Introduction to Graphic Design – ARTS 222

CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

An introduction to graphic design as a tool for visual communication. Graphic design skills and topics including a brief history of typography and printing; page layout design principles, the design process, page layout and image manipulation software, visual hierarchy, and critique will be explored in this course. Students will use the acquired skills to create basic graphic design materials for a variety of uses. (Formerly Desktop Publishing)

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

Graphic design is a skill that is widely used in the communications, design, and publishing industries. The ability to produce well-designed visual materials is a highly marketable skill and essential for the student wishing to pursue a career in media related fields. This course is also foundational to other ARTS and COMS courses.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (3)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to create a thread in response to the provided prompt for each discussion. Each thread must be at least 200 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 100 words.

Exercise Assignments (3)

Invitation Exercise Assignment
The invitation exercise will help the student to apply the graphic design principles of alignment and proximity using Adobe Illustrator. An invitation is a great start to graphic design as it needs minimal elements to create a communicative and aesthetic design. The aim for the assignment is to use only text and a few colors to get comfortable with Adobe Illustrator and with graphic design.

Menu Exercise Assignment
The menu exercise will help the student to apply the design principles of repetition and contrast using Adobe Photoshop. A menu is a great start to graphic design as it needs minimal elements to create a communicative and aesthetic design. The idea behind this assignment is to challenge the student to showcase a creative menu using contrasting fonts and repeating elements.

Typography Exercise Assignment
The typography exercise will help the student to apply all of the principles he/she has learned so far (proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast) using Adobe InDesign. The Typography Exercise is a great introduction to laying out type in graphic design, which is a large part of design. The idea behind this assignment is to challenge the student to showcase a creative quote, verse, or lyric using contrasting fonts and repeating elements.

Poster and Social Media Project Assignments (4)

Students will design and develop conceptual pieces for an event of their choice, implementing the knowledge of typography, layout design, final preparation, typography, the basic graphic design principles, and document setup. This project will be broken up into four modules:

Poster and Social Media Project: Research Assignment
The student will develop a well-designed process document, which includes project direction, strategy, and a mood board.

Poster and Social Media Project: Sketches Assignment
The student will develop a series of thumbnail and rough sketches for each major deliverable for the project.

Poster and Social Media Project: Comps Assignment
The student will create three digital comps for the poster and 3 comps for the social media design to receive feedback for the final project.

Poster and Social Media Project: Final Assignment
The student will submit the final poster and social media project in a process document as an Interactive PDF.

Behance Portfolio Assignment

For the final assignment of this course, the student will prepare their work using Adobe Photoshop to create an online portfolio. The student will be able to continue to add to this portfolio in classes to come to build up an online presence.

Quizzes (9)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned module. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 10 multiple-choice and/or true/false questions, and have a 12-minute time limit.