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Mondays 8:30 - 12:30, 1:30 - 6
Toni Toland • tatoland@syr.edu or toni@tatoland.com • http://school.tatoland.com
OFFICE HOURS:
Tuesdays from noon - 3:00; PLEASE sign up on my office door - if you don't, I won't hang around. And, AIM or iChat tonitoland (Wednesday-Friday, 8am to 6pm. Leave a message if I’m “away” and I will respond asap. I'm always available via email.
OBJECTIVES & RULES:
This semester you will be refining your skills with Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator with an emphasis on layout and typography. As Ad Design majors, a sensitivity to the voice type creates on a page, and the development of striking visuals that demonstrate the concept or strategy that drives print advertising is critical. Poor design can overshadow, and therefore ruin, a great concept.
The projects you will be working on this semester will strengthen your skills with the computer software you are already beginning to master, and include the development of imagery that enhances your print communications.
Other issues of particular concern include the use of spot color, image resolution, font management, paper, and printing techniques.
The goal for the semester is to develop solid work that demonstrates your digital and design skills as a portfolio that you can present with confidence to seek a summer internship (paid or unpaid) with a design firm or advertising agency. (If you want to receive credit for a summer internship, you will have to pay additional tuition.)
You may choose to work with iPods, a portable external hard drive, or on a laptop that you bring to class each week. (If you bring your laptop, please make sure it’s “registered” with the university so you can access the internet while in class.) I will be collecting digital files in an effort to reinforce the industry practice(s) of including all image files, fonts, and layouts on disk for actual print production. Your work will also be due printed, mounted and flapped according to the class standard.
PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT USE THE SERVER TO STORE YOUR WORK IN PROGRESS. It is not stable or secure.
Depending on the nature of our work, we will either meet and work in one of the classrooms, or in the cluster. It is critical that you attend every class.
Classes will begin with a lecture or presentation each week, followed by hands-on, one-on-one activities, from exercises to working on finished comps. It is, therefore, important to be on time to each class so you won’t miss any content. (As you know, I can talk a lot!)
We will continue to use Robin Landa's Graphic Design Solutions book this semester (available at the SUB). There will be random quizzes/tests throughout the semester based on the content of your readings. I may also assign a few “research” oriented projects that will require you to write a page or so, based on your findings.
Since the cluster is a Mac facility, it is best if you do your work on a Mac if at all possible.
Missing 3 or more classes will earn an “F” for the semester. Being sick counts as a missed class. Being more than 20 minutes late counts as a missed class. That means you have to get up early enough to catch a bus in time to arrive by 8:30!
Late projects will be downgraded 15%. Missing projects factor into your average as “F’s” until they are turned in, and will suffer 10% decreases for each week they are not turned in. There will be no option to re-do a project this semester. Since presentation techniques are integral to the work you do this semester, your adherence to and success with mounting, flapping, folding and so on will be factored into your project grades.
All assignments will be handed in digitally on a CD at the end of the semester so don’t loose or toss anything! Remember to include all the fonts you’ve used in each project! You may hand in your digital portfolio any time up until Tuesday, May 5th, at 5:00 PM. If I am not around, please leave your CD with Sandy. Your CD MUST BE IN A PROTECTIVE CD CASE! Do not wrap it in paper! Do not hand it in without any protection! If you need a case, see me.
Based on the work you did last semester, and the effort you put into your projects, I anticipate a very successful and enjoyable spring... Let’s do it!
ASSIGNMENTS (all assignments are subject to change):
We'll start each week this semester with two of you teaching us the Illustrator and/or Photoshop tricks you've researched and mastered. Who presents each week will be random, so be prepared!
REVISED BOOK COVER / DUE (digitally, and printed & mounted) January 28
READ: Chapter 9.
You are to redesign one existing novel cover (you will be required to generate at least 12 thumbnail ideas first). In addition, you will design a beginning chapter page along with one text spread. NOTE: NO children's books!
The cover image should be developed in either Photoshop or Illustrator. Use Quark XPress for your final layout, paying attention to margins, kerning and tracking, size, position, and alignment. You must include at least one style sheet, and a master page for the interior spreads
Print the cover (including the spine and back cover), the chapter page, and the double page spread.
The final pieces are due printed and mounted for presentation at the beginning of class on January 28, as well as a "packaged" digital file saved to the server.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Select a writer. Read his or her works. Research her/him. Ask a literature professor about her/him.
Write an objectives statement. Define the purpose and function of the problem, the audience for the book, and the information to be communicated. On an index card, write adjectives that describe the work of each writer.
Design one book jacket. Design front cover, back cover and spine. Design a chapter opening page, and two facing pages for a chapter. Look at the novels you’ve read; include elements like chapter number/name, and page numbers.
The cover must express the individuality of the writer.
Produce at least 12 sketches for the cover that could be expanded into a series format for that author.
