Portfolio Development

Hello Students,

Having a polished and professional looking portfolio is key to your success in finding work after High School and moving on to developing a career. Download the ROP Portfolio Handbook to use as a guide for creating your own portfolio, a requirement in all ROP classes.

Portfolio's are due by January 12th and must be ready for presentation, evaluation and critique (make it perfect!). You should put great time and care into creating the professional side of your portfolio.

Remember that the best portfolio in class will be sent to the portfolio design competition that ROP has at the end of each school year, your portfolio will compete against other graphic design classes across the county, and there are prizes!

A judge evaluates print portfolio's from past entrants...

Portfolio Cover Design Assignment:

• Design an eye catching cover design for you your portfolio
• Include your name, the title of this class, the school you are currently attending and the year
• Design your cover for standard letter size 8.5X11 inch paper
• When you are done post your portfolio cover design to your blog
• Cover design is due on Thursday

Portfolio Development Long Term Assignment:

• Your portfolio should be created in Indesign and the final file must be a multi-page PDF document
• Use the Pages palette to create multiple pages for your portfolio with Indesign
• Your portfolio cover, table of contents and all materials should look clean and consistent. Use consistent design style across all aspects of your portfolio, this includes color, typography, layout and style

Your Portfolio must contain in this order: See portfolio handbook for more details...

1. Cover page with your name, class title, year. Spend some time on this, it should show good design skill and be reflective of your personality
2. Table of contents
3. Letter of Introduction
4. Resume
5. Handwritten Job Application 
6. List of References
7. Letter of Recommendation -  cannot be from your ROP teacher or a family member
8. 3 or more work samples with written explanation about the work, why is it important to your career choice? What did the project entail, what were the challenges and difficulties? Give us details.

How Your Portfolio Is Evaluated:

• Contains required content and format
• Well organized
• Free of grammar mistakes
• contains ROP related work samples
• Shows creativity
• Nice appearance
• Shows skill development
• Appropriate for use in job search
• Professional appearance
• Nice presentation
• Shows good design and wise choice of color palettes
• Shows consistency across all pages
• Reflects your style, personality and interests

A print portfolio can take many forms, it can be professionally bound, stitched by hand or bound with a spiral ring... how will you create your portfolio, what will make it stand out above the rest?

Tips For Winning The Portfolio Competition:

In the last few years the portfolio competition has gotten fierce, especially for the graphic design category. Other schools have printing facilities that we don't, so you must use your creativity, ingenuity and eye for design to stand above the rest. Consider purchasing a large format portfolio binder and printing work samples at 11X17", or consider making a hand-bound book format to showcase your work. The limits are only contained by your creativity!

Use this as a rough guide to laying out your own portfolio...

Ok, have fun!

Previous Student Portfolio Cover Design Samples:

P.S. There are more samples on the back table for review...

Hello Students,

To develop your print portfolio we will use Adobe InDesign's powerful layout software to create multiple page document with compelling design, color, typography and content. Use this post and the details below to explore and become familiar with InDesign

Launch and Explore InDesign

• Go to the dock and launch InDesign, or look in your Applications folder to find the app
• Go to the File Menu and create a New Document
• Go to the Window Menu and set your Workspace to Advanced
• Explore the tool bar, click on the text tool and draw a text box to create text, try the shape tools and look for the color modifiers to change colors at the top of the screen
• Open all the palettes under the Window Menu and explore all the functions, look at the quick guides below for reference
• See if you can create text of different sizes, change the colors, modify the text kerning and tracking and draw shapes in different colors and with different borders
• Try importing an image, use File Menu/Place... you can insert a photo into a shape, or drop it onto the page you want
• Try opening the Pages Palette and create multiple pages
• When you are comfortable, begin creating your portfolio!

Hidden Tools and Shortcut Keys

Character Formatting Panel In InDesign

Paragraph Formatting Panel in InDesign

Graphic Design Final Project: CTE Promotional Poster

Hello Students,
Your final project is to design a promotional poster that will create interest for students in taking CTE classes. You could design a poster that creates interest for a specific class or multiple classes. If your poster qualifies it will be printed and displayed on campus and you will have another great design project for your portfolio.

