J 336 Visual Design

Description and Objectives

This class is a basic publication design course and we assume that you have little or no previous design training for publications before you enter this class. What you can expect to learn from this course are the fundamentals of publication design, basic typography skills, design software currently used in producing publications and finally some basic bedrock skills in image editing and placement. Each assignment is predicated on the skills you have learned from the previous one. Using type with single images follows typography basics. Grouping girding and alignment skills are incorporated into construction simple photo pages and then more complex front sections of newspapers. A section of the course concentrates on magazine layout and design. This covers, table of contents, double page spreads and department designs. The final project will be concerned with brochures and three-dimensional design. At the end of the semester you will be required to produce and present a polished professional portfolio of your designs. In addition to the course projects, you will have the opportunity during the course of the semester to hear at least a half a dozen professional designers talk about their work and answer your questions of the design profession.

Grading System

Your work will be graded on how well you execute the projects based on current accepted design practices. Your final grade will depend on a number of factors including your knowledge of typography skills, your understanding of basic design principles, concepts and structures, your execution and craftsmanship of your designs, your final presentation, class participation and attendance in both the class lectures and the lab sections. Projects will increase in difficulty throughout the semester and will accordingly be given greater value.

Lab Hours

Full lab times are mandatory every week..

Prerequisites

J 310 and J 315 with a grade of at least C in each, a score of 45 or better on the Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation (GSP) test, a score of 29 or better on the Word Processing (WP) test, and admission to a Journalism Upper Division sequence.