GRAPHIC/
INFORMATION
DESIGN At:
Central Connecticut
State University
THE ONLY THING ABOUT
DESIGN IS HOW IT RELATES TO
PEOPLE - Victor Papanek
Table of Contents DESIGN 122
2
DESIGN 222
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DESIGN 225
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DESIGN 322
10
DESIGN 325
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DESIGN 326
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DESIGN 436
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DESIGN 425
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DESIGN 439
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DESIGN 499
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DESIGN 438
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Design 122 A Graphic Designer in the Making Welcome to your first year of college. You’re a freshman, the bottom of the food chain (again), and you can’t help but wonder what the next 3 months have laid out for you. You sleepily make your way to your very first FYE class--8am on a Friday morning. You make yourself comfortable in a soft cushioned chair, take in the surroundings of the spacious and friendly atmosphere, and think to yourself, “I could get used to this.” More students begin filling seats around the room, and you find yourself sizing up your newly arrived competition.
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What’s that--no one told you this was a competition? Well grab your riding boots and saddle up, you’re in for the ride of your life.
Step back, and take a deep breath. Over the next several weeks, you become acustomed to very late nights and equally as early mornings. Oh and did I mention? That super expensive Adobe Creative Suite that you bought over the summer? It can wait. Say hello to your new best friend, Microsoft Word. Each week as projects are returned, you feel yourself getting more and more confident. Running on coffee and energy drinks, you realize, “Hey, this isn’t so bad. I think I might stand a chance.” Finally, that fateful day comes--the last day of the semester. Nervous and eager to hear the outcomes of your semester full of hard labor, it hits you. “You mean I have to wait until NEW YEARS to find out if I’ve made it!?”
- Frank Chimero
Design 222 Learning the Tools of the Trade Congratulations, you’ve done it! You proved yourself as a creative and perservered through the dreaded first level. Well done.
You lay your research and sketches on the table, page by page, feeling your professors stare burning holes into the back of your head.
Now it’s time to get down to business. Putting your improved creativity to the test, your professor assigns the first project.
Once the critique is over, you’re astonished to hear that he wants MORE research, and on top of that, 50 MORE sketches!? Surely, he must be going insane.
You mull over the creative breif while your teachers voice drones on in the backround. Then, you hear something that you think MUST be some kind of mistake. Did he just say 50 sketches? Minimum? Oh yes, he did.
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After spending countless hours in the library and surfing the web, you’ve finally come up with what you think will be a sufficient amount of research. You hastefully complete your sketch assignment and make your way to class.
It may seem like a lot now, and there’s no doubts you’ll be cursing your professor’s name for the rest of the semester. But before you get too worked up, realize that this is one of the most important lessons that you will learn. One day you will come to terms with the need for research and realize that it’s not a chore, but an aid. Now, pick up that pencil and get to work, you’ve got a lot of sketching ahead of you.
- Robert L. Peters
Design 225 Typing Your Way to the Top Welcome back! Your first day of sophomore year is off to a great start, and you’re feeling like you’re on top of the world. You make your way back to that same classroom that you’ve grown to love, VAC 305.
After a few late nights sketching out a thousand different ways to form the letter “S”, you start to gain a knack for this; You start to feel invincible. This, my friend, is what could be referred to as the Somphomore Complex.
You take your normal seat, and catch up with friends you’d missed over summer break. Thing’s are back to normal. Soon enough, it’s time for class to start.
Admit it, you had a new air about you at the beginning of this new year.. You had more confidence, and were a bit more more cocky (no offense).
This semester is going to be full of something you’ve never really gotten to explore yet): the wonderful world of Typography.
You start to put off your designs, thinking that “this is easy, it can wait.” Off you go to the mall with your friends, the movies with your significant other, or whatever else you young people do these days.
For some, this class will be a piece of cake--what’s the challenge? But to others, this will be one of the most grueling semesters of the program. Fighting with Illustrator and InDesign will become a commonality amongst you and your peers.
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The night before the project is due, everything is going great! ... Until the printer goes down. Your computer crashes. But don’t cry, I’m sure your professor will understand why you waited.
- Matthew Carter
Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design can be simple,
That’s why it’s so
complicated. - Paul Rand
Design 322 New Year’s Resolutions $2000 and a new laptop later, you’ve learned your lesson from last semester. You come into this new semester full of resolutions that you and I both know you’ll never keep. You’re not going to be that person who procrastinates and puts everything until the last minute. Thats not you anymore. But sadly, it is still you. Three weeks go by and the first project due date is in the near future. Wait, what? How did time “sneak up” on you so fast? Good thing you didn’t procrastinate! ...Right?
