New introduction to the golden section

The Golden Section will add the ahhhhh! to your layouts and once you master it people will look at your work and think you are a rocket scientist in design. It is also fascinating and mysterious as phi is a powerful aesthetic tool that can evoke great emotion in your audience.

I found a link that shows how to golden section a square so check it out:

http://textism.com/bucket/fibsquare.html

Once you have created golden section grid lines you can use the intersections of those lines to position images and text for your portfolio spreads. It really is amazing how applying the golden section to your page designs pushes them to a higher visual aesthetic.

If you want to learn more check out these links:
http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/golden/golden1.html
http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/golden/golden5.html
http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html
http://powerretouche.com/Divine_proportion_tutorial.htm

http://www.layersmagazine.com/illustrator-design-goldensection.html
One of our class textbooks on the subject is called The Geometry of Design: Studies in proportion and composition by Kimberly Elam. It is inexpensive and has many great examples with tracing tissue overlays showing golden sections.

What do the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the sun pyramid of Teotihuacan have in common? What secret did great world thinkers, artists and composers like Plato, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach embrace?

In this short video Sean Bacon does a masterful job of explaining the golden section. The results are amazing and you will be hooked on the power of the design tool. The relationship between mathematical thinking and design is fascinating. Sean and I will be working with you this semester to perfect your golden section layouts, push your typography and make those portfolio spreads really sing.

"The power of the golden section to create harmony arises from its unique capacity to unite different parts of a whole so that each preserves its own identy, and yet blends into the greater pattern of a single whole". Gyorgy Doczi, The Power of Limits 1994

application to check out

http://culturedcode.com/things/


Korey ran across an article that recommended this

It is not free, but it seems to manage work loads and help keep your ideas and your projects together..

It might be useful to some students and worth checking out

FREE Symposium: Kyoto Prize Winner William Kentridge

Here is your chance to see a true great mind.

Each Spring, the University of San Diego hosts the most recent winner of the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy. This is an extraordinary opportunity to expose your students to one of the great thinkers of our time. Please share the information below with members of your faculty. Please consider registering to attend a presentation by William Kentridge on April 6 from 10-11:30am in Shiley Theatre. Go to www.kyotoprize.org to register and for more information about the Kyoto Prize. The Symposium is free, but you must register.

William Kentridge is an active visual artist born and based in Johannesburg, South Africa. After studying Political Science at university, he became active in Theatre and Writing. In the 1980's he created his signature technique of short films he calls "drawings in motion."

His works reflect the history and social circumstances of South Africa, where he continues to live and work. A series of his short films features Soho Eckstein and relates the history of his home country with the pains it inflicted. This series drew worldwide attention as an artistic expression resonating with postcolonial criticism.

Underlying his works and activities is a determination to examine the universal issues confronting modern people. He accomplishes this by questioning such issues as the ways in which people may build a relationship with the world, the ambiguities of goodwill and oppression, and the conflicting and ambivalent disposition of the individual. His world, full of sharp intelligence and profound poetry, exerts great influence and provides individuals worldwide with courage and hope.

Milton Glaser film this Wednesday 2/23 at the Loft!

This Wednesday, February 23rd, AiCASD is hosting a one-night-only screening of the Milton Glaser Documentary "Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight". Cost of admission is $20 and includes a drink ticket, appetizers, and a raffle ticket for a chance to win a poster signed by Milton. The reception begins at 7PM and screening starts at 8:30PM. Both will be held at The Loft at UCSD: http://www.artpwr.com/events/756
Advance tickets can be purchased through The Loft website (link above) or by calling the UCSD box office at 858.534.TIXS.

Top Ten sites for designers from HOW

Top 10 Sites for Designers
http://absurdoverheard.com
Absurd Overheard
Designer/illustrator Karen Kurycki creates delightful typographic illustrations to capture the funny, random things people say.

http://aqua-velvet.com/
Aqua-Velvet
Aqua-Velvet is a visual language resource focused on graphic design, illustration and typography. AQ-V features notable classic and vintage modern works plus the work of contemporary designers and illustrators.

http://designstroy.tumblr.com/
Design Destroy
Chicago designer and illustrator Tom Deja rounds up vintage illustrations for fun and inspiration.

http://www.foldfactory.com/index.php
Fold Factory
Tap your inner folding fanatic with videos, dynamic folding templates, software tools, resources, ideas and inspiration.

http://hassanrahim.com
Hassan Rahim
Hassan Rahim is a Los Angeles-based art director, designer and researcher.

http://hicontrast.blogspot.com/
Hi CONTRAST
A visual study of logo marks in contrast, scale and form—for the graphic purists out there who want to see how marks appear and function when Flash effects and colors are taken away.

http://markandphil.com
Mark & Phil
Mark & Phil provides marketing and philanthropic strategy for non-profits and socially responsible companies.

http://www.thefurnace.com.au/#
The Furnace
The Furnace is an Australian ad agency with an amazing website that not only shows off their work, but totally captures their quirky personality.

http://www.theworldofdot.com
The World of Dot
DOT is a graphic design studio based in Milan specialized in editorial and book design, illustration, typography and text editing.

http://wonder-wall.com/#project/en
Wonderwall
The website for Japanese interior design firm Wonderwall sports an animated interface that captures the firm's cutting edge style.

