Author: Christina Sharp

Good morning everyone, and sorry this is a little delayed.

What’s due for next week:

• Your Data Visualization assignments are due at the beginning of the next class! Please post to the blog throughout the week to show progress and get feedback from your classmates. Also comment and give your classmates feedback. This only works if both are happening.
• If you are doing the extra credit process book, remember that it can be any format and I decided not to include a template. I wanted to re-iterate what you should include:
  • Creative brief: a brief description of the assignment, and questions or hypothesis you posed going into the project.
  • Research: include any research or data collection you had to do for the project.
  • Inspiration: source any images or other pieces of information design that inspired you.
  • Development: include sketches, thoughts, variations/iterations, and any complications while creating your design. I recommend saving different versions as you design so you can see a progression of the design being created.
  • Conclusions: Final thoughts and observations you made based on the final design.
  • I have a few process book examples in the flat-file drawer if you want to take a look. One is for a map project (your next assignment) and the other is a history of aviation process book.
• Please read the chapter Color and Information from Edward Tufte’s book Envisioning Information. I emailed it to all of you and it’s also in the Readings folder in Google Drive.

Reach out if you have any questions, and stay warm!

Hello everyone,

Here’s what’s due next week:

• Post sketches for your design on the website by 10/31 (Thursday). Make sure you also give your classmates some feedback as well. If you’re recording data, also include what data you’ve recorded so far. Mention if there’s anything specific you want feedback on.
• If you feel comfortable based on your research and the data you’ve collected, you can begin building your design on the computer.
• We will be doing a critique of what you’ve done so far next Monday.

Process Book Info:

• I won’t be uploading a template. Instead, I will be leaving it up to you the size/binding you’d like to use. However, I do want you to include these sections in your process book:
  • Creative brief: a brief description of the assignment, and questions or hypothesis you posed going into the project.
  • Research: include any research or data collection you had to do for the project.
  • Inspiration: source any images or other pieces of information design that inspired you.
  • Development: include sketches, thoughts, variations/iterations, and any complications while creating your design. I recommend saving different versions as you design so you can see a progression of the design being created.
  • Conclusions: Final thoughts and observations you made based on the final design.
• I have a few process book examples in the flat-file drawer if you want to take a look. One is for a map project (your next assignment) and the other is a history of aviation process book.

Type Books:
If any of you would like their books back by Friday, let me know. I know a few of you have your sophomore show at the end of the week. I will be driving through Utica on Thursday and can drop off a couple of projects in the flat-file drawer. Shoot me an email and I will prioritize grading your book.

Reading for Next Week:
Please read a chapter from Edward Tufte’s book Envisioning Information titled ‘Color and Information‘. This will help you with both this project and your next project when you are considering color for your designs. I uploaded a scan of it into the readings folder in Google Drive.

As a side note, I will be going away this weekend camping from Friday to Sunday so I won’t be available to review any designs at that time. If you have any questions you’ll have to save them for Monday

Have a great week, and Happy Halloween!

Hello Everyone!
All your books are coming together really nicely! Next week the final book is due, printed and bound. Here are a few things to keep in mind when printing/binding your book.

• I shouldn’t have to say it at this point, but double-check for typos.
• Be sure the publishing information is included.
• When you print your final book, please use the nicer white paper. It is in the cardboard box next to the tall cabinet, under the white corkboard. I believe the nice 8.5″x11″ is under the printer. If that is gone check with the comp. tech. If you’re printing something special on colored paper, be sure nobody else in the lab is printing so you don’t waste the colored paper.
• After you’re done binding and trimming, please clean up the lab for other classes.
• All the binding supplies are in one of the black rolling scanner cabinets. It should be to the left of the tall cabinets.
  

REGULAR PRINTING SETTINGS:

• Setup
  • Select Your Paper Size
  • Scale 100% Width & Height
  • Page Position: “Centered”
• Marks and Bleed
  • Check “Cropmarks” (If you are trimming down your design)
  • Check “Use Document Bleed Settings”
• Printer… (On Bottom)
  • Check “Two-Sided Printing” (If Applicable)
  • Click “Show Details”
    • Two-Sided: Set to Short-Edge Binding or Long-Edge Binding. (This will keep it from printing one side upside-down.)
    • I recommend printing a couple of pages to test and make sure your settings are correct before printing the whole book, otherwise “RIP” your Papercut balance.
      

PRINTING ON CARDSTOCK SETTINGS:

• On the computer:
  • Print > Printer…
    • Select Printer Features in The Drop-Down
    • Feature Sets: Paper
    • Paper Type > Thick 2 (170 – 220 g/m2)
• On the printer:
  • From Home screen, swipe to the left (page 2)
  • User Tools
  • Tray Paper Settings
  • “Next”
  • Tray Paper 1
  • Paper Thickness set to “Thick Paper 2” then tap “Ok”, then “Exit”
  • When you are done, set the paper thickness back to “Plain Paper 1”!
    

FOR NEXT WEEK

After handing in your books, we will be moving right into Semiotics and the Information Design part of the course. Please read the articles and watch these videos:

• What is Information Design and Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
• An Introduction To Semiotics — Signifier And Signified
• Icon, Index, and Symbol — Three Categories of Signs

Please email me if you have any questions while binding your books. They should be ready to hand-in at the beginning of class next Monday. Keep in mind that I may want to submit to Graphic Design USA and might want to keep it as an example for following years. You will be allowed to make another one though if it’s something you’d like to keep for the future. Enjoy the rest of your week, and…

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re enjoying your day off. Here’s everything that’s due for next week’s class:

• Complete your cover and three font spreads of your font specimen book. If you are also planning on creating a table of contents or have a few pages between your cover and first font spread, have those in a good place next week as well. Before you move into building out all three spreads, it would be a good idea to post one spread of a font (or page depending on your format) to the blog for feedback before moving into all three of your spreads. That way when you make adjustments, you’ll only have to make changes to that one page/spread instead of all three. 
• For critique, we will go computer-to-computer so I recommend printing your pages to take notes for any edits.
• If you have a poster or previous project in the flat-file drawer, please clear it out and bring it back to your dorm. People will start printing their books soon and will need a lot of space.
• I left some font books and my own inspiration/examples in the flat-file for you to reference while building out your books. Please return the books when you’re done looking at them for other students.
• For those of you printing a custom-sized book, trimming your pages by hand, and want to have text or images printed right to the edge you’ll want to set up your InDesign document’s “bleed settings”. Bleed is a printing term that is used to describe a document with images or elements that touch the edge of the page, extending beyond the trim edge and leaving no white margin. When a document has bleed, it must be printed on a larger sheet of paper and then trimmed down. Follow this link’s instructions to set that up. It’s very easy to do! 
  
  

Here are a few readings/talks I’d like to you also watch/read before class next week:

Emigre Type Foundry Pretty Much Designed the ‘90s—Here’s What it Looked Like – A little history behind the Type Specimens we’ve been looking at in class, and how Emigre has impacted design.

Google Wants to Make Web Fonts Accessible All Over The World – Discusses the Open Font License.

What These 4 Key Type Design Trends Mean for the Future of Fonts

This little quiz is just for fun: Which Typeface Are You, Really?

I plan on grading your paragraph assignments throughout the week and will be reaching out to each of you individually to let you know what your midterm grade is. Reach out with any questions!

Hey there everyone,

Here is what’s due for next week!

• Great job on your typography posters everyone. Please make sure that your .ai file and a .pdf of your final poster design are in your Google Drive folder. I will be checking while grading.
• For Your Paragraph Exercise – Make a bunch of iterations/pages, try to get to 10. If you run out of ideas for the paragraph you picked, go ahead and pick another. From your 10 designs, pick your top 3, post them on the blog, and print/trim them for critique next week. After critique you will have a short amount of time to make adjustments, print, and trim your final design. If you run into any issues in InDesign, there are a ton of resources online that cover InDesign type basics. We will go more in-depth next week but this will warm you up to the software.
• Readings – Read Chapter 3 of Just My Type (I emailed it and put it in Google drive), and also read sections on Line spacing, Alignment, Vertical Text, Making Paragraphs, Enlarged Capitals, and Hierarchy from Thinking With Type. Same as last week, jot down some notes or thoughts you have while reading and we’ll talk about it next week.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Review this poster by Jim Godfrey. We’ll be talking about it tomorrow. If you want to take a closer look or download it, just click here!