Author: admin

August 30: What Are Fonts?

Homework

August 28: Introductions

Homework

May 1 – May 5: Project Documentation

Topics

  • Project Documentation (Project 2 and revisions to documentation on Project 1). Documentation is due no later than 12pm on Monday, May 8.
  • Complete survey about classroom community by 11:15am on Wednesday, May 10
  • No work for this course will be accepted later than Monday, May 8 at 12pm.

Final is scheduled for 8am on Wednesday, May 10. At the final expect your last UI challenge and to formally present project 2 using your documentation (note this was originally scheduled for Friday, May 5 in the syllabus).

May 1 and May 3: Ethics and Interviews

May 1 Topics

  • Ethics: a set of moral principles; principles of conduct governing a group of people; value system
    • Conflicts of interest
    • Standards of Professional Practice
    • Understanding our biases
    • Know your moral compass
    • Charging Bull and Fearless Girl
  • Ethics Case Studies
  • 30 Second Elevator Pitch
  • Final Portfolio Assessment

May 3 Topics

  • Lab will be open, but class will not meet.

Reminders and Deadlines

  • MAY 1-3: Mock interviews in Career Services with alum. Confirmations were emailed on Friday. Remember to show up a little early for your interview and to send out a thank you to your interviewer afterwards.
  • MAY 2-4: Final portfolios due at noon the day after your mock interview. Leave physical portfolios in 32 Lanigan for Rebecca or in her mailbox outside of her office. These will be returned at your final exam. Submit files digitally by the same deadline (remember to submit on Google Drive and Lisa French). Print portfolios require packaged inDesign files and PDFs as well as either a PDF appropriate for email or a shortcut to a web version of your portfolio. Web-based portfolio submissions include a shortcut to the live site and a copy of your code files.
  • MAY 5: Final Portfolio assessment due at 12pm (noon). Files (PDF) should be submitted on Google Drive and Lisa French. A printed copy should be submitted in Rebecca’s mailbox outside of 32 Lanigan.
  • MAY 8 at 2pm: Final exam on Professional Practices – review material covered this semester. The test is cumulative and will include vocabulary and technical questions you should know as a result of completing your degree.

April 24 and 26: Pricing

Topics

  • Sign up for a Mock Interview
  • Pricing Models: Time-based, Fixed, Value-based
  • Invoices (billing for your work): Invoice Like a Pro , Beautiful and Functional Invoices, Tad Crawford’s Forms, Graphic Artist Guild Forms
  • Invoice Exercise: Create an invoice for one project you completed this semester using the time-based model. Include all expenses, etc. Use your timesheets to make sure you are charging accurately. Write a short reflection: Are you surprised by the total? Would you use this pricing model in the future? Are all the hours you charged for reasonable? Was your use of time efficient/effective? What did you learn from this exercise? Include invoice and reflection in your process notebook.
  • Estimates: Group exercise (What pricing model would be appropriate? What is reasonable to charge? What expenses need to be considered? What stipulations need to be included?). Include estimate exercise in the “writing” section of your process notebook.
    • Miranda’s Team: Estimate for a promotional email template to be used for weekly sales for an existing local restaurant with established branding.
    • Cassandra’s Team: Estimate for an illustrated book cover for a novel with a small publisher.
    • Brittany’s Team: Estimate for a wedding invitation design.
    • Mark’s Team: Estimate for a slide deck design (to announce speakers, the schedule, promote sponsors) for a conference on Alzheimer’s and dementia.
    • Claire’s Team: Estimate for a t-shirt, mug and bag design (all give-aways for a conference) that fit within the brand standards of a conference.

Reminders

  • Professional Development requirement write-ups are due one week from the date you attended the event. Write-ups should be submitted digitally and in print. If Create Upstate is your professional development activity, your write up is due at the final on Monday, May 8.
  • APRIL 26: Final Process book due at 11:59pm. Please submit packaged inDesign file and PDF.

Homework due Monday, May 1

April 24 – April 28: Finish Project 2

Deadlines and schedule

  • April 24: Project 2 Work Day, Discuss practice interviews.
  • April 26: Project 2 Work Day
  • April 28: Project 2 Formal Critique
  • May 1: Project 2 Revisions and Process Book Due. Discuss Project 2 Documentation.
  • May 3: Project 2 Documentation for Portfolio
  • May 5: Project 2 Documentation for Portfolio by 11:59pm
  • May 10 at 8am: Final UI Challenge, Semester Reflection

REMINDER: Professional development write-ups are due one week after attending a professional development event. Write-ups will not be accepted after Monday, May 8.