Exploring Nyon, Switzerland

This semester we are adopting gorgeous Nyon, Switzerland. Situated on Lake Geneva, half way between Geneva and Lausanne, amid the vineyards of La Côte it is a paradise for those who love the countryside and water sports. There are many excavations and sights from the times of the Celtic Helvetians and the Romans, and from the Middle Ages, that bear witness to its eventful history. To get started explore these links:

http://www.nyon-tourisme.ch/en/index.php

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/search/search.cfm?phrase=nyon&x=0&y=0 -> o

p://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nyon http://livinginnyon.com/ http://www.nyon.ch/fr/index.php

http:www.myswitzerland.com/en/destinations/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland.html?region=007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyon

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/hotels/index.cfm/genferseegebiet/nyon

http://www.dpeck.info/nyon1.htm

Class on monitor to print color calibration

Lee passed along this information about a class on monitor to printer color calibration.

Here’s the url link and registration information:

http://www.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=b66644ec-8566-43a5-90f1-922e60fd649b

What's your type?

I know Sean has us all spinning with fonts this week. Bravo Sean.

If you haven't tried this yet you will want to as Catherine passed it along and it is really fun:

http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

By the way my font is Van Doesburg

Welcome to Portfolio this Spring 2011

Sean and Candice welcome you to portfolio this Spring. We look forward to working with you to achieve your educational and professional goals. Please take time before our class begins to read through all the blog posts and visit the links. There is a great deal of information here you can really use.

Remember this blog is part of our collective effort to push your book as far as we can. We need you to help by identifying additional resources and ideas that could help our class and future generations. If you have something worth sharing you can email me and I will post it the next time I am updating our blog.

Thanks for your help!

Don't forget to check out the San Diego City College Graphic Design Program blog to find out about design related events in San Diego. Become a follower and grow your design knowledge and contacts. It's not just what you know it's who you know.

http://sdccgraphicdesign.blogspot.com/

Vendor contacts for portfolio

Andrea Bacal
SOS printing
ab@sosprint.com
858.292.1800

Carol Dodds
vinyl cutting
carol@cjnorbysigns.com
938.1500

Clyde
Inscriptu
518.8865
819.9347

Golden Section for a square format

Square books are hard. The section wont really fit inside of it, but
there are some creative solutions to solve it. Here are two
possibilities I would go with:

Start with Root 2 go through the construction and then subdivision
for it so you end up with the grid and then place it inside the square
she will just have a really wide gutter/white space.

Another option is to use the Root 4, go through the construction and then the subdivision so that you have the grid. and then if Root 4 is horizontal it can be divided in half to get 2 square pages.

Thanks to Sean Bacon for this post

Golden Section Handouts

Special thanks to Sean for preparing these amazing handouts on the golden section.

Growing your book with branding

Branding

Now that you are knee deep in portfolio and realize the challenge of pumping work out each week I think it is the right time to consider branding.

Instead of creating so many new pieces you could take some of your best marks or other projects and evolve them into dynamic multi-panel solutions by branding.

Example:
You have an identity you like for a prescriptive skin care product or salsa or coffee house.
Brand it to the following:
-apron that employees wear
-matches
-cups, martini shakers, plates
-napkin
-caps/hats
-shampoo/conditioner/bath soap/shower cap-in room toiletries
-environmental graphics [Buy stock photography or shoot your own imagery then photoshop it onto an existing building]
-vehicles [photoshop it onto an existing car/truck]
find an existing building that could work for your store-remove any graphics etc. Apply your own and change the colors of building, add awnings, banners etc. and then multiply them so they look like they are on the structure or vehicle. You can also show a before and after.

-banners
-calendars
-seasonal cards/postcards
-canvas bags/backpacks
-shoes/sandals or other items of clothing
-towels
-kitchen implements-wooden cooking tools
-toys/ paper dolls-airplanes
-different types of containers-go to Container store
-go to places like Target/Cost Plus/Macys Home store and find un-branded items then brand them with your graphics. You can always make slight changes.

