Tag Archives: NYC

Cross CUNY Campus – BMCC & York College Zine Collaboration

Above: Individual pages submitted by BMCC MMA 100 Foundations of Graphic Design Students

(Click any image to activate the slideshows of individual works)

Below: Individual pages submitted by York College CT101 Digital Storytelling Students

Synopsis – Professor Ryan Seslow’s students at CUNY BMCC & York College have come together to create an experimental cross course and CUNY campus collaborative zine. The zine project synthesizes the two disciplines of graphic design foundation and digital storytelling courses. Both courses were given the same information and assignment below to complete the project from the perspective of their class content and personal experiences.

As individual courses, we were interested in knowing how traditional design principles relate and contrast to the medium of storytelling (and vice versa) through the use of integrated software applications and web tools when applied and presented in a public space? “Public space” has an interesting context both physically and virtually. We wanted to test both.

What will the results be both digitally and non-digitally?

How will the immediacy of publishing to the Internet and the contrast of using a public library (NYPL) to experience the same content effect the overall generating and receiving of the works?

What kind of dialog would this create? (This is the short list of questions, we have many more!)

This blog post displays several examples of the creative learning potential of what can be achieved between two different college courses on two different campuses. It shows the creative potential of how we as human beings see things from our own unique perspectives and how things can always be another way. Solutions are friendly and inspired by collaboration. This blog post also severs as a gallery and exhibition space for the project.

We jumped in. 

The process::

Part 1 – Design

Design Project Specifications & Simulation – You have been selected to contribute 1-2 pages to a collaborative cross discipline magazine that produces a quarterly publication in both a DIY – Do it Yourself printed edition for public access (NYPL Zine Collection) and an online digital version hosted on the CUNY Academic Commons BMCC MMA 100 Website.)

A downloadable pdf. version of the entire zine will also be available upon full completion of the project. (Anticipated publishing date 5/25/18)

Your submission to the publication will creatively communicate:

“How technology and creativity are powerful learning tools for inspiration, expression, digital storytelling and design.”

You have the creative freedom to produce and generate your contributions with full autonomy as to how you experience or define the description above. However, your final submissions should display an integrated composition of imagery (use of layers and opacity) along with descriptive verbiage typeset creatively.

***Size Requirements – 8.5 X 11 inches vertical, please, jpeg & pdf file formats.

Edition #1 of the printed version of the ZINE is now available at the NYPL on 5th Ave NYC.

Part 2 – Commenting & Dialog

In the comments section below: BMCC & York students will respond and react to both the project as a whole (in the space directly below) and individually to each other’s submissions (click on an individual piece that stands out to you and add your comments.)

The Academic Commons is a public platform and space for CUNY and beyond, the C.A.C commons community will also be invited to participate in commenting and creating dialog here.

Please consider addressing the following questions:

*What common threads or similarities do you see between the submitted work?

*What differences do you see?

*How does seeing all of the works organized into one space enhance or disrupt your interpretation of the project and its outcome?

*How do you think the general public will appreciate the project viewing it as a tangible object rather than an online experience? Do you prefer one over the other? Please explain and describe your answers.  The printed zine will be donated to the NYPL’s Zine collection at their 5th Avenue & 42nd Street location – DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building 

The printed ZINES will also be available at the BMCC & York College Libraries as of fall 2018. 

Additional statements and questions can be generated by each student below as well.

 

A HUGE Thank You to all of the participating Students!!

*Featured image above by BMCC student Tugberk Ozpir

* Front and back cover Art by Marquis Gregory & Shaquille Edwards

* Special Thanks to Shannon Keller at the NYPL & The CUNY Academic Commons Committee

For additional queries contact me here – rseslow (at) bmmc.cuny.edu

Week #5

Week 5 – Organizing files, file formats, screen resolution VS print resolution, Vectors, Rasters and PDFs!

**Need to review Week # 4? Go here.

Assignment #2 – Part 2 – Its time to print your Projects – The Elements of Design & The Principles of Design – Visual Layout & Print Production.

We created new documents in CMYK color mode using Adobe Illustrator last week in class. Do you need to download an example of the Adobe Illustrator Template for the Principles of Design? PDF files are easy to open, print and are editable using Illustrator. Click below and open the pdf in Illustrator.

CLICK HERE for the Template

2/28 – Class exercise :: Illustrator. Creating shapes with the shape builder tool. Working with layers, simplifying and reducing images. Working with color, locating color books and pantone colors.

Video Tutorial – This past week we took a tour of Adobe Illustrator and practiced creating new documents and setting up our art boards for print production, (we will review that this week as well) Let’s take an additional tour with Adobe Wizard – Terry White

10 Things Beginners Want To Know How To Do (subscribe to Terry’s Channel!)

 

Click on the image to view a print ready pdf file

**In Class Assignment  2/28 – Illustrator Tutorials – Composition, shape building, alignment, form & color. What role does color play applied to shapes and forms?

(See Example Above)

1. Open Adobe Illustrator and create a new document sized at 11″ X 17″ in CMYK color mode. We will be both printing and displaying the final work on screen.

Consider, how will you set your guides to equally balance and format the graphics evenly? Will you use a grid? Do you have a preferred method for layout?

2. Create a new series of subjective graphic Icons following the layout and arrangement above. Don’t re-create my example, make your own, but follow the composition.

3. Limit yourself to 6 or 7 values of 1 complimentary color scheme. Consider referring to the color wheel for reference!

4. Limit yourself to creating and composing your graphics with no more than 6 shapes created with the pathfinder or the shape builder tool. Begin without using a stroke around your shapes and then apply a stroke for contrast.

5. Save your work as an Ai. file (adobe illustrator) as well as a .pdf – Print your work in .pdf format.

6. E-mail your final PDF. to me – rseslow@bmcc.cuny.edu  ****If your file pdf file is too large to send via e-mail (and it may – you can easily use a free service like – wetransfer.com to send the large document)

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An Introduction to Typography & Its History – Letterforms / Designing with Type

Examples of Typography in Poster Design 

*** Must See – 1970NYC Subway – MTA – Graphics Standards Manual