Project Description:
You have just been hired by me to create a promotional poster. Your goal is to design an eye-catching and engaging poster that is suitable to display on High School bulletin boards. You should have an understanding of your audience and what will appeal to them. Your design can be creative and fun but should look professional.

Project Specifications:

• Poster dimensions must be 36"x24"
• Must be created in CMYK with Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop
• Must use bold eye catching colors
• Must be created with no more than 2 different font styles
• Must be readable when printed from 10-15 away
• Pick a class to promote, choices are Graphic Design, Digital Photography, Video Production and Animation, Bicycle Technology or the Automotive Technician Program
• Use your own ideas to make this poster unique. Poster can incorporate artwork you or other students have created to show as examples. Poster should provide an eye-grabbing headline to interest the viewer and guide them to a "call to action" such as requesting more information or signing up for the class with their counselor

Project Copy:
Poster may contain this text, creative editing is encouraged as long as the message stays on point:

• Headline: "Learn (choose a class to feature) at Santa Cruz High School!" or an alternate headline could start with "Would you like to learn _______?"
• Body copy example (would be different for other classes): Do you enjoy learning through hands-on projects and activities? Learn digital media skills in our newest computer lab with cutting edge software and equipment. ROP offers several exciting classes in your school. Talk to your counselor to sign up for one of these great courses. Space is limited, sign up today!
• Here is what our students are saying about this great course : "Insert student testimonial quote here" <-- you will need to interview students for these quotes...
• Success Starts Here! Career Technical Education is your first step!

Grading and Evaluation:

• Poster design should be clean, eye-catching and professional
• You will be evaluated on your ability to communicate your concept to me and incorporating feedback into your design.
• Poster design should include all relevant and important material
• Design should showcase effective use and understanding of: Typography, color theory, application of elements and principles of design
• Poster will be judged on how well it incorporates your clients input and how that is translated into your design
• Poster needs to meet all specifications
• Due by end of finals

Student Examples:

Print Design: Event Poster

Hello Students, 

Your new assignment is to design an event poster for a musical group. You must adhere to the specifications below and use your own creativity to design an eye catching and original poster design. This is your chance to flex your creative and design skills. All elements studied are to be utilized and will be scrutinized: color, design, illustration and typography.

Poster design by your instructor, Seth Wilson

Event Poster Design Project:

- You MUST produce 1 FULL PAGE pencil sketch of your poster design idea

- Your poster must be designed at 11"X17" at 300DPI if you are using Photoshop

- Your poster must contain ORIGINAL ARTWORK or ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY. You can use found images as reference only, but direct artwork tracing or photography used in your project must be original. Time to bust out your camera's and creativity.

- You may use Photoshop or Illustrator or both... your choice

- You may use no more than 2 fonts

- You must choose 2 bands/musical acts/artists to include in your poster, one group is the headline act, the other is the opening act

- Your poster must contain the following elements:

   • Band #1

   • Band #2 Opening Act

   • Location (the venue, such as The Catalyst or The Greek, Shoreline, etc...)

   • Date of the show

   • Show Times

   • Ticket Price

   • Ages Admitted

Can I?

• Use imagery from an existing album?
• Use imagery I didn't create?
• Use photo to make a drawing that I didn't take?
• Re-create an album with images that aren't mine?
• Use this photo from google images?
• Use meme's in my poster?
• Use a shortcut instead of putting in the effort, or try to gaslight Mr.Wilson into letting me turn in regurgitated imagery and concepts that show little to no creativity?

The answer is: NO (well yes, if you want to fail the project, otherwise, nah.)

