Advanced Typography Blog Assignments

GrD 4020 / GrD 6020 ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY FALL 2010
CRN #88105/ #88106
Stan Anderson, Associate Professor of Graphic Design
Tuesday / Thursday 11:00a-1:50p 468 Studio
3 Credit Hours
Office 362 / Hours 9:30a-11:00a T/T (or by appointment)
stananderson@gsu.edu or stan450@bellsouth.net


The BLOGSITE or WEBSITE:
www.blogger.com
www.typepad.com
www.wordpress.com
www.tumblr.com

Behind every successful and creative graphic designer and artist is an enormous amount of work that never gets seen by the client. Those concept sketches are the residue of the final work. Many times those sketches and work-up designs are more exciting than the actual finished work. It shows the process, the footsteps, of each designer as they explore and experiment with new ideas and new techniques regarding the project. Just like a drawing and painting student creates sketches in preparation for the final work, designers should be doing the same. However the process, the designer needs to examine and explore their options regarding color, typefaces, type and image, type hierarchy, scale, texture, and even output to paper or printing processes. You are working in a community of other designers who are also sharing their ideas and concepts. It is something to be proud of and the cherish as you move through the program and beyond.

Your Blogsite or Website will be for you to express your ideas and demonstrate any visuals that might serve as an extension of your graphic design and art experience at GSU. This blog will serve as your personal "sketchbook/design book/archival book" in terms of how you use it throughout the semester. It belongs ONLY to this course, not any other class which may/may not require similar sites. You will be graded on how you use this site according to displaying your process of work. It is the work behind your work.

This personal site should become an extension of yourself during the course and will count as 10% of your final grade for the semester. Remember each time you log on to your site and publish information there will be a date/time stamp made public.

The PURPOSE
Your sight will be shared with others in class from time to time as informal critiques as we will go through these sites in class in order to study the “work ups and comps” from each of you. If you Name your site whatever you wish and the graphic/art content is up to you, but remember it should serve to demonstrate what it is you are experiencing, creating, watching, seeing, listening, and feeling throughout the semester.

There will be times when I will ask you to "post" certain at home work on your site regarding graphic design. This will be part of your daily participation outside of the classroom. I will be checking periodically each of your blogs for content and design influences. Have some serious fun with this.

The ETIQUETTE
Remember internet/blog etiquette regarding what it is you post on your site. If you use work by anyone else then you must give credit to that person(s). Also don’t put anything on any internet site that you do not want others to see. Be aware that everyone is watching when you enter info to the internet.
Many times you can actually prevent others from seeing your information or finding in with a search engine. That choice is up to you.

The SPECIFICS
Try to use this site weekly, if not daily. I will be looking for not only content you put onto the site, but also where you get your ideas, how you gather information for ideas and finally your ideas before, during and after the projects we do in class are completed. Have fun with this. The process is the most important part of creation.

The PERSONAL:
Do not publish any materials on your blogsite that might be deemed inappropriate or vulgur. No personal information or “dear diary” information should be published as well. This site is only for design/artistic materials and not a sounding board for private or social complaints and/or personal bulletin board. No Adult Content permitted.

Blog Assignments:
Week One:
Select 5 pieces of your work from the 3000 courses (GrD3000/GrD3150/GrD3200) that you feel was
responsible for your acceptance into the graphic design program. In Hindsight, write what you might have done to make them better or if you are still pleased with their look.

Week Two:
Good and Bad Design. Show your favorite and least favorite Designs. It might be print, film, or mixed media. Give credit to the work. A discussion will follow in class.

Week Three:
Find a variety of contemporary trends in graphic design that you have an opinion about.
This might be video, print, multimedia and all faucets of visual communication that could even include stage design, exhibition design, costuming, and photography. You might also wish to showcase certain modern designers and blogs that you are constantly watching or aware of in your scope.

Week Four:
Find any type of artistic work that truly inspires you as an artist. There are no limits here.
Be specific. It might be work you aspire to or work you find confusing and yet appealing or appalling.

Week Five:
“Block of Type” is a project that should encourage further investigation of type in a very limited area.
This project in the past has had many names such as “Type Detective” and “Font Hunt.”
You are expected to document an area (or a city block) or area thereabouts that is rich with
Typography. Type that has been forgotten or has become part of the environment or is required for the benefit of society. Nothing is off limits in this exercise.

Week Six:
Personal Workspace. A visual of where you work when you leave the classroom. It might be a particular table in a coffee shop or in your room where you’re organized everything around you in order to be creative. It’s wherever you feel most comfortable designing. You should be able to talk about it in class.

Week Seven:
Books, Periodicals, Printed materials that have you have recently read or investigated. Find one moment in those materials that might have inspired you to create a fresh new design for yourself.

Week Eight:
Complete this sentence:
“Each week I feel as though I must check in at/with…”
This again relates to what are your habits as a designer. It might be someone, someplace or something that keeps you coming back for encouragement or gives your renewed energy to continue creating.
Share those places you feel you must visit every week to stay in touch with art, design, business, etc.

Week Nine:
Day in the Life
Armed with still camera or video camera or even a tape recorder, I want you to document a day in your life that is centered around being creative (every day should be, right?) You can document your personal experiences during that day as it relates to whom you are and what you aspire to be. Length and content is up to you. Presentation to class.

Week Ten:
Archiving Images on Flickr:
Start a Flickr account (which is free) and start archiving images and work on this site suitable for future use in searching for a job or internship. Build weekly on this site and add additional photography and work each week. At the end of the semester we will examine the work together.

Week Eleven:
Best in T-Shirt Design:
Put up some of your favorite T-Shirt designs from your own collection or those you find on the web or in print that you would consider works of art. (your definition of that.)
You might even want to create some designs for yourself with a specific idea in mind.

Week Twelve:
The Graphic Imperative was a show recently at MODA here in Atlanta. It was a select retrospective of forty years of international sociopolitical posters. Themes include dissent, liberation, sexism, human rights, civil rights, environmental and health concerns, AIDS, war, literacy and tolerance, collectively providing a window to an age of great change.
Find your own series of posters that visually communicate an idea that is important which surrounds your life and lifestyle as a young designer and citizen of the world. Newsworthy. Then create one of your own.

Week Thirteen:
Compilation of your favorite Album artwork (CD) and why you love them.

Week Fourteen:
This is what I collect. Demonstrate items that you might collect.
It might be artwork (paintings/drawings) or other items that give you pleasure as a visual artist.
Collecting work and living around that work is important to creating a “creative nest” where you can draw inspiration.

Week Fifteen:
Write a poem and illustrate it or create a series of visual haikus.
-Haiku has been described as a moment in time captured in words that somehow captures more than the words might seem to convey. When the poet and the reader connect and the deeper meaning is seen, it is called an "aha" moment. That moment is what the haiku poet is always trying to find.

A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature. It is a way in which the cold winter rain, the swallows of evening, even the very day in its hotness, and the length of the night, become truly alive, share in our humanity, speak their own silent and expressive language. --R.H.Blyth~ Haiku, Volume One

Week Fourteen:
Vision Quest:
Dreams and how they affect you as an artist. Write down your dreams and create illustrations or drawings from those as a collection for one week.