Digital Imaging is an introductory art class at McDaniel College. This course covers the basics of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Beginning in fall 2019, this course will be taught as a hybrid/blended learning online class, so the class will meet once a week instead of two and a majority of the content of the class will be delivered online via Blackboard.
In summary, project is all about strokes and fills, color and space. Students use the shape, line, and arc tools in Illustrator to create their drawings. Students create digital floor plan-style drawings of past and present significant places in their lives. In the hybrid class in fall 2019. students worked together during a face-to-face class session to produce "analog" versions of popular locations on campus using craft materials.
Students demonstrate their knowledge of the Pen tool and other drawing tools in Illustrator through a campaign-style poster project. Students are introduced to graphic design basics and must think about how type and imagery work together to create successful messaging.
No Cats, No Flowers Zine Project: This project introduces students to the very basic capabilities and interfaces of Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe InDesign CC. Students create a multi-page booklet using original photos that they take with a digital camera and adjust in Photoshop. They illustrate a cover in Illustrator and assemble it all in InDesign. Historically, zines can be about absolutely anything. I want students to approach what they photograph in terms of visual story telling and/or documentation of architecture and/or outdoor signs.
Students made lenticular prints by illustrating two corresponding images in Illustrator.
For the final project, students create three original compositions to be uploaded onto the @digital_mcdaniel Instagram page. Each student contributes 2 images to a communal folder, and each student must use ALL of the images in the folder throughout their three compositions. The challenge is to utilize all of the technical skills they've acquired throughout the semester while also attempting to make sense of the content through a narrative or concept.
