(This unit was created by Ben Cooperman for a Grade 7 MYP Technology class at the Canadian International School, Singapore.) Getting Started: Introduction to 2D Design To begin, it is important that we familiarise ourselves with the vocabulary used in art and design. We want to have a common language to explain our ideas and share our thinking. Below is a list of words to get you started. If you are unsure what any of them mean, you can find their descriptions here:
We will go over each of these in more detail in class. In particular, we will take a look into the principles of Gestalt psychology. The Gestalt psychologists were interested in how our minds make sense of the world around us by conceptually grouping things together as discreet objects. The five basic principles of Gestalt psychology that we will cover are the following:
Visit the following site for a detailed explanation for each.  Which of the Gestalt laws of perception can you use to explain what is going on here? Learning the Tools: In this unit, explore how people perceive images in an effort to develop graphic designs that have a more powerful impact on the viewer. The next step is to familiarise ourselves with the tools of the graphic designer. We will begin with Adobe Photoshop. The challenge below will be a fun way to get to know some of the more common tools in Photoshop. Challenge #1: Silly Self-Portrait Take a picture of yourself. Next, gather a few pictures of some interesting objects whose shapes are similar to some of your facial features (i.e., slices of fruit and vegetables etc...) Then, using Adobe Photoshop, put them on your face. Your final image should be 400 x 300 pixels at a resolution of 72dpi. This exercise will require you to demonstrate an understanding of a variety of selection tools (i.e. crop, lasso, magic wand tools in Photoshop), layers and image resolution. Post your final image to your Technology blog with a brief written explanation about the steps you went through in the process.  Hanoch Piven is an artist who makes silly portraits like the ones you will be making. While he uses real fruits and vegetables (and all sorts of other objects) in his work (as we see in the above portrait of Albert Einstein) rather than a sort of digital collage like we are doing, the idea is the same. Notice that he chooses the pieces very carefully to emphasise characteristics specific to the individual. You are encouraged to take a similar approach. Choose objects for your collage that say something about you.  This image comes from a series of 'Minimalist Fairy Tale' posters. Can you guess the story? You can see the rest of the series here. The Project Situation: We make meaning not only from the content of visual media, but also from the various design elements and how they work together. Colour, shape and space carry meaning and together they influence how we interpret the information we see. Through the process of designing and creating visual media for different purposes, we increase our awareness of this process and gain insight into how we are influenced by design. We can learn to use structural design elements to add additional layers of meaning. Situation Specific: You will design and create a page to add to 'The Grade 7 Yearbook Mockup' section of our school yearbook. You will try to make the page funny, but at the same time, be sensitive to the feelings of those who will be reading it. You have access to a wide variety of tools to complete this task and it is likely that you will need to work with more than one. You have each been given a copy of Adobe Photoshop to get you started and we spent some time familiarising ourselves with its use, but you are welcome to use whatever tools you find helpful to complete the job. Just be sure to explain and justify your choices in your process journal. Inquiring and Analysing
1. Explain and justify the need for a solution to a problem Write a paragraph that details what this project is all about. What is the problem/issue that inspired this project? Why did the class vote to solve the problem in this way? Who is the intended target audience? What needs will it fulfil when it is complete? 2. Primary and secondary research The tools: Write a short paragraph outlining some of the most important things that you learned while working with Photoshop. For example, an important concept is the idea of working with layers. Can you think of any others that you learned? How do each of these things help improve your workflow? Now think of some things that you still want to learn to do. How could you go about learning this? Be specific and give sources. The concepts: In your own words, summarise what you have learned so far about the principles of design. Provide concrete examples to illustrate. What do you still want to know? Where will you look to find answers? 3. Analyse a range of existing products In this unit, will have a look at the work of other artists and designers to develop a deeper understanding of the different design elements and how they work together. We will try to see how they use shape, space and colour in different ways to get a desired effect. Find 2 or 3 similar products (in this case, yearbook pages) and provide an analysis of the use of different design elements in each. You should explain what you believe the artist was trying to communicate and whether or not you feel that they were successful. Justify your point of view with evidence and specific reference to the artwork. You should make specific reference to the principles of design and Gestalt laws of perception that we have covered. 4. Develop a detailed design brief Write a short, concise Design Brief that explains the following: What sort of page do you intend to make? Who is the target audience for your project? Why have you decided to make this page? Then, follow your design brief with a short paragraph that elaborates on your idea and explains the process you went through to come up with it. What sort of brainstorming did you do? What other ideas did you have that didn't make it? How were you able to use feedback to help you make your choice? Assessment Rubric Below is the rubric that will be used to assess the quality of your work. The words in bold should guide you as you consider your work against the assessment levels. Developing Ideas
