Guest Speakers from Compass Rose Media

Thanks to our special guest speakers from Compass Rose Media. Kathleen Smith and Kris Raikes spoke with our ROP Web Design class about their careers and working with rich media web development. Kathleen Smith is the Senior Interactive Producer at CRM, and develops rich media websites, app development, graphics and more. Kris Raikes is the IT Tech and Director of Technology and discussed his personal philosophy with learning and using software and technology.

Kathleen Smith displays her ipad apps created for clients

Kris Raikes showes his homemade Arduino controlled, light sensitive, electronic music "thingamajig"

Thanks again to our guest speakers!

 - SW

Stylized Portrait for your Final Portfolio

Hello Students,

Here is a quick and easy tutorial to create an Andy Warhol style portrait for your final portfolio. If you have some extra time this will look really good in your final website. I have my camera available so just ask!

WARHOL STYLE TUTORIAL

End of Course Survey

Hello  Students,

Every year the Santa Cruz ROP conducts an end of course survey to evaluate our material and its relevancy to your career goals. Your honest opinion and feedback are greatly appreciated. The information from this survey is used as evidence of the work we do in our classroom and helps us maintain funding for future ROP classes.

The survey should take you about 7 minutes, please take the survey at the following link:

ROP End of Year Survey 2011

Thanks!

 - SW

New Assignment - Portfolio Website

Hello Students,

Your next assignment is to create a portfolio website for yourself. This is your opportunity to show off the work you have completed during this class and display the creative and technical skills you have developed. Your portfolio site must be rich in graphics and utilize the techniques from our previous web project. You are also required to write about yourself and to complete some research and write about your possible future career path.

Portfolio Website Requirements:
• You must create a rough pencil sketch of your websites front page, points will be deducted if your results do not match your original concept. Some variation is acceptable.
• All buttons must have rollovers.
• The website must be designed with Illustrator or Photoshop and then sliced and exported to Dreamweaver.
• Must have the following sections, a front page, about me, work samples, resume. You can have other sections if you want to add, but each page must have content.
• Write a 1 page biography about yourself to include in the "about me" section.
• Take a photo of yourself to include in the "about me" section, this photo can be turned into an illustration with Illustrator.
• Research 1 possible career you are interested in and write a 1 page paper about the career, what does in involve, what is the salary range, what kind of education do you need, how do you break into the career. Include this in your "about me" section.
• Show your best or favorite work samples, minimum of 3. You can include work from other art, design or ROP classes. Write a 1-2 paragraph summary for each work sample.
• Include your resume, cover letter and list of references in your resume section.

Meeting the minimum requirements above does not guarantee an A+. You must put the time and energy into the project and really use it as an opportunity to shine. Include more material and content and information to guarantee a stellar grade. Must be original work that you created, create some artwork, take some photographs, make a movie, write a paper... this is your portfolio.

Pencil Sketch and concepts are due friday.
Final Portfolio site is due June 6th

Check out these collections of amazing portfolio sites for inspiration:
16 Great Looking Portfolio Sites
50 Excellent Designer Portfolio Sites
50 beautiful and Creative Portfolio Designs
24 Kick A$$ Portfolio Designs

Ok, have fun!

 - SW

Advanced Students Only: Introduction to Flash Catalyst

Hello Advanced Students,
Flash Catalyst CS5 enables designers to expand their skillset and design user interfaces and interactive components for Flex based applications without writing code. Designers can rapidly prototype user interfaces using skinnable components and interactions, which can then be sent to clients for approval. These prototypes are based on the open-source Adobe Flex framework. Flash Catalyst combines an intuitive user interface and toolset—similar to those in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks—with the expressiveness, consistency, and reach of the Adobe Flash Platform.

For this assignment you must read and work through the following tutorial:

Flash Catalyst Tutorial: Getting Started with Adobe Flash Catalyst

This tutorial covers all the skills and techniques needed to take a concept from a static file to an interactive, multimedia interface. More specifically, you will learn how:

• To use best practices when building an Illustrator AI file and how to import the artwork into Flash Catalyst CS5.5.
• To turn a static file into an interactive user interface, including how to create individual user interface states and button components to enable navigation.
• Flash Catalyst uses layers to manage the visibility of artwork within different states. Within the specific tours state, you will create a popup area that contains upload form. In the process, you will learn about creating default and custom actions for state transitions between states, such as moving, resizing, and fading layers.
• To preview and publish the finished project to a SWF file and AIR application.

Note: This article discusses the use of Adobe Illustrator to create artwork for use in Flash Catalyst. You can also use Adobe Photoshop to create artwork; many of the hints and tips can be applied to a Photoshop .psd file.

Ok, have fun!

- SW

Advanced Students Only: Create a Dynamic Flash Menu Interface

Hello Advanced Students,

Below you will find several links to flash tutorials that will walk you through creating very cool, dynamic flash menu's and interfaces. You will use the techniques in your next project, creating a flash based website.

Flash Tutorial - Black and Orange Menu

Flash Tutorial - Rotating Menu with Action Script

Flash Tutorial - Glass Aero Menu Effect

Flash Tutorial - Modern Horizontal Flash Menu

Flash Tutorial - Advanced Flash Menu with Sound and FX

Flash Tutorial - Shaky Flash Menu with Action Script

Check them all out and pick one to work on...

Have fun!

 - SW

New Assignment: Logo Study and Design

Students, this is your new assignment. You will create a series of logo designs to explore different logo creation styles and then sketch and design a final logo design. I recommend you use Illustrator for this project. Photoshop is acceptable as well. Your final logo design will be used in your next project, your final portfolio website, so consider logo themes that describe you and will work well in different environments.

You will use your last name and design a logo around it, create an imaginary company, organization or think of what you would like to do if you begun your own business. For instance if I was doing this assignment I would create logo's for Wilson Enterprises, Wilson Design Group or Wilson Co. etc.

Rules and Principals of Logo Design:

1. A logo must me describable

2. A logo must be memorable

3. A logo must be effective without color

4. A logo must be scaleable. So it should look good at 12"X12" and 1"X1".

Your Assignment - Create 3 versions of each of the logo style examples below:

1. Typeface only. Create 3 logo's using a different font for each one. Pay attention to spacing between your letters. Think of clever ways you can make a simple font only logo have impact.

2. Typeface's combined. Create 3 logo's that use 2 different fonts, make your font choice strategic to add emphasis and draw attention.

3. Typeface plus an art element. Create 3 examples of an arranged logo that uses a typeface plus some simple elements, rectangles, lines or dots. Sketch on paper to aid your creativity if needed.

4. Typeface plus a shape or symbol. Create 3 examples of a logo that uses a typeface and an image or symbol that is relevant to your logo's subject matter. Sketch on paper to aid your creativity if needed.

5. Shape or Symbol logo with typeface. Create 3 examples of a logo that makes the symbol or shape dominant and the typeface subordinant. Sketch on paper to aid your creativity if needed. Include a written explanation and description of your symbol or imagery.

When these versions are complete you may begin the final stage.

6. Final Logo. You must pencil sketch 3 different logo concepts, they must be original designs Pick one and render it in Illustrator. Think about what your ultimate logo would be, sketch that and refine it. Then create that final logo with Illustrator or Photoshop. You must turn your pencil sketches in with your final work, you may sketch in your notebook if you like. Remember the Rules of Logo Design as stated at the beginning of this post.

Due Dates: Logo designs 1-5 are due Thursday!

Check out these logo designs from last semester: