Welcome Designers!

Welcome to Part III of the Graphic Design Foundation courses!
2011 Greetings to each of you!

I am well aware of the reasons for many of you who are taking this sequence of graphic design classes. Many of you wish to only learn the basic tools in becoming a better graphic designer while others of you will be taking this course as it will prepare you to make application for graphic design major in late spring as you head into the professional world of visual communication. Whatever might be the reasons for you to take this course, I will expect the same type of professionalism, maturity, respect and participation from each of you. No matter what has happened in previous design classes, (I don't look at your grades from those classes) each of you are once again given the chance to start with a clean slate-to begin again or pickup where you left off in your previous classes.

I will make every effort to insure that the design work that each of you do is creative, fresh and hopefully experimental. Each of you will have to learn to discuss your work more this semester and I'll expect you to become more involved in the conceptual aspects of your design work.
Where do you get your ideas and how do you develop them as you progress through the semester is extremely important to me (as it should be for yourself as well.) Each of you will have the chance to create a design portfolio which will be competitive and professional.

APPLICATION TO MAJOR:
Many of you who apply to the graphic design program in late spring will certainly be accepted upon your first application. There will also be others of you who may not be accepted the first time and will be encouraged to reapply next year. This process of application to major is not unusual to many Universities and art schools throughout the country. The irony of many of