1. Design Specification During the Developing Ideas phase, we put together a list of design specifications to keep us on track and help ensure that our final project meets all of the requirements. We will use these design specifications to help select the best design ideas in this phase and to help measure success at the end. Try to come up with at least 7-8 design specifications to guide you. Here are a few to get you started: Design Specifications
2: Design Ideas In this section, you will work out the details about how your project will look, including the layout, colour palette, fonts, images, hierarchy of information etc... Prepare 3 or 4 possible designs for each and present them in your online process journal with brief explanation of the strengths of each. Your analysis of each one should make specific use of the principles of design that we covered at the start of the unit. You will need to get some feedback from members of your target audience to help you finalise your decisions. You may choose to do this activity on paper, in which case, you will need to scan your images to a computer to put into your process journal. Otherwise, there is a wide variety of simple sketching programs for your computer that you may want to check out. Look at each of your designs again and measure them against the design specifications. Use the feedback that you got from members of your target audience. Make your decision about which design you want to go ahead with and write a short paragraph to justify your choice. 4: Planning Drawings Now that you have made your final choice, you need to create a more detailed layout design. This should include specifics about what content will go in which spot. What sort of picture do you want here? There? Think of this as a planning step to get you ready for the next phase, Creating the Solution. If you know that you want a picture of so-and-so riding a dragon, then this will help you collect and shoot the images that you will need when it's time to create. Assessment Rubric Below is the rubric that will be used to assess the quality of your work. The words in bold should guide you as you consider your work against the assessment levels. Creating the Solution:
Your 'Create' phase will have two main parts--your finished product and your process journal. Process Journal If you have done a good job investigating, designing and planning in the previous two phases of your project, this part should be fairly straightforward. All of the important decisions have already been made and it is just a matter of putting everything into place. With any luck, everything will go according to plan. Of course, things don't always go according to plan. In your process journal, you will document the tools that you used and what you did at each step as though you were writing out a set of instructions (think about the projects that we looked at on the Instructables and Makezine websites.) Include any suggestions you have for your readers (i.e., the right sequence to do things, good places to find royalty-free images and fonts) and be sure to describe and fully justify any changes you made from your original plan from the Designing phase. Finished Product Your finished product should be completed to a high quality. Not only should you include pictures of your final product, but I would like you to upload the completed file to your Google Drive and post a link to it on your blog. This way, you can share your work with others. They can download your project to take it apart to learn more about how it was made. 1. Outline a plan / 3. Follow a plan Your process journal will take the form of an Instructable. It will outline the steps for creating your project such that others could follow it to create a similar project of their own. Here are a couple of examples: 2. The Solution Of course, you need to include your final product. You may, in fact, want to put some images of this at the top of the Creating the Solution section so that the reader has a clear image in his/her what s/he is working towards. 4. Changes Include a section at the end that explains and justifies any changes made to the original plan. Things rarely go entirely according to plan and that's OK. But it is important to learn from our experience. Did you make a change because of a problem that you ran into? Did you change your mind for some reason? Why? Assessment Rubric Below is the rubric that will be used to assess the quality of your work. The words in bold should guide you as you consider your work against the assessment levels. Evaluating:
1. Measuring Success Now that you have finished your project, how will you measure your success? What testing methods can you use to determine how closely it matches your design specifications? What sorts of feedback will you use to help measure your success? 2. Evaluating Success Once you know how you will test your product to measure the level of success, you need to carry out your testing and document the strengths and weaknesses of the final product. Summarise and analyse any feedback you got. How else did you measure success? 3. Improvements In this section, it is very important to be very specific about what you would improve, how you would improve it and why. Justify the changes with clear reasons. Explain steps you might need to take in order to make those changes. What new research might you need to do? What skills might you need to make those changes? In a separate paragraph, reflect on your performance throughout the phases of the Design Cycle. What did you do well? Why did those things go well for you? How can you use this success to help you in the future? What did you do poorly? Why do you think those things did not go so well? What can you do to improve in the future? Again, be specific. For example, "I will manage my time better," is not enough. A better example might be, "I will take point form notes during class and keep them on colour-coded stickies on my desktop. When I write my summaries later on, I will be able to use these notes to help me remember what I did." 4. Impact How do you think your product will be received by your target audience/market? Is this product likely to have the impact that you imagined? Look back at your design brief and explain how closely it fulfils what you initially set out to do. How successful is this product likely to be? By making the above changes, what difference is that likely to make? Assessment Rubric Below is the rubric that will be used to assess the quality of your work. The words in bold should guide you as you consider your work against the assessment levels. |
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