Personal ID

Due Wed. Feb. 8

• student's personal identity
• for use on resume, business cards, portfolio book, and website portfolio
• use color expressively, but also functionally  
• every reader should be able to look at your identity, and read what's in front of them without you having to explain it to them
• present at least 6 different personal identities from the categories below
• two options: lettermark (one, two, or more of your initials)
• two options: wordmark (your full name, first and last name)
• two options: emblem (a lettermark inside of a containing element)
• students may bring other ideas in addition to the formats above, provided they've already done the required two each of the lettermark, wordmark, and emblem

Format

1. PDF placed on Turnstile_2 in our VCOM578 folder, with one identity per page
2. Put each identity in a 5 by 5 inch square

Consult the portfolio handout for more information, and see past students' personal identities on Turnstile_2 in our VCOM578 folder for reference.

Be expressive, but also be yourself. Be unique, but also be readable and legible. Your typography can have just enough flair, but it shouldn't go overboard. Make sure we can decipher what's in front of us.

Worth 20 points towards the 100 Personal Identity points:

• 4 Legibility: the reader is able to decipher one letter from another, recognize and distinguish one letter from another; letting the letters do the work, and communicate what's needed for the reader
• 4 Readability: how the typeface is applied and designed with, making it easy to read, and comfortable for the reader to experience; issues such as contrast between the type and background can factor into this
• 4 Proper Tracking: open tracking for all caps, normal tracking for mixed case, closed tracking for scripts
• 4 Kerning: attention to pairs of letters that need spacing adjusted, think about the pre-SPR vortex problem, and how you solved that
• 4 Presentation: following directions, formatting, spelling

Portfolio BLAD

Due Mon. Feb. 6

• Folio BLAD (book layout and design)
• DIFD students will present a mock-up of their website as a static (non-web) layout or as a framework they intend on using
• this is a preliminary look at how your portfolio will come together, and the way you will use a grid and typography to organize and present your work
• VCOM & ILLO BLAD designed as spreads in InDesign, exported as PDF in spreads, placed on Turnstile_2 in our VCOM578 folder
• DIFD site as non-web wireframe, layout, or other design as PDF, or web wireframe and grid-system viewable in a web browser
• these works will be reviewed and feedback will be shared with students

Goals: Order your works, as you would want them presented in your folio, with your best work first, and your best work last, sandwiching all other work in between. Use typography to create a small subheading that labels the work and smaller typography as a caption that describes the work. See prior examples on Turnstile_2.

Requirements: If you do not have a finalized work then you may use a slug, a placeholder. For example, if your thesis is not yet done, you can type THESIS on the page it will be appearing. If it will take two pages, put THESIS on both pages.

Layout:

• Use a grid, and have margins on each page
• Vary the size of your imagery, but have a consistent "shape table" or "shape scheme" when it comes to the size of your image boxes
• You can "flood" images across the page's gutter, so one image takes up two pages (the left and right), but keep in mind that things may get cut off when it's printed and bound
• Put things in context, especially if they are illustrations for a magazine, lay them out in a magazine composition so that we can see how they would work
• Think function first, and be sure that titles, subtitles, and captions are big enough to read, but not so big that they take attention away from your illustration and/or design
• Size of caption type can vary, depending on the font used, but as a rule of thumb, 7 points to 11 points is a good range to work in
• Use a grid, oh wait, I said that above in the first line, but this is a friendly reminder

Required Reading: See THE PORTFOLIO link cluster in the right sidebar menu.

This work counts as 25 points towards the 50 points in Portfolio Review 1.

• 10 points, use of grid system and organization of content
• 5 points, ordering of 16 works (or slug for temporary identification)
• 5 points, typographic hierarchy and labeling of content
• 5 points, formatting, presentation, following directions

Further Show Poster Development

Due Mon. Jan. 30

• Work at 50% to 100% of finished 18 by 24 inch size.
• Refine and revise the poster that's been identified on your sketch sheet as a final contender.

