Project: 
Create the promotional graphics for a theater production: CHICAGO - Teen Edition

Objectives:

• Improve your skills with basic Illustrator tools, particularly drawing with the pen tool
• Apply an understanding of the Graphic Design principles of contrast, alignment and proximity
• Communicate an idea through selection of appropriately expressive type.
• Create a visual personality through the title art and other elements
• (Work to fulfill a client's wishes, while maintaining your own artistic integrity)

Materials:
Adobe Illustrator

Parameters:

• Created in: Adobe Illustrator
• The Music Dept needs a poster/ sign, playbill cover, and t-shirt logo.
• The playbill is 5.5 inches wide x 8.5 inches high;

and the design needs to bleed off the page.
File name: “musical 2022 yourlastname playbill.eps”

• The signs are 4 x 8 feet, 2 x 4 feet and 3 x 4 feet.
  • Billboard: 4 x 8’ (48 x 96”): “musical 2022 yourlastname billboard.eps”
  • Sandwich board: 2 x 4’ (24 x 48”): “musical 2022 yourlastname sandwich .eps”

​

• File format: EPS or high resolution PDF
• The playbill cover can be full color.

 

• Work in silhouette or other vector graphics
• NO photographs, clip art, or "borrowing" from famous images of the movie or musical
• Shoot your own photographs from student models, and use those as a drawing reference.

You should relay the following information to your viewers:

Text ("Copy"):

(For the playbill:) 
Dimensions: 5.5 inches wide x 8.5 inches high (vertical)

      Burlington High School Presents:

      CHICAGO - Teen Edition
      May 20 -29, 2022
      A Music Department and Drama Club Production

------------

(For the poster and signs) 
Dimensions: 4' x 8' for fence;  2 x 4' for sandwich boards, vertical)

        Burlington High School Presents: (20% font size compared to title at 100%)

        CHICAGO - Teen Edition
        A Music Department and Drama Club Production

        Dates and Start Time (20% as big as the title)
        May 20, 27, 28 at 7:30 PM
        May 22, 29 at 2:00 PM

        781-A-FUN-TIC  (60% as big as the title)

        www.BurlingtonTheatre.com  (80% as big as the title)


Grading Criteria:

• Personal Investment (Work Habits, Ambition)
• Design / Visual Impact
• Inventiveness / Creativity
• Expressiveness / Communication
• Technical Quality / Craftsmanship

Resources:
In preparation for your own theatrical poster designs, here's a link to 50 great movie poster designs.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/12/50-beautiful-movie-posters/

To Start:

1. Collect images of effective promotional graphics for movies and plays. Ask yourself: what makes them work so well?
2. Collect information and visual references that relate to the subject(s) of the play.
3. Thumbnails and rough drafts (especially of figures. What poses will you need?)
4. Take photos of student models to use as visual reference for your drawings. The silhouettes should be clear, informative and expressive. Exaggerate the poses.

Helpful Resources:
Movie posters may prove inspirational. There are two books of movie posters (of movies from the 1960s and 1970s) in Mr. Ratkevich's Portfolio classroom, Room 215.

Self Critique Questions
Ask yourself these questions for each of your final executions:

• Is the concept clear?
• It is visually unique and interesting? Does it have visual impact?

​Due Date:
Four days

Project:
Using Adobe Illustrator, create a logo that incorporates lettering and representational elements

About Logos:

• The word "logo" is derived from Greek ("language").
• A modern pictogram
• Identifies and represents an organization, business, product, or special event such as a conference.
• A symbol; an identifier.
• An embodiment of an organization that fosters instant visual identification and recognition.
• Large amount of information compressed into a single visual statement
• "Can't help but see it."
• Can evoke a strong emotional response.

A logo takes a great deal of thought to make.


Objectives:

• Communicate ideas about a company
• Be inventive
• Use letters as shapes
• Make connections between letters and pictures
• Create finely detailed work
• Create order, cohesion and visual impact

Materials:

• Pencil and paper
• Adobe Illustrator

Grading Criteria:

• Design (Visual Impact)
• Technical Quality
• Personal Investment

To Start:
View and discuss professional logos.

Process
​
1. Answer these questions to help define the logo's message and spark ideas.:

• What's the name of the company?
• What image does the company want to project? What do they want to say about themselves?
• Who is the audience?
• Where and how will the logo be used? (Large or small formats, or both?; On trucks? On signage? Letterheads, business cards, other printed materials.

2. Brainstorm ideas to symbolize the message you want to convey.

3. Collect photographs that can serve as inspiration and reference for your idea. In Photoshop, combine these photos in a document to create a visual reference board for your sketches. Print it.

4. Using these references, sketch many drawings so that you better understand the visual nature of the subject(s).

5. Try various ways to combine the subjects/ideas.

6. Further develop (streamline, stylize, and refine) one or more of the sketches so that it is a self-contained image that clearly conveys information about the business in a highly impactful and easily identifiable way.

Due Date:
Four days

Project:
Using Adobe Illustrator, design a book cover for the Burlington High Program of Studies.

• Use type and shape to create visual impact and express an overall sense of academics and pride.
• It may include the school seal, and incorporate a list of all courses.
• Use simple shapes as design elements.

        
Objectives:

• Gain skill with the Type tools of Adobe Illustrator
• Apply your understanding of the principles of good graphic design:
  • Contrast
  • Balance
  • Repetition
  • Alignment
  • Proximity
• Communicate an idea through selection of appropriately expressive type.
• Arrange elements to maximize visual impact

Materials:
Adobe Illustrator

Requirements for Format:

• File Format: Illustrator EPS 
• Size: Letter (8.5 x 11")
• Orientation: Vertical (portrait)
• Color Mode: RGB
• Bleed to edge (no white border)
• May be created in any combination of red, black, and/or white
• NO CLIP ART may be used
• No copyrighted imagery may be used
• Convert all text to outline
• Save as: "programofstudies yourlastname.eps", in EPS format

 

• Must include "Burlington High School"
• Must include "Program of Studies"
• Must include "2021-2022"
• May include a list of all courses
• May include the school seal (EPS) (The school seal and a full list of courses will be shared with you via Google Drive.)
• Create TIF and JPG versions as well

Grading Criteria:

• CONCEPT
  • Looks academic
  • Inventiveness
• DESIGN
  • Well-Chosen Typeface(s)
  • Image has Visual Impact
  • Shows consideration of contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity, balance, positive and negative space
• CRAFTSMANSHIP
  • Skillful use of tools of Illustrator
• WORK HABITS / PERSONAL INVESTMENT

Tips to Get Started:
Consider what would be both appropriate and special for a publication of an academic nature.

Ask yourself how you can make students excited to get their hands on one of these publications? How can you use simple shape and text to energize the design?

Helpful Resources:
There are a number of Graphic Design books and magazines in Room 215. Use them for inspiration and tutorials.