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Another project and another new resolution later, you think you’re coming to terms with the new work load. The truth is, you’re never going to be prepared for the amount of work a project will take. Why, you ask? Well,
it’s quite simple. Every project, every professor, and every client are all going to have different expectations. How hard you have to (or chose to) work to acheive those expectations is up to you (but I’d suggest getting your butt into gear). But don’t fear, you still have time! Just look at this as a test to all of those resolutions you made but never kept. Make this semester become about you and your needs, and the needs of others in your designs will come with ease. Most importantly, don’t ever feel that your designs are “finished”. A true design is never really complete. “Have no fear of perfection-you’ll never reach it.” If there was ever a quote that could perfectly describe the lesson you’ll learn this semester, it’s this one.
HAVE NO FEAR OF
- PERFECTION -
-Salvador Dali
Design 325 Learning A New Program A new year and a new program. “FINALLY,” you think to yourself. “A program that actually matters in the real world!” As you delve into your first web design class, you open that little green Dreamweaver icon for the first time. You’ve seen it every day for two years, but never had the courage to click it. As it opens, you realize this is nothing like any Adobe program you’ve learned so far. You poke around the different menus and realize... You don’t know anything. These words make no sense to you. What the heck is a “div”? Whats a CSS?
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Confused and slightly disheartened, you close the program and wait for the professor.
You find your friends and talk about how “so totally unprepared” you are for this semester. Class begins as usual. You begin to go through the program and learn some of the terminology. “This could be fun,” you think. As the semester goes on you begin to feel more comfortable. You’re still a little confused, but you’re learning to manage. Some of your peers with flourish. They’ll decide that web is the way to go and leave print in the dust. Some of your peers will give up and never look back. Print is definitely for them, they want nothing to do with web design. Ever. Which will you choose?
Design 326 Refining Your Skills A second semester junior and a bit of web design under your belt, you think you’re ready. Bring it on.
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one this semester.
A new semester, a new teacher. “That’s fine,” you think. “I still know what I’m doing.” ...oh do you now?
You spend the bulk of the semester working on websites that seem much more relevant than last year. Finally, something you can use in your portfolio!
Again, you start class like any other day. You reminisce about old projects. You remember how confident you were with your websites last semester (especially that portfolio site, wow!).
Wait, portfolio... Suddenly you realize finals are next week and guess what you haven’t started! You don’t worry too much, though. It won’t be so hard. After all, you’re practically a pro by now, right?
You take a look at your old sites– yikes! What were you thinking? You could swear it looked so much better a month ago. How could your tastes change so much in one school break?
To make a long story short, you spend 15 hours in the design lab the night before your final working on your site.
You close the browser window with confidence. “That’s okay,” you tell yourself. “I’ll make an even better
One all-nighter and 13 cups of coffee later, it’s done. You’re SO proud of your baby. That is, until you walk into class and see everyone else’s...
Design 436 Wait... I Have to Build A Portfolio? Now a Junior, you’re beginning to realize that graduation is coming up, and it’s coming up fast. You may find yourself worried, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s normal. This semester is all about creating well designed portfolio pieces. Take a look at those soap boxes and business cards you made 4 semesters ago, and look at where you are now. It’s time to think about your future and what kind of work you would want future employers to see. This semester is also about realizing who you are. It’s about realizing your true potentil and identity as a designer. You’re given a lot more freedom, which is a double edged sword for many people. On one hand, it’s amazing for your artistic freedom. You don’t have the constant pressure of
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your professor looking over your shoulder and critiquing your work. You are given creative freedom and free reign (mostly) over your designs. Life seems to be stress free. On the other hand, that creative freedom comes with responsibility... A lot of it. Without the constant guidance of a wiser and more experienced designer, you may find yourself falling under par compared to where you want your designs to be. That’s where all those research skills come into play (remember those? It was so long ago, I know). It might be time to dust off your old library card... Fear not. You’ve been trained well by some of the best, and you’ve gained enough discipline and intelligence to help yourself to be the best that you can be.
- Massimo Vignelli
Design 425 Learning ANOTHER New Program You’ve conquered this new program thing before. After all, you’re basically a pro web designer by now! (yeah, right.) You open up this foreign-looking maya icon on your dock for the first time, and the intimidation begins. What are all these bottons for? What am I doing?
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to model an entire room!? All I’ve modeled so far is a pawn! As you begin to calm down, you realize this may not be so hard. “To be outstanding– get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Mr. Koudenburg is onto something here.
The professor begins to take you through your first assignment stepby-step. You start to feel better.
You can’t expect every new program to come naturally. You have to learn to conquer your fears and put your best foot forward.
As the semester goes on, you feel more and more confident. You plow through each in class exercize with ease.
Three weeks later you’re handing in your first project with confidence. You rocked that model of a room and you know it.
Then your professor drops the bomb–your first project.
Maybe 3D isn’t your favorite thing, that’s understandable. Some will fall in love, but most will just ride the wave and be thankful when this semester finally ends.
We didn’t learn how to model that in class! How am I supposed
Design 439 Finally, Some Real World Experience! Ah, DES 439. Central Design (also known as the “In-House Internship“ class) is always sure to be a great, worth-while class.
happened to real life clients and real life projects? Fear not, for this is just something to keep you busy until the real life work flows in.
Usually this class doesn’t have man students, making it easier to bond over projects.
Finally, you recieve your first “real” job. You’re so excited and can’t wait to get started. You begin hatching ideas and brainstorming with your group. “This is great,” you say to yourself. “Why can’t all of my design classes be like this?”
In this class, you’ll get a taste of what it’s like to work in the real world. You will be doing real life projects for real life people (finally!), and you’ll get to witness first hand what it’s like to work with a client (or clients). Since you had to submit a protfolio to get inot this class, you’re feeling a bit smug that you made the cut (understandable, really, but still not excuseable). You get your first assignment and are slightly dissapointed–a design department website re-do? What
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One week before your deadline, 3 sleepless nights and one very demanding client later, you’re begining to doubt yourself. “Why would I ever have wanted this?” Real world clients also mean real world attitude. No more being babied by professors that excuse your mistakes for lack of experience. Now, what was that about wishing that all design classes were like this?
Design 499 Learning the Tricks of the Trade, Again Another school year, another new program (ugh). Don’t worry, you’ll like this one! Remember all of those YouTube lyric videos for your favorite songs? Chances are, they were made using After Effects. “Yes! I’ll finally be able to make those!” you say to yourself. It can’t be that hard, right? Just like every other new program, the first thing you do when you get to class is open up that little icon that’s been taunting you for 3 years and try to figure it out for yourself. “Wow, this looks a lot like Maya,” you say. “I’ll be able to figure this out in no time.” Maybe you can, but chances are, you can’t. You poke around in all of the menus and quickly realize that the visual reminder of Maya is where the similarities end. What is this,
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some kind of foreign language? Over the semester, you gain a new appreciation for those awsome lyric videos you were once such a fan of. You realize how much time, patience, and precision it takes to make such a video. You’re beginning to doubt that you’ll ever be on good terms with such a frustrating program. Trust me, you’ll get there. You make it to your final project: a self promotional animation. “This would be great on my website!” you think. And you’re right! Three weeks and one awesome animatd resume later, you couldn’t be more proud. And as you upload your video to your brand new portfolio website, you can’t help but think “that wasn’t so bad.”
Design 438 The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For Well, that was fast. Welcome to senior year. More importantly, welcome to Design IV (a.k.a. your last design course). How hard could this be? All you have to do is put together your portfolio. Easy-peasy. NOT. You begin the semester with a series of portfolio reviews. Admit it, that constructive critisizm hurt a little. It’s okay, we’re here for you. Clearly, you’ve got some work to do. Better start to revamp your projects now, before your semester starts getting stressful. Then again, the senior showcase is still 14 whole weeks away... So, you wait. You focus on your other classes. What was once 14 weeks becomes 10... 8... 6... “Maybe I should start this now,” you say to yourself. Great idea! You put your blood sweat and tears into re-designing and revamping
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your portfolio. Not wanting your shiny new portfolio to out shine your personal branding, you’ve also decided it’s time for a re-brand. How hard could it be? Halfway through the semester all you have is a logo that you hate, and a generic portfolio book that’s just like everyone else’s. This is when you need to step back and realize, you’ll NEVER be happy with your personal branding. Decide on something that fits you, and roll with it (the re-re-branding was imminent anyway). Finally, you’re presenting yourself at your senior show.All of your hard work for the past 4 years is finally paying off. You look around the room, trying to picture life without the collegues you’ve had for 4 years. Fear not, for you’ve learned from the best. Congratulations, may the world see you for who you really are: a true graphic designer.