An awesome resource for grids

http://www.thegridsystem.org/

Golden Section Grid for balanced designs
http://www.atrise.com/golden-section/

Links to make your own website

The combination of a dynamic portfolio and well done website are the two marketing tools that can get you the job you are searching for. Here are some links to help you get started. You will be compiling all your work in portfolio so think about building it as you go or trading with someone who can create it for you.

http://bigblackbag.com

http://indexhibit.org

http://wordpress.com

Crafting Logos for your book and for branding

One of the first things Sean and I plan to work with you on in portfolio is to develop strong marks for branding.

LOGO PROCESS
1. Take some time to collect the marks we decided should go in your portfolio. If you created new ones you feel are worthy bring those in too.

A. Print them out on an 8.5 by 11 sheet so they are the same relative size in black and white.
B. It is OK to have multiple sheets and I would put only 4 marks per page. These black and white sheets should then be copied onto a clear transparency. You can get this done at places like Kinkos. We are going to project your marks up large in class and go over them giving feedback for revision so you can push them.
C. Also make a print out on regular paper of all your marks in full color. We need to crit the color too so this could be a simple digital print.

We will be discussing logo spreads in detail on our first class day.
Logo Resources:

Some great blogs to inspire you about logos:

http://www.logodesignlove.com/logo-awards-design-blogs
http://www.logodesignlove.com/best-logo-design-resources
http://logodesignerslogos.com/
http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/12/02/logo-design-resources/?utm_source=faqpal.com

A must read article about portfolio and constructing custom pockets

Here are some thoughts about custom pocket construction from alumni Desi and Sean. There is also an article you have to read at the end about Mary Scott's program at Academy of Art. Mary is the inspiration behind our original book portfolios and many years ago she visited us at SDCC. That year we worked in class to explore the format and introduced it for the first time at the AIGA San Diego Portfolio Review.

In 2010 students asked about custom pocket construction and we tapped into the minds of Desi and Sean for advice.

From: Desi McKinnon

I made mine custom. If I remember right Sean did too. I had saved a photograph of a pocket I liked and I duplicated it. I would look at folding books. This site might help too. www.neenahpaper.com/folders/ It has downloadable diecuts for folders. If they know what they want to construct I could help them figure it out, but it's always trial and error when you do something custom.

From: Sean Bacon

Yeah I made my pockets custom too. They were pretty simple and based on my grid, but I remember the trial and error as well.

I was originally looking at cool pockets and they were scattered all over, but I remember looking at books, annual reports, brochures, paper samples and places like that. It is kinda like the page-folios where there isn't one go to source for it. Some of the coolest pockets I saw were in paper samples or in that article from STEP about the academy of art's GD program.

From: Candice

I am posting the link here for portfolio students to check out

http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEP/Article/28805/index.html

Blank canvases for branding

As we develop stellar marks in the first part of portfolio class you will want to check out the LiveSurface image template library.
The key is to focus on building very strong identities and then branding them out. The thing you need to be aware of however is that it isn't about slapping a logo on something. You need to brand each item a bit differently to add interest and show your ability.

There are blank canvases to put your designs on. As we begin to brand multiple items for your books this site can help you apply your artwork 20x faster.

http://livesurface.com/images.php

Introduction to the Golden Section

The Golden Section will add the ahhhhh! to your layouts and once you master it people will look at your work and think you are a rocket scientist in design. It is also fascinating and mysterious as phi is a powerful aesthetic tool that can evoke great emotion in your audience.

I found a link that shows how to golden section a square so check it out:

http://textism.com/bucket/fibsquare.html

Once you have created golden section grid lines you can use the intersections of those lines to position images and text for your portfolio spreads. It really is amazing how applying the golden section to your page designs pushes them to a higher visual aesthetic.

If you want to learn more check out these links:
http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/golden/golden1.html
http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/golden/golden5.html
http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html
http://powerretouche.com/Divine_proportion_tutorial.htm

http://www.layersmagazine.com/illustrator-design-goldensection.html
One of our class textbooks on the subject is called The Geometry of Design: Studies in proportion and composition by Kimberly Elam. It is inexpensive and has many great examples with tracing tissue overlays showing golden sections.

What do the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the sun pyramid of Teotihuacan have in common? What secret did great world thinkers, artists and composers like Plato, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach embrace?

If those names don't intrigue you then what about Donald Duck? Take a look at these classic Disney videos that do a good job of introducing you to the golden section.

In this short video Sean Bacon does a masterful job of explaining the golden section. The results are amazing and you will be hooked on the power of the design tool. The relationship between mathematical thinking and design is fascinating. Sean and I will be working with you this semester to perfect your golden section layouts, push your typography and make those portfolio spreads really sing.

"The power of the golden section to create harmony arises from its unique capacity to unite different parts of a whole so that each preserves its own identy, and yet blends into the greater pattern of a single whole". Gyorgy Doczi, The Power of Limits 1994