Tag Archives: Spring 2026

Computer Graphic Design

Illustrator Type Week: Expressive Text

Objective:

I can use the Appearance and Graphic Styles panels in Illustrator to produce expressive text.

Web Links:

Adobe Illustrator CC: Graphic Styles
Adobe Illustrator CC: Appearance Attributes
Adobe Fonts: https://fonts.adobe.com/
DaFont.com – Download Free Fonts: https://www.dafont.com/

Topics Discussed:

Typography
Appearance Panel
Graphic Styles Panel
Expressive Text

Assignment:

Visit the Adobe tutorial links. Follow the instructions to learn how to use the Appearance Panel, and how to save object appearances as Graphic Styles.

Back in the early Twentieth century, there was a group of designers called The Modernists, and they developed a movement called Modernism. The Modernists believed that text should not be expressive, and meaning should only be derived from the word itself (i.e. the word “dog” should not look like a “dog”).

However, young designers who grew up during the time of Modernism asked the question: Why can’t the word “dog” look like a dog?

wwdog

Text that visually looks like the thing it is describing is called Expressive Text, and Illustrator has special tools that make the production of Expressive Text extremely easy and effective. Today we are going to explore the use of these tools to produce some expressive text of our own.

  1. Check out the Adobe Fonts and DaFont.com links. We will discuss in class how these sites make it easy to download and install new and useful typefaces for use in your designs.
  2. Watch the in-class demonstration, or visit the links above to learn how to use the Appearance Panel, how to save object appearances as Graphic Styles, and how to access the pre-set Graphic Styles libraries.
  3. Open your Text Week document in Illustrator and go to the fourth (lower right) artboard.
  4. Use the pre-set Graphic Styles libraries and the Type Tool to create five words that look like what is being described. For example:

Try to use different words and graphic styles than the ones in the example. When you have all five words and all of the previous assignments, save your document.

Make sure that you have all four Artboards completed, and turn it in to today’s Assignment Post in our Google Classroom to complete the Typography Week activities.

Assigned: February 18th, 2026
Teacher Pacing Due Date: February 19th, 2026

Computer Graphic Design

Color Theory – Spring 2026, Day 3: Exploring the Color Wheel and Color Harmonies

Objective:

I can use a color wheel to identify hues and their related color harmonies.  

Links:

Sensational Color – Understanding the Color Wheel: https://sensationalcolor.com/color-wheel/

Color Wheel – Color Calculator:
https://www.sessions.edu/color-calculator

Color Game – Method of Action:
https://color.method.ac/

Topics Discussed:

  • Color Theory
  • Color Harmonies
  • Color Wheel
  • Primary Colors
  • Secondary Colors
  • Tertiary Colors
  • Triad
  • Complementary
  • Split Complementary
  • Analogous
  • Monochromatic
  • Shade
  • Tint

Instructions:

Follow along with the in-class discussion on the color wheel and color definitions.

  1. After you have watched the tutorials, check out the color calculator to see an easy utility for calculating color harmonies based on a given color.
  2. Next, play the Color Game at the Method of Action website. Try to get the highest score possible for each of the Color Harmony levels.
  3. Take a screenshot (Command+Shift+4) of your highest score. You may replay the color game as many times as you wish to try and increase your final score.
  4. Place the screenshot on the third artboard (lower left) of the Adobe Illustrator document we started this week to complete today’s activity.
  5. The highest score in the class (proven by the screenshot placed in your Illustrator document) will win a prize!

Assigned: February 6th, 2026
Teacher Pacing Due Date: February 9th, 2026