April 24 – April 28: Enhancements

April 24: Topics

April 26: Topics

Deadlines

  • April 26: Review Questions and Critique (minimally template should be live)
  • April 28: Site revisions for client approval. Client approval must be obtained for this project, even it it requires the team to work past the May 1 deadline.
  • May 1: Process Book (remember that decisions throughout the process should be well-documented) and survey (Will not be released until April 28)
  • May 1: Final Exam/Project assigned.
  • May 3: Last set of review questions.
  • May 5: Work day.
  • May 10 at 8am: Show and tell of final exams/projects/

April 21 – Work Day

Topics

  • Work Day — check in with your Creative Director (or assistant Creative Director). Alex will be available for coding help.

      • Alex’s Office Hours

      • Saturday, April 22 — 11am to 2pm (in Tyler Art Gallery)
      • Saturday, April 29 — 11am to 2pm (in Tyler Art Gallery)

April 17 and 19: Preparing for Interviews

Topics

  • Preparing for interviews: Questions
    • Technical – will there be an excercise or test that needs to be completed before the interview or at the interview?
    • Process – what is your workflow like? Can you walk an interviewer through the enire process of a project or two? Think about research, ideation, iterative prototyping, feedback and testing, etc. How do you know a project is successful? How do you overcome challenges? What is your design philosophy or what do you value as a designer?
    • Culture Fit – interviews go both ways. You want to make sure that you are a good fit for the company also that the company and team is a good fit for you. Come with your own questions.
    • Collaboration – questions about leadership, communication, conflicts, etc. often come up here.
    • Self Reflection – what are your goals?
    • Engagement with the field – where do you find inspiration? How do you stay current?
    • Portfolio Walk through – what is the story of your portfolio? Where do you want to direct an interviewer’s attention? What do you want to highlight? What are the goals, audience and metrics of each project? What is your role?
    • What questions do you have for the potential employer?
  • Preparing for interviews: What to bring
  • Preparing for interviews: What to wear?
  • Preparing for interviews: Skype
  • Preparing for interviews: Supplying portfolio in advance.
  • Elevator Pitch for networking.

Homework due Monday, April 24

Homework due Monday, May 1

Reminders

  • Professional Development requirement write-ups are due one week from the date you attended the event. Write-ups should be submitted digitally and in print. If Create Upstate is your professional development activity, your write up is due at the final on Monday, May 8.
  • APRIL 19: Revised Professional Package (minus the portfolio) due at the end of class. Links to online presence should be included on these items. Think about how these items would be presented to a potential employer. For example, would you have a resume with busines card, etc. in a folder? Would you mail your thank you note in an envelop? Attention to detail is key. You must submit your first submission with this revised submission. Remember to submit files (PDFs and Originals) as well as print versions.
  • APRIL 24: Pricing
  • APRIL 24: Sign up for mock interview.
  • APRIL 26: Final Process book due. Please submit packaged inDesign file and PDF.
  • MAY 1: Ethics
  • MAY 1-3: Mock interviews in Career Services with alum.
  • MAY 2-4: Final portfolios due at noon the day after your mock interview (if you have a web version, please email a URL by the deadline). Leave physical portfolios in 32 Lanigan for Rebecca or in her mailbox outside of her office. These will be returned at your final exam. Submit files digitally by the same deadline. Print portfolios require packaged inDesign files and PDFs as well as either a PDF appropriate for email or a shortcut to a web version of your portfolio. Web-based portfolio submissions include a shortcut to the live site and a copy of your code files.
  • MAY 5: Portfolio assessment (PDF) due at noon on Lisa French and Google Docs. The assignment will be handed out on April 26.
  • MAY 8 at 2pm: Final exam on Professional Practices.

April 17 – 21

Topics

  • April 17 and 19 are work days
  • April 21 is Mock Interview day — come with portfolio, resume or other materials you might to go an interview with. To prepare share questions and reflections with each other from the first round. To get an interview you need to fill out the form posted on Slack.

Reminder: Projects are due at the end of next week.

April 17 – HTML

Topics

  • Collaborative Coding Tools: Code Your Cloud (Get started with Alex’s Quickstart Guide), Cloud 9
  • Design an HTML Template that contains all modules for site (do not work on individual pages)
  • HTML Forms: form, fieldset, legend, label, input (text, date, number, checkbox), select, option, button.
  • Forms Exercise

Homework

  • READ When Pages are Not Paper
  • READ CSS Positioning 101 (be sure to click on all of the example links so that you can see a visualization of each of the concepts introduced).
  • Sticky Nav Exercise: Download the HTML code (with internal stylesheet) and edit the CSS so that the Navigation sticks to the very top of the page (centered horizontally) and does not scroll. You will need to add 4 lines of code in total.

