Today’s Plan:
- Office Door Peer Review
- Homework
Office Door Peer Review
Today you will work in groups to provide feedback on the office door project. I see the purpose of this activity as three-fold:
- First, by discussing the projects with your teammates, you should strengthen your familiarity with some core design concepts
- Second, by writing brief evaluation responses, you will gain practice providing feedback (which, if you are aiming to be editors, you will need to develop)
- Third, you will be providing each other with feedback to guide revision (which I will ask you to do for homework)
Overall I am quite impressed by the quality of the designs. I’m not doing a revision here because I do not have a worthy poster. Rather, I think I have several worthy candidates. I’m doing a revision here because I only realized Monday that I did not include a rubric for the project before you completed it. Whoops. So I want to give you an opportunity to revise your projects before a “final” assessment.
While I didn’t give a rubric, I did give some hopes and expectations. Let’s revisit those.
- A poster design in Photoshop. I am going to print the Posters via Staples. The size will by 18 x 24. You have freedom to do a portrait or landscape orientation. The resolution must be 300 pixels. This will be a full color design. This means the design has to have a bleed. I have created an (almost blank) template file: link here.
- I want something cool. This can be bright and graphic. It can be really English-ee, if that’s what you want (photos of books? A collage?). I do not want to spend money on something boring.
- The primary goal here is to help students find faculty. Faculty names should be bold and noticeable. AND, faculty offices are clustered. It would be really cool if this design could include a map. But even if it doesn’t, names should be organized in a way that resembles the layout of offices. Here is a powerpoint the department uses to keep track of faculty offices.
- Graphic photos are cool. If you have a recent iPhone or Android phone, then you can increase the camera resolution. I have an old crappy iPhone, so I am not sure when they started to include this functionality.
Let’s combine this with the design priorities for our first project:
- Typography: Font use, font pairings, readability
- Layout and Alignment: beyond layout, padding and/or margin issues, use of space, attention to white space and proximity
- Content: In this case, does this feel like it works as a map? How functional does it feel?
- Focal Point: Is there a clear spot to which your eye is drawn? Does this grab your attention?
- Contrast / Use of Color: Does the use of color amplify other design elements? Contribute to the focal point or to the cool factor? Does it help create hierarchy?
- Cool Factor: Did you have a “wow” reaction? How did you feel when you first saw it? What kind of adjectives might you relate to the design?
As a group I’ll ask you to write a response to the designer. You should first identity what the design does well. Be specific. Use the elements above as a heuristic to help you think your way through the design. I do not expect you will address every point for every design.
Next you will want to identify 2-3 things that you think the designer could address or improve. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a glaring problem; you might point to an area of the design that isn’t quite working for you. You might see an opportunity to experiment with something bold. Whatever you suggest, try to offer a few ways the designer might address each point. The goal here is to be constructive rather than merely critical.
Here is a link to the feedback document where you can leave authors your responses.
Design teams and assignments are below. I strongly suggest opening all of your designs first to get a general impression of the range you will be reviewing before you start commenting in depth on any individual project. All of the projects are visible here.
Each group has been assigned 5 projects to review. I would like to discuss all the projects in the final 15-20 minutes of class–so I will alert you every 10 minutes to try and help you budget your time.
Review Teams and Assignments
Team #1
Designs: #1, #6, #7, #11, #15
- Jaiden
- Sean
- Wyatt
Team #2
Designs: #2, #5, #6, #7, #8
- Carly
- Brianna
- Matthew
Team #3
Designs: #4, #9, #11, #13, #15
- Malia
- Molly
- Ashley
Team #4
Designs: #1, #3, #4, #12, #14
- Jaydin
- Olivia
- Adrien
Team #5
Designs: #2, #3, #8, #10, #12
- Rianna
- Regan
- Anna
Team #6
Designs: #5, #9, #10, #13, #14
- Macy
- Sterling
- Rue
Homework
- Obviously, revise your image and re-upload files to Canvas
- Write me a quick note in Canvas that summarizes your feedback and revision decisions [what did you change and why?]
