Meeting Update:
First GAG Meeting for Spring Semester:
This Wednesday, Feb 13th at 2 pm
DDM Class Studio/Lab

This should be a GREAT year for GAG! There are a lot of events coming up in our area and a lot for us to do. We also now have over $2000 in our account to do them.
 
Who MUST ATTEND...
Anyone expecting to get a degree in DDM are required to attend this and all meetings and participate in activities... the only exception is if you have a class or work at the time of the meeting or activity. (Work = a paid employee and scheduled to work at that time.) You can NOT miss classes for GAG meetings or activities (except field trips).  If you miss a meeting or event you are required to communicate with the officers, committees, or other members to find what happened at the meetings and how you can participate in any activities if they are planed.


WHO IS WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND...
If you are in Intro to Graphic Design (DDM 101) or Intro to Mac (DDM 110), or if you are just taking DDM classes as electives like Photography or video, your are welcome, and encouraged to attend and be a member of GAG but it is not required.


What is GAG?
GAG stands for Graphic Arts Group. Currently we are loosely affiliated with AIGA, American Institute of Graphic Design,  (click here for student member ship page, membership not required at this time). This is one of the issues that we will be discussing at future meetings. Basically, our group is about helping us learn more about the field of graphic arts (graphic design, photography, illustration, animation, video, etc.), help us as students to participate in and travel to events related to our field, and get to know each other and begin to developed a professional network for our selves to help us once we have graduated.


We need Officers: (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.). Ideally officers students who are in or have taken at least Page Layout I.

Added incentive for being an officer... 
Positive - You will receive extra credit at the end of the semester in any of my classes.
Positive -  I can promise you that this is a GREAT opportunity to add strengthen your resume, and will help you get a job after you graduate. 
Negitive - We will loose all that money that you have all worked so hard to get if we don't have officers by the end of the meeting.

Note: If you are interested in being an officer but can not attended the meeting contact; Michelle (michelle.eriacho@gmail.com), or Rylen (jackrabbit1492@gmail.com).

Missing Jump Drive

Yesterday, something unfortunate happened. Someone lost a jump drive, there are flyers posted around the Studio about it. Everyone check through your bags and see if you didn't pick it up by mistake and return it to the person who lost it or to Robin, Art, or me as soon as possible. The person had a LOT of work on it.

Theft

While we do not know if what happened yesterday was an accident or theft, this is a good time to talk about theft before it becomes a problem. Theft is rare in the DDM but it does happen. We are a close group of friends and we trust each other. After a while for some of us it starts feeling like another room of our house, we forget that its a public place, so we forget about protecting our self. It happens to everyone. I do it my self, a few semesters ago I even left a hard drive in there and someone took it. Thankfully, I had everything backed up.

Stealing anything is not a good thing, but stealing a storage device is probably the meanest thing that someone can do in the DDM. When someone does this they are not just taking a $15 (or more) item, they are potentially taking hours, days, weeks, or even entire semester of work, work that could even help get them a job.

This semester is a hard one for all of us. As of now we have no student workers, no part-time, and Rob is not there as much as he use to be either. So we need to be a little more careful and depend on each other a little more than usual.

First Protect your self:

• Back Up ALL of your work in a few places.
• STOP working from storage devices:  (Storage device means STORAGE, NOT WORKING DEVICE. Save your work to the computer, put your STORAGE device away in your bag. Save it to your STORAGE device when your done). 
• Don't leave things in the studio.

Protect Each Other: 

• If you see someone get up and leave things offer to or at least try to keep an eye on there stuff until they get back.
• Watch for unfamiliar faces. The DDM Studios are for DDM Students ONLY. If you see someone you don't know ask if they are DDM students. If they are not, "NICELY" explain to them that they need to find a computer lab. If they refuse, tell one of the instructors, or go to the office and tell Linda or Frank (if they are not available who ever is working).
• Don't be offended or get upset if someone asks you if your a DDM student. This should make you feel better, because it tells you that someone is watching out for you and your stuff.

If you have other ideas how we can make the DDM Studios more safe please comment on this post.

Assignment II: Black Square Problem

First I want to tell you all -- GREAT JOB! On the assignments. You impressed me! Soooo... 

We are going jump ahead to some projects that might be a little more interesting. 

You may be unfamiliar with some of the vocabulary use in art and design. Below are some words/phrases that you may want to look up and understand before you read the directions. (Use Google or Yahoo or online or old fashion hard copy dictionary)

• Dimension
• Graphic image
• Expresses
• Preliminary sketches
• Effective solution 
• Reproduce 
• Palette 
• Diverse 
• Comprehensive 
• Utilizing 

BLACK SQUARE PROBLEM:

This is to be done in your sketch books, we will complete the project in Adobe Illustrator in class Wednesday.

Instructions: By using four black squares of the same dimension, create a graphic image that best expresses the meaning of each of the following six words (below). Make eight preliminary sketches for each word. (Yes, you will have to show your work.) Then select the most effective solution and reproduce it using your sharpy markers (each on there own page). 

Using only four squares is a seemingly limited palette to express such diverse words, yet these squares can be expanded to a more comprehensive language by utilizing various design principles.

Words to Illustrate

• Order
• Increase
• Bold
• Congested
• Tension
• Playful

Click here for examples.

Work Suggestion: Sometimes its easier to actually see and move the pieces around than to imagine how they might look and try to sketch them. You might try cutting out a white square, 6x6 or so (the size of the work space is not important as long as you have enough space to work and think comfortably). Then cut out various sets of four black squares. Arrange the black squares on the white one. When you find a design that works draw it in your sketch book.

NOTICE: 
GAG Meeting will be postponed till next week. Same time, same place, same rules.

See ya then!

GAG MEETING

First GAG Meeting for Spring Semester:
This Wednesday, Feb 6th at 2 pm
DDM Class Studio/Lab

This should be a GREAT year for GAG! There are a lot of events coming up in our area and a lot for us to do. We also now have over $2000 in our account to do them.
 
Who MUST ATTEND...
Anyone expecting to get a degree in DDM are required to attend this and all meetings and participate in activities... the only exception is if you have a class or work at the time of the meeting or activity. (Work = a paid employee and scheduled to work at that time.) You can NOT miss classes for GAG meetings or activities (except field trips).  If you miss a meeting or event you are required to communicate with the officers, committees, or other members to find what happened at the meetings and how you can participate in any activities if they are planed.


WHO IS WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND...
If you are in Intro to Graphic Design (DDM 101) or Intro to Mac (DDM 110), or if you are just taking DDM classes as electives like Photography or video, your are welcome, and encouraged to attend and be a member of GAG but it is not required.


What is GAG?
GAG stands for Graphic Arts Group. Currently we are loosely affiliated with AIGA, American Institute of Graphic Design,  (click here for student member ship page, membership not required at this time). This is one of the issues that we will be discussing at future meetings. Basically, our group is about helping us learn more about the field of graphic arts (graphic design, photography, illustration, animation, video, etc.), help us as students to participate in and travel to events related to our field, and get to know each other and begin to developed a professional network for our selves to help us once we have graduated.


We need Officers: (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.). Ideally officers students who are in or have taken at least Page Layout I.

Added incentive for being an officer... 
Positive - You will receive extra credit at the end of the semester in any of my classes.
Positive -  I can promise you that this is a GREAT opportunity to add strengthen your resume, and will help you get a job after you graduate. 
Negitive - We will loose all that money that you have all worked so hard to get if we don't have officers by the end of the meeting.

Note: If you are interested in being an officer but can not attended the meeting contact; Michelle (michelle.eriacho@gmail.com), or Rylen (jackrabbit1492@gmail.com).

The link below will take you to your first full assignment. Read the instructions carefully, and do as they instruct. The dates are wrong so you may disregard that.

Assignment: Balance

Materials:
Bristol Board or Card Stock (white) 
Exacto Knife
 Metal Ruler
 Rubber Cement
 Masking Tape (optional)
 Scissors (optional)
Mat board – White or Black
 
Due: February 6th, 2:30

We will be reviewing this next Wed. That means next Wed. at 2:30, you are to tape your completed work on the white board in front of the class, then move a chair to that area of the room and wait for the mid-process critique to begin.

What is a mid-process critique you ask? We have two kinds of critiques in this class (as well as most you will take in the future). The mid-process gives us a chance to look at our work discus other solutions to the problem (problem = assignment). We listen to what is said, think about the discussion, then decide how or if we can apply what we heard about our work.

The final critique is where we present our finished work, normally matted. This time we discuss what changes we made to the work, and why we made them, and if the changes improved the effectiveness of the work or not.

Note: A critique is a time that we listen to others comment on the work. Once you have presented the work, and said whatever needs to be said about it (this should be very little, your work should speak for it self). Our time to speak is over unless we are asked a direct question about the work. This is the tough part where you have to check your feelings at the door, and listen objectively to what is said. You don't have to agree with what is said, but if you want to get anything out of the class you need to listen and think about it.

Materials for Critique: Notebook: take notes on what is said, and make notes on things that you want to say about others work.

2013 Spring Intro to GD

HELLO! Welcome to Intro to the Graphic Design Blog!

If this (blog, email, computers, etc.) is new to you just relax. No one here is expected to know anything about it yet. One step at at time.

First, this is the class blog, this is where you will go to get all the info for the class. You can think of it as a one stop shop for all the class info. All the stuff that you use to get as printed material you will find here; assignments, syllabus, how tos, outline, etc.

For starters lets take a little tour of what your looking at. There are (so far) only 2 parts that you need to pay attention to here. The main section... here where you are reading now. This is where most of the day to day info will be posted. Things like assignments, exercises, GAG meetings, general transitory news about the class. The other part is the column to the right. In this section you will find links to info about the class and your instructor, such as the syllabus, outline, your instructors schedule, and how tos, etc.

Add your email to the 'follow by email' widget and you will get an email whenever something new is posted to the email.

Blogs are dynamic, this means that they change, grow, and develop as time goes on. Check back often.

NOTE: The enters below this one are from previous semesters. They do not apply to our class.