Faculty: Please outline your grading policy here. I strongly suggest that you follow the grading policy as outlined below, and use the link to the rubric attached; one page for every student.

Overview

The four projects are evenly graded; with part of your grade set aside for participation and other activities. Here’s the breakdown:

Grading
90% = Course projects/assignments
Project 1. 20%     Image Project
Project 2. 20%     Type/Lettering Project
Project 3. 20% 3-D project or Animation
Project 4. 20% Poster Project
Final 10% zine, ProcessBook, ePortfolio
Participation  10% Discussions, class contribution

Projects

There are four main projects assigned during the semester; the Final Project culminates with a zine–also called a process book or ePortfolio–which is a designed online publication of the semester’s work.

The four projects are completed through scaffolded activities developed both in class and at home. They are graded with a rubric.

  1. The Image Project consists of drawing thumbnails, developing them in the computer and processing them into icons suitable for mobile use.
  2. The Type/Lettering Project is the development of a typographic treatment rendered by hand using brush and paint.
  3. 3-D or Animation Project explores design on another dimension, either space or time. Using your hand-lettered type project as a start point, you will create either a three-dimensional version of your typographic piece, or a kinetic type piece, depending on your instructor’s preference.
  4. The Poster Project is in two parts: a quick research project, then the full design of a printed poster.

Idea Book – Ongoing Assignment

Each week you are to fill in five pages of your sketchbook or contribute to your digital sketchbook/blog/IG account with drawings, images, ideas, notes, etc. The visual notes may be pertinent to the assignments or may be sketches of notions that may have floated into your sphere of ideas.

The pages will be graded once a month. There is no right way or wrong way of doing this. But the sketchbook (idea book) must be constantly updated.

The Final

A fully designed 20-page (minimum) ISSUU document, the free electronic platform for magazine publishing.

Expectations

The following contribute to your successful completion of the course.

Participation

Being an active member of any design community involves communicating with colleagues. Becoming effective at it takes practice. You will be given a number of opportunities to discuss and comment on others’ work, as well as expressing your discoveries in your learning journey.

Most of your commenting will be in the form of thoughtful, written opinions on your classmates’ work asynchronously on discussion boards.

Give insight; your opinion matters! Working in this method also forms mental catalogs. Because, very, very often, first jobs come from a classmates–the full circle of a class critique.

You’re learning how to network every time you comment on your classmates’ work.

Students are requested to turn on their cameras on their devices during class meetings and break-out sessions. This is contributes to your class participation.

It’s required to be a contributing a member in break-out groups and offer constructive criticism of their classmates’ work and engage in relevant conversations about classwork. This may be a synchronous or asynchronous homework assignment. In the event that log-on is asynchronous, after-hours postings and responses are the course expectations.

Attendance (College) and Lateness (Department) Policies

READ CAREFULLY

While CUNY does not have an attendance policy, the Communication Design Department stresses the importance of attendance and permits each instructor to set their own attendance policy. Since COMD 1200 is a course designed for process learning, attendance is an important component to success in this class. 

Both absences and arrival more than 15 minutes after the start of class will be marked. If excessive, the instructor will alert the student that they may be in danger of not meeting the course objectives and participation expectations, which could lead to a lower grade.

An online sign-in sheet is provided; students are required to sign in and attend critiques and prescribed class meetings.

Class Preparation

Students are expected to come prepared with their homework finished and supplies to every class. See Supply List.

Professional Design Process

The professional design process of concept, meetings, and thumbnail sketches through to presentation and final approved art will be followed for four projects with small homework projects in-between to support the realization of its completion. Students will have one week after each formal class critique to revise their projects for the final grading.

YOU MUST CREATE/AUTHOR ALL YOUR IMAGES. Most projects will have digital deliverables. All must be sourced from cited online websites and footnoted. Projects with an analog deliverable are to be photographed neatly with a camera or camera phone. Instructions will be given.

Goals and Methods of Assessment / Grading (Goals #1 – #5 are each 20% of the final semester grade):

Goal #1: Preparation: The understanding of how to prepare for doing a project before actually doing it: Following directions, assembling materials, conducting research. Access the “Before Class Guide” and complete the pre-class tasks.

Method of Assessment: A strict all-or-nothing pass/fail grade for the completing preparation assignments.

Goal #2: Process: The understanding of the steps and procedures used in professional design.

Method of Assessment: Thumbnail, rough and comprehensive homework sketches, through to final art, are required and graded.

Goal #3: Concept: The understanding of the importance of clever imagery in professional design.

Method of Assessment: The combination of symbolic (ideographic) imagery must quickly tell a story without the “crutch” of headlines and explanatory text blocks. Ideographs and pictographs combine to create a clear and creative promotional message.

Goal #4: Craft: The understanding of the importance of quality imagery and presentation in professional design.

Method of Assessment: The use of properly processed, correct resolution graphics is required. Options include taking photographs, creating digital / hand-made art, scanning real objects.

Goal #5: Punctuality: The understanding of the importance of a responsible attitude toward arrival time, and meeting design and production deadlines. Students who know they will be absent must upload their completed projects to the appropriate portal.

Method of Assessment: Each deadline assigned to the steps of the design process will be graded. 

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