Fall 2019 Course Syllabus Course: ARTS-2348- Section: 71D Digital Art I

Instructor Information
Instructor	Maurice Abelman
E-mail	abelmanm@lamarpa.edu
Phone	(409) 984-6389
Office	Location: Student Center - Room: 413 Hours: M,F 9-11 T,R 9-12:30
Department	Business and Industrial Technology Chair: Sheila Guillot E-mail: guillsr@lamarpa.edu Phone: (409) 984-6381 If you have a grievance, complaint, or concern about this course that has not been resolved through discussion with the Instructor, please consult the Department Chair.
Course Information
Description	Studio art courses that explore the potential of the computer hardware and software medium for their visual, conceptual, and practical uses in the visual arts which express the human condition across cultures.
Prerequisites	None
Learning Outcomes	CSLO 1. Understand the importance of art in digital design. (PSLO 1,2,3) CSLO 2. Acquire the basic knowledge of creating design elements. (PSLO 1,2) CSLO 3. Describe current trends in graphic design. (PSLO 1,2,4) CSLO 4. Understand the creative process and demonstrate professionalism. (PSLO 1,2,3,4,5)
Core Objectives	* Communication skills: Students will demonstrate effective written, oral and visual communication. * Critical Thinking Skills: Students will engage in creative and/or innovative thinking, and/or inquiry, analysis, evaluation, synthesis of information, organizing concepts and constructing solutions. * Teamwork: Students will demonstrate the ability to work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal and consider different points of view. * Personal Responsibility: Students will demonstrate the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making.
Program Student Learning Outcomes	PSLO ALPHA: Reading skills - Demonstrates comprehension of content-area reading material. PSLO 1. Prepares design elements for inclusion into a digital product PSLO 2. Creates original design elements for inclusion into a portfolio PSLO 3. Describes current trends in graphic design. PSLO 4. Demonstrates ethics and professionalism within the graphic design field.
Textbooks	Wood, Brain. (2017) Adobe Illustrator CC Classroom in a book (2017 release). Adobe Press, 2016.
Lecture Topics Outline	Week 1: Lecture: Course intro. Syllabus review. "Create Your Own Country," project overview. What is Adobe Illustrator? What is a vector? Project 1: Create your own flag. Demos: Introduction to Illustrator CC. Explore workspace, tools, layers, and panels. Learn how to create basic shapes and open-save documents. (Chapter 1) Week 2: Lectures: Overview on basic color theory and the meaning behind color. What is RGB and CMYK? Demos: How to group, align, and duplicate shapes. How to alter anchor points and apply color to shapes. How to create shapes with drawing tools. (Chapter 2-3) Week 3: 1st Critique: Students will present their national flags and talk about what they made. Lecture: Project 2: Create your own national symbol. How to represent your character? Realism or abstract? Demos: Working with pathfinder tools. Transforming objects. How to draw with the pen tool. (Chapter 4,5,6) Week 4: Demos: How to convert a drawing into a vector. Live trace tool. (Chapter 4,5,6) Week 5: 2nd Critique: Students will present their national symbols and talk about what they made. Lectures: Project 3: Create your own national emblem. How to tell a story with images. Demos: Intro to text. Integrating text into a design. Color panels overview. Organizing layers. (chapter 7,8,9) Week 6: Demos: How to apply effects. Working with gradients. Using clipping masks. (Chapter 9-10) Week 7: 3rd Critique: Students will present their national emblems and talk about their work. Lectures: Project 4: Create your own national currency. Breaking down the dollar, front side. Demos: How to trace an image. Drawing a self-portrait. Blend modes. Warp effects. (Chapter 10,11,12) Week 8: Lectures: Breaking Down the dollar II, back side. Other currency styles. Demos: Intro to composition, using guides, the library, and masks. (Chapter 13,14) Week 9: 4th Critique: Students will present their national currency and talk about what they made. Lectures: Project 5: Create your own national map. Review types of maps and elements of a map. Demos: Knife tool. How to divide a country. How to make a map and scale. Week 10: Lectures: Google maps point of view. Demos: How to create a map layout. Combining other national symbols into a presentation layout. Layering techniques and naming structures. Week 11: 5th Critique: Students will present their maps and talk about their work. Lectures: Project 6: Create your own national cause. Defining your cause. Demos: Creating a sketch mock-up. Developing a strategy to create your poster's cause. Week 12: Lecture: Final project. Group project discussion. Demos: Integrating Illustrator with other Adobe products. Photoshop intro. Week 13: 6th Critique: Students will present their cause poster and talk about their work. Lectures: Final: Create your own world map and United Nations logo. Demos: Logo demo. Working with other nations. Indesign intro. Week 14: Final Critique: Students will present their world map and United Nations logo and talk about their decisions on what they made.
Major Assignments Schedule	Project 1: Create Your Own Flag. The student will be required to create their own country flag, country name, and brief description of the people in their land. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: This project will cover how to use basic tools within Adobe Illustrator. Students will learn how to create basic shapes and colorize objects along with file creation and saving methods. Student will learn how to work with layers and align and group objects. Design Skills: This project will cover basic design methods such as composition, layout, color, and symbolism and will cause the student to experiment with associating meaning to objects, shapes, and color. Journal Entry 1: Look back in your family history and choose a country from which one of your relatives immigrated. Research the flag of that country and find out what the symbolic meaning of those elements are. Write a journal entry on the information you found out and how it relates to you. Project 2: Create Your Own National Symbol. Animal, Bird, or Plant. The student will illustrate a national symbol for their country. They can choose between an Animal, Bird, or Plant. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: This project will cover the use of various drawing techniques using tools the pen tool and live trace methods in Adobe Illustrator along with how to vectorize pen drawings. Design Skills: This project will teach students how to conceptualize and render basic forms and figures that represent abstract ideas. Journal Entry 2: Choose a country you always wanted to visit and research that countries national Animal, Bird, and Plant. Write a journal entry on why that country chose these symbols. Project 3: Create Your Nations Emblem. The student will create a national emblem for their country. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: The student will learn how to design various objects using a combination of tools and techniques in Illustrator that they will use to combine into a complex shape. Design Skills: The student will learn how to apply meaning to various symbols and combine them together to form a narrative that will represent their country. Journal Entry 3: What does an emblem symbolize? Choose a country and break down the symbols contained within the emblem and the meaning that they create for that nations emblem. Project 4: Create Your Currency. The student will design the national currency for their country. Both front and back of their dollar bill or equivalent. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: Student will learn how to outline self-portraits and integrate type into a design layout. Students use various pattern creating tools and layering techniques to create complex patterns and texture. Design Skills: Students will learn how to create a visual composition and combine typography and visual elements such as portrait illustration and national monument drawings into a currency design for their country. Journal Entry 4: Compare 3 countries currency and see what common elements each has then chart and write a description on what you found in a journal entry. Project 5: Create Your Map. The student will render out a national map for their country. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: Students will learn how to divide objects using various cutting tools and how to draw organic shapes with the brush and pencil tool. Students will learn how to use the ruler tool and guides to plot accurate points. Design Skills: Students will learn how to use visual graphics to create a sense of scale and distance along with how to imagine a landscape from a high vantage point. Journal Entry 5: Research a country map of your choice and chart the elements is takes to create a map. Write a journal entry on why those elements are important. Project 6: Create Your Own National Cause. The student will choose and design a national cause poster for their country. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: Students will learn how to work up concept sketches and formulate a design strategy to create and effective layout and how to use other Adobe programs to enhance their design. Design Skills: Creating design that is meant to inform is a challenging task. Students will learn some critical thinking skills and strategies to represent an idea visually. Journal Entry 6: Choose a cause in the United States today and research some of the graphic representations that are used to convey that cause to the public. Choose the most effect one and write a journal entry as to why you think it is effective. Project 7: Create your own world map and united nations logo. The student will choose and design a national cause poster for their country. What the student will learn: Technical Skills: Students will learn how to compose multiple objects in a layout and label these items with designs created by other students. Design Skills: Teamwork is one of the essential skills needed today in any profession. Students will learn how to brainstorm and come to a group decision on what the final logo and layout will be.
Final Exam Date	December 10, 2019 - 3:00 AM   Through  December 10, 2019 - 5:00 PM
Grading Scale	Passing grades: 100-90= A 89-80=B 79-70=C Failing Grades: 69-60= D 59 and Below= F
Determination of Final Grade	Projects- 40% Critiques- 20% Research Journals- 20% Final Project- 20% Project Description- There will be a total of six projects assigned over the semester and two weeks will be dedicated to each project. At the end of the two weeks the student will present the project to the class and describe how they got to the final design conclusion. The student will then be required to submit the working files and final files to the teacher for a grade. (40%) Critiques Description- Students will be required to give a critique over their project and discuss with the class the details of the final design. These details will include the symbolism represented by the elements of the design (color scheme, shapes, composition, etc.) and what they represent to their target audience. The class will then have an open discussion about the design. (20%) Research Journals- Every project will have an assigned journal entry or task that the student will be required to complete, a total of 6. These entries are designed to motivate the student to critically think about the current project they are working on. These journal entries will be assigned every Monday via blackboard and are due the preceding Monday of the next new week. Students will be required to submit the journal entries via blackboard. If you miss the deadline you will receive a zero for the journal entry. (20%) Final Project- The student will be assigned a final project for the last two weeks of the semester and will be required to present this design along with the rest of the work they created in a 15 minute presentation. (20%)
Course Policies
Instructor Policies	This is a learning environment so work hard. Show your committed to the class and your projects and you will do great!! These computer programs are very challenging at first but if you follow my instructions you will learn them quickly. I believe in you. This class is about learning how to be creative using digital media. I promote learning, dedication, and fun. If you don't promote these objectives yourself this class will be hard for you. I practice the GOLDEN RULE, " do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I reward good behavior in class if you disrupt class and distract other students from learning or working on their projects you will be asked to leave. If you break any of the rules below you may be asked to leave or may result in other disciplinary actions: Turn off cell phones before entering class. Three Strikes and your out. This applies to the whole semester. Do not use any class room computers or print lab equipment for none academic reasons. If I catch you on any websites that does not have academic cause without my permission, you will be warned. If a second violation happens you will be asked to leave. Do not use print lab equipment without permission. Using school resources for none academic reasons could result in disciplinary actions. If you don't know how to use any print lab equipment come get me, we will figure it out together. * I hold the right to change these rules according to each situation.
Attendance Policy	Come to class! If you don't you will miss valuable demos, lectures and lab time that you will need to pass the course. Late Policy I will give students 2-3 minutes before I take role. Be in your seats by then. If you are constantly late I will feel like your breaking the Golden Rule and that won't make me happy. Attendance Research has shown a cause and effect relationship between attendances and college success. Students that came to class more were more successful in their education than students that didn't come to class. Come to class! My attendance policy is simple after 3 unexcused absences your final grade will drop by one letter grade after 8 you will receive and F for the course.
Academic Honesty	Academic honesty is expected from all students, and dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated. Please consult the LSC-PA policies (Section IX, subsection A, in the Faculty Handbook) for consequences of academic dishonesty.
Facility Policies	No food or tobacco products are allowed in the classroom. Only students enrolled in the course are allowed in the classroom, except by special instructor permission. Use of electronic devices is prohibited.
Important Information
ADA Considerations	The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the the Office for Disability Services Coordinator, Room 231, in the Madison Monroe Building. The phone number is (409) 984-6241.
MyLamarPA	Be sure to check your campus E-mail and Course Homepage using MyLamarPA campus web portal (My.LamarPA.edu). When you've logged in, click the email icon in the upper right-hand corner to check email, or click on the "My Courses" tab to get to your Course Homepage. Click the link to your course and review the information presented. It is important that you check your email and Course Homepage regularly. You can also access your grades, transcripts, and determine who your academic advisor is by using MyLamarPA.
Other	* I hold the right to change these rules according to each situation or unforeseen events.
HB 2504	This syllabus is part of LSC-PA's efforts to comply with Texas House Bill 2504.