Assignments

Friday, Dec. 18

1. Review the designs from class on Wednesday. In the comments, post your "master plan", amalgamating the best components from the designs we've seen -- identify why you like what you like, why include what you include.

Wednesday, Dec. 16

1. Review the wiki pages from Monday. Representing the group with which you worked on Monday, post questions and feedback to the other groups as comments on their wiki pages.

Monday, Dec. 14

1. Post feedback to your classmates on their logos (5-6 comments, remember to make "compliment sandwiches")
2. Start to sketch out possible ideas for interfaces based on Ruthie's idea (or find your own inspiration -- and tell us about it in class on Monday!)

Friday, Dec. 11

1. Read your classmates' blog posts on interface design. Post 5-6 comments either agreeing or disagreeing (and make sure you explain why you agree or disagree).
2. Start to imagine possible interfaces for the Digital Yearbook.

Wednesday, Dec. 9

1. We are going to be bending our attention to the Digital Yearbook this week and thinking about user interface design. Look around on the web and identify two sites: one with what you think is a "good user interface" (aka "user experience") and one with a lousy user interface. Post your links to the class blog, along with a one paragraph explanation that:

   1. Explains why you picked those two links.
   2. Compares the two sites ("A does x well because ____, while B does x badly because ____")
   This will necessarily be based on your opinions, but found your analysis in the same design principles that we have used all semester: clarity, coherence, composition -- and now add in "functionality" to that list.

Monday, Dec. 7

1. Turn in a copy of your animated logo design as a Flash file.

Wednesday, Dec. 2

1. Turn in a copy of your static (non-animated) logo design as a Flash file. Turn in your file to the class Handins folder.

Wednesday, Nov. 25

1. Bring sketches of a logo design for yourself. (That is, a logo for your own "brand".) Your logo should incorporate your name, one or two key visual ideas that refer to you, and be targeted to an audience of your peers. You should attempt at least ten different designs (a la Karly Barrett) -- you're first may be your best, but you'll never find out if you don't make the second...

Monday, Nov. 23

1. Find three "inspirational" logos that you can use a springboard to designing your own, personal (animated) logo. Come prepared to talk about what makes these logos "good" in your estimation. I do not expect (or want) you to copy these logos wholesale in designing your own logo, but rather to use components that you find inspirational (e.g. McDonald's arches' instant visibility and recognition, Wii's logo's playful anthropomorphism, Paramount's animated construction -- the stars swirl in, and so forth).

Friday, Nov. 20

1. Review the feedback from your classmates on your video. Post a brief reflection on that feedback to the blog. In your reflection, you should address:
   
   1. Feedback that raises interesting/new/unexpected questions for you about your video.
   2. Feedback that pushes you to improve: what will you do differently next time out?
   3. Your own assessment of your video: what do you like? What would you improve? What has to stay the same?

Thursday, Nov. 12

1. Render your video and turn it into the Classes share.

Monday, Nov. 9

1. Add titles and transitions to your video.

Friday, Nov. 6

1. Develop a storyline that flows that uses the best, most genius one to one-and-a-half minutes of your footage.

Wednesday, Nov. 4

1. Break your video into clips by question and answer. Label each clip.

Monday, Nov. 2

1. Listen to the following segment from On the Media.
   
   Feel free to listen to other segments of interest as well -- they're all fascinating.
2. Read the following article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Shepard Fairey and his Hope poster and the Associated Press.
   If you like balance in your news, you may also want to read this article from the LA Times.
3. Write a brief, but thoughtful, blog response on the idea of "resampling" or reusing other people's artwork (either from the perspective described in the audio segment or in the article on Shepard Fairey). The blog response should be posted to the "Reflections" category.

Friday, Oct. 30

1. Have your downloaded footage exported to the Classes share (W: drive), ready for editing.

Wednesday, Oct. 28

1. Shoot 15-20 minutes of interview footage, based on your plan.
2. Bringer your DV tape to class so that we can download your footage.

Wednesday, Oct. 21

1. Form a chavruta (only one of three!) and start your interview prep page here.
2. On your chavruta page, identify both your team and interview subject.
3. Talk to your interview subject.
   1. Tell them about the assignment (you're filming an interview with an interesting person at Milken for your New Media Design class, and you want to interview this person because you're interested in _____ about them. You'd like to film at 15-25 minute interview about _____ with this person, which you will edit down to about 3 minutes. You will be editing the interview in class, presenting it to the class, and potentially putting it in the Digital Yearbook and (possibly) on the internet.
   2. Get permission both to interview your subject and to share the interview (and understand their limitations on how far the interview can be shared).
   3. Schedule a time to shoot the interview (soon, before next Wednesday if possible).
4. Post the results of your conversation to your chavruta page (who, when, where, sharing, etc.)
5. Start to brainstorm possible interview questions (research!)

Friday, Oct. 16

Friday, Oct. 9

1. Bring $2.50 to purchase a DV video tape from Mr. Battis in class. First come, first serve.
2. Acquire a DV video tape from the Milken Mart and write your name clearly on both the tape and its case.

Wednesday, Oct. 7

1. Visit Monday's class notes and "flesh out" the list of events to document for the Digital Yearbook. Add specific dates, events, and teams/groups we should be documenting. I expect to see an edit from everyone.
2. Create a category for your portfolio on the blog. I suggest naming it something along the lines of "Seth's Portfolio" (only, y'know, with your name -- and, in the case of the Rachels, a last initial).
3. Post your best work to that category (I photograph per post, be sure to embed the actual photo in the post, either using Flickr's blogging feature or by uploading the JPEG to the blog). You should post 5-10 photographs, each with a blurb explaining why you selected it.

What does best mean? You are looking to demonstrate your ability as both a photographer and an editor in Photoshop. To demonstrate proficiency with Photoshop, it may be helpful to post both the before and after versions of an image in your blog post. To demonstrate proficiency as a photographer, post multiple kinds of photographs (so, not all portraits, not all landscapes, not all still lives) that are all technically proficient (i.e. not out-of-focus, over- or under-exposed, etc.) as well as compositionally interesting.

Monday, Oct. 5

Moadim L'Simcha

Wednesday, Sept. 30

1. Post five edited portrait photographs to your Flickr stream and share them with the class group. Your edits should seek to emphasize the aspects of your subject that you deemed important or focal (based on your interview and knowledge of your subject). Simultaneously, the resulting photos should be well composed and structurally "interesting." Capture our eye and then tell us a story about the subject.

Friday, Sept. 25

1. Post your portrait photographs to your Flickr stream. Minimum 20 photographs (minimum 10 per subject -- and it's fine if they're all of the same subject).

Wednesday, Sept. 23

1. Post interview plan to the FirstClass conference. Including:
   • Subject name
   • Time and place of shoot
   • 3-5 key interview questions
   • Outline of planned setup

Monday, Sept. 21

Moadim L'Simcha

Wednesday, Sept. 16

1. Post your five improved/refined/enhanced photographs to the Flickr group. Your enhancements should be limited to cropping, adjusting levels, hue and saturation and contrast/brightness -- in other words, don't go crazy with filters. You are trying to remix your less-than-wonderful photographs into something more presentable. Be sure to include in the description what you changed and why.
2. Search out and blog an example of an effective portrait -- one that captures something key about the subject. Your blog entry should include the portrait and your explanation of what is effective about it (what was captured? how can you tell? why is this key to this person?) The portraits do not, necessarily, need to be of famous people.
   An error occurred while retrieving the feed (no results returned).

Monday, Sept. 14

1. Review your classmates' blog and Flickr posts. Comment on those that you find interesting/outstanding/in-need-of-feedback.

Friday, Sept. 11

1. Complete your Flickr sign-up and join the New Media Design group.
   
2. Post all of your photographs of still subjects to your Flickr account.
3. Submit the five best photographs to the group pool, with a description explaining why you selected each photograph.

Wednesday, Sept. 9

1. Acquire (reserve, borrow, own, etc.) a digital camera of at least 5 megapixels.
2. Shoot (at least) 20 photographs of still (architectural, still life -- not people sitting still) subjects. And bring said photographs to class.
3. Draft (but do NOT publish) a post on the class blog explaining what you think "new media design" means. Support your argument with at least three citations (use MLA for written works, hyperlinks to PERMAlinks for web works). Your explanation should be approximately one well-considered paragraph.