April 10 and 12 – Catch Up Week

Topics for April 10

Topics for April 12

  • Amy Shutter, Alumna and Web Designer will talk about getting her start at 4pm via Skype

April 10 – Work Day

Topics

  • Reminder: Presentations to client are on Wednesday! Keep presentations to about 10 minutes and plan for up to 5 minutes of Q & A
  • Reminder: Amy Shutter, Graphic Design Alum and Web Designer, will be speaking on Wednesday at 4pm in 34 Lanigan
  • Reminder: There is no class on Friday.

Homework

  • Study/review for Review Questions on Wednesday
  • Prepare for presentation on Wednesday

April 3 – Work Day

Topics

  • Announcements and Reminders
  • Preparing for Client Presentations

Homework

  • Continue working on design for Simulated client project.

Note: There is no class on Wednesday (Quest), therefore there will not be review questions this week.

March 29 – Work Day/Critique

Topics

  • Get into critique groups and get feedback on items you are currently working on in your portfolio. Use the rest of the time to work.

Reminder: I’ll be in class around 4:30 today if you need something.

Deadlines

  • April 19 – Revised Professional Package
  • April 26 – Final Process Book
  • May 1 – Final Portfolio
  • May 3 – Written Portfolio Assessment
  • May 8 – Professional Practices Exam

March 27 – Typographic Details

Topics/Announcements

  • Typographic Cheatsheet – Pay attention to typographic details.
  • Copyright talk is rescheduled for next Wednesday, April 5. What do we need to focus on: Protections, Copyright Registration, Work for Hire, Fair Use, Public Domain, Licenses, Case Studies? Other questions you want addressed? Post questions in #copyright channel in Slack by Friday at noon.
  • Due to advisement, I will not be in class until the last 30-45 minutes. Critique in your small groups on Wednesday and use the rest of the time to work.
  • BFA PR Group: Meet with Rebecca from 2:30-2:45
  • Guest: Saied Farisi – Critique from 3-4 with Miranda, Alyssa, and ?
  • Guest: Saied Farisi – Design Talk from 4-5

Next week – Monday, April 3: Visiting Alumni

  • Kitty Connor (’84) is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Architectural Designs and for 11 years was Vice President/specialist of Impressionist and Modern Paintings and sculpture at Christie’s auction house in NYC.
  • Nancy Fire (’83) is both the Creative Director for HGTV Home as well as the Founder of Design Works International, a “diversified think tank” that consults and workshops with some fo the premier talent in the world.

Homework

March 22 – Client Communication

Topics

  • Process Notebooks
  • Does the client know what they want? What is appropriate to ask Client vs. Creative Director
  • Finish up Personas and identify key user tasks
  • Core Model Worksheets for Strategic Planning
  • Client Communication Workshop with SCMA Writing Fellow, Stephanie Pritchard

Homework

  • Reach out to client for clarifications on goals/intents of site
  • Core Model Worksheets

March 22 – Documentation

Topics

Homework

  • Work on documentation of Project 1 (or similar) for your portfolio. Be prepared to use that documentation to walk us through your project like you would in an interview. Walk throughs should be no more than 5 minutes. Cover what you think would be important for a future employer to know. Practice your walk through — do not wing it.

March 20 – Business

Topics

  • Event Reminders
  • Review Writing Assignment
  • SLACK reminders
  • Timesheet Reminders
  • Business terms
    • ROI
    • SWOT
    • Overhead
    • Invoice
    • Annual Report
    • Business Plan
    • Vendor
    • Conversion Rate
    • NDA
    • Business Model
    • Value Proposition
    • Stakeholder
    • CEO
    • CFO
    • B of D
  • Business Structures
    • Sole Proprietorship
    • Limited Liability Company
    • Cooperative
    • Corporation
    • Partnership

Homework (for Monday)

  • Continue to work on revisions and additions to portfolio.
  • Read Copyright Basics
  • Read Use of Fonts, Use of Illustrations, Use of Software, Guide to Copyright and Use of Photography in Design Business + Ethics.

March 20 – Documentation

Topics

  • Critique and revise UI Challenge 3
  • Work on project documentation for Project 1 (or another web project) for your portfolio. You will show that documentation in a presentation on Friday.

