This week please upload an image of an iPad magazine cover, ideally with both horizontal and vertical layout, and briefly comment on its choices of photo/illustration and typography. It would be great if you could compare the digital cover with the original print cover and see if there is any significant changes.

Deadlines stay the same.

Hi everyone, for this week’s blog, you just need to post a well-written HEADLINE and DECK of a magazine FEATURE story. This post is due on Friday at midnight.

You don’t need to comment on others’ posts this week.

For those of you who are doing floating redos, please upload your project to the blog by Friday at midnight.

On Wednesday’s class, professor Taylor asked you to design your own logo. So for this week’s blog, you need upload a photo of your logo sketch. Below the sketch, describe briefly your thinking process behind the design and how you are going to implement this new identity.

You can upload multiple sketches if you have different ideas. If you want to directly design it in Illustrator/PS/Indesign, feel free to do so. Just remember to upload a jpeg/png of your final image.

Sketch Post due on Saturday 11:59 PM (Not Friday)

Comments due on Sunday 11:59 PM. 

This week, you need to post a screenshot of a website and explain how photos were used as a visual element to effectively communicate with the viewers, or add depth into the overall design. What’s the target audience of the website? Why did the designer choose this particular image? What’s the relationship between the photos and other contents? Read this excellent article before you get started.

• Deadline for this blog post: Friday 11:59 pm.
• Please also upload a JPEG of your new resume by Friday at 11:59 p.m.
• Deadline for two comments on your classmates’ web design blog post : Sunday 11:59 p.m.
• Those students who are doing floating redo for the poster project, please upload a JPEG of your poster by Sunday at 11:59pm.

Gestalt is a psychology term describing how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or “unified wholes” based on certain principles.

Some of the gestalt principles include:

• figure and ground: establish significant differences between the object and its background, making the object stand out from its surroundings.
• proximity and alignment: use the same font, color, or alignment to create unity.
• continuation: elements were positioned on a line or a curve to indicate continuation or connectedness.
• visual hierarchy: use size, shape or color variation to tell viewers which part are important, and which part are supplemental.

This week for the blog, you need to choose a website and talk about how the designer of that website applied those gestalt principles.

To learn more about gestalt principles and web design, read here.

This week you need to post a screenshot of a web page and briefly comment on why you like its design.

Here are some web design resources:

• AWWWawards : One of the most prestigious awards for web designers.
• CSS Design Award: An archive of the world’s greatest websites with high level of visual creativity.
• FWA:  Favorite Website Awards, an industry recognised internet award program with high emphasis on web technology innovation. FWA is partnering with Adobe and Google for some pretty awesome digital creative programs, such as the Creative Sandbox.

Other interesting ones curated by individuals:

• Minimal Sites
• Unmatched Style 
• CSSA
• The world’s best web design : At the bottom of this site’s main page, you can see a huge list of web design galleries and design tools. Check them out if you want.

Hope you can find some inspirations for your own interface project!

Deadline for the post: Friday 11:59 PM

Deadline for two comments: Sunday 11:59 PM

This week you need to select a piece of illustration likely made in Adobe Illustrator and comment on what sorts of Adobe Illustrator tools and techniques the designer may have used to create the artwork. If you are to produce a similar illustration, what are the major steps? The illustration piece can be from a poster, a magazine, a website, or even an Illustrator tutorial (like this one explaining how to use the Live Paint Bucket). Feel free to add Illustrator screenshots if needed.

The deadline is Friday September 27 11:59 PM.

The deadline for comments is Sunday at 11:59 PM.

Also, check this out:

Illustrator Mastery: 25 Techniques Every Designer Must Know

As is shown here, you can do some pretty cools things just by arranging and adjusting words and letters. Find a design that primarily relies on typography. It can be anything, a poster, a booklet, or a magazine page. And find out what sorts of typographic elements make it stand out.

The deadline for blog post is September 18, Friday by 11:59 P.M.

The deadline for resume post is September 18, Friday by 11:59 P.M. You don’t need to put your rationale in it.

This week you need to make two comments on two of your classmates’ resume design. The deadline is Sunday by 11:59 P.M.

Designed by Metric72, a Spanish graphic designer. This poster is dedicated to the theory of quantum mechanics, which investigates physical phenomena at microscopic scales.

This week you are going to critique a poster. A strong poster should be not just visually attractive, but also communicative and understandable to the general audience. Research the Internet and choose a poster you like. Find out what design elements make the poster stand out. What is the major message the poster tries to convey? Why did the designer make such typography and visual choices (illustrations, photos, colors)? How did the words connect to the graphic elements? Did the poster fully achieve the its marketing goals? Is there any possible improvements?

• Post Deadline: September 13, 11:49 PM
• Comments Deadline: September 15, 11:49 PM

This week you are going to critique two wordmarks from a typographic perspective. What do you think of its typeface? What kinds of typography adjustments (color, reshaping letters, tracking, kerning, leading…) did the designers make to let the wordmark stand out? Does the type design align with the brand identity or development strategy? Does it create a memorable visual experience for the viewers? If you are choosing a redesigned wordmark, it would also be interesting to compare the old design with the new one.

Here are some great examples from the Creative Bloq.

It’s OK if you can’t find the exact typeface name of the wordmark, just describe its characteristics. But here is a great tool for typeface identification: WhatTheFont!.

Images of the wordmarks can be resources from the Internet or photos you take with your iPhone.

• Deadline for posts: Sep. 6, Friday. 11:59 PM
• Deadline for two comments: Sep. 8, Sunday. 11:59 PM

This assignment will provide some inspirations for your own resume workmark design. Have fun!