to learn how to use collaboration, abstraction, and juxtaposition

• practice communication skills for distanced teamwork
• use paths, masks and layers to create design alternatives

For this project, you will work with partners to distill the essence of a place photo into a sign and to give meaning to the signs by composing a new context. Your job is to coach your partners and use them as editors. You may supplement the primary e-mail and Webpage communication with live conferencing.

1. Introductions due Thurs Oct 31, 9am PST, 6pm German time

Contact partners & introduce self. Upload images to new server using SFTP:
eugene.cax.fh-wiesbaden.de (login & passwords will be given to you) Check that your own and partners' images and links work at the Wiesbaden webpage  Details of your required image sizes and names are under the introduction. You should have a 50 x 75 portrait image, a 200 x 150 JPG and a 800 x 600 TIF. Correct this and previous webwork if necessary. Plan the image trade so everyone has something new. Download the partner TIF image.

2. Reinterpret image as a sign due Saturday Nov 2, 3pm PST, 12 midnight German time

Abstract the TIF photo into a powerful iconic image and add text to create a tourist billboard or roadside welcome/farewell sign. Sketch options. Create the simplified version using Photoshop or Illustrator path pen or filter tools.  Use layers to separate design variations, overlapping elements and color components.

Save incremental working copies in Photoshop PSD or Illustrator AI. Add text to favorite variations, save top choice as a 200 x 150 JPG and a 800 x 600 TIF.

Upload favorite image as along with a concise explanation.

3. Compose a new map or environment due Tuesday Nov. 5, 8am PST for Oregon

Browse online signs, select potential components. Open in Photoshop, select parts, copy and paste onto different layers to create an image with foreground, middle ground and background. Manipulate geometry, transparency, etc.
Save possible variants, select favorite to save as a small JPG and large image TIF; upload to webpage.

Use your partners as an audience to check how your work-in-progress communicates.

Create part 3 landscape in FormZ using the downloaded images as texture maps and background.

For the project to work, each student MUST post images by the interim deadlines.

Society of Environmental Graphic Designers
The SEGD awards show how signage and graphics can be used to define places, guide wayfinding and establish identity

Web Page Design for Designers
Joe Gillespie explains layout, typography and graphics in concise, accessible articles

More Web authoring links

Collaboration class