URGENT! This relates to your final!

There is a discrepancy between the current academic calendar and the syllabus. 

What this means is that there is in fact only ONE MORE CLASS.
Next week, Thursday the 12th is the final day of class! This means your final has to be turned in.

This shouldn't be too much of a problem because your final is an organized collection of the work you have already completed for this class.

 You final will consist of a folder labeled "YourName_Final" inside of which will be 4 other folders:

• "Photoshop" 
• "Illustrator" 
• "Website" 
• "Optional" 

The Photoshop folder must have your poster and at least one of the images you made where you masked something into a background where it does not belong.

The Illustrator folder must have your business card in it.

 The Website folder must have the images or file you created of your website mock-up.

The optional folder is for extra credit. If you want to include anything you did in Flash or anything you did in Premiere please include those. They are not required for a final grade but will boost your score.

Starting With Dreamweaver

If you want to follow along in class please navigate to this link and download the files.

One of the most important parts of creating a website is keeping your files organized.
I'm going to recommend that on your portable flash drive you set up your folders like so:
DAT-101 > Dreamweaver > [place downloaded files here]

So, if you're not familiar with that notation for folder hierarchy; I'm saying that on your flash drive you should have a folder for the class, within that folder you should create a folder for our Dreamweaver projects, and inside that folder you should put the files you download from the link at the top of this post.

Doing this will make the tutorial a lot easier to follow because you'll have a directory all ready to use when we start setting up our site.

InDesign Information & Extra Credit Assignment

We will not be covering InDesign in class. 
This way we will have more time to discuss your midterm work.

If you would like to complete an assignment for extra credit you may use InDesign to create Print-ready business cards and a brochure using your logo, colors, and style. Don't worry about the text of the brochure because you can fill the text boxes with filler text (lorum ipsum) for now.

Keep in mind this is an optional assignment that you may do if you desire extra credit.


Please look over these tutorials. 
Most are extremely short so don't be worried about how many there are.

Quick Tip: Creating New Documents

Quick Tip: Importing Graphics

Quick Tip: Importing Multiple Graphics

Quick Tip: Working with Rulers and Guides

Quick Tip: An Introduction to the Page Tool

Quick Tip: The Gap Tool

Quick Tip: An Introduction to Threading Text

Quick Tip: Creating Quick Grids and Using Live Distribute

Quick Tip: Using the Story Editor

Quick Tip: Create Compound Frames

Quick Tip: Working with Text Wrap and Fit Content Options

Quick Tip: How to Impose Business Cards for Digital Printing

Quick Tip: Creating a Custom Text Box using Type

Quick Tip: Designing a Basic Letterhead

Quick Tip: How to Use the Align Panel

Quick Tip: Eleven Tricks That Will Help Your Workflow

Quick Tip: Basic Page Numbering

More advanced tutorials can be found here:

15+ Magazine Layout Tutorials

Design a Print-Ready Ad

Midterm Assignment!

Your Midterm Assignment is going to be to take the knowledge and work you've accumulated in the course so far to create a mock-up or prototype of your own personal Portfolio Website.

Remember the common Elements of a website:

• Header Section
• Logo & Title
• Navigation

• Body Section
• Page Content
• Text
• Images
• Video

• Footer Section
• Your Name
• Date of Creation
• Copyright Information

You must have at least 4 Pages:

1. Home Page
2. About Page
3. Gallery Page
4. Contact Page

Do Your Research

Look at what websites you regularly visit look like. Think about how their navigation is laid out. Think about what their backgrounds look like. Think about the fonts and colors they use. 

Option 1:If you choose to just do a mock-up you only need to create a still image of each page of your website. Note: If you don't have enough work to fill the gallery page use filler images for now or create some simple pictures you can use.

Option 2:If you choose to make a prototype you need to make sure your navigation links work and move between pages. Choosing to make an interactive is a bit more ambitious than just making still image- so if you take this option it will add bonus points when your project gets graded.

Fireworks Tutorials

These are the links for the tutorials I showed in class if you're interested in creating an interactive prototype.

1. Using Master Pages, Pages, and Web Layers
2. Intro to Using the Slicing Tool
3. States and Behaviors
4. Using Hotspots

Reference Links

Use this site as a rough guide for the Identity design process.
The Making of An Identity

Update - Week 5

Announcement!
Please be aware that there will be a quiz this coming Thursday.
Study the presentation and you'll be in good shape for the quiz.

What We'll Be Doing
We're going to start learning how to work with vectors in Illustrator next class.
I can't wait to see what you've made for your posters.


See you all in class!

Update - Week 3

Please remember to check the Assignments page for the specifics of your assignment each week.

Also, please have a flash memory stick or small hard drive when you come to class. It's important that you be able to transfer files quickly and bring them with you as you will occasionally be presenting work on the big screen.
You will also be assembling a portfolio of your work at the end of this class. It would be a shame for anything you worked on in class to get lost.