Homework

  • Project 2 Proposal: include project goals, target audience, and detailed research and production schedule — be sure to include critiques (April 7 and April 28), user testing, and plenty of time for revisions. Projects should be complete by May 1. Work documentation for this project is planned for May 1-May 5.
  • Work on project documentation.

March 8 – Documenting Work and Web Presence

REMINDER: Our class will meet in Tyler Art Gallery at 2pm today.

Topics

  • Documenting work
    • How to present your work in context (depending on the context).
    • Show and tell.
    • Handling special cases: time based media, interactive media, three dimensional media and products.
  • Web Presence

Homework

  • Update LinkedIn and develop a plan for your web presence and web portfolio.
  • Work on revisions and work for portfolio.

March 8 – Work Day

Topics

  • Work on Project 1 — get critique and feedback from each other today in class so that you are able to make revisions for Friday.

Homework

NOTE: I will accept this work until 11:59pm on Friday. You will not have time in class to work on Friday.

  • Complete Project 1
  • Complete process documentation (process book or similar). Your documentation should demonstrate and explain your process and how you made decisions. Critique notes, user test notes and analysis should be included.
  • Submit copyright documentation for each asset in the site. For each asset indicate who the copyright holder is, the date of the copyright (when possible), licensing details and/or a fair use claim. When needed location and model release forms should be included for photography.
  • Write an evaluation of your project. Imagine this is what you need to report on to your creative director. Address each of the following questions separately
    • How effective is your solution at addressing the needs/wants of your users? How do you know? Be sure to address individual personas, etc. Be specific. Use screenshots to support your claims where relevant.
    • How effective is your solution at addressing the goals/objectives of the project and/or the organization? How do you know? Be specific. Use screenshots to support your claims where relevant.
    • What progressive enhancements have you introduced to move your site from functional and usable to something that is memorable and desirable? Explain. Provide evidence.
    • Evaluate your process. What about yur process was particularly effective? What was missing from your process? What would you like to do differently, process wise, on your next project? Explain. For those working collaboratively, this is a good place to address how the team works together, etc.

REMINDER: We will meet in Tyler Art Gallery at the start of our next class.

March 8 – Accessibility

Topics

Due Friday, March 10 at 11:59pm

  • Complete Accessibility testing on Object Blog Website
  • Complete revisions to Object Blog Website
  • Submit Object Blog Project on Google Drive including
    • Notes from all critiques, user testing findings and accessibility testing AND analysis of findings and interpretation of feedback and including what actions you took in response to the feedback and why.
    • Personas (2)
    • Articles/Posts (at least two drafts of each)
    • Sketches
    • Mockups and Revisions of Mockups
    • Original site (due Monday)
    • Revised version of site after user tests and accesibility testing
    • Shortcut to live website
    • Written Evaluation

REMINDER: meet in Tyler Art gallery on Friday.

March 6 – Documenting Work

Topics

This week’s printer is Brittany.

  • BFA PR Team Meeting
  • Work time until 3:40
  • 3:40pm Visitor: Peter Cardone, Documenting Work

Homework

  • Complete professional package. Submit files in a single folder titled yourLastName_professionalPackage (be sure to include both a PDF and packaged InDesign files for each piece). Printed proofs need to be submitted for all printed materials. Use a paperclip to keep your materials together. Label each with a sticky note identifying how it will be printed, on what stock, etc.
  • Submit process book as a PDF and as an InDesign file in a single folder titled yourLastName_ProcessBook

Next class we will meet in Tyler Art Gallery.

March 6 – User Testing

Topics

Homework

  • USER TESTING: Complete a User Testing script that includes 3 tests. Use that script to test your website with at least three people. Make sure you test your site on a variety of devices (but only one device per person). At least one of those individuals has to be within your target audience. None of the these individuals should be familiar with your project. Type notes from each testing session.Test with additional individuals if you need more information to draw conclusions from your test. Write up a one page analysis of your findings. What did your testing tell you? What will you change about your site and why?
  • A revised version of your site will be due on Friday. Begin implementing changes based on your tests now. I highly recommend that you test your site again after you make changes to see if the changes have made a difference.

Topics

Homework

  • Complete Object Blog Project. All files shoud be submitted before the start of class on Monday.
  • Bring all completed worksheets related to the Object Blog project to class: Empathy Map, Defining Audience, Article Text Peer Review for Article 1 (2), Article Text Peer Review for Article 2 (2), Blog Post Mockup Critique, Blog Post Coded Critique
  • Read Chapter 9 in Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

Next Week at a Glance

  • Monday: Making Sites Live, User Testing
  • Wednesday: Accessibility Workshop
  • Friday: Visit to Gallery and Design Challenge