Course Description

Under the direction of the instructor, students fine-tune and edit their portfolios, create self-promotion pieces, build a self-promotion website and develop their personal résumés. Includes seminars with industry professionals. Prerequisites: GDS 171 or GDS 220, sophomore standing in graphic design, 3.0 program GPA.

Purpose

This is a capstone course specifically designed for students about to enter the professional world as graphic designers. Students will become familiar with employment opportunities, the job market and self-promotion strategies. Each student will also produce a self-promotion package and website for the purposes of obtaining graphic design work. Students will also have an opportunity to practice their interview skills at mock interview(s) with industry professionals.

Topics

The major topics we will cover this semester will include:

• Portfolio editing
• Portfolio design
• Portfolio websites
• Self-promotion strategies
• Interview skills
• Career strategies

Grading System

In this class, your grade will be based on attendance, class participation, software proficiency and the quality of the work you do.

• A = 100-91 (exceptional work beyond the class requirements)
• B = 90-81 (excellent technical and creative abilities exhibited)
• C = 80-71 (all work accomplished on time and minimum goals achieved)
• D = 70-61 (minimum goals not achieved)
• F = 60 or less (failure to finish assignments)

Your grade will be discussed during your individual reviews at midterm and at the end of the semester. You must publish all the work you have done up to that time (including all research/reference materials, briefs, wireframes, prototypes, preliminary pages, revised pages, digital files, etc.). Do NOT delete any work-in-progress from this class. Your grade will depend on it. At any time during the semester, you may request individual reviews to check your progress. You may revise and re-submit projects and exercises as many times as you like up until the final review.

Earning Points

Points can be earned in each of the following categories:

• Projects (60%)
• Homework Discussions (15%)
• Employment Research Discussions (10%)
• Exercises (5%)
• Blogging Assignment (5%)
• Open Book Quiz (5%)

Projects and assignments will be graded based on creativity, problem-solving ability, effective use of design principles, craftsmanship, typography and adherence to assignment specifications. Numerical grades will be awarded for all projects and assignments except for Exercises, Homework Assignments and Lynda Tutorials.

Exercises will be graded based on accuracy and craftsmanship. Exercises are due at midterm/final review and will be graded pass/fail.

Homework Assignments will be graded based weekly online discussion board participation and adherence to assignment specifications. Homework Assignments must be posted on time and will be graded pass/fail.

Lynda Tutorials will be graded based on the quality of your weekly Cobra Dropbox submissions. The results of your Lynda tutorials must be submitted on time and will be graded pass/fail.

At the end of the semester, all the points earned in each category will be averaged and weighted to determine your final grade.

Extra credit points may be awarded for submitting excellent work into the annual Graphic Design Student Exhibition.

Bonus points may be awarded for active participation in class.

Class Format

This course will consist of lectures, field trips, projects, exercises, demonstrations and critiques. Each student will maintain a blog with a new post once a week. There will also be one quiz. It is expected that additional time, on a weekly basis, will be spent on projects and homework assignments. 

It is important that the entire class work together in a collaborative environment, learning from each other as well as the instructor. Therefore, everyone should be working on the same assignments at the same time. Understanding that there might be technical expertise differences, it is expected that more experienced users will be willing to help beginners users with software issues. Conversely, less experienced designers should elicit feedback from more experienced designers during their working process.

Materials

Available at Parkland Bookstore:

• Creating Your Digital Portfolio by Ian Clazie

Reference books on reserve in the library:

• Self-promotion online
• Winning portfolios for graphic designers
• Portfolios 01: an essential primer for today's competitive market
• Graphic design portfolio strategies for print and digital media
• Building Design Portfolios
• Art of Promotion
• How to create a portfolio & get hired
• The graphic designer's guide to portfolio design
• Portfolios online: digital and graphic designer's websites
• Becoming a Graphic & Digital Designer

Supplies:

• USB flash drive, portable hard drive, or access to a cloud service
• Portfolio box (or book)
• Registered domain name & web hosting service
• Gmail account
• Felt tip pens
• Parkland Identification Card
• Printing, mounting, laminating costs for portfolio prints (optional)
• Other art supplies may be required for specific exercises and projects

Late Work Policy

Projects have multiple critique deadlines. If you miss a critique, I will deduct 10% off your project grade for each critique missed. Students have the option of continuing to work on and improve each project after the due date and class critique for (possibly) a better grade. Grades for re-worked assignments will be no more than one full letter grade higher than the original grade at final critique (re-worked project grades will never drop in grade). All re-worked assignments are due by the final review date.

Homework assignments must be posted on time in order for you to receive credit (therefore the late work policy does not apply).

Exercises have no deadlines, but must be completed by final review (therefore the late work policy does not apply).

The Blog will be graded twice, once at midterm review and again at final review (therefore the late work policy does not apply).

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. Attendance will be taken promptly at the beginning of each class. Being late counts as an absence, but you should come to class even if you are late because it is not possible to make up in-class critiques, exercises or tutorials that you missed.

Your semester grade will drop by one letter grade for every two classes missed. "Excused" absences will only be discussed under extenuating circumstances and only if you have missed more than two classes. If you know you are going to be absent, you have the option of emailing me assignments before they are due to avoid any penalties for late work.

If you stop attending, I may drop you from the class with no refund of tuition or fees. After midterm, you should not plan on an instructor withdrawal if you want to withdraw from the course. You are responsible for your own withdrawal by the official withdrawal date. Non-attendance after midterm will result in a failing grade if you don't withdraw from the course.

Note: Attendance is required for the entire scheduled class period. If you have an issue that requires you to leave early, please inform the instructor beforehand. Leaving class early will count as an absence.

Online Gradebook

All students have an account in Cobra Learning (an online course management system). In this class, we will be using Cobra for:

• Grading
• Attendance records
• Online discussions
• Dropboxes (digital project submissions)
• Communication
• Quizzes

General Education Objectives

The following general education objectives are embedded in this course:

• Demonstrate their creative and analytical potential and their ability to appraise the quality, value, and significance of cultural components and artifacts, such as literature, sculpture, painting, music, performing arts, media arts, and spoken rhetoric.
• Demonstrate their ability to use technology, especially computer technology, to access, retrieve, process, and communicate information.
• Demonstrate information literacy and their ability to think critically, which includes identifying biases and selecting and evaluating sources from varying as well as conflicting positions.