PART ONE: SESSION ONE - INTRODUCTION 1. Start
a conversation about the differences between fine art and
design. Many students are not familiar with the fundamental
differences between fine art and design and will need to be
reminded that design is about serving a client, getting
their ideas across to others, and not strictly
self-expression but, rather, resolving a problem. While
their experiences as students and their personal style will
be extremely valuable as they design a new school logo,
they must remember that they are designing to meet the
needs of their client (their school). Consider showing
examples of fine art works and design side by side and ask
the class to speak about their different approaches,
purposes, goals, and audiences. 2. What is graphic
design? Ask your students to identify
different examples of graphic design: websites, logos,
printed materials, t-shirts, etc. Leading questions:
What purpose does graphic design serve? Does graphic design
affect consumer choices? If so, how? 3. Show the
attached Logo Design Basics presentation (slides
1-18). This presentation will show your students several
examples of various logos. The presentation addresses the
basics of logo design such as font, color, subject matter,
scale, etc. 4. Review with your students the ways
that logos are used to represent a specific organization,
product, or brand. Successful logos may inspire trust,
recognition, and respect for what they represent. 5.
Present students with their challenge: Design a new logo
for your school. 6. Each student will be asked to create a
logo that fits these specifications:
- Designs must
reflect the school’ s mission
- The logo must
incorporate the name of the school and mascot (a new mascot
could be proposed)
- Final presentations should include one
copy of the logo in color, one in black and white and one
scaled down to 20% of the original size
- Digital files
should be at 300 dpi resolution (print quality)
SESSION TWO - GENERATE IDEAS Logo Design Process: 1. Show
the attached Logo Design Basics presentation (slides
19-24). This set of slides reviews the basic phases of the
logo design process. 2. Research/know your client.
Understanding your client’ s goals, history
and audience is essential in creating a successful logo. In
order to better understand your client, ask students to do
the following:
- Interview school leaders (have the class
come up with a list of questions)
- Research the
school’ s history and previous identities
- Review the
school’ s mission
- Identify the school’ s
audience
- What is the school’ s future goals
3.
Brainstorming. Tell students that an early step of
the design process called brainstorming allows you to work beyond more
obvious ideas to explore more creative solutions. 4.
Go around the classroom and ask each student to think of
one word or phrase that reflects the identity of their
school. Record these answers on a large piece of
paper. Some guidelines for a brainstorming session:
-
go for quantity
- one person speaks at a time
- defer judgment
- there are no good or bad ideas
- encourage wild ideas
- build
on the ideas of others
5. Give your students a few sheets
of 8 ½ ” x 11” paper. Have
them fold the sheet of paper in half vertically and
horizontally, so the paper is divided into four equal
rectangles. These rectangles will be in proportion
to the final size of the presentation, and can be used as
thumbnails for sketches. Give your students five
minutes to brainstorm five to ten different concepts on
their own (time and quantity may be varied depending on the
abilities of your students). Remind them that they
are only generating ideas and concepts right now, and will
have opportunities to develop and refine these ideas later.
6. Prototyping is an essential part of the design process.
This step allows the designer to start clarifying their
ideas and test their solutions with a focus group. 7. Ask
your students to identify their two strongest brainstorming
ideas. Give them ten minutes to sketch out
variations of these designs. Remind them that these
small sketches should only be used to plan out their
designs, and that they do not need to worry about rendering
imagery perfectly. They should focus on the major
issues: where the text will go, where the images will
go, where large areas of lights and darks will be placed,
and determining a color palette if they have time. Students
should choose a few designs to discuss and review with the
teacher. This is a good time for your students to review
the following:
- Does the logo satisfy the client’ s
goals?
- Does the logo clearly represent your school’ s
brand?
- Does the logo work in a large and small scale?
- Does
the logo work in color and black and white?
SESSION
THREE - EVALUATE AND FINALIZE DESIGN 1.
Evaluation/Articulation of design ideas. A critical
part of the design process is evaluation. Your students
have the unique opportunity to have their designs evaluated
by members of the school and their peers. Allow each
student two minutes to present their logo design.
Remind the presenting student to articulate their
client’ s goals and how their design addresses those
goals through their choice of font, color, image, etc.
The class will have three minutes to respond with
their feedback. Encourage students to describe why or why
not they like the designs and how they could improve them
if they do not. Remind the class to articulate what they
think is successful or not effective. 2. Working on
their final design(s). Students should choose their
media carefully (traditional materials or digital).
What media choice reflects and enhances their design
idea? Students should keep in mind the class
responses and suggestions and make any changes they feel
are appropriate. Remind students that if they choose to use
digital media it must be done at a minimum of 300 dpi in
order to be reproduced properly. They must also use
original material (no photos that they haven’ t taken
themselves). SESSION FOUR - PRESENTATION AND
IMPLEMENTATION: 1. Students finalize their design.
The final design presentation should include their logo in
these versions: A. primary color logo B. black and white
logo C. Logo in a large scale D. Logo in a small scale (20%
of original). 2. Final presentation. Students
should present their final design to the class and members
of the school administration. Have each student
present their final design and describe why this design has
met the needs of their client and audience. In
addition, ask them to describe the process that led them to
their final solution, including early sketches. If
they had more time, what else would they do or
change? Allow time for the class to respond and
remind them to thoroughly articulate their feedback. * The
design process is continual. Designers continually revisit
“ final designs” with the aim of creating the
ultimate design solution. PART TWO: SESSION ONE -
REWORKING LOGOS FOR SPECIFIC NEEDS: 1. Tell your
students that the school is hosting a special event and
they want to rework their logo to reflect this occasion.
Assign a specific event to your students (for
example, an alumni reunion, an Earth Day service day, a
holiday celebration, the anniversary of the school’ s
opening, etc. ). 2. Show the attached Logo Design
Basics presentation (slides 25-31). These slides will
express how logos have been adjusted to represent a new
direction in a company, highlight a company’ s
various services and how a theme is applied—all while
keeping the identity of the original logo design. 3.
Lead a discussion with your students about what makes a
logo recognizable. Font? Color? Symbols?
Scale? How can they use elements from their original
school logo design to convey this added meaning? 4. The
theme/event you identified is the new design challenge. How
will your students interpret the theme/event and apply that
idea to a logo that has to continue to be clearly
identified with the school? 5. Students should spend
the rest of the session brainstorming ways to integrate the
special event into their logos. Review the basic process of
research, brainstorming and prototyping in the Part one,
session two of this lesson. SESSION TWO - REFINING
YOUR IDEAS: 1. Lead a presentation/evaluation
session along with finalizing design ideas and as you did
in Part one, session three of Evaluate and Finalize Design.
2. Allow students to continue working on their
designs. SESSION THREE - ARTICULATING YOUR IDEAS AND
PRESENTATION: 1. Lead the class in a final
presentation as you did in Part one, session
four—Presentation and Evaluation. This time students
should articulate how they chose which parts of their
original design to build upon (font, color, etc. ) and how
they tackled the idea of adding another element.