When you post your final work to your blog you must display:

• The color palette for your design
• List all fonts used
• List what software and hardware was used, including the camera
• Show source images unedited 
• Show initial pencil sketch (take a photo or scan it to add to your blog)

TIPS, TRICKS AND RESOURCES FOR POSTER DESIGN

• Designing a poster isn't always easy, especially if it is your first time. Don't be afraid to experiment and don't feel held back by your drawing capabilities. There are lots of tricks to creating original artwork from photographs that don't require elite artistic techniques.
• Pay attention to the spaces BETWEEN your letters. Take some lessons from our typography studies and pay attention to the spacing, pace and rythmn of the words.
• Use colors that COMPLIMENT each other. When your color choices clash it affects the entire composition of your design.
• Communicate your message with the right images. Poster design is about communicating and delivering information. Your design should fit the style of music that the poster is advertising, pay attention to what will speak to your intended audience best.

Links for inspiration:

Link - Creative Event Poster Design Samples

Link - 30 Inspiring Poster Designs

Examples of student work:

Design an Original Album Cover

Hello Students,

Your new assignment is to create an original album cover design. All artwork, photography and illustration used in your cover design must be 100% original. Use all of your skills you have learned this semester, you must demonstrate your competence in using design and software skills.

Introducing: Fou Ts'ong, Piano, Mozart Piano Cocerti , K503 & K595,  Westminster , Rudolph de Harak

Assignment Paramaters:

You will be creating a CD album artwork. Start by listening to an album you would like to create a design for. Think about how you can visualize the physical and emotional response the music creates inside of you... how can you put those influences into a visual representation? When listening to the music it can help to create a list of words that come to mind... think of it as creating your own inspirational word cloud.. this can help influence your visual design and give it focus. They key to this assignment is to make sure the artwork on the album cover is representational of the music it is showcasing.

Assignment Workflow:

• Decide on an album/artist and idea for your project
• Sketch analog or digitally to create 3 design ideas for your album
• Discuss ideas with instructor and classmates for feedback
• Sketch a final design concept and proceed to creating final digital artwork

Assignment Specifications:

Utilize all of the skills you have learned this semester. This project should be a shining example of your graphic design skills for your portfolio. This project will be graded against the class rubric, see the link above and read before proceeding:

• Find a template for a CD jewel case insert for the dimensions and layout. You will need to design the cover and spine to fit in a jewel case, front and back.
• All artwork, illustration and photography used must be 100% original
• Make sure the design shows unity with the music it is showcasing, it should show creativity, be appropriate for the audience and demonstrate an understanding of design
• Typography must display the album title and name of band
• Use all design principals that can be applied, alignment, typography, contrast etc. Focus on typography and composition for a professional looking result
• Use Photoshop or Illustrator or both, your choice. Utilize any and all artistic creation processes to create your design, including illustration, photography, painting, collage, sculpture, etc...
• Refer to our grading rubric for clarity on the assignment expectations

Links for Inspiration:

35 Beautiful Music Album Covers

History of Record Cover Design

50 Amazing Album Cover Art Examples

Designs are due on Monday the 11th, have fun!

- Mr.W

Previous Student Work Examples:

Gif Challenge

Gif Animation Challenge:

Choose one of the subjects below to animate in the most awesome way evar FOR EXTRA CREDIT. You will be graded on the sheer AWESOMNESS of your animation:

• A cat is typing on a computer keyboard and knocks the computer off the table in frustration
• Ronald Reagan is riding on an ostrich at full gallup and shooting jelly beans out of his eyes
• Godzilla/King Kong/Mechagodzilla is a DJ spinning records on a turntable in a dance club
• A celebrity of your choice removes their face as if it were a halloween mask to reveal a reptilian creature beneath
• A giant ferret/raccoon/beaver begins to wreck a city, knocking over skyscrapers
• Find a short video clip of a sword fight and replace the swords with Light Sabers (WARNING: The shorter the better, trust me on this one... 1 second of video has 30 frames and you have to draw red and blue lines on each frame 1 by 1, this subject is not for the newbies)
• Add LAZER EYES to any video clip (aka cyclops effect)

LASER CAT COMPELS YOU TO COMPLETE THE GIF CHALLENGE!

Examples:

Design Animation for the Gif Format

Hello Students,

Your new assignment is an introduction to making animated Gifs, and harnessing your skills to create a more elaborate animation or a cinemagraph style gif.

