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Independent Study--STEP Icons & Mastocytosis Society

STEP Icons:
1. Print your icon roughs and place them in the holding area.
2. Look at everyone's roughs and place a Star and a No next to the most effective/least effective designs. Remember: Most/Least is based on what you think will work best when put with everyone else's designs as a unified whole.
3. Once you have looked at everyone's designs, do a mock-up of your most effective design with three different typefaces...Again what will be clear, easy to read, and be neutral to each design?
4. Do your mock-ups in 3 different color schemes. Keep it to under four colors per scheme.


Mastocyotsis Society:
1. Print your thumbnails and place them in the holding area.
2. Make sure your tote design includes the Split Rock Lighthouse as a key component.
3. TMS logo does not necessarily need the microscope.
Printing Your Animal Symbol

1. Start a Letter Sized (8.5 x 11) document.
2. Make sure the Page Orientation is Landscape.
3. Set up the following Vertical Guides (0.25, 5.25, 5.75, 10.75)
4. Set up the following Horizontal Guides (1.75, 6.75)
5. Create two 5x5 inch squares (No fill, plus the color stroke of your choice).
These squares will be your cutting lines.
6. Drag the squares inside your guides that conveniently established 5x5 inch boxes.
7. Copy your artwork from its original document.
8. Start a new layer in your layout doc and paste it there.
9. Use the Scale tool to make your art fit in the 5x5 squares.
10. Bada-Bing!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Animal Symbol
Color Harmony Choices

Complementary
Analogous
Split Complement
Triad
Tetrad

See Color Notes Illustrator File in the Student on STEP Novell>Shared>Art Technology Folder if you need definitions of these terms.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Art Technology Assignments
1. Complete the "Rough Sketch Checkpoint" worksheet.
BE SURE THAT YOU DOUBLE-CHECK YOU HAVE WRITTEN COMPLETE SENTENCES
AND INCLUDED DESIGN COMPONENTS WHEN ASKED.

2. Many of you have not yet turned in the Rough Sketch checkpoint.
Complete this and turn it in if you are one of these people.

3. If you were absent yesterday, ask a friend what to do to take your Animal Symbol from Thumbnails to Roughs before turning your Roughs into Comps.

4. FOLLOW ALL PHASES OF THIS ASSIGNMENT IF YOU WANT FULL CREDIT!!!


Independent Study Assignments:
1. Take your 9 STEP Icons Thumbnails and reduce them to 3 Roughs. This is still your ideas. Make it the best three representations of your cluster that you can come up with. Tomorrow we will work to UNIFY our ideas into a COHESIVE group project.

2. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR COLOR CHOICES AT THIS TIME.
DO NOT INCLUDE TYPOGRAPHY YET
We will negotiate this as a team tomorrow.

3. If you finish your roughs, look at This Link to The Mastocytosis Society website.
Our next project is to:
1. Design a new logo for them, maintaining the microscope and adding excitement.
2. Design a tote bag for their Annual Conference--You MUST somehow incorporate the Split Rock Lighthouse into the design AND make it represent the search for a cure of Mastocytosis.
3. USE THE WEBSITE. IT TELLS YOU A LOT ABOUT MASTOCYTOSIS! Employ any other research methods you can think of.
4. Work towards 9 thumbnails for the logo and 9 thumbnails for the tote.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Chapter 7 Reading
2-5
10-11
16-17
22-24

Chapter 7 Tutorials
Free Distort 6-7
Pucker...9
Desaturate 8
Mesh 12-13
Heart 15
Star Ball 18
Warp 21
Blend 25-27
Edit Blends 7-28
Color Efx W Blends 7-29
Shapes 30-31
Poison Pen 33
Cup 34

Monday, April 14, 2008

Independent Study Illustrator Readings:
Chapter 4: 2-7, 12-13, 16-17, 20-23, 30-31

Chapter 6: 4-5, 8-10, 14-15, 20-21, 28-29

Illustrator Tutorials:
Thursday April 10
Clock: 4/8-9
Offset Path: 4/14
Closed Path: 4/15
Gilligan: 4/18
Flower: 4/19
Heart to Spade: 4/24-25

Monday April 14
Compound Shapes: 4/29
Clipping Mask: 4/32
Magnify: 4/33
Text as Mask: 4/34-35
Divide: 4/36
Red Bow: 4/39


Tuesday April 15
Checkerboard: 6/6-7
Starry Night: 6/11-12
Plaid: 6/13
Repeating Pattern: 6/16-19
Brush Sampler: 6/22-27
Scatter Brushes: 6/30-33
Shower Curtain: 6/36
Teen Jewelry: 6/37
Individual Grid Project Tips:
  • Be sure to look for logos that have a strong GRID STRUCTURE underneath the surface.
  • Avoid logos with a lot of letterforms and/or low complexity graphics.

Click Here for links to good logo search engines.

Other places to check include:
http://www.allfreelogo.com/
http://www.allthelogos.com/
http://logosin.com/main.php
http://www.dexigner.com/database/area/logo_design.html

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Send That Poster Off!

1. Double-check for poster accuracy.
2. Save as a PDF. (Redo this even if you did it yesterday, we are changing a PDF setting.)
3. In the Save Adobe PDF menu, click on "Compression" in the left-hand menu.
4. Change "Image Quality" from "High" to "Medium High"
5. Look at your file under "My Computer". Right click on it and scroll down to "Properties".
6. MAKE SURE YOUR POSTER IS UNDER 10 MB IN SIZE!!!! If not, we need to compress it.

7. Open your email. If you do not have an email account, set one up at http://www.gmail.com
It should be something like your.name or your_name, etc.

8. Send your poster as an attachment to printservices@dunwoody.edu

9. INCLUDE THIS IN YOUR MESSAGE:
  • NAME
  • SCHOOL (ANOKA-HENNEPIN STEP)
  • LAMINATE CHOICE (GLOSSY OR SATIN)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Student Print Day Poster

You have until the end of day Monday 4/7 to complete your Student Print Day poster.

It must include the theme "Print in Minnesota. It's Part of US."
It also must include the Printing Industry of Minnesota and Make an Impression logos.
(Student on STEP Novell (G://)>Shared>Art Technology>Poster Contest)

Make sure to use what we learned in the +/- problem when manipulating your images.
1. Use the Pen Tool to create Paths around your desired object.
2. Load the Path as a Selection...(Click on the 'dotty circle' at the bottom of the paths palette)
3. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide or Reveal Selection. It looks like the rest of the image is gone but it is really just hiding! This is a much better solution to removing pixels from an image, as you maintain the original pic just in case you need it!