Monday, August 29, 2016

Exercise 1 for Project 1

Description: Collect data from external sources, meaning sources other than your own personal experiences and personal knowledge.

Purpose: Use this data to assist you with defining why people should vote, who your audience is, and what conceptual opportunities you will pursue for Project 1. Your findings will be presented in a multi-page PDF during class.

Requirements: Each student will have to conduct a content review, sometimes called a literary review, reading all of the AIGA links on our class blot, as well as the information from the USA[dot]gov and census[dot]gov sites. This will provide a foundation to help you understand the material and audience in preparation for Project 1's design phase. Students will also be presented with additional research methods in class and must choose two of those methods for the Exercise 1 process.

Target Audience for Poster Design: college students, specifically ages 18-24.

Process:
  1. Read the assigned AIGA and Gov. content and identify 4 reasons why people should get out and vote. State these 4 reasons in a bullet-pointed slide, 10-inches wide by 8-inches high, PDF. All 4 reasons on one slide.
  2. Based on your content review and 2 additional research methods, create a persona that defines who this audience is. Design a moodboard that visually shows us who they are: 1 page at 10-inches wide by 8-inches high, 72dpi, RGB, saved as PDF. Who is your audience? What do they do? What gets their attention? What's considered "cool" to them? What's "uncool" and why? Where to they shop? What clothes do they wear? What cars do they drive? What would make them stop and look at a poster? The moodboard will be a visual collage made up of photographs, illustrations, designs, etc. that you have found from various sources.
  3. Based on the above research, define at least 4 different conceptual directions for your poster. Each concept should be defined in one complete sentence and you will also need 1 action word to state what you intend to have your poster do. One page for each written concept sentence and action word, to be added to your PDF presentation.
  4. Your PDF presentation will have:
    1 slide with your 4 reasons why people should vote
    1 slide with persona moodboard
    4 slides with written conceptual directions and action word
    for a total of 6 slides shown to the class on the projector.
  5. PDF as 10-inch wide by 8-inch high RGB presentation with images at 72-96 dpi.
  6. Keep track of your sources and be sure to credit where your data came from, be it your content/text review or another source.
Deliver your PDF presentation beginning Tues. Aug. 30 with remaining presentations on Thurs. Sept. 1.

Exercise 1: Worth 30 points

Assessment, maximum points:
  • 5 - four appropriate reasons why people should vote based on content research
  • 5 - use of sources/research to support your understanding about why people should vote, you can include personal statements to back this up, but keep personal anecdote and opinion to a minimum during this phase
  • 5 - craft/composition/appropriateness of persona moodboard
  • 5 - 4 concepts defined, includes uniqueness and communicative message defined in each student's 4 concepts
  • 5 - use of design thinking and application of data/information to arrive at 4 concepts
  • 5 - following directions and professionalism

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Project 1 AIGA GOTV

AIGA Get Out the Vote (GOTV) poster design. In addition to links below, digital assets can be found on Turnstile_2 in our VCOM-444 folder.

AIGA Get Out the Vote, overview

AIGA Get Out the Vote, full site

AIGA Get Out the Vote, poster details

Become an AIGA member
  • each individual student will need to become an AIGA member on or before Sept. 1 by joining at the $50 "Contributing" level
  • in addition to qualifying you to enter your poster for AIGA's exhibition, you will also receive one year of all the benefits membership entitles you to
  • choose the Charlotte chapter for your city/chapter affiliation

In-Class Response

Response 1, Purpose: to foster critical thinking about one's own civic duties in preparation for designing a poster that encourages students in the university community to get out and vote, in conjunction with the AIGA Get Out the Vote (GOTV) initiative.
civics: the study of the rights and duties of citizenship
(New Oxford American Dictionary)
Reflect on your civic duties and what it means to vote as an American. Consider all of the internal (aka, personal) issues and influences that impact your decision to vote, or not vote. Also think about the external factors that contribute to the reasons why you do or do not vote.

Read the following for further information about voting, with regard to college students, who will be the audience for your poster:
And be sure to consider the following in the above, taking care to read the census report...
Only 38 percent of 18-24 year olds voted in the 2012 presidential election. (source, usa.gov)
An in-class discussion Thurs. Aug. 25 will help you think about the issues surrounding voting. Sharing your own thoughts with the class will give others a broader perspective. Each student will share the following, as it relates to voting and your participation in the electoral process.
  • Do you consider yourself to be active in politics, political discussions, or civic engagement? Why or why not?
  • If you do vote, or have always voted, why is that?
  • If you don't vote, or have never voted, why is that? And what would make you want to vote?
Response/Discussion Worth 30 points total, with each item worth 10-15 points.
This discussion will introduce you to the topic, issues, influences, and audience for you to design your poster.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Welcome to Concepts Class

Fall - Day 1
  1. syllabus
  2. calendar
  3. materials/supplies
  4. how we work
  5. internship/job discussions
  6. looking ahead and senior year