Commercial Art   Second Year – Intermediate

Introduction to Computers:  Computer Hardware and Software
This course will introduce students to the hardware and software components as well as basic computer strategies, principles, and concepts of digital imaging.  Students are required to have a laptop computer and course-required application software.  Weekly assignments involve numerous digital technologies and how to recognize and solve various electronic problems.

Introduction to Adobe Photoshop:  Pixel-Based Imaging
An introduction to the industry standard for image creation, Adobe Photoshop. Through weekly assignments from the Adobe textbook, students are taught to navigate through Photoshop’s numerous tools and windows.  Students learn how to manipulate photographs as well as create pixel-based illustrations for usage in both print and Web.

Production for Advertising:  Production Techniques and Pre-press
This course will cover the history of printing and typography, from sheet- feed presses and hand-set typography to today’s electronic imaging technologies.  It explores the basics of graphic production techniques and pre-press requirements for preparing artwork for printing.  Students begin with traditional hand-developed projects, then move on to using computer equipment to create digital files that are downloaded and ready for preflighting.

Desktop Publishing:  Electronic Layout Software
Students will be introduced to electronic desktop publishing and page layout on the MacIntosh computer.  Heavy emphasis will be placed on development of page layout skills and typographic principles in relationship to the printed page.  Starting with hand-rendered layouts and concepts, students move to computer-generated electronic-page layout documents.  This course concentrates on using today’s current digital technologies to produce electronic documents ready for prepress.

Advertising and Layout Techniques:  Rendering Techniques
An advanced course in the creative process involving conceptual advertising.  A substantial focus on creating hand-rendered comprehensives (comps) using traditional skills and tools. Using advertising textbooks and reference materials, students develop their own advertising concepts and bring those concepts to reality through hand-developed skills and techniques.

Design for Packaging:  Concept and Techniques
This course will introduce students to the highly creative field of package design.  They will develop the skills needed to create, design, and construct two- and three-dimensional packaging. Students will learn to create a mock-up (dummy) of the ideas and are also required to present their final concept in a simulated client meeting.

Editorial Illustration:  Exploration of Illustration for Publishing
Students will be required to research and interpret manuscripts from novels, magazine stories, and newspaper articles and then develop concepts that coordinate with the editorial text of those stories.  Projects assigned will be completed in various media such as pen and ink, watercolor, and experimental media.  Students will learn to deal with color and a medium’s restrictions but at the same time be encouraged to express their own personal artistic vision in their own art.

Book Illustration:  Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Children’s Illustration
This course will examine all aspects of illustration for hardcover books, paperback novels, and children’s picture books.  Students must take their assigned stories from preliminary concept thumbnails, through tight comprehensives and finally to finished art.  Emphasis will be placed on developing a strong visual concept, proper composition, expert painting and production techniques.

Introduction to Adobe Illustrator:  Vector-Based Imaging
An introduction to the software program Adobe Illustrator, the industry standard for vector-based electronic image creation.  Students begin with traditional assignments, hand-rendered layout concepts, then convert those concepts into vector graphic files in Adobe Illustrator.  They learn how to navigate through the various windows and palettes while learning Illustrator terminology and techniques.

Digital Publishing Methods:  Exploration of Adobe Acrobat and File Preparation     
Students will learn digital file preparation and printing methods through Adobe Acrobat software program.  Proper file preparation is critical to the success of completing digital software assignments for the printing industry.  Students will explore image resolution, graphic file formats, and saving documents for pre-press. Students will explore problems, solutions, and techniques when using a PDF in the prepress or print environment.