•       Homework/Reading Assignments

1.      Study for your quiz on typography next week, March 25th. It will cover classifications of type and the typographic terms listed on your handouts and readings and you will have at least one short answer question that will ask you to use your terms and analyze the use of typography in a particular design layout.
2.         Please read the Xrite Document on Color called “Color NTK_newPDF”
3. Read the Before & After article Finding the Perfect Color in Documents/Week Nine Folder on Blackboard.
4. Review Chapter 2 in Digital Media Primer, especially sections 2.7 through 2.10.
5. Review the video “How to Create a Pantone Color in Indesign” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md8UPmSpxHo. Please select a Pantone color for one of your quote concepts. If you are doing your concepts already in indeisgn, prepare one file in Indesign for a Pantone instead of a Process color.

•         Homework/Project Assignments

1.  Post your visually enhanced quotation project on your openlab site in your academic examples page. Be sure you have a written description for each concept as to why you think each concept aptly conveys the meaning of your quote visually. Please see screen shots on blackboard to confirm how to set up the correct page size in Indesign if you are doing your designs in that program. This quote project will be due April 1st. I am giving you one more week to work on this so you have more time to study for your Typography quiz, which will be next week.

2. Find an example of a design in promotional or editorial materials that you think uses color to communicate effectively, post an image of  it on your openlab site and analyze its uses of color using some of the terms discussed in class. Is it using RGB or CMYK color or both? Warm or cool colors, etc.? Bring materials to class next week.

Visit the pages on this site and you will see links to professional organizations, seminars and events in our field going on around town.

• Reading Assignments
1. Read the Mohawk Paper Basics Guide
2. Read Sappi Publication on Preparing Files for Print.
• Writing Assignments/Other Projects
1.You should have your 3 visual quote concepts completed and ready to present in class on March 25th.This will not be your final presentation of this project but you must have 3 prepared and ready for your first “client” presentation..
2. Order samples from Printingforless.com or from Moo.com or another one of the paper companies provided in your Course document folder on paper. Bring in the samples to class when they arrive.
3. Please find one interesting design or resource that you found on a paper company web site and post on your open lab blog page about it.

Homework Assignments

• Reading Assignments

1. Please complete Chapter 2 in your text Digital Media Primer.
2. Please read the these two articles on the Nets logo. From the Huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/30/brooklyn-nets-logo-jay-z_n_1465078.html
From the Classical:
http://theclassical.org/theclog/yes-logo-people-who-know-what-theyre-talking-about-on-jay-zs-brooklyn-nets-logo
http://theclassical.org/theclog/another-look-at-the-brooklyn-nets-new-look
And review the Nets site itself at http://www.nba.com/nets/
3. Please read the article on the Microsoft logo at http://imprint.printmag.com/logos-2/microsofts-new-logo-and-digital-authenticity/
4. Please listen or read the article from NPR this past week about the picket line at the Oscars, at http://www.npr.org/2014/03/01/284178406/a-picket-line-at-the-oscars-visual-effects-artists-to-protest
5. Read the article about Sheryl Sandberg and Getty Photos and Gender at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-11/how-sheryl-sandberg-and-getty-are-making-stock-photos-less-sexist

• Writing Assignments/Other Projects

1. Work on your visual quote assignment as it is due this coming week. Remember, the specifications you are working with for your design are 8.5”W X 5.47”H, the specs for the oversized postcard on the Vistaprint site we visited. So, please keep that in mind when developing your concepts. These first set of  concepts will be revised and worked on again so don’t worry about them looking perfect. You can present them as sketches or as PDF files from Indesign. If they are sketches, they should be done to the correct size and you can take photos of them with your phone to submit to OpenLab and bring the original sketches to class.
2. Work on refining your logo design and polishing your home page introduction. Also, we will be having our quiz on typography on March 18h so you should begin studying for it now. Try testing yourself to see if you can identify typeface classifcations in the products you see around you and be sure you know the glossary of terms in the Adobe Type Primer. You should know not ony the definitions but how to recognize/identify the term in in various layouts. See links in Blackboard for additional type resources.

• Reading & Audio-Visual Assignments – Due March 4th
1. Study for your quiz next week on the history of Graphic Communications–Gutenberg to Google. Be sure to review your readings on Gutenberg, your lecture slides on print history, the video on internet history and know key individuals who were involved in the evolution of our field such as Tim Berners-Lee, Aldus Manutius, Alois Senefelder, Otto Merganthaler and what the contributions they made were and how their innovations impacted the way we communicate.
1. Please read pages 24 through 33 in the the second Chapter in your text, Digital Media Primer. 2. Review your Type Classifications at http://www.designishistory.com/1450/type-classification/ 3. Read Introduction to Blogging on the WordPress site at http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging
4. Read First Steps with WordPress at http://codex.wordpress.org/First_Steps_With_WordPress
• Written & Project Homework –
1. Work on your visual quote assignment and be sure to have three concepts by March 11th.
2. Continue to find samples of each classification of Typeface discussed in our class lecture in children’s books or magazines or packaging between now and when we next meet. Take photos, try to identify them and post them on the blog section of your site.

1. For this week’s assignments, you are to work on your two visually enhanced quotation projects and have two concepts posted on your Academic Examples Page/GRA111, Visually Enhanced Quotation Page.

