The Learning Resources Center will continue to service our students’ needs for tutoring in person and online. Attached you will find the tutoring schedule for Multimedia.
Online Tutoring
Please have students’ use their CUNYfirst login credentials (ex. Jane.Doe11@login.cuny.edu) to access Upswing and schedule an online appointment with a tutor at bmcc.upswing.io.
Are you always drawing, illustrating, designing, or creating original artwork?
The BMCC Office for Institutional Advancement is seeking a student artist or designer to create an original piece of artwork for communications sent to BMCC donors and supporters. The project will be coordinated by Jennifer Towles, Director of Major Gifts in the Office for Institutional Advancement at BMCC.
This is an opportunity to:
Have your work published by the college
Receive credit as the creator
Add a real-world project to your portfolio and résumé
The office is looking for original illustration and/or graphic design work. Students will develop their own concepts and work through a professional review and feedback process.
Project Details
Final size: 5.5″ × 8.5″
Portrait or landscape orientation
May include wording such as “Thank You” or “Happy Holidays,” along with the BMCC logo (Prof. Esquirol can provide that to selected students)
The student creator will be credited
Interested?
Email Jennifer Towles (jtowles [at] bmcc [dot] cuny [dot] edu) and Prof. Esquirol (jesquirol [at] bmcc [dot] cuny [dot] edu) by October 15 with:
A brief note of interest
A concept sketch, or
An example of original artwork you have already created that you believe could be adapted for this project
If you are proposing an existing artwork of yours, please include a short explanation of how you envision it being used or modified for this donor communication.
Questions?
Questions about design, illustration, typography, file preparation, production requirements, or other technical aspects of the project should be directed to Prof. Esquirol (email above). Jennifer Towles (email above) will be reviewing concepts from the perspective of donor engagement and the goals of the Office for Institutional Advancement rather than providing technical design feedback.
The Elements of Design – A Video Description: Enjoy! See the Elements in action in this great lil’ video.
This post will reflect a 4-week time frame as we delve into assignment #1 part 2 and assignment #2 – The Post-Card Design Adventure Series!
First things first though, let’s see how everyone is doing.
I will be introducing Assignment #2 – AKA – “the Postcard Project”. A class video recording for Assignment 2’s tutorial will be placed under the Assignment #2 page for that individual assignment along with the assignment specifications.
***please don’t move on to assignment #2 until all aspects of assignment #1 are completed..
We will get well versed working with the photoshop pen tool, electronic imaging, cutting out images, compositing and creating graphic assets. We will also be creating and working with various file types and bringing our ideas into photoshop to produce the finished designs.
Im a big fan of iterations and revisions! We will discuss using multiple art boards and the iteration process while our work flow is in process.
*This Week’s Exercise – Cutting out Images in Photoshop / Making Graphic Assets: Cutting out images in various fragments is a task that all graphic designers will face on a regular basis. Learning various methods for cutting out images is a necessity. We will explore, experiment and share a few methods on how.
Practice practice! Make assets as practice for the next few weeks, while working on the postcard project – you may wish to find 3-5 images that you would like to cut out / extract from existing images, look for various curves and edges that are both attractive and challenging.
Those big “Greetings from” postcards, where every letter of a city’s name is filled with a different picture of the place? That design came from the Curt Teich Company in Chicago, which started printing its colorful linen-textured large-letter cards in the early 1930s. Each letter shows a different landmark, so the card becomes a little poster for the whole place. The Newberry Library now holds the Teich archive, over 500,000 postcards plus the original sketches and layouts showing how they were made. Take a look before you design yours, the front and back of a postcard have been solved many ways!
Video Screening Tutorials: Cutting out images in Photoshop (Pen Tool examples)
These tutorials above will help get you started with our class exercise, but ultimately, you will need to master the pen tool in both photoshop and illustrator for the cleanest vector cut-outs.
**Are you looking for a photoshop psd. file template example to create along with, format and submit your postcard? (Photoshop newbies can edit and change the layers as you need to) Those with experience should make the template themselves – Click HERE
(Is there a specific tutorial that you learned from recently or over time? Share the URL link with a description of your experience in the comments section below)
Everything below is free. No trial, no credit card, no account required except where a site asks you to sign in with the Adobe ID you already have through BMCC.
One thing before the list. Watching tutorials is not learning Photoshop. Doing them is. Keep Photoshop open next to the video and build the thing as it plays. If you watch three hours of video with your hands off the keyboard you will remember almost none of it.
Start here. Adobe’s own tutorials.
Adobe Learn, Photoshop Adobe teaching their own software, free, sorted beginner to advanced, and kept current with the 2026 release. Most of them come with the practice files so you can work on the exact same image. This should be your first stop when you need a specific skill.
Adobe Photoshop on YouTube The official channel. Short, current and free, and the fastest way to see what the newest tools actually do.
PiXimperfect, Unmesh Dinda Free, thorough and genuinely excellent on masking, selections and compositing. When you get to Part 2 and need to cut something out properly, this is where to go.
Photoshop Training Channel, Jesus Ramirez Clear and technical. Very good on layers, smart objects and the things that stop your file falling apart when it gets complicated.
Bring Your Own Laptop, Daniel Walter Scott Full free courses taught the way a class is taught, start to finish, with exercise files. Good if you want structure rather than single tips.
Spoon Graphics, Chris Spooner A working designer building real design pieces, not just demonstrating features. Closer to what we are doing in this course than most channels.
Phlearn, free tutorials Strong on retouching and compositing. Some of it is paid, plenty is not.
Envato Tuts+, Photoshop Written tutorials with pictures. Some people learn far better reading and scrolling at their own pace than from video, and if that is you, start here instead.
What to actually search for, for our assignment
Rather than watching randomly, go looking for these:
For Part 1: “Photoshop grid layout guides”, “how to use guides and rulers in Photoshop”, “Photoshop image resolution explained”
For Part 2: “Photoshop poster layout”, “Photoshop type hierarchy”, “how to mask in Photoshop”, “Photoshop smart objects for beginners”
For both: “Photoshop layers for beginners”, “how to save PSD and JPG in Photoshop”
A reminder about your Adobe access
You have the full Creative Cloud through BMCC using your CUNYfirst login. If you have not set that up yet, tell me in class and we will sort it out. Do not pay for Photoshop.
And do not forget, every one of our class demonstrations gets recorded and posted to the Class Recordings page on this site the day after class. If something went by too fast, it is there.
Quick and important update. Our classroom has moved.
Starting this Wednesday, September 23, MMA 100 meets in room S604, the brand new lab in the Main Building at 199 Chambers Street. We are no longer meeting in Fiterman Hall 706.
Give yourself a few extra minutes if you are used to walking to Fiterman. It is about a four minute walk between the two buildings. The Registrar has e-mailed everyone about the change, but please pass the word to your classmates anyway, I would hate for anyone to lose half a class sitting in an empty room. 🙂
Everything else about our class stays the same. Same day, same time, Wednesdays 4:00PM to 7:40PM.
One more change: my office hours are now Thursdays, 9:00AM to 10:00AM, in Fiterman Room 1006. That is a different day and a different building from our class, so please note it. You are always welcome to reach me by appointment too.
If you have any questions just e-mail me at rseslow@bmcc.cuny.edu or leave a comment below.
The link above is super important as that is where all of the course content will be published each week. I’m not a big fan of using brightspace / blackboard – so only password sensitive things (like the shared google drive folder link) will be placed there. Only the minimum info needed will be placed there mainly as reminders. I will go over this in full during our 1st class.
The Class Structure – MMA100 will be taught in person.
As per the CUNY academic calendar (please be aware of the cuny calendar for this semester)
I am here to help you be the best that you can be in our course. And we are all here to do the same for each other. A big part of our class is learning new skills, being experimental with design and seeing how it forms a relationship with “how” you solve problems and revise them. We will cover the many tools that are available to us. (Adobe and beyond) We do quite a bit of the fun and creative work from our own personal work spaces as we integrate the class work into our lives.
Please know, I will screen record each and every class sessions “how-tos” and “assignment tutorials” for all assignments and share those videos here on our class website. (I said that twice, haha, just want you to know again) 🙂
The Class Website – Our class website takes place here on the BMCC OpenLab! You will soon discover that the OpenLab is a huge resource and regular source of inspiration!
If you have questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me here – rseslow@bmcc.cuny.edu
Everything that we cover this semester will be posted and published to this website as a weekly blog post (much like this one) and as individual pages that host specific content (like assignments and their details). You will be asked to visit this website each week. At the bottom of each page and post there is a section for comments, please feel free to use it to ask any questions that you may have.
What is Graphic Design? Design Solutions: Strategy, Concept, Design, Execution & Production Exploring the Design Process.
Software skillsthis semester will focus on– Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Illustrator as well as a few other apps and non-conventional methods of image-making.
What is Graphic Design?
“Graphic design, also known as communication design, is the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The form it takes can be physical or virtual and can include images, words, or graphics. The experience can take place in an instant or over a long period of time. The work can happen at any scale, from the design of a single postage stamp to a national postal signage system. It can be intended for a small number of people, such as a one-off or limited-edition book or exhibition design, or can be seen by millions, as with the interlinked digital and physical content of an international news organization. It can also be for any purpose, whether commercial, educational, cultural, or political.” (Via – Juliette Cezzar)
The History of Graphic Design – We will be exploring and referencing Design history in our class. Lets explore these two references below over the course of this week.
Lets talk a bit about assignments – Most assignments are broken down into 2 or 3 parts. For example, assignment #1 has 2 parts. For each assignment, I will be sharing a series of video tutorials during our class time. Each assignment has its own page with all of the details and specifications needed to work on, complete and submit the assignment.
Starting next class we are going to ease into assignment #1 with just a few easy tasks.
Becoming familiar with terms and items like: “design briefs, project sheets and project specifications” are essential to the design industry. We will become familiar with this process and following a simulation like experience 🙂
We will discuss the progress and submissions process of your finished assignments and how to send and share them via google drive. We will discuss the maintaining of your files and data and how to keep it safe and easy to access.
Assignment Submission guidelines:
When your assignment / assignments have been completed please add them to our class google drive shared folder (the google drive link is located on Brightspace)
Please create a folder for yourself with your first and last name. And, please name your files with your name, assignment# & assignment status – here are a few Example file names – they may looks like this:
Ryan_Seslow_Assignment#2_progress.psd
Ryan_Seslow_Assignment#2_FInal.JPG
Tutorials – I will always share a few video tutorials each week that coincide with our assignments. This one below is about getting further acquainted with Photoshop – (Terry White is one of my favorite Adobe evangelists!)
I’ll also share Designer Inspiration each week? Let’s be inspired and see Who’s Who in the field? There are so many great designers out there to follow these days! Each week, let’s showcase one and talk about how their work functions.
Who is Aaron Draplin? Surely by now you have heard of Aaron Draplin?
Assignment #1 will introduce you to Adobe Photoshop, working with and finding images, and the Elements & Principles of Design, (vocabulary), thats the language of design.
(please note, there are several variations of these definitions that can be found across the web and through out the design world, its ok to mix and mingle variations from other sources to help expand your knowledge)
The Elements & Principles of Design are the governing vocabulary that define, illustrate and communicate how Graphic Design functions all around us. These terms are of great value and importance and should be understood and applied by designers.
Part 1 is a catalogue. You are collecting the vocabulary and putting it in a grid. Part 2 is a composition, and it is a genuinely harder job, so here are the resources that actually help with it.
The difference in one sentence: in Part 1 the 16 terms sit next to each other. In Part 2 they have to work together as one design.
Go look at real posters before you open Photoshop
Poster House, Collections The only museum in the country devoted entirely to posters, and it is at 119 West 23rd Street, a short ride from us. Thousands of posters online. Look at how few things are on a good poster and how hard each one works.
Swissted, by Mike Joyce Punk and indie gig posters redrawn in the Swiss style. This is the single most useful site on this list for our project, because every poster does the same job yours has to do: a few elements, one grid, enormous impact. Pick five you like and ask yourself what the grid is.
Letterform Archive, online archive Thousands of pieces photographed in high resolution, so you can actually see how something was made, not just what it looks like at thumbnail size.
Typewolf Type being used in the wild, updated constantly. Good for the moment in Part 2 when you realise your type is the weakest thing on the page.
What usually goes wrong on Part 2
Your poster names the terms, it does not demonstrate them. Re-read the assignment page on this. If the word contrast is on your poster but nothing on the page contrasts, the poster is not doing its job.
Sixteen things, no structure. If your poster reads as 16 separate stickers, you do not have a composition problem, you have a grid problem. Draw the grid first, on paper, before anything else.
Starting in Photoshop. Do the six thumbnails on paper first. Five minutes each.
