9/21/07 Graphic Design 1

Graphic Design 1 (am & pm)-
Today we discussed the reading from Universal Traveler. The afternoon class was far more prepared and willing to talk about the excerpt. We had a meaningful chat and respondents offered clear, well-formed comments. The morning class will need to write a one-page, single-spaced response paper to the article detailing how they foresee the principles discussed in the article affecting their lives. Not just in respect to art, but in daily life as well as prospective employment.

We discussed chapter 2 from the Graphic Design Solutions book(hereafter referred to "the Landa book") as well. Both classes were better prepared for this discussion. The main ideas and concepts to remember from the discussion include:
• the creative brief
• the difference between strategy and concept
• the analytical process used to determine the strategy
• the types of questions asked • processes and phases of solving a design problem, including, but not limited to:
a. understanding the problem
b. gather information
c. thinking by sketching and writing
d. self-editing (both sketches to roughs, and roughs to comps
• production-understanding that it is the technical process by which a digital file gets prepared for final output by whatever means determined in the creative brief.

Remember, the designer has two goals: communicate the correct message to the audience, and make create a design with enough visual impact to stand out amongst all of the mediocre work out there.

We also talked very briefly about the visual differences in type and the secondary meaning they bring to a design solution. (First being the literal meaning of the words themselves.)

We began working on a type tracing assignment. This comprises gathering interesting samples of all different styles of typography from magazines, internet or other sources, composing the samples into a well-balanced design on a sheet of 11x17 paper, and then inking them in. This is not due Tuesday, but noticeable progress should be made on it.

Follow-up tasks:
• Read Chapter 3 in the Landa book
• Make progress on the type tracing project
• Finish research paper due on Tuesday, September 25