28th November

Unfortunately I won't be in today. You will need to sign in with Rachael and work independently in the common area. Use the checklist on the blog to catch up with all work done so far. By next week you should have all 11 pages completed. You also need to update the design of your blog using the layout section. Change your colour scheme to complement your banner, and experiment with fonts and use of layout.

21st November

Today you conducted research into different business card designs, creating your own designs on Illustrator using your research as inspiration. At home you need to write these designs up (explain process, evaluate) on a page called Business Card Design, including a link to today's Pinterest page.

Next week you will be starting to use printing or papercut techniques to experiment with your initial designs.  In preparation for this you will need to conduct supporting research. This could include taking photographs, producing drawings or collecting objects, depending on your proposed designs.  There is no set amount needed, but your independent study (including write up of today's work) should take two and a half hours, and you should have researched at least two of your designs.

14th November

This week you will need to research different styles of typeface, identifying the features common to each through annotation. In Illustrator find at least 3 examples of each font style and write out your brand name (as written in your logo designs). Explain the effect of using each font style and how successful or otherwise you feel they would be in communicating your brand. The typeface styles you will need to research are:

• Roman (Serif)

• San Serif

• Script

• Monospaced

• Blackletter

• Mimicry

In your independent study time photograph as many examples of these typeface styles as you can, annotating to explain why you think these typefaces have been used. Try to find examples from at least 3 styles.

Write all of this work up on a page entitled 'typefaces'.

7th November

This week you will need to use your knowledge of illustrator to create 3 initial presentation boards in response to the ones you have researched at home.  The presentation boards will be used by designers other than yourself to create web sites and other branded promotional material.  As such thry should include the following elements:

• logo design

• colour scheme

• fonts

• patterns/textures

• business card design

• graphic elements (optional)

• alternative/simplified logo (optional)

These designs should be posted on a new page of your blog called 'initial client presentations'.

In addition, you will need to conduct visual research into areas relevant to your branding. This could be photographs, drawings or other studies, and can include images of objects, typography, colour schemes or other design elements. Create a mood board that includes all of this information, and post it on a page titled 'mood board'

17th October

Today you took your initial logo sketches and used illustrator to develop them into vector drawings.

At home you need to make sure these are finished and written up on a page of your blog called "Vector Developments".  Evaluate your designs (what went well, even better if...) and explain your processes (what effects did you use? Did you combine different processes?).

You also need to create a new Pinterest board called "Presentation Boards", on which you should pin examples of logo client presentations (at least 10).

10th October - Design Brief

In today's lesson you were given the design brief for the rest of your project.  This can be found in the folder below.

Y:\SIXTH FORM SHARED AREA\! All Art L3\Graphics\Graphic Communications AS\2014-15\Resources

You need to create brainstorms on the Client profile, Aims and Objectives and Target Audience sections.  You also started researching existing logos, annotating your research in order to analyse each design. On Powerpoint, create one slide of a range of logos, choose six to analyse visually, adding notes about use of formal elements  (shape, colour, form, line, texture, pattern, tone, layout).

At home you need to create your own designs on paper that can be scanned in next week and developed digitally.  Use elements of today's research to inform your design decisions (shape, colour, form, line, texture, pattern, tone, layout).  You will also need to finish off your brainstorms if these were not completed today.

To be able to:

• explore ideas relating to a theme
• analyse existing design work

Success criteria:

• 3 brainstorms produced with a range of ideas explored (Client profile, Aims and Objectives, Target Audience)
• 1-2 slides of annotated logo research.  Refer to formal elements in annotation (Line, Tone, Colour, Texture, Pattern, Shape, Form)
• Homework: a page of pencil drawn designs (at least 6) for your own logo that show influence from your research

3rd October

In today's lesson you used your researched websites to analyse colour, and how it can be used to show mood and emotion. You undertook the following tasks:

1. Colour scheme starter, matching trios of colours to appropriate words, discussing decisions, as well as some of the principles of creating colour schemes
2. Identifying key colours from website designs using the eyedropper tool and the colour analysis template (in shared area)
3. Typography developments using adjectives and colour charts from worksheet to create your own pieces of typography

Some of the technical skills you learnt in today's lesson were:

• Eyedropper tool (including for gradients and outlines)
• Using fonts
• Converting fonts to vector images (create outlines)
• Using gradients
• Using strokes

At home you need to add all of today's work to your page called "web design research".  You need to export each Illustrator file as a .PNG file.  Your colour charts can go up as they are.  Your typography will need analysis and evaluation, including:

• Why did you choose the font you did?
• Why did you choose to arrange the colours in the way that you did?
• Did you use any additional techniques (gradient, outline, etc) and why?
• What went well?
• How could it be improved?

26th September

In today's lesson you will need to photograph your work from last week and write it  up on your blog (this can be finished at home).  You will also need to add a new page to your blog, with the name Pinterest.  By the end of the lesson you will have achieved the following:

All your print work will be photographed
Photographed work may have been written up, or at least started, using last wee's post as guidance.  Photos will be uploaded on a new page called "Printing Techniques".  This only needs to be published once the annotation is finished
You will have created a page called "Pinterest", with seperate links for each of your Pinterest boards (Identity & Typography)

At home you will need to research examples of 3 websites.  Use questions from the analysis sheets in the folder below to to write up each one. You do not need to answer every question, choose a selection of at least 6 questions per website. Put your research onto a new page called "Web Design Research"

Y:\SIXTH FORM SHARED AREA\! All Art L3\Graphics\Analysis

19th September

In today's lesson you had an introduction to two practical printing processes, monoprinting and screen printing.  You should have used your initial visual research on identity to create a series of monoprints, and your typography work from last week to create a screen print.  In your own time you need to write these up on your blog by doing the following:

• Go to your blog overview by clicking on it's name on your blogger home screen
• Click on the 'pages' tab on the left hand side of the screen
• Create a new page by clicking the button just under your blog title.  Call your new page "Printing Techniques"
• Write up both processes using the prompts below.  Include images of your work (these will be in the shared area by the end of Monday)

Explain the stages of each process, including health and safety information.

write what was successful about your work and what you would change in order to improve your results.

12th September 2014

In today's lesson you signed up with Blogger.  If this has not been completed you will need to finish this process at home.  You also learnt about using guidelines to create typography with a consistent height.  Finally, this lettering was taken into Illustrator to produce vector drawings, to be used in your blog design.

At home this week you will need to create a new Pinterest board, titled "Typography", and pin 10 images of typography that you find interesting.  You will also need to take your typography work from today and incorporate it into a banner design using the blog banner template in the resources folder of the shared area.  The computers in the 3rd floor common area have Illustrator on so this can be done during independent study times.

5th September 2014

Today you were introduced to the course.  You worked in groups to create pieces of graphic communication using simple shapes and colours, and started mind maps exploring your own identity.

At home this week you will need to register with wise mapping and provisionally complete your mind map (you will add to this as the project progresses.  You will also need to register with Pinterest and create one board, entitled Identity.  Lastly, on Pinterest, find Corelli Art by searching pinners, and start following.