Freshman SHOWCASE
Project: Social Action Poster
Our final project of the semester has a long and illustrious history within our field—the poster. Students were tasked with creating a poster that addresses a social, political, or cultural issue that they consider important. The choice of how to communicate the issue was entirely up to the student. This semester, the COVID-19 crisis hit right as the project began. Many of the students chose to tackle this timely topic.
Project: Zine
On the first day of class students were given a random object and asked to explore its formal properties. In this project, students were asked to revisit that object in the format of the zine. Using the mediums of photography, mark making, or vector illustration students construct a visual sequence that tells a particular narrative derived from the given object. This could be as simple as demonstrating the objects function (how does it work, why do we use it?) to a narrative loosely linked to the object in someway (who is using it, how is it being used?). That said, we are also interested in capturing a deeper narrative. Are there cultural, historical, geographic, or personal connections that could be layered into the more literal story?
Project: Icons
For our first project, students created a system of three icons. The purpose of an icon is to be easily understood by universal audiences, and to be discerned at all sizes, large and small. After selecting a location, students went to observe and record actions and functionality that occur within site. All three icons should relate, using similar visual cues and language in order to hold together as a system. Consider what your choice of form communicates and pay close attention to the relationships between figure and ground. The goal of this project is to create strong graphic forms with a unique visual style.