What is an animated Gif?:

A Gif file is a web safe file format that has a cool feature, it can have different frames like a video, you can also change the playback speed and duration per frame. Unfortunately they can't have sound.You can do some really cool stuff with Gif's!

More examples:
 http://fluxmachine.tumblr.com/

What is a Cinemagraph?:
A Cinemagraph is just a fancy digital media term for an animated Gif that has the appearance of a still image (graph) with small portions of the image appearing to be moving or appear to be animated (cinema) usually in a seamless or near seamless loop. Some Cinemagraphs will loop the animation constantly, some repeat with a delay to give the viewer a surprise when the photo they are looking at suddenly turns and looks back at them or blinks like the example below.

Credit: Brandon Keener
This cinemagraph was created from a video, shortened, repeated and reversed in order to loop.

Gif Assignment: Part A - Create a Gif

Simple animatics can be made as gifs, and they are also small in file size. Get 5 bonus points on your assignment for emailing each person/character in the cartoon above to your instructor.

• Create a simple frame by frame animation, use your creativity!
• Create an animated gif, use the layers to frames method to create a simple frame by frame animation. Create at least 10 frames of animation.
• Use of found imagery is allowed for Part A only
• Follow the instructions below as a rough guide only. There are several ways to make animated gifs in photoshop
• This is just a quick project to get you used to creating gifs. The final gif must display on your blog full size in order for animation to work, so make sure the image size is small enough, perhaps around 500 pixels wide
• When the animation is complete use the Save for Web feature in Photoshop. Set the file type to gif, adjust your colors and looping options and post to your blog when done

This gif was created from video. A camera on a tripod was used. The motion was repeated. In photoshop a mask was created to isolate the body while letting the arm show motion.

Gif Assignment: Part B - Create a Cinemagraph 

Gif Challenge: Design an animated gif that loops seamlessly using video/photography sources created by yourself

• Create a longer animation this time that loops perfectly with a series of photographs or video footage. 
• Use original content for this part of the assignment
• For photos, use the Continuous Shooting mode on a camera for rapid fire shooting of frames. A Video camera on a tripod may also be used, photoshop can read video files although working with frames and video is different with photoshop
• For a Cinemagraph style animation Try to create an effect where just one part of the image is moving, such as eyes moving/blinking or the head turns and looks at the camera. Think of actions or motions that are repeatable for your cinemagraph to loop properly
• Check out Cinemagraph Tutorial for tips on making cinemagraph style images.

How to make an animated Gif with Photoshop CS5:

• Launch Photoshop
• FILE / OPEN a new document at your desired size, I made mine at 200X180 Pixels. It's a good idea not to make Gif files too large, otherwise they can take along time to load over an internet connection.
• Your animation can be a series of images, photos etc. You can hand draw each frame the animation also. The key is to set up separate layers that you will turn into frames of animation. Im using some pictures I took of my dog.

• Click your top Layer, then while holding SHIFT click on your bottom Layer to select all layers
• On your Animation Palette Sub-Menu select Make Frames From Layers
• If you don't see individual frames in your Animation Palette, go to the Sub-Menu and select Convert To Frame Animation
• You can now designate individual durations on each frame.
• Go to FILE / SAVE FOR WEB AND DEVICES to export your animation as an animated Gif file. Make sure to set your looping options to forever.

• Open your Gif file in a web browser to test it. Here's my result:

Cinemagraph Photoshop Process:

This is my Cinemagraph. My first frame of animation pauses for 5 seconds before animating.

• Setup your frames of animation as Layers from the bottom up. The bottom Layer will be the first frame of animation

• You should have 1 layer as the "still image" background and then your other animated layers above
• On the Animation Sub-Menu choose "Convert to Frame Animation"

• You can set durations here, but if you want to animate your layers go to the Animation Palette Sub-Menu and choose "Convert to Timeline"

• Your layers are animated across the timeline, you can select a layer and change its opacity to be visible for a longer duration.  Open a layer in the Animation Palette to see its animation attributes. You can adjust when certain layers are visible in your animation frames here. Look at the keyframes in the Opacity value.

• Play your animation to test
• Resize so Gif file can display on your blog at 100% size

Previous Student Work Samples: