Assignment #1
The Elements & Principles of Design
This is a 3-part project. Working with Adobe Photoshop.
Elements – Color, Line, Mass, Movement, Space, Texture, Type & Value
Principles – Balance, Contrast, Direction, Economy, Emphasis, Proportion, Rhythm & Unity
Elements & Principles Vocabulary (HERE – Links to an external page.)
***Here is the ZOOM recording below of tonight’s class on 2/10 with the Assignment #1 part 1 Video Tutorial
Passcode: ukm3YY$!
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.
Photoshop! Lets dig in and get to know our workspace, creating files, apply layers, filters and image manipulating techniques to customize our process. Class demonstrations with layer styles and creating filters will be screen recorded in our zoom session and place here after the live demonstration.
(space holder for Zoom video demonstration recorded from class-time)
Assignment Specifications: Students will generate a series of visual examples and solutions to define, communicate and illustrate the vocabulary of the elements & principles of design. Each term will display a visual image example using the vocabulary listed above.
Outcome – Students will save two variations of the project as a photoshop psd. file as well as exporting the files as a .jpeg for the web (demonstrations in class video)
Size: – 10″ X 10″ – The final design will be 2 composite designs of 8 squares composed and arranged by each student. (2 files will be created – one for the elements of design and one for the principles of design)
Process: Part 1 – Student will first create a balanced layout in adobe photoshop. Images will be found from research and investigation via the Internet and class resources. Each term for the elements of design will be illustrated and applied by cutting, formatting and placing the examples into a composite (the example above is simply one example, you will create your own.)
Students will generate their own examples of each term using techniques learned in class with photoshop.
R&D – Where will you find visual inspiration and research?
Production: Students will prepare their final works in screen resolution format and application on the web (RGB).
Let’s look at where we find image resources and referencing.Click on the image above to download the .psd photoshop file to use as a template.
Part 2-
Below is an example of part 2 of the assignment. (both in progress and a completed example) By completing part 1 as displayed above student will design a poster / illustration that brings together all 16 terms with an accompanying image you can use the same ones or change them up). This is a nice example below. Students can select the size that they would like to work in. I suggest 11 X 14 inches or 11 X 17 inches. You may work in a vertical or horizontal direction with your dimensions.
Here is the class video tutorial for Assignment #1 Part 2 –
Passcode: &T=9QU3#
***Part 3 – (extra credit- not mandatory)**
In part three you will chose any 8 terms from the elements & principles vocabulary that you wish to work with as your subject. We will be applying these 8 terms by making a series of designs that are not codependent on “representational imagery” and uses only basic shapes, color and form. We will be working with in the shape of a 6″ inch square to complete these designs.
A demonstration of this technique will be shared during class time in Week#2.
Submission guidelines:
When your assignment / assignments have been completed please add them to our class Google Drive shared folder – the link to the folder is located in our course Blackboard page.
*Please make sure to create a folder for yourself with your first and last name and please name your files with your name – Example file name(s) look like this below:
Ryan_Seslow_Assignment#1.JPG
Ryan_Seslow_Assignment#1part2.JPG