Lesson 1 - Tuesday, January 20

Welcome to Art 181! Today, our first day of class, we'll discuss:

• Class member introductions
• The Art 181 syllabus
• The Adobe Illustrator software package
• What Is Graphic Design?
• Student info/questionnaires

If you have any questions outside of class, don't hesitate to contact me.

Click here to watch the class website video tutorial

Lesson 2 - Tuesday, January 27

Welcome back!

• If you haven't registered for a user account yet, we'll do so tonight. I have your Student ID number if you need it.
• I've launched the class message board (“Class Talk!” on the website menu). We'll discuss it.
• Tonight we'll talk about Principles of Design (or "Design" on the website menu), do some exploration in Illustrator, and then I'll let you loose to work on your homework assignment or explore Adobe Illustrator some more.

The Homework
Your assignment, due at the end of class on Tuesday, February 3, has two parts:

Homework Part A:
Your assignment: Find a piece of graphic design that could use a re-do, and bring it to class.
What to use: Book cover, CD cover, magazine, food packaging, DVD case, postage stamp, video game graphics, website printout, etc.
When to bring it: Next class period, February 3. Be prepared to discuss what you dislike and what you like about it.

Homework Part B:
This is an assignment to be completed in Adobe Illustrator. Please follow the directions below, and if you'd like, watch me do this assignment if you get confused:

1. Using the shape tools (rectangle under the T), fill the "page" with at least six shapes. Go crazy and use hundreds of shapes, if you like. The composition is up to you.
2. Assign at least four different colors to your shapes (using the big colored squares beneath the tool icons).
3. Give a unique stroke width to at least one shape (found under the "Stroke" tab in the palettes area).
4. Arrange the shapes so that some are on top, others behind (select Object/Arrange).
5. Change with the opacity of at least one object using the Transparency palette.
6. Assign at least one object a colorful gradient fill (under the "Gradient" tab to the right).
7. Add the following type to your design and place it anywhere on the page that you like: Your Name - Art 181, Computer Graphics

You can watch me do this assignment!

Lesson 3 - Tuesday, February 3

Don't forget: Part B of last week's homework is due at the end of class.

• Review design principles real quick...
• Share our Homework Part A from last week...
• Learn why you already know how to make a poster in Illustrator(!)
• Learn how to use Live Trace and Live Paint to make a scanned drawing come alive
• Go over the homework (below)

The Homework
Your assignment, due at the end of class on Tuesday, February 10:

Create an 8.5 x 11" poster (that's the default page size in Illustrator). Use the Live Trace and Live Paint tools on at least one photo or illustration (your own or a freely-licensed one).

When you're done, save this file as "My Poster.ai" in your Finished Work folder.

Psst...if you need a little review, you might wanna watch me use Live Trace and Live Paint to color in the robot illustration.

Lesson 4 - Tuesday, February 10

Items covered:

• Direct Selection
• Beziers

Next week we'll start on lesson 5 in the book!

Since the network is being a BIG pain, here is the link to the files on the class website.

Lesson 5 - Tuesday, February 17

Items covered:

• Drawing with the Pen Tool
• Beziers
• Midterms

Your assignment for next week is to finish lesson 5 in the book (the pear illustration, pages 136 through 150). Save the finished pear in your Finished Work folder as "assignment 3.ai".

Midterms
For details on the midterm, please download the midterm overview PDF document. Note that the due date in the PDF file should say, "March 24."

Lesson 6 - Tuesday, February 24

Items covered:

• Pen Tool Video!
• Typography and Design
• Get going on those midterms! :)

No homework this week - I hope you'll use the time to begin your midterm project.

Midterms
For details on the midterm, please download the midterm overview PDF document. Note that the due date in the PDF file should say, "March 24."

Lesson 7 - Tuesday, March 3

Items covered:

• More on Typography
• A Typography Exercise
• Formatting Type in Illustrator

Remember - work on your midterm with the lab time you have...you should definitely have an idea of what you want to do by the end of this week.

For details on the midterm, please download the midterm overview PDF document. Note that the due date in the PDF file should say, "March 24."

Lesson 8 - Tuesday, March 10

Items covered:

• Starting a New Document from a Template
• Clipping Masks

The rest of the lab time is yours to work on your midterm project!.

Remember: For details on the midterm, please download the midterm overview PDF document. Note that the due date in the PDF file should say, "March 24."

Lesson 9 - Tuesday, March 17

Don't forget! Midterms are due next Tuesday. Tonight, I will be:

• Reviewing the Midterm project
• Checking your progress on midterms
• Showing you Vectips, an Adobe Illustrator resource website.

The class time is yours to work on your midterm project!.

Remember: For details on the midterm, please download the midterm overview PDF document. Note that the due date in the PDF file should say, "March 24."

Lesson 10 - Tuesday, March 31

Great job on your midterms last week! I hope to have them graded by next week. Tonight, we will:

• Review some tools we've learned in the past
• Talk about some new tools
• Start our next assignment, assignment 3. For assignment 3, you'll complete Lesson 4 in the book and save the finished files in your Finished Work folder. Please create a folder called Assignment 3 for these files. I can help you do it! Assignment 3 is due at the end of class on April 7.
• Talk about extra credit: There's a tutorial you can do for 10 points. If you adapt the tutorial and make a map of a location closer to us (than England), that's worth 20 points. This is good stuff if you have been absent more than a couple of times, or tardy more than 4 times!

Lesson 11 - Tuesday, April 7

First thing's first: No class next week. Tonight, we will:

• Do some review of Illustrator tools you've learned
• Give you time to finish Assignent 3 (and the extra credit if you've decided to do it)

There is no homework during your week off, but we will be starting the final project when you return on the 21st.

Those of you who are interested in logo design might want to look at this writeup of a logo design process using Adobe Illustrator. Of special note is the way the gradient tool was used, and the fact that the single-color version presented to the client doesn't use any gradients at all, while the color version does.

Lesson 12 - Tuesday, April 21

Welcome back! Today we will:

• Do a little review
• Start the final project (due May 19)!
• Start assignment 4 - lesson 8 in the book (lesson 10 is extra credit). Assignment 4 is due next Tuesday.

Final Project details
Due date: Last day of class, May 19, 2009.
Here are your options for the final Illustrator project:

- An original logo design (for any company, real or fictitious) - Re-design of the Mendocino College Class Schedule or Catalog cover page
- A Wedding Invitation
- An original CD or DVD cover design
- A business card with an original logo design
- A home page for a website design (real or fictitious)

...or you can come up with your own idea if you clear it with me first!

What your project must include

-Adherence to sound design principles
-A 3-color color scheme, to be submitted to me by the end of class on Tuesday, May 5. See this website for more information; see also Colors that Sell.
-An in-class presentation:
-Saved .ai file: YOUR-NAME-final.ai. Be sure to work on a copy of your original file, then embed all photos you placed in it, and convert all type (text) objects to outlines. Please include a sample of your color scheme colors inside the .ai file, somewhere off (to the side of) the document's artboard.

How you will be graded

I will take the following into consideration: effort, workload, how you've improved since the midterm, and improvement in skill using Adobe Illustrator. Most of all, I will ask myself this: What does this design communicate to me? Is the correct message getting across? How powerful or appropriate is the overall feeling?

If you really want to do well on this project, ask your classmates these questions:

1. "XYZ is what I'm trying to convey. Does my design match my message?"
2. "Is my message obvious?" (It should be)
3. "What is being communicated to you?"
4. "Where did your eyes go first?"
5. "If you had to remove one part of this design, what would it be, and why?"

Final exam exercises

There will be two short Illustrator projects assigned on the last day of class, to test what you've learned. We will review this portion as a class before we start it.

Lesson 13 - Tuesday, April 28

Tonight:

• We'll do a little review
• We'll talk about the Final Project (Due May 19)
• Your 3-color color scheme is due next Tuesday (save as color-scheme.ai in your Finished Work folder)
• You'll have time to finish Assignment 4 which is due at the end of class (lesson 8 in the book)
• We'll learn about the web and start Assignment 5

For Assignment 5 you'll design and export a personal web page with information about one of your talents or hobbies. This web page will need to include the following:

• A 960 x 700 pixel web page
• 2 to 3 paragraphs of text about your chosen subject
• At least 2 images having to do with your chosen subject
• At least 5 links, including one mailto: link to contact you, and one image that is a link (for example, a photo that a visitor can click to email you).

Assignment 5 is due at the end of class next Tuesday, May 5. You should save it as Assignment-5.html in your Finished Work folder. Photos that are free to use can be found using this Flickr search page.

Lesson 14 - Tuesday, May 5

Tonight:

• Some review
• We'll finish up the web lecture with some more information about Illustrator and the Web
• I'll do a short demonstration
• You will have lab time to finish your web assignment and your color assignment, or work on the final project which is due in two weeks! :)