Keep the following in mind, also stressed during the first creative stage:

• theme and general conceptual direction is open at this stage, so you can come up with any idea, any theme you like
• the poster needs to communicate the theme/concept to a wide audience
• you need to be appropriate when communicating that concept
• others need to get what's happening in the poster without you having to explain it

If any sketches from your first poster ideas did not receive feedback, and you'd like to campaign for them, bring it for a discussion. New ideas may also be shared during this time if you have new concepts.

Print your posters, and hang them on the wall in RUTL 221. This second stage is also worth 20 points, and will be factored into the 100 Show Promotion points.

• 5 craft
• 8 composition, layout, use of form
• 5 concept, message, meaning
• 2 following directions

The Resume

Due Wed. Jan. 25. A 200-word typed biography, stating who you are, what you do, and your interests. This text "resume" will become part of the senior show's website, where your biography text tells readers who you are. See past class websites for examples.

Due Mon. Jan. 30. Students must have a 1-page print out of their resume prepared for class. This will be a "content only" resume review and the resume does not need to be designed with an identity, aesthetic, nor look & feel to promote you. This is just the resume text.

1. Include your name
2. Run spell check
3. Include relevant work experience
4. Your email address and phone number
5. Mailing address not needed
6. Logos, icons, or other "personal id" not needed for this review
7. Names of references not needed

All reading assignments below include content you must take into account and put into practice when crafting your resume. If your resume needs edits, revisions, or additions to get it up to the standards of these articles, make adjustments to it.

Read from the book Talent Is Not Enough:

• Cover letter and its length: pages 27-32
• Personalizing your application with good writing: pages 120-128

And read these tems too:

• http://aiga.org/content.cfm/resume-common-mistakes
• http://aiga.org/content.cfm/resume-writing
• http://aiga.org/content.cfm/a-word-to-the-unwise
• http://aiga.org/content.cfm/after-school-special
• http://aiga.org/content.cfm/the-first-career-stages-of-a-young-designer
• http://www.aiga.org/interior.aspx?pageid=3079&id=2759

As you build your own resume, remember:

• include a header with pertinent contact information: your name, email, maybe a phone number too, mailing address isn't needed; references aren't needed
• then list:
  
  1. university degrees earned (or to be earned); GPA is optional
  2. relevant work experience; in other words, your stint as a telemarketer may not apply here; but consider what freelance work you can include and any other "actually produced" projects, internships, etc. 
  3. if you've done work in a class that has been used on campus, such as a poster for Winthrop, this is considered either "in-house design" work, and can be couched as such, provided you mention that this was for a class, and you had client interaction; VCOM 444 for VCOM students is also usable here, and can be titled Studio 351 on your resume
  4. honors, awards related to your work; scholarships apply here too
  5. organizations, be they student or professional
  6. also consider, especially if you're an illustrator
  • exhibitions
  • commissions
  • self-published works
• use spelling/grammar check
• be concise - keep it to 1 page, a one-sheet with everything on one side
• be yourself
• be succinct
• use spelling/grammar check
• do not exaggerate
• remember that any/all social media that you put out there (across the Internet) is also subject to being reviewed, scrutinized, and assessed when it comes to people hiring you or just plain old looking at you; so be yourself there, whether it means being creative, tasteful, humorous, or having no taste; as one of our former graduates put it to me years ago, "if they can't handle the shit I put on Twitter, then I don't want to work for them anyway..." That's one way to look at it, but it may limit your options.
• use spelling/grammar check 
• use spelling/grammar check a second time

Final and overall Resume Assessment will be based on:

• hierarchy of information; layout
• spelling & grammar
• relevance and appropriateness of content
• application of assigned reading information to student's resume content
• meeting the 1-page length
• handing material in on time
• following directions

The Jan. 25 and Jan. 30 reviews are the first of many milestones for your contribution to the senior show and also the resume portion of your own professional materials.

Your Portfolio Website

All students are required to set up their own personal portfolio website, and it is part of the term's overall grade. See the syllabus for more information on pages 2 and 3 and also read this folio handout.