2. You are also to take photographs of the classifications of type you learned in today’s class and post these photos on your open lab site on your Blog page. Add a caption for each photo identifying what classification of type you saw. These photos can be done of signs in stores, on the highway, billboards, on the sides of buses–anywhere you see type.

3. Take out one typography or design book from the library here at CityTech or your local library and bring it in for next week.

4. Study for your quiz on Graphic Communications History which will be given next week.

Homework Assignments

• Reading Assignments – Should be Completed by February 18th
1. Please read  “The Adobe Type Primer”. See link to this on Blackboard
2. Please read the article “To the Letter Born” at http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/to-the-letter-born/?scp=1&sq=gotham%20font&st=cse.
3. Please read the article “Top Ten Election Design Guidelines at http://www.aiga.org/election-design-top-ten/
4. Take the quiz at the nytimes web site “Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist?” at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/are-you-an-optimist-or-a-pessimist/ and then read the follow-up article to this quiz that was published later.

• Writing Assignments/Other Projects

1. Choose a quote for your visual quotation project and begin working out sketches/designs. Your visual quote project will be designed for a print postcard and should be 8.5” X 5.47”. It can designed either landscape or portrait but be sure to design your concepts with this trim size in mind. If you are not familiar with software such as Indesign, you can draw your concepts and they should be put on a sheet of paper cut to the appropriate size. You can use collage or cut or paste type in the design you would like, using colored pencils to show color. If you know Indesign or Illustrator, you can use those programs to do your designs. Be sure to set up your document to the size specified in these programs and to use the print layout template. Photoshop may also be used to do your initial concepts. However, later on they should be brought into Indesign or Quark. See free tutorials on Adobe programs at http://tv.adobe.com and http://www.lynda.com/home/freeTraining.aspx. If you draw your concepts by hand, take a photo of your sketches using your phone to submit for your intial two concepts.

Be ready to share your quote/early sketches with the class next week.  Review the website http://www.designingwithtype.com/cooper6/6_grid_01.html for examples of visually enhanced quotations. You can also view samples of designs by previous students in my classes on Blackboard in your asssignments folder on the Epotfolio sites provided to you in the Course Documents Folder /Week Three. You should have at least two working concepts to share with the class on your open lab site by February 25th.

2. Continue working on your home page introduction and logo concept. You should have a second draft of the home page copy ready by February 20th.

Reading Assignments–Due February 11th

1. Please finish reading Chapter 1, “Introduction” in Digital Media Primer the required text for this class.
2. Please read the following sections on the Gutenberg site at the University of Texas Ransom Center at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/:
The book Before Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg
The Printing of the Bible
The Spread of Printing
The Appearance of the Bible
Digital Gutenberg Project
3. Read the two articles on Gutenberg from Volume I and II the of Art in Production Journal posted on our Blackboard site in the Assignment section, week two.
4. Please read the articles on Type History and Early Alphabetss in “Level One: A Typographic foundation ” on the web site fonts.com at http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-1
5. Please read the article “Eight Tips for Type on the Web” at http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/typographic-tips/8-tips-for-type-on-the-web
6. Watch the video on youtube, “The History of the internet” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIQjrMHTv4
7. Begin thinking/reviewing about a quote you would like to visually enhance.

Project Work-

1.Logo History Report assigned last week due February 11th.

2. Personal Logo Design– Due February 18th. Please create a logo design concept for your own name, one that you feels reflects your goals & personality. This logo, after revisions and changes, will ultimately be uploaded onto your E-portfolio web site. Your logo design should be accompanied by a paragraphs describing the rationale behind your design. The logo design can be done on the computer or drawn by hand. Use the Before and After Article as a reference and the AIGA site shown in class. Upload your logo sketches to your openlab site page for next week’s class. If your logo was drawn/sketched by hand, take a photo using your Iphone and upload that to your site. If done on the computer, upload the file as a JPEG to your site from photoshop.

2. Please revise the short bio you wrote for homework last week. This bio should contain  a description of yourself, your interest in graphic communications and your goals for your academic career at New York City College of Technology .If you have taken other courses in this major, mention then and cite key items you learned. If this is your first graphic communications course, discuss any experience you have from high school such as drawing classes or computer software classes. If you know Photoshop or any other graphic software, mention it. Also, cite sources that have influenced your career choice such as artists or designers you like, magazines or websites you find visually appealing and write about why they appeal to you. This description will be the draft of the copy for your home page on the E-portfolio site. This assignment should be no more than one or two typed paragraphs–with each paragraph being 4 or 5 sentences long. Your draft must be typed in Microsoft word or another word processing program. Please use spell check and be sure that you are paying attention to your grammar and punctuation. See examples of student bios from previous classes that are linked to on Blackboard as Sample Eportfolio sites. Please post your  revised bio on the home page of your openlab site.

Greeting students and welcome to the Spring 2104 semester and to this course, GRA1111 Section D308, Graphic Communications Workshop. My name is Professor Tanya Goetz and my email is tgoetz@citytech.cuny.edu. Please feel free to email me with questions throughout the semester or see me during my office hours from 4 to 6 pm on Tuesdays. You can also make an appointment to see me via email.

We will be beginning this class by discussing the requirements and expectations for this course, by defining the term Graphic Communications and by introducing you to two tools you will be using throughout the semester, Openlab and Blackboard.