Intro Assignment
Start a reflective practice learning journal in Adobe Spark Page.
Create a short video on your phone (or whatever is easiest for you to create video) to share with the wider community following this formula:
What is your name? My name is… Where are you from? I am from … What are you hoping to get from this course? I hope to learn about...
So your really want to know who I am eh?
This is my intro video for who I am.
Week 1 Assignment
Create three or more images using camera RAW in Photoshop that will be used for a slideshare/slideshow advertising the best of the city/region/area/community. The images will become part of a slideshow later in the course.
I used Camera Raw to edit all of these photos...
These photos are from our visit to New York mid-year 2017. It was on a chilly rainy day. All photos were taken using an iPhone7 Plus.
Week 2 Assignment:
Create four “City Guide” icons in Adobe Illustrator. Export as png files. These icons could be based on themes like “Transportation”, “Recreation”, “Fun” and “Food”. Feel free to select your own categories and consider how they will fit into your final interactive “City Guide”.
I love working in Illustrator. I used a series of blends, shapes, draw inside, opacity masks, live paint, and other tools to achieve these results. This was a fun assignment and I am looking forward to many more.
Week 3 Assignment:
Create a 5 page iPad sized interactive template with master pages in Adobe inDesign. Feel free to create a similar template based upon your own preferred device size.
InDesign is my favorite program as I teach and use it all the time. This project is unique because I haven't created much for the iPad. Mocking this up was cool because I didn't have to worry about the fold and gutter area that is usually in the center of a page. This made me feel like I had so much real estate to play in. YESSSS!!! I am pretty excited to see everyone's final product, including mine.
The Process...
NY FRONT COVER: I create and teach how to create interactive and static books, templates, and paragraphs styles all the time, so I was glad this was using a media that I don't design for everyday...the iPad. I started off creating a cover. I wanted to show that a large image is going into the background, so I created the 2 diagonal white lines and text at the top to indicate this. Then I decided to use the came font that I used for the New York logo and I used a variation of this for the title and subtitle. I wanted to use colors that represents New York so I went to Adobe Color online and searched for New York and picked this theme of red, blue, white, gray, and black. I wanted an interactive enter button to take you into the other ages. The white box behind the text is there so that the text stands out against all of the background elements. It may or may not be there during the final composition. I like to custom title all of my master pages for each subject, so the master page for this is titled NY Front Cover. I have paragraph styles set up and grouped for this page as well.
NY BODY PAGES: I set up the master pages for these pages. I want a large image on each page that extends and spans across all columns of text. I followed the same process ti indicate this image as I did on the front cover. The large numbers in the center are just there to show the different pages in the template. There may or may not be page numbers across the bottom center of each page. I made a style for the headings and the paragraphs of each page. I wanted each first line of new paragraphs to have an indent, to be justified with the last line aligned to the left, a specific font, no hyphenations, leading and tracking are larger to increase legibility and readability, spacing before and after paragraphs, and a few more styles that I set up in paragraph styles. My columns have a wider gutter in between them. I created two buttons using the drawing tools inside of InDesign for the back and forward buttons. I made a circle and triangles, aligned them to horizontal and vertical centers, and changed the colors to match the theme of my guide. These will be interactive in the final project.
NY BACK COVER PAGE: I created a template. It is the same as the body pages, except it only has a back button. Yes, I could have just deleted a button, but I like making templates. I also do not like breaking links to my master pages. I take time to design them so I like them as they are. :c) I actually might be adding an actual interactive back cover page.
THE END: I exported it out as a PDF and magic happened. :) That is my process in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed reading it. :)
Week 4
Create the final interactive document in Adobe inDesign. Use the template you created in week 3 and the content/assets you created in weeks 1 and 2. When complete use the Publish Online feature and share the url in the assignment forum.
My Process
I continued with my mockup from last week. I added stock images from Pexels.com to fill in the placeholder areas. I added some fun lorem ipsum text for each page. I used my styles that I created last week. I started adding interactivity through buttons. Then I added minimal animation to certain items. I create a slideshow for New York City buildings. All of my buttons and graphics were created inside of InDesign. Icons were create in Illustrator. Animation and interactivity can be a lot of fun if thoughtfully used and in moderation. This will definitely help you create interesting and engaging products for your students.
Week 5
Final New York Travel Guide
This week I made very mild updates. I added 2 shadow effects behind all of my headers. I also aligned my images to my slideshow. Then I republished the document online.
Final reflection
I loved this course! I loved the projects and interacting with other participants.
I loved being a student in this course. I feel like it was set up to target every type of learner. It included text, sound, video, tutorials, links, animation, lectures, and projects. All of which helped up complete our goal of learning about Graphics and Publishing.
I plan to model one of my college courses after this one, but expanding on the topics and projects, since we have more time where I teach.
I am really going to miss this course and the participants that I have grown fond of. I am hoping to see all of you in future courses.
Excellent Work all of you wonderful creators!!! Take a bow because we made it! :c)
The End!
No really, that's all I got. :c)
Credits:
Cover photo from pexels.com