The website need not include everything that you’ve ever done, and it may or may not include things from your printed portfolio. For example, your website could have video, which would work better online than in your printed portfolio. Your online portfolio should have your best pieces, that showcase what you are really capable of, and what you want to do long-term as an illustrator or designer, or both.

Design Continuity
Visually, the website should have some components from the identity system used on your business cards, resume, and also your printed portfolio. Brand yourself with your identity materials, and make sure things are unified across your website portfolio, portfolio book, business cards, and resume: color, placement, fonts, hierarchy, rendering styles, etc.

Your website should have between 8-10 pieces: you can have some pieces only in your printed portfolio and perhaps some only in your website folio.

Terminology

• Content Management System (CMS): a flexible, easy way to design, layout, update, and manage your website; if you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, you can use Adobe Portfolio and its features as part of your existing subscription; WordPress and Squarespace are widely reputable and reliable CMSs, that offer templates where you can customize your site's layout; Squarespace has a lot of add ons, including web fonts, built-in blogging tools, and also e-commerce; The Grid is a relatively new platform, and if you want to try it out, consider signing up for an advance trial; with WordPress, you can create a free yoursite.wordpress.com address here, and you can get a custom domain name there for a small yearly fee; some Domain Name registrars and web hosts will also package WordPress into their services; if you want to host your site yourself, on your own servers WordPress.org would be the way to go; to see the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org read here
• Domain Name: students are encouraged to acquire their own custom, vanity domain, such as georgedesigns.com, with georgedesigns.com being your custom domain name; prices for domains range from Free to $10/year to $50/year and even $100/year, and students should research Domain Name Registrars to compare prices; in addition to .com and .org and .net, new top-level domains have been made available, such as .design and .pictures, but new top-level domains such as those may be expensive during their initial release, and hard to come by
• Domain Name Registrar: an organization or company that manages, sells, and reserves domain names, some Content Management Systems (CMS), such as Squarespace, will sell you their CMS, and you can also buy a domain name with them as well; Google has also begun providing domain name registration as well; other places you can get your domain name include Bluehost and 1&1, who will also host your site, although Bluehost and 1&1 may only have WordPress CMS tools available
• Email: students have customarily gotten their own custom domain name, and custom email, all of which get put on their business cards; mail@yourdomain.com is considered to be more professional compared to yourname@gmail.com; it's a small investment to get your own domain name
• Email Forwarding: if you want your own mail@yourdomain.com email, but you don't want to check another email inbox in addition to the others you have, you can forward the email, so mail@yourdomain.com will all get sent to yourname@gmail.com, and you can still receive and reply to the mail@yourdomain.com email
• Social Media (optional): students have included outbound links from their personal website to their social media, directing visitors to Instagram or Dribbble, which is advantageous since it shows visitors the breadth of creativity that you enjoy; you can also include outbound links to your LinkedIn profile
• Web Hosting: third-party companies will host your website files on a server, for you to publish them on the web, accessible through your domain name, examples of Bluehost and 1&1 and HostGator, WordPress.com is even considered a hosting company, since it stores your files online; full-feature Web Hosting will include your website and also custom emails, such that georgedesigns.com would be where your website lives, and you can also get email through them such as mail@georgedesigns.com

Required Reading:

• Get your folio online quickly + easily
• What Creative Directors Are Looking for in an Online Portfolio
• Using a blog, a CMS, for a folio

For Illustration & VCOM majors, the Student's Personal Website is worth 80 points total*:

