• course info
• schedule
• assignments
• resources
• blog

google search medium to large images of figures from the financial crisis in visible pain - they might be stock brokers, those with home foreclosures, etc. find an image that has the qualities of a dynamic composition as described in exercise 1.03 of our book. when you have found an image, place it in a new illustrator file (lock this image so that it cannot move or be altered), and use rectangles of various sizes to recreate the picture on top of the photograph. use fill and stroke to accentuate colors. you might use some opacity to explore the overlap between rectangles. this is a study of dynamics, symmetry and asymmetry, and gestalt. save this file as A1_lastname_firstname.ai

detailed rendering of figure or ground using pen tool
find and image of a person you consider to be wealthy or prosperous in a way that is not based on money or on market gains. place the image in a new illustrator file. lock this image so that it cannot move or be altered. use the pen tool to trace the features and details of the figure. all lines and curves should be closed; there should be no open paths. this tracing should be extremely detailed and demonstrate your mastery of the pen tool. save this file as A2_lastname_firstname.ai

typography. 20th - 21st-c type.
for this assignment you will have 3 .ai files. you will use text from writing we made in our critiques of A1 on the blog. the first typographic study should be of traditional usage of the grid in design. consider alignment as well as the other gestalt principles. study paula sher and others linked from the schedule page. the second typographic study should consider ways that the "grid" is subverted, abandoned or reconsidered in contemporary design. you might make a 3-dimensional kind of grid, or think about tag clouds. the third file should use the paths of either A1 or A2 and be filled or replaced with text. in all three files overall design and use of color should be of primary concern. save this file as A3_lastname_firstname.zip and link to blog. individual files can be named A3a_lastname_firstname.ai, A3b_lastname_firstname.ai, A3c_lastname_firstname.ai

89 textures
download grid. place a square of an original texture cut from an image on the outer vertical and horizontal row and column. in the inner squares, match up each image fragment on the horizontal axis with the image fragment from the corresponding vertical axis. use filters, layers, blending options, opacity and fill levels to alter and develop each resulting texture. these textures should display no identifiable features such as body parts, smiley faces, animals, icons, etc. the finished work should result in 89 textures. save this file as A4_lastname_firstname.psd

the world without us: think of a place, a part of the human built environment that holds either personal or cultural significance. look at the images from the world without us by alan weisman (look here and here for more images and inspiration) and then take an image of your place (hi res preferable) and imagine it 100 years in the future, overgrown and untended by humans. how is it decaying, what plants grow over it, do animals live there, etc. use at least 2 different kinds of masking and non-destructive editing. save this file as A5_lastname_firstname.psd

skeleton. A6.
hack a website: find a website -- it may be a news organization, corporation, government site, etc. -- that you want to critique, expose, or see change. grab the html, css, images, etc. and alter the text and images in order for it to render a new message. your focus should especially be on the theme of war journalism, but you should be throrough and detailed in your treatment of all aspects of the site. this assignment is inspired by the yes men: http://www.nytimes-se.com/

styles. A7.
look at epic, http://www.nytimes-se.com/, current.tv consider what your dream news website would be & build it using css. be sure to float at least one element, and build a menu using the ul li structure. link to blog.

nerves. A8.
js war / garden: manipulate javascript example code and css to render borges' garden of forking paths as whimsical, immediate and non-linear. must use 5 images of gardens and 5 images of war.

open. A9.
For your final assignment, you may choose one of two tracks. 1) You may choose an application or programming environment of your choice such as PHP & MySQL, Flash/ actionscript, or Adobe After Effects and develop a viable project through learning the program. It is recommended you work with a larger study group from the class so that you can share what you've learned with each other in class. 2) You may develop a web design project that involves Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop in development and release phases. This project would include mockups, a logo, vibrant images and a sophisticated web design. Either track should engage the conceptual threads of collapse and remaking that have woven through the class -- in terms of economy, environment, or war. Either track should also consider perceptual lessons from the Bauhaus Schools, Gestalt theory, and ways these ideas are updated for our times.