Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

Attendence

Attendance is mandatory. This is a project-based class. Therefore if you miss a class, you miss a submission or critique session to improve your work. It’s VERY important to be in class on time—excessive lateness or absences will affect your grade. Anyone who arrives more than 30 minutes late, or leaves more than 30 minutes early, or works on anything other than Foundations of Graphic Design coursework during a class session will be counted as absent. 

Grading and Software

Grades will be based on completion of work, attendance, participation and your engagement
during class. Work (even when unfinished) must be displayed at critiques to receive credit.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Work must be handed in via the method
requested by the instructor (hard-copy, and/or Canvas) by the date due. 

Breakdown of Overall Grade

• Project 1 (Basic Communication): 20%
• Project 2 (The 100): 20%
• Project 3 (Expressive Modes of Visual Language): 20%
• Project 4 (Semiotic Icons): 20%
• Project 5 (TDB): 20%

NOTE: printers can be unreliable and are not always functioning properly. Do not rely on them for project print-outs when work is due. When the printers are over scheduled or out of toners or not functioning, this is NOT a valid excuse for late work or being unprepared for class.
Do not rely solely on these printers for your final project print-outs!

All VCD students are required to provide their own computer and software. Students
are welcome to choose the Mac or PC platform. NOTE: typically the Mac is the preferred
platform in the visual communication design profession and knowing this operating system
is many cases a requirement for employment or internships. Please keep this in mind.
VCD students are required to be connected to IU Secure through wireless and use the
Adobe Creative Cloud. This software is offered to IUPUI students for free. Go to IUware at
https://iuware.iu.edu/Mac to download this software.

It’s important to utilize educational tutorials to learn and stay up-to-date with software.
Instructors will introduce you to basic skills but students are expected to pick-up
software skills on their own. Many times you can Google your question to find the
answer or find a video tutorial that will help you learn specific techniques.

Adobe tutorials:
https://helpx.adobe.com/search.html#q=tutorials&t=All&sort=relevancy

Envatotuts+: graphic design & Illustration tutorials
www.tutsplus.com/

Creative Bloq: graphic design tutorials
www.creativebloq.com/tag/indesign

Graphic Design Stack Exchange: answers questions
www.graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/tags

Approach

There are a few principles that should define our collective approach this semester.

Be present, not perfect

"Design, as a problem-solving activity can never, by definition, yield one right answer: it will always produce an infinite number of answers, some 'righter' and some 'wronger.' The 'rightness' of any design solution will depend on the meaning which we invest the arrangement [of design elements]."

-Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, 1971

Outside of a few issues (spelling, craft, promptness), We will never ask you to be perfect in this class. Your daily goal should be to make your best effort, learn from your mistakes, and continuously improve (even if by very small amounts). Rather than executing perfect solutions, focus on being present and attentive in class, during critique, and in discussions and we promise that you will be a much better designer by the end of the semester.

Reevaluate your expectations for critique

Professor Mitch Goldstein from the Rochester Institute of Technology has put together a very useful guide to critique. Please review it prior to any critique to refresh your memory on the purpose of critique. One of the best quotes from his guide:

"You should walk away from getting a crit feeling empowered and excited to make the work better, not defeated and miserable from the experience. It is up to both the givers and the receivers of the critique to make this happen." 

How to Crit Guide

Links to an external site.Make sure you have backups 

Losing your computer (either from a software crash, hardware failure, theft, or otherwise) is an inevitability. Embrace this and plan for it: have a plan to backup your computer. We recommend having a two-pronged backup strategy. You should have one hard backup on an external hard drive somewhere. If you use a Mac, make sure Time Machine is connected and use it regularly. The other backup should be remote. You could use Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. or use a remote backup service like Backblaze or iDrive.

Be honest and sincere

To do our best work together, we need to have a good working relationship. Trust is the cornerstone. Do your best, and if you fall short, be humble and ready to learn. If you need to miss class for any reason, just tell us. We've heard it all and that's okay.

Honesty also works both ways. If something is not going as you would like in this class, tell one or both of us. We're ready to talk about it and work through it.

Creating a positive class culture

Creating a sense of camaraderie within the classroom is essential.

In an ideal world a healthy classroom culture will have these
characteristics:

> interacting with each other about projects and design related activities.
> being aware of what is on the schedule for a particular day and pro-actively
preparing themselves in advance—such as on a critique day pinning work on
the wall as if you were presenting to a client.
> organizing ways to seek constructive criticism from other classmates and
pro-actively organizing critique groups with other classmates.
> printing out work to ask for feedback from faculty or other classmates.
> being curious about the design profession—bring in interesting design related
items or issues—sharing design finds. Organizing a field trip and inviting your
instructor.
> keeping each other informed and helping each other find ways to economize
working methods, sharing techniques and software knowledge.