Make a festive Holiday Card!

Turn a simple piece of card stock into a holiday card! Use the template below to set up your designs, keeping the elements of your design within the blue guidelines. Also, make sure to leave at least 1/4" around the edges, since the printer leaves a margin of white space around the edge. You will need to account for this empty "bleed area" in your design.

CLICK HERE to download the holiday card template file.


Here are some designs created by students in the Fall Graphic Design Class...

Be a stickler with your Snapchat Geofilter!

Making a Snapchat Geofilter is pretty easy and fun – if you follow their specifications exactly!

Here is a chart showing you all the small details:

Make a snazzy Snapchat Geofilter!

Snapchat has a fun feature called a geofilter. Basically, you can create a filter for a specific location to give a shout out to a school, business or organization.

CLICK HERE to see some popular filters liked by Buzzfeed:

So how can we make our very own Snapchat Geofilter? Take a look at this short clip to find out:





Here is an example of a Geofilter I created for the Peer Leaders Club at NEST+m:

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED, CHECK OUT THE SNAPCHAT GUIDELINES HERE!

Content is king! (And did you make some typos?)

As designers, sometimes we get caught up in making everything look great, and we forget to check our work closely. This leads to lots of errors - typos, mis-spellings, styling issues, etc.

So we must proofread. How do we do that? Here are a few tips:

1. Read it out loud and also silently.
2. Read it backwards to focus on the spelling of words.
3. Read it upside down.
4. Use a spell checker and grammar checker as a first screening, but don't depend on them.
5. Have others read it.
6. Read it slowly.

When you find an error, you can mark it up using standard Proofreader's Marks! See a handy list below:

RGB vs CMYK: what do these terms mean?

The first thing you should think about before you start your design project is: will my project be printed or put online? There are two different types of image formats to choose from. Take a look at this quick clip to help you figure out which to choose!

Raster vs vector images: which one will work for your project?

As designers, we can choose from an array of images to add interest to our designs: photographs, illustrations, patterns, etc. Each image will fall into one of two categories: raster vs. vector.

Raster images are made up of lots of square pixels, and can be high resolution or low resolution.

Vector images are mathematically defined, so your software program calculates the line resulting from the starting point to the ending point of your design. Vectors can be scaled up or down and will not change resolution.

Here's a quick clip to explain:

Learn to Kern!

A really important part of making a beautiful design is learning how to make your type look really good. You can do that by adjusting the LEADING, TRACKING and KERNING. Take a look at this quick clip to find out how:

Using color to make your layouts pop!

You can inject some fun into your layouts by playing around with color! Check out this quick clip to learn the basics of color theory:



You can combine colors in many ways, and adjust the HUE, SATURATION and VALUE. Take a look at Johannes Ittens' color wheel below to help you figure out your color scheme!

It's time to reflect on your work!

It's time to reflect on your work!

Today's class will consist of a critique in which we will all gather around and look at each other's flyer designs. We should think of critiques as time to reflect on what we have done, think of what we can do better so that we can make changes and improvements.

Check out this quick clip:

The art of choosing fonts

Fonts come in two basic varieties: serif and sans serif. Usually, they look best when there's a bit of contrast, so pairing a serif font with a sans serif font is a good way to start your design.
Take a look at some examples of serif and sans serif fonts using the links below:

• Examples of SANS SERIF fonts
• Examples of SERIF fonts

Check out this short clip which gives a few tips on design with fonts:

The five elements of a great layout

An eye-catching layout is the key to a well-designed piece! Take a look at this clip to get the hang of it...



Think about these 5 concepts when you get started with your layout:

• Proximity
• White space
• Alignment
• Contrast
• Repetition

You will also need to think about whether you have large or small MARGINS, if you CENTER, LEFT JUSTIFY or RIGHT JUSTIFY your type.

Welcome to Beginning Graphic Design - Fall 2017!

Welcome to all new students and also to those of you who are returning! In this class, we are going to learn to see the world through the eyes of a graphic designer. Many of you are probably thinking "What exactly does a graphic designer do?" Here is a short clip which answers that question; let's watch it and discuss!

Two really famous designers you should know about are Milton Glaser, who designed the I LOVE NY logo, and Massimo Vignelli, who designed the signage for the NY City subway system:

NYC Subway signage by Massimo Vignelli

The I LOVE NY logo by Milton Glaser

Welcome to SMILE Magazine!

This magazine is the result of all the hard work of the Graphic Designers in After3's Beginning Graphic design class! We've learned about typography, layouts, proofreading as well as real world software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. We hope you enjoy our magazine!

Proofreading makes it perfect!

Ok, so you've spent hours and hours on a graphic design project, sent it out to the printer, and the proof comes back with all kinds of typos! What happened???

It probably means that you didn't spend enough time PROOFREADING your work! This is actually harder than it seems, so take a minute to check out the video for a few tips on how to do perfect proofreading.

Then below, use the Chicago Manual of Style Proof Marks Guide to mark up your work.

Spice up your layout by mixing different font styles!

Colorful images and photos can be an attractive part of a magazine layout, but let's not forget what you can do with type! Check out this video below to see how you can "spice up" your magazine layout with interesting text combinations!

Tweaking your text in InDesign is easy!

A successful magazine layout includes well-organized, easy-to-read text. Check out the short clip above which shows you how to make a multi-column layout, handle pesky overflow text, and create a cool-looking drop cap.

Magazine basics and the lure of Lorem Ipsum

Laying out a magazine spread can get tricky, but InDesign comes to the rescue! Check out the quick video below to learn how to get started in inDesign!

So now that you know how to get around in InDesign, you should think about all the elements of a magazine page!

If you don't already have your text written, you can design your page with "dummy text" called Lorem Ipsum. It is generic text written in Latin, so it looks like real words but most people won't be able to translate it. Download a sample HERE.

Learn more at: http://www.magazinedesigning.com/magazine-page-elements/

Battle of the Grids: the Golden Ratio vs. Rule of Thirds

When you start creating a layout, the first thing you'll do is decide upon a grid. Check out the video above for two different ways to make an attractive and well-balanced layout!

The Golden Ratio, or phi grid, looks like this:

If you are really intrigued, check out the video below to learn how to create your own Golden Ratio Grid!

Grids are not just for Math!

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Think of a grid as the hidden building blocks of a great layout! Usually, grids are completely invisible, but they are so important in making sure that your page design is interesting and easy to read. Watch the short clip above to learn how they work, then visit some of the online magazines in the links below.

Can you find the invisible grid in each magazine?

• National Geographic - travel magazine
• Typographic Magazine - magazine created by students at CalTech
• Music at Yale
• Amsterdam Science
• Tau Science Magazine - student run science magazine
• VOGUE USA - Fashion magazine
• WIRED Magazine - UK version of Wired
• Lipstick Magazine - UK fashion magazine

Celebrate your work!

business card designs created in class

Today is the halfway point in our Beginning Graphic Design class, and it is time to celebrate your work! Our graphic designers have learned so much about type and layouts. Great job, designers!

birthday party invitation by Amanda

Birthday party invite by Banjamin

Birthday party invitation by Heewon

Birthday party invitation by Kiera

Birthday party invitation by Mia

Birthday party invitation by Rebecca

Memes, glorious memes!

Memes are like thoughts in pictures! They are made up of an image (which could be a drawing, animation, or photograph) put together with type to communicate an entertaining thought.
When designing your meme, your image will be the eye-catching part of your message, and the type (or words) will deliver the punchline. Watch this short clip below to learn about different types of images, and how to change up your image so that it works well in your design.

Here is a small selection of memes to serve as inspiration as you set about designing your very own meme!

Making type beautiful with tracking and kerning

A well-designed graphic design piece has beautiful typography which is well incorporated with an image or illustration. Sometimes, when we position our text on the page, we notice that characters are not spaced well, especially in headlines. When we use a very large point size for our type, it throws off the spacing between the letters. We can use kerning to solve this problem!

What's the difference between tracking and kerning?
Watch this quick YouTube clip to find out!

Take a minute to play the kerning game below, and you can quickly get the hang of it:
http://type.method.ac/

Examples of bad kerning:

Examples of good kerning:

Serif vs. San Serif: What kind of type is that?

The word typography refers to the art of selecting typefaces and positioning words to convey meaning as part of a graphic design piece. We casually speak of type as just one element of design.

A typeface is also known as a font family. A font is a subset of a typeface. For example, Helvetica is a typeface, and Helvetica Light is a font.

Typefaces fall into two broad categories, serif and sans serif. Serif typefaces have little extensions on the characters that look like little feet. These little extensions aid readability because they help your eye move along lines of text, smoothing the way and helping you to make meaning of what you are reading.

Sans serif typefaces have characters that are smooth and rounded, and do not have these little extensions. They are a bit harder to read, but they project a clean, modern look so they are very popular with graphic designers.

Check out the YouTube video below to learn more about typography:

Paper vs. pixels: Understanding the difference between RGB, CMYK and Pantone color models

The effect of light on a computer screen is so different from ink on paper! 

When designing a printed piece, we use the CMYK or Pantone color models; for digital work we use the RGB color model.

Take a look at the short video below to learn what sets them apart:.