September 24th: Midterm Fun!!!

Announcements

• IFest: International Festival (this is quite a good time)
  Sat., 9/28 from from 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
  Barnhardt Student Activity Center
  

Tonight, Tonight

Tonight, Tonight...what to do tonight. After I go over a few things, I'll pass out your midterm shortly. Take the midterm, and then turn it in to me. Then, do the Picture Frame assignment and UNC Charlotte Logo assignment (two things) or start working on Document #2. When you're finished or if you'd rather work somewhere else, you may leave.

• Midterm
• Mini-Tutorials
• Document #2
• Document #1 Concerns
• Webpages...of course!

Midterm

Alright! Are you ready for the midterm? Good. I'll pass it out.

When you are finished with the midterm, please bring it up to me. Feel free to take your break, but please, please, please be respectful of your fellow classmates and keep the noise level down. Some of you know your voices carry. Try to be quiet like I am.

Post Midterm Fun

Below are tutorials for InDesign and Photoshop. They're easy enough to get done tonight in class, but, I guess, if you want to work somewhere else, that's fine--just use your time wisely wherever you happen to be.

Picture Frame:

I want you to create an InDesign document on your own with help from this tutorial. You'll be creating a "Picture Frame" that you will link to from your homepage.

Easy Logo:

You need to create a logo using Photoshop. This logo is MUCH easier than the one I wanted you to attempt a few weeks ago. I have part of the ENTIRE tutorial up but will put up the rest of the tutorial later.

These can be finished tonight, but I'm not checking on them. Be responsible.

Workshop: Advertisement or Flyer

After your break, please work quietly on your Document #2--Advertisement and Flyer. Have another classmate or two look at your Document #2, but, of course, please be quiet while others are taking the midterm. I expect that you will comment on a fellow classmate's document. Look at the assignments page for more details. Remember, I expect you to work the entire time.

If you're finished with your workshop, please move on to the next web page requirement.

Document #1 Issues

I haven't finished commenting on all of your Business Cards and Letterheads, but I'll get them back to you next week. I've made comments on your papers, but I also have some general, overall things to mention. These were pretty good designs for the most part. Remember, I'm not going to overemphasize the product, but I do expect carefully planned documents. I grade across the semester, so you might want to revisit the syllabus's definition of A, B, C, D, and F grades.

More importantly, however, I would like for you to understand why you're making the choices you make. You really need to use your memos to explain how your choices communicate your documents' messages. Many of you did a good job explaning perception and your document, but all of you need to focus on cultural and, of course, rhetorical aspects of your designs. Risk being too obvious, and use terms like ethos, pathos, and logos if they apply.

Many of you are just doing surface observations of your work and a few of you are using vague terms like "professional" or "powerful" without explicitly bringing out any cultural explanations. For your next memos, I've adjusted where information goes in order to have you do more showing than telling. In addition to a "Context/Situation" section, I will be asking you to include your explantions in a section called "Design Choices." Please be specific in your future documents (and revisions) about why you feel a certain feature works the way you think. Give my some proof, or just make an argument. I'm likely to hold the same "self-evident" truths you have and operate under the same nebulous "common sense" assumptions for many design choices, but I want more explanantion. Remember, the analysis you do on your documents is the most important component of this class; learning to make things pretty is secondary to critical thinking.

On a different note, please remember to be consistent with your business card and letterhead designs. Look for the following:

• Capitalization
• Colors: green or #009900 (See the difference?)
• Font style (aka. typeface)
• Order of elements
• Punctuation

Also, it's ok to use Times New Roman and Arial typefaces, but, you really need to explain why. Williams has a negative view of those typefaces, so, if you use them and don't explain why they enhance your message, it's a sign you aren't reading. The same goes for centering your designs--why do you go against her good advice? Calibri and Verdana (which is the main text on my website) could also be considered overused. In fact, Verdana is really only for webpages and not for printed out documents. We'll get to that later this semester. It's good to break rules and conventions, but you need to be conscious of why; otherwise, it's a distracting mistake.

Webpages

Please make sure they're up to date before you leave. Also, make sure your link works on the classmates webpages page. If it doesn't or your link isn't there, please send me your actual link.

Class Next Week (10/01)

Make sure you read Chapter 5 in Document Design and Chapter 5 in The Non-Designer's Design Book before coming to class.

Also, I've revised your required Documents. Instead of four documents, you'll do three and have more workshop time. Please review the syllabus and Daily Activities Page for new due dates. The Assignments page has the updated guidelines, but, basically, you're choosing to do either Document #3 or #4. Document #2 was supposed to be due next week (10/01), but now it's due in three weeks (10/15).

We're going to focus more on nuts and bolts next class (10/01), so I want you to bring in or find links to whole documents that you feel are either effective or ineffective. Yes, I already asked you to do this, but we'll discuss them next week.

I'll ask you to comment on them on your webpages, so try to find documents that you feel you can discuss in terms of ______, _______, and ______. Guess what three words go in the blanks above?

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