One of the great things about teaching graphic design is getting to do class demos. And it is especially fun when you can make a poster featuring dinosaurs. Class demos are obviously useful to the students. It is a time to see software workflow and the design process. But even more than that, class demonstrations are an almost therapeutic opportunity for me. A good class demo allows me to enjoy graphic design without someone saying that their nephew, who made a brochure once in Microsoft Publisher, thinks Arial is a more professional font to use.
Digital Imaging
Digital Imaging is a freshman level course. The students learn to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign at beginning to intermediate levels. I’ve been working this semester to revamp some of the projects with my colleague Ting Wang-Hedges. The students are working on projects that are more connected. For instance, the first project is the typical one line animal. The students then use that to create a logo for a travel company. Then, working for the travel company, they choose a small local town as a destination for which they design material for the rest of their time in the class.
Mountainburg Dinosaurs
So far in the class the students have created a set of postcards for their chosen town. Currently they are working on a poster for a festival that takes place in their town, some real and others fictitious. For my demonstration I chose Mountainburg, Arkansas, as my small destination town. I’ve driven through the little town on my way to Lake Fort Smith and have always enjoyed seeing the tiny park just off the main road through town. It features some really fun dinosaur play structures that look straight out of the tail dragging fifties. Who wouldn’t want to make postcards and posters featuring dinosaurs!
Postcard Demos
For the postcard we had the students create digital collages that exercised their ability to clip photos. They had to create both sides of the postcard and design them to be a set.
The Mountainburg Dinosaur
& Bluegrass Festival Poster
For the current project the students are creating a festival poster for their destination town. They are given the freedom to invent a festival to ramp up the fun a bit, especially if the town is so small it doesn’t have a festival. For my demo I, again, used Mountainburg as a subject and created a Dinosaur & Bluegrass Festival for them. It doesn’t exist, but it should.
Final Demonstration: Small Town Travel Swag
Student Results
The students created the following postcards. I’ll publish some posters when they are done. The deadline is just before Thanksgiving. See other student work here.
Postcards
Posters
Travel Swag
