Teaching Design: Introduction to Computer Graphics

At the conclusion of my second year teaching in the Visual Communication program at Prince George's Community College I can say I look forward to a long career teaching Design.

The rewards of building course content that provides an appropriate mix of information, instruction and inspiration through well thought out projects is in itself rewarding. The hope was that the students while learning, would also find their unique creative voice over the course of the semester.

Intro. to Computer Graphics is an entry level course in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. My goal with the course is to provide the appropriate balance between teaching design principals and software instruction that would allow the students to embrace the course assignments and produce meaningful (to the student) graphic products using the computer.


Assignment I (using Photoshop)
Create a Postcard using three elements: an image, text and a background.














Assignment II (using Illustrator) Create a color wheel organizing the colors to reflect the relationships between the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.


















Assignment III (using InDesign)
Create a multi-page brochure for a specific audience whose text content is the U.S. Constitution, two images manipulated in Photoshop and two objects created in Illustrator.