New Project: Creating an Identity Package

Hello Students,

An identity package is a corporate communication standard. It helps a company or organization present a uniform appearance to the world in its correspondence and communication. Being able to design a logo and then enhance it for an ID package is a strong design skill and one that is readily marketable to your potential clients.

Identity Package Assignment Details:

• When your final logo design is complete, create an identity package that expands on your logo design style and color usage. Look for elements you can play with, refer too or borrow from in the design of your identity package assets.
• Create a business card, letterhead, envelope design and T-Shirt design + 2 promotional items of your choice (cd/dvd label, usb drive, pen, pencil, notepad, keychain etc). Use Indesign or Illustrator for creation of these assets but you can create your final ID package mockup with Photoshop.

Tutorial:

Use this tutorial if you wish as a guide to creating your Business card, letterhead and envelope elements. You will have to do some research and use your imagination to complete the other assets in your ID kit. Look up the sizing and specifications of each asset before creating them, for instance the CD label, you can find a template to use through a quick google image search.

Link: How to create an identity package

Resources:

• Link: ID Package design samples

Examples of student work: High Performing

Examples of student work: Medium Performing

Examples of student work: Low Performing

Have fun!

- Mr.W

How to Write a Good GREAT Letter of Introduction

Hello Students,

Your next assignment is to create a "Letter of Introduction" that describes you! Your special traits, qualities, hobbies, and personal, educational and career goals. List your top 5 skills and abilities. It should consist of at least one page. Make sure to use correct spelling and grammar.

Letter of Introduction Assignment:

• This is an introduction letter, about you, written to people that may be viewing your portfolio.
• Should be about 1 page long.
• Letter should be free of typo's, spelling and grammar errors.
• Follow the examples in the Portfolio Handbook and include the information listed below...

You letter should include:

• Who you are
• Where you are currently attending school
• What courses you are currently enrolled in aside from standard courses (such as this ROP class your in right now)
• Your top 5 work related skills
• Special acknowledgments from employers/instructors
• Future education plans
• Hobbies or other activities you enjoy
• Discuss what is contained in your portfolio
• Discuss the type of work/projects/activities you enjoy the most in school

Sample Introduction Letter:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Star

242 Crest St.

Capitola, CA 95010

(831) 553-2323

jostar@yahoo.com

Date

To Whom It May Concern:

I am currently attending Santa Cruz High School where I will be graduating this year in June. I have enrolled in ROP classes, which are business-oriented. ROP classes have given me a closer look at the business world and I have learned excellent work skills. 

My top five work skills are:

• Excellent communication skills with strong listening skills
• Responsible and reliable with attention to detail
• Strong team player who thrives in teamwork situations
• Good computer skills
• Excellent time management skills

I have received special acknowledgement from my employers for strong skills and work ethics.

I recently was accepted to CalPoly and plan to go there in the Fall and pursue a degree in Agribusiness. After receiving my degree, I plan to work in my family’s strawberry farming business. Eventually, I hope to be the president of the business. I have many hobbies including surfing, skiing and playing baseball but most of all, I enjoy riding my horse up in the hills. It gives me a sense of freedom and independence.

My portfolio shows some of the skills and abilities I have acquired in while attending Soquel High School and throughout my work experience. I have always enjoyed landscaping and have enrolled in the Horticulture class for my last semester of high school. From my past experience you will notice that I enjoy working especially when I leave the job better than it was when I first got there. I have been doing tree work for three years and have worked for commercial and residential customers. Thoroughness and safety are some of my favorite qualities.

Included in this portfolio, is my resume summarizing my schooling, work experience, and skills. In addition I have a list of references, letters of recommendation, and samples of my work. I hope you enjoy reviewing my portfolio.

Sincerely,

John Star

- Complete your letter of introduction and add it to your Portfolio project!

 - Mr.W

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 beginning of May and must be ready for presentation, evaluation and critique (make it perfect!) but that is no reason to slack on this project. You should put great time and care into creating the professional side of your portfolio and then you will be ready to add your creative projects as the semester progresses. You will complete a digital version as a PDF file for evaluation. Class winner will be able to print and prepare their portfolio for inclusion in the Portfolio Showcase competition. Everyone can print a copy to keep and report covers will be provided if possible.

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
• Portfolio structure design is due today
• Cover design is due on wednesday

Portfolio Development Long Term Assignment:

• Your portfolio must 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 grammer problems
• 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...

Logo Development Project Phase 2: Final Design and Production Art

Hello Students,
For this project you will review the 15 examples you created in the prior project. Identify the strongest example(s) and further develop them, resulting in a single logo rendered as final production art. This assignment has multiple deliverables, so focus on reading and understanding the expectations laid out below before beginning.

Final Logo Development Project:

• Take the strongest example of your previous project and develop it further, explore it's design, create 3 strong variations of your final design, explore layout and graphic options, choose the best version and render it as final production art meeting the deliverables below.
• To evaluate your best designs, email the finished results of your previous project and or the current state of your designs to me as JPG's and I will email feedback and offer suggestions on how to progress and refine your design.
• For final production art you will create and post a version in black and white and one in color, you will also post your 3 pencil sketches alongside your final vector artwork. Presentation and quality counts. Show the versatility of your logo design with different sizes, colors and how it might be used against different backgrounds, white on black, black on white etc.

Deliverables:

• 3 Logo design variations based on strongest design(s) from previous project. Email these to me for feedback before proceeding.
• When given feedback, render your 1 final logo rendered vector art, in both color and black and white/white on black and in 3 sizes from large to small (64X64 pixels or 1"X1"). Alter or edit smallest version if needed for clarity
• To clarify: Final Logo is posted as...
• Full Color
• Black on white background
• White on black background
• 3 sizes from Full size, to small (think business card size) to Icon size (64X64 Pixels, unique pixel art modifications may be needed)

Grading:

Refer to the grading rubric for the expectations and methods I will use to evaluate your work.

3 Logo Variations are Due by Thursday, Final Logo artwork is due next Tuesday - Mr.W

Previous Student Examples: Low Performing:

---

This design shows poor execution and failed to meet assignment deliverables. There is no attention paid to the quality of the line work. The logo is not describable. The logo is not expressive of it's organizations purpose.

---

Medium Performing:

---

This logo shows good craftsmanship but received a poor rating as it was appropriated from a pre-existing design

---

High Performing:

These examples showed strong design skills, good craftsmanship and students met required deliverables for the assignment. Strong original designs can be a shining example in a young designers portfolio.

---