Tag Archives: Term 3

Computer Graphic Design

Adobe Illustrator – Introduction to Illustrator 2019

Welcome to Adobe Illustrator!

Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard vector graphics drawing program, and my favorite application in the Adobe Suite. We are going to spend the next couple of weeks getting comfortable with the program and exploring its capabilities. We are also going to explore color theory, symbolism and expressive typography in the weeks to come, so prepare yourself with the following week’s exercises!

Let’s get started with a quick test to see what you already know about Illustrator, and a little bit about what you have to discover about the beauty and power of vector graphics.

Then we’ll begin our journey by exploring the Illustrator workspace, and learning about some of the new tools, palettes and control panels that are unique to vector art rendering.

Objective:

Students will demonstrate their initial proficiency with Adobe Illustrator through a diagnostic pre-test.

Student-Friendly Learning Target:

I can show what I already know about Adobe Photoshop by taking the Illustrator pre-test.

Video Link:

How to Create a New Document: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/create-new-document.html

Topics Discussed:

  • Start a new document in Illustrator CS5.1 using the Welcome screen.
  • Adjust settings in the New Document dialog box.
  • Establish multiple artboards.

Assignment:

  • Visit our Google Classroom and take the Illustrator Pre-Test.
  • Remember, this is a pre-test, so do your best to answer all the questions, but don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers. That’s what you’re here to learn.
  • Submit your test answers before the end of the class period today.
  • Make sure you mark the assignment as “Done” when you finish to confirm that you took the test.
  • Create a new Illustrator Web document with four default-sized artboards. Save this document as “YOURNAME – Illustrator Week 1”. We will use this document throughout the week to practice with the basic drawing tools.

Assigned: January 7th, 2019
Teacher Pacing Due Date: January 8th, 2019

Computer Graphic Design

Illustrator Type Week: Expressive Text

Objective: Use the Appearance and Graphic Styles panels in Illustrator to produce expressive text.

Student Friendly Objective: I can use Illustrator to produce expressive text.

Web Link:
Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial 37 | Appearances & Graphic Styles:

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Typography
  • Appearance Panel
  • Graphic Styles Panel
  • Post-Modernism
  • Expressive Text

Assignment:

Watch the “Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial 37 | Appearances & Graphic Styles” tutorial video. Follow the tutorial to learn how to use the Appearance Panel, and how to save object appearances as Graphic Styles.

Recall back in the first semester, when we watched Helvetica and discussed the differences between the Modernists and the Post-Modernists. 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”) whereas Post-Modernists 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. Watch the tutorial video 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.
    2. Open your Text Week document in Illustrator and go to the fourth artboard.
    3. 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 work and upload a copy of your Text Week Illustrator document to the Text Week Assignment Post on my Google Classroom page.

Assigned: March 8th, 2018
Teacher Pacing Due Date: March 9th, 2018