Monday, February 27, 2012

The Top Ten IWD Designs for 2012

Ten Mohawk College faculty members from Graphic Design, Art & Design Foundations and Integrated Animation judged this year's competition. To avoid influencing each other, judges made their selections independently and the selections were then tabulated to arrive at this year's winners.  Here are their selections...

1st place: Jessica Oddi - 10 votes.
JessO

Tied for 2nd place: Jessica Bryers and Adrian Curelea - 9 votes each.
JessB AdrianC

A 3-way tie for 3rd place: Sara Morris, Jeneal Mailloux and Zoheb Shaikh - 8 votes each.
SaraM JenealM ZohebS

4th place: Steven Alphonse - 7 votes.
SteveA_InternationalWomensDay

5th place: Marissa Martin - 5 votes.
MarissaM

And rounding out our top ten: Serene Porter and Jefferson Ceballos - 3 votes each.
SereneP JeffersonC


Congratulations to the winners!

Other designers who received votes but, unfortunately, not enough to make the top ten: John Ayles, Ashley Hamel, Keira Hurley, Katie Fitzgerald and Walter Henry - 2 votes each.

Angela Bell, Eric Kools, Will Liu, Rachel Milak, Jen Ridder, Sara Stroud, Brittani Teitsma - 1 vote each.

Congratulations to all of you for your excellent effort and for all of you who did not win a top ten spot, we are looking forward to seeing your original painting in our gallery show in Student Engagement on March 8th, 2012 - International Women's Day!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Your "To Do" Checklist

Today's class will be a self-directed working period. No new lesson, and no in-class presence required. But please use your time effectively to make sure you've completed everything required to date:

Your Blog

- Have you created a custom header?
- Have you created a custom background?
- Do you have a Links list directing visitors to the other platforms in your social media hub?
- Have you provided meaningful content that isn't an example of your own work but is within the area you've chosen as your specialty?

Your Twitter


- Have you created an avatar and added it to your profile?
- Have you created a brief description of who you are and added it to your profile?
- Have you included a link to your portfolio or blog in your profile?
- Have you been tweeting links to interesting sites, resources and people or just "tweeting your own horn"?
- Have you made an effort to follow interesting a important twitter users who will benefit your career in some manner?

Your Flickr


- Have you created an avatar and added it to your profile?
- Have you created a brief description of who you are and added it to your profile?
- Have you included a link to your portfolio or blog in your profile?

- Have you created sets and added your work to them?
- Have you joined at least three groups relevant to your area of expertise and added your work to those groups?
- Have you commented on the work of other members of those groups?

Illustration Friday


- Have you posted links to your IF projects on the Illustration Friday website?
- Have you visited the websites or blogs of other IF participants whom you don't know from class and commented (positively) on their work?
- Are you incorporating graphic design elements in your IFs in a truly creative and effective manner as outline in our General Graphic Design rubric?

Carbonmade Portfolio


- Have you created several projects that focus on your strengths in different skill areas of graphic design?
- Have you created a brief description of who you are and how to contact you in your profile?
- Have you included a link to your blog in your profile?

Google Plus


- Have you created an avatar and added it to your profile?
- Have you created a brief description of who you are and added it to your profile?
- Have you included a link to your portfolio or blog in your profile?
- Have you been posting links to interesting sites, resources and people or just posting links to your own work?
- Have you made an effort to Circle interesting a important G+ users who will benefit your career in some manner?
- Have you made an effort to engage those people in conversation?

Resumé/CV


- Have you designed an attractive, professional looking resumé for the creative employer?
- Have you designed a more conservative, professional looking resumé for the business employer?
* Remember there are Links to valuable resources to assist you with resumé writing in the links post further down.  Scroll down to read that post.

All of the elements listed above represent markable components of this course.  If you're missing any of these elements, use this checklist and our class time to catch up.

As always, please leave questions in the comments section so others who have the same question can get their answers at the same time. :^)











Monday, February 13, 2012

Finishing our IWD Posters


We'll continue ( and hopefully complete) our paintings today (February 13th class).  

You'll need to photograph the finished painting, take it into InDesign, and complete the text components.  It should have on it: "International Women's Day", the name of your subject, and (in the bottom corner) the line "Created by 4th Semester Mohawk Graphic Design student, ________(your name)"

Remember that the graphic design component of this assignment comprises the largest portion of the marks, so as you begin to work digitally to finish the project, use this opportunity to modify or finesse any elements that could be working better, including text, colour, values and composition. 

* Important: The finished trim size is 18" x 24" -- make sure you're working with hi res (minimum 300 dpi) files, that you add crop marks and bleed, and that your file is formatted for print colour (CMYK).


The final file (in PDF format) must be submitted by Feb. 21st.  I'll alert everyone to the correct server location once I hear back from Phil.