• 37.5% Craftsmanship, Technical Execution: the imagery shown is of good quality, the website functions across browsers including a desktop, tablet, and mobile browser; the site functions without any errors, and with all links functioning; appropriate web languages used for the site's rendering (Flash sites are not permitted)
• 50% Composition: the layout is unified, using a grid; has readable typography; well organized with a sense of hierarchy; allows for images to be featured, or viewed largely enough for inspection; student has applied their identity (ID, logo, colors, fonts) and doing so unifies their entire system together (printed portfolio, resume, business card) into one complete "total design"
• 12.5% Presentation/Professionalism: the website is suitable for the student to promote themselves with upon graduation, and to use as an online portfolio to showcase their work; meeting all deadlines
• Built the site yourself using a CMS, even with its own template. Or build the site on your own, coding the HTML and CMS yourself.
• You cannot hire a developer, student developer, or other person to build your site for you. 
• *DiFD students will have a different rubric to adhere to, and must hand code their site from scratch, meaning no CMS if you're in DiFD.

Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Squarespace, WordPress, Tumblr, Cargo Collective, Indexr, Squarespace, or Indexhibit, are an acceptable way to design/layout your portfolio. Students may also create their site on their own through "straight-up HTML and CSS" that you create without a CMS.

Students may choose to use any of the aforementioned CMS tools above. Any other methods must be approved by the instructor on or before Feb. 15.

Wed. Mar. 1 is a targeted deadline for each student's personal website.

See the class calendar for more deadlines.

Show Poster Pitches

Jan. 18, review poster pitches: All students will present poster concepts for review in class as thumbnails, composed in pencil, pen, paint, or collage.
Size: Historically, the final size of the poster has been 18 by 24 inches, so you are advised to work in that aspect ratio on the provided thumbnail sketch worksheets.

Concept: Theme and general conceptual direction is open at this stage, so you can come up with any idea, any theme you like. Visually, you must present the following directions as roughs, with one sketch for each of the following:

1. image-dominant, illustration-driven or photographically-driven, with image as the dominant element in your sketch
2. semi-abstract, a.k.a. non-representational, graphical concept, meaning it may have elements that are not recognizable, and elements that are patterns, shapes, with more atmosphere
3. typography-dominant with or without image(s), or typography abstracted with image(s)
4. conceptually-rich direction, very open-ended, but should be appropriate and message-driven, and understood without needing an explanation to back it up
5. student's choice, your own direction that's different from the above

Considerations:

• make sure your rendering is dark enough to be recognized on an overhead display, and that it can easily be photocopied; you may begin your work in pencil, but are encouraged to go over it in pen or marker
• roughs composed on the computer are not necessary for this stage, only used the supplied worksheet and pencil/pen/marler
• the poster should function when viewed from afar, or when viewed small as in the case of your thumbnails 
• your typography needs to be readable, and large enough as a headline to read from afar
• where applicable, you can illustrate the typography using hand drawing instead of fonts from a computer
• the poster needs to communicate the theme/concept to a wide audience
• you need to be appropriate when communicating that concept, and others need to get what's happening in the poster without you having to explain it
• past posters have been a two-sided mailer, however, you could do a 1-sided "gig" poster, that's more about a heroic, singular concept and image

Value, Assessment: Work counts towards the total 100 Show Promotion points (see syllabus for more information on term's point values). This component is worth 20 of the 100 Show Promotion points:

• Rough 1: 5 points; composition 2, concept 1, craft 1
• Rough 2: 5 points; composition 2, concept 1, craft 1
• Rough 3: 5 points; composition 2, concept 1, craft 1
• Rough 4: 5 points; composition 1, concept 2, craft 1 (different value for concept)
• Rough 5: 5 points; composition 2, concept 1, craft 1

Portfolio Reviews Round 1

Students are required to show 24 works, in class, printed out in color, and hung on the wall. Digital works, such as websites and videos, may be shown on the iMac computers in the lab.
Worth 25 points total, towards your round Portfolio - Round 1 reviews of 50 total points.

• 24 points: 1 point per qualifying work shown
• 1 point: following directions, showing proper media, being on time

See the Welcome Message from Your Portfolio (below) for more information about acceptable portfolio content. Consult the class calendar for review days.

This is the first round of initial portfolio content reviews, with other content reviews happening at the beginning of this term.

Students will receive their assigned portfolio content review days during class.