Today’s plan:
- Review homework from last week
- Generate rubric for project 2
- Discuss reflection paper
- Work time
Review Homework
Last week’s homework asked you to do three things:
- Convert a raster image into a vector image
- Presidential Campaign Research
For the research, I asked you to work from both the Gries research and our examination of campaign websites in class. I want to go around the room and have everyone share three things:
- First, which candidate did you select?
- Second, what is one thing you learned about your candidate that impacted your design?
- Third, what historic image or visual style serves as your model?
If you can’t answer all of these questions, then you will need to rethink and revise your design before you turn in your final poster.
Project 2 Rubric
I have created a discussion thread in Canvas called “Project 2 Rubric.” I want you to contribute 5 things that you think I should take into account as I grade projects. I have already indicated two of these things above: that the project have some kind of specific visual inspiration (a specific image upon which you modeled some design decisions, bonus points if you can also talk about a visual genre, style, or trend). Second, your design should be informed by research on the candidate and their campaign (and, as I indicate below, your reflection paper should cite specific sources and include hypertext links).
But now I want you to think of other elements of visual design and production that you have read in Gries, in White Space, or that we have covered in class (or that you have covered in another class). If you are clueless, then you might scan this article on 50 core design terms and principles.
Writing Your Reflection Document And Turning in Project One
You will notice that project one is accompanied by a reflection document. This document is 1/4 of the project grade and 5% of your course grade. The purpose of this document is to demonstrate your ability to talk about your design choices in a concise, coherent, and meaningful way, using language common to designers. Our previous exercise should have helped tease some of this language out. Furthermore, knowing this language should help inform your design and make for a better poster.
What you shouldn’t do is make your visual and then try to apply the language to what you already did. This is called bullshitting. I will know if you are doing this. I will not be happy about it. Remember that all composition–whether written or visual–requires revision. Even if you have started working on a draft of your poster, you should recognize that today’s work might require you to (re)think (or, in some cases, restart) what you are working on.
Another reason I require these documents is that I understand many of you are new to the technology. I don’t want your grade to be solely based on your ability to use the technology (though it is in part based on that–as professional and technical writers you will be expected to learn and use new technologies and interfaces all the time). I want your grade to also include your ability to talk about design in a meaningful, rhetorical way (here rhetoric means anticipating what something *might* mean to an audience, and making changes to clarify, amplify, or adjust how an audience member sees or does something).
I’m sure we will tease out a bunch of criteria for what goes in this paper above–you should certainly consult the rubric as a way of brainstorming the paper! And brainstorming your poster design! I want to highlight a few other things. Open the paper with some kind of description of the poster, start with the more philosophical and inspirational stuff. What candidate did you choose? What research did you do? What do you perceive as the biggest challenge that candidate faces? What is their strength? How does your poster reach out to people who might *not* want to vote for them or address critiques from other candidates? Note that this section can and should include hyperlinks to articles. Note that hyperlinks are not copy and pasted URL’s, as this tutorial on Microsoft Office’s help page details. Note that it is really nice when a hyperlink includes some mention of where that link is taking me.
The paper should also identify the design style, image, trend, etc that influenced your design. What was this trying to look like? Again, links to specific sites are helpful.
There’s the more nuts-and-bolts design principles that we explored in today’s class. Make sure you account for those. For instance, how might you select your font(s)? Let’s look at how to check the source code for either “.css” or “font” (depending on whether the site uses internal or external css, or uses a Google font).
- View > Developer > Source Code
- Control + F for a find search
- Look for “.css”; if you find it, then click and search for “font-family”
- If you don’t find it, search for “font” and see if there’s internal css or a Google font link
How to Turn Stuff In
Ok, here we go:
- First, bring a print copy of your poster to class (if you are using Canvas or Staples to print, then you should call ahead and find out what kind of file they prefer; I expect you will be able to use a .tiff file)
- Second, turn in the .psd file, with layers intact, to Canvas
- Third, turn in the reflection paper to Canvas
Note that Kelsey found out that the USF print shop offers color printing for significantly cheaper! The print shop is located in the Marshall center and I have emailed out a .pdf with prices and file formats.
Homework
Obviously, the homework is to finish this first part of Project One. Also, however, I would like you to read chapter 7 of White Space so you have a bit more design language and considerations to inform your project and your paper.
