On the first day of class, you will create a folder for your use in Google@IU My Drive. (If you prefer, you can use Microsoft OneDrive.) You can use your Drive folder throughout the semester to save any and all in-class work (a quarter of your final grade) as well as your projects and tutorials. Because you will sometimes work on exercises collaboratively, this will also make it easy for you to share files with a partner.
For more on using Google at IU, go to uits.iu.edu/google.
When exercises and projects are complete, you will submit them to Canvas, of course, but you will also add them to your J465 website. Because some of the exercises will be collaborative, be sure to credit your teammates on your site.
Turning in projects
The projects will be submitted on Canvas in addition to appearing on your site. When submitting projects, be sure to include any and all files that were part of the creative process. This can include sketches (which you can submit as JPG images), notes, mock-ups and alternate versions.
The “print” versions of the first three projects will have to be submitted in (color) printed form as well. Color printing is available for free at various printers throughout Franklin Hall (within your printing allotment) — but please don’t print endless versions. Interactive projects (the last two) need only be submitted via Canvas.
Using computer programs
As an IU student you have access to Adobe Creative Cloud and the latest versions of the Adobe software. We will use these programs extensively during class sessions, and you can download the software (in either Mac and Windows) at no charge on your own computer. There are more than a dozen software packages available through CC, and you can install as many or as few as you would like. To download your applications, go to Adobe at IU and follow the instructions there. It’s all free, so take advantage! The version of Creative Cloud apps we use in class may not match the latest available version, so it’s a good idea to “save backward” so you can work at home on the same content you created in Franklin Hall (on the lab Macs) and vice versa. Do be sure you have plenty of room on your computer for applications and the files you’ll be creating for this class.
For building computer skills, I wholeheartedly recommend you take advantage of free access to LinkedIn Learning’s on-line tutorials. This amazing library of instructional videos can help get you up to speed — or to truly master — virtually any creative software, including coding, that you care to imagine. Formerly Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning is available to you for free as an IU student! Go to one.iu.edu/task/iu/linkedin-learning and log in. You can simply watch the videos, use your own files or download and use the exercise files — but however you choose to absorb the content, LinkedIn Learning allows you to learn at your own pace.
You can also get a lot of help from Adobe’s Help, where you access tutorials for all of the Creative Cloud applications. Here is a link to tutorials for Illustrator, which will be a focus of the early part of our semester:
helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/tutorials.html
Good old-fashioned paper
If you’re more of a “book person,” I like Adobe’s “Classroom in a Book” series (though these can be a little pricey, and there are numerous similar series available in any large bookstore).
For reading about HTML and CSS, I recommend Jon Duckett’s HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites. The book is written in a very accessible way, and can help you understand general concepts as well as specific rules and properties.
I have a number of graphic design books in the classroom at appropriate points in the semester. I hope these will help serve as inspiration as we progress through various fields of graphic design. If you would like recommendations for other readings that you might fund useful, please let me know.
Traditional materials
This class will involve a fair amount of drawing, beginning on our very first day.
Building illustration skills is a key component of our class, and the computers in Franklin Hall are equipped with mice for drawing in programs like Illustrator. But you don't necessarily need a mouse to draw — you are free to use a trackpad or stylus or tablet if you prefer. If you’d like to buy a mouse for your own use at home, a Magic Mouse (for Mac) is $69 — this is the model I would recommend — though you can use practically any mouse you like, and they can be had for much less.
Finally, you will need to have pencils at the ready, as this class will involve a good deal of sketching through your ideas. If you’d like to use art pencils, which I recommend, “H” means hard leads, “B” means soft, and higher numbers correlate to higher extremes for each category. You’ll need unlined paper as well, so you may want to invest in a quality sketchbook. Although history is filled with examples of great ideas that began scrawled on napkins, you may find that using better materials puts you in a more creative frame of mind.
There will be no assigned textbook for this course, but I will be adding pertinent resources on Canvas (in PDF form) as well as a series of how-to handouts, especially as we begin to integrate new software, and weekly Tips for some higher-end use of Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign.