Project No.01, Handout no.04, Preliminary Prototypes
Preliminary Prototyping
Based on the feedback and critique you received from your colleagues during class, begin to edit and focus your visual narrative ideas to those that are the most relevant, rich with meaning, compelling, and visually dynamic. Adjust compositional relationships to clarify or exaggerate them to be more decisive; combine elements from different iterations as seems valuable; and alter, or add to, the elements you choose to include. This may mean making new ones and/or scanning ones that you already have (following the process that you were shown during the tutorial meeting with Celeste in the computer lab during class).
Work by hand, with the actual materials as you have been; and also work digitally, using PhotoShop (or any combination of these) as needed to change the scale or contrast of elements. You may also want to explore PhotoShop’s drawing tools and brushes, as well as Layer Blending modes, masking, or filter effects. Refer to the tutorials and links to online resources (located in the Brightspace module for this week), to help you investigate and test out these kinds of possibilities in the software. Also be open to collaborating with classmates who may be more familiar with PhotoShop already, who can also help you.
The work you are doing this week is driving toward what may become your final composition for this project. In these prototypes, you are looking to understand and define which elements, and which compositional strategies, will be most effective for communicating your ideas—and which of those ideas are the most important to include, and which ideas to edit out. Whereas your preliminary investigation was open-ended and freeform, in this stage you are being asked to make more specific decisions, and to study those decisions in greater depth.
No matter how you choose to work (physically, digitally, or combo), please present a minimum of ten (10) evolved compositions for further consideration. All of your iterations, at this stage, should be presented as flattened JPEG files (keep the layered, native PSD files!!!) that are sized to 10 x 10" at a resolution of 300DPI at that size (as we discussed during class).
From among those 10 or more iterations, choose three that you feel are the best developed and express your intentions for further refinement to a final compositions, and print each on its own tabloid (11x17") page, in color, following the protocols you were shown during our tutorial in the Graphic Design computer lab (Lab B) with Celeste. Please feel free to ask Celeste for help with file and page setup and printing processes!
Uploading Composition Images
Before the start of class, please upload the images of all of your latest compositions to both your personal OneDrive and the appropriate folder in the class Google Drive.
Readings and Resources
Familiarize yourself with the concepts in this week’s materials; apply your understanding to the assignments you’re working on in the homework. Additionally, make note of any concepts that you find confusing, or have questions about—as well as insights you discover that pertain to the work you’re doing—to share and discuss as a class.
Tools and Materials
- Three prototype prints (each composition at full size 10"x10") centered on tabloid (11"x17") sheets
- Elements Library
- Laptop with Adobe Creative Suite
- Sketchbook or notebook and pen or pencil