Today’s plan:
- Hang posters
- Introduce Remix Assignment
- Break
- Make It Ugly
Remix Assignment
There is one final component to Project One, and that is that I would like you to design a “remix” of one of your classmates Presidential Posters. The inspiration for this project is Gries chapter 8, “Obama Hope, Parody, and Satire,” specifically the sections “A Popular Parody or Meme” and “Obamacon” (pages 220-239, you should read these to help generate a strategy for your remix). As Gries illustrates, not every remix of Obama Hope was intended as critical satire–the popularity of the image created imitations that had nothing to do with politics. As you sketch and plan your parody, you should feel free to be inventive and have fun. And remember that we will be sharing these parody posters in class next week.
Today (while you are working on the “Make it Ugly” assignment) I will make all of the .psd files you have turned in available to your classmates. My only constraint for your remix is that it begins using one of these files. You are free to transform the file as much as you want, so long as next week we can all identify which poster you are parodying.
Deliverable: You will bring a full-color printed copy of this poster to class next week.
Make It Ugly
I wanted to use the remaining time today revisiting Golombisky and Hagen’s White Space is Not Your Enemy, specifically their fourth chapter on layout sins. They list 13 amateur errors:
- Things that blink. Incessantly.
- Warped Photos
- Naked* Photos
- Bulky Borders & Boxes
- Cheated Margins
- Centering Everything
- 4 Corners and Clutter
- Trapped Negative Space
- Busy Backgrounds
- Tacky Type Emphasis: Reversing, Stroking, Using All Caps & Underlining
- Bad Bullets
- Widows and Orphans
- Justified Rivers
In chapter 3 (and in chapter 4 on page 35) they give some simple rules to follow to produce consistent, beautiful, workable layouts. But that’s not my interest today. We will examine those chapters in more detail next week.
This week your task is to use Photoshop (really we should be using InDesign, but we won’t start playing with that until next week) to design a flyer advertising this class. You can generate any content for your flyer from the course syllabus (or feel free to write your own). My only desire is that you make your flyer as ugly as possible by breaking as many of Golombisky and Hagen’s rules as possible.
Deliverable: When you have finished making your flyer, upload it to Canvas as a .jpg.
Homework
The only homework this week is to read Gries 220-239 and design a remix of a presidential poster. Remember that your classmates’ .psd files are available under the file tab on Canvas.
Also please bring White Space to class next week; we will be using it in class.