Your solution may be purely typographic, visually-driven, text-driven, or type plus visual(s).
Think about the various ways the series could be tied together:
Through the use of similar visuals: illustrations, graphics, photographs, typography
Through the use of a technique: woodcut, mezzotint, torn paper, xerography
Refine the sketches.
Create two different roughs.
Remember: Book jackets or covers are very much like posters - they must attract the potential consumer. They should have initial impact. Your book jacket design must compete against other books sitting next to it on a shelf.
Refine the roughs and create a comprehensive layout for the book.
The covers should be 6" x 9" with a 2” spine, held vertically - which means the overall size will be a 14” X 9” spread.
You may use black and white or full color; the interior spread must be one color (black on white paper).
Mount the cover, chapter page, and chapter spread on separate 18" x 15" black board.
Comments: The best way to begin is to read the book in order to have a clear sense of your subject. Your designs must reflect the writer's work. It is crucial for a designer to learn to do research and to translate editorial content and ideas into graphic design. Like a poster series, each book jacket should be able to stand on its own, but also belong to a group. Any book in the series should be identifiable as such; here should be visual similarities among the books, for example, placement of the elements, type treatments, color, and use of visuals.
BILLBOARDS / DUE February 11
READ: Chapter 11.
Great print ads can often make outstanding billboards and buscards (or they can be extremely annoying, like Mr. Huge Billy Fucillo). Design and produce two billboards for a local Syracuse cause or non-profit organization using Illustrator and/or Photoshop, and Quark XPress. (http://www.volunteermatch.org/bymsa/m8160/c/org1.html is a good place to start your research). You will be designing an intro webpage for this client later in the semester, so do be thorough with your research.
The final layout size is 16” wide by 7.135” high, due in digital format, including all images and fonts by the end of class on February 11. Use the template provided on the server to present your layout (billboard.eps). Note, this assignment will be presented in two formats: use the template to place your billboard in context (within Photoshop), and also provide the finished Quark XPress file.
Tim Hsieh
MUSIC FESTIVAL POSTER / DUE February 25 (printed and mounted)
READ: Chapter 8, and the Commercial Printing handout.
 This is a strictly Illustrator assignment. Do some snooping around on the web and find an interesting up-coming music festival. (I typed “2008 music festivals” in Google and got over 100 choices!) Design a poster that includes an image that illustrates the nature of the music/genre, along with text that includes the dates(s), time(s) and place. This is a “flat” color project, so only PMS colors and tints are acceptable - no halftones, no gradients, no transparencies, etc. You may use two colors (black counts as a color!). You may choose to "print" this virtually on colored stock. (check http://www.wausaupapers.com/products/
Products.aspx?ID=17 for some ideas)
The finished size for your poster is 12” X 18”, mounted on black board, 18” X 24”, due at the beginning class on February 25. Be prepared to for a crit.
Mariana Black
HEXIFLEXIGON / DUE March 24
This is a fun project that has not a lot to do with advertising design, but will provide additional practice with Illustrator as well as learning a wacky 3-D presentation format. Download the template at http://school.tatoland.com/downloads/hexitemplate.pdf to work with. Open the template in Illustrator. And the instructions for putting it all together are here: http://school.tatoland.com/downloads/hexiInstructions.pdf. (You’re going to love it!)
Your final project is due in 3-D form by the end of class on March 24th. Plan ahead—it should be printed before class begins! We will mount and fold them into the final toy in class that day.
Also begin planning your final assignment (print ads).
CAUSE/NON-PROFIT WEB SITE HOME PAGE / DUE April 14
READ: Chapter 11, the Wiki definition here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing, this file, and this article: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Business/story?
id=2210692&page=1.
Design three different intro pages for the client for whom you created the billboards.
Include visual representation of the buttons/navigation system.
All artwork is to be created using Photoshop and/or Illustrator. The final layout is due as a "packaged" InDesign file.
Rework your roughs for the final assignment (print ads).
PRINT ADS / DUE April 28
Select four of your best concepts from your ADD 241 and ADD 242 classes this year. Using Illustrator, Photoshop, and either InDesign or Quark XPress, create single page (vertical, 8.5" X 11") finished presentation comps. Each concept should have two separate layouts (the elements can be the same) for a total of 8.
Any logos you use must be recreated in Illustrator. Images are to be developed in Illustrator and/or Photoshop. Resolution for any Photoshop files must be 150 ppi, and the image dimensions no smaller than 8.5” X 11” cropped (without any white space around the edges) if you intend for them to be full-page bleed.
All headlines, tag lines, and body copy is to be written (by you) and typed into each layout.
Key pieces for grading: typography for headline and text, image development and execution including image resolution/size, logo/graphics execution, and design, and writing.
These layouts are due in a single "packaged" Quark XPress or InDesign file by the end of class on April 28th, which is the last day of class. That means, you will create one file and use 8 pages within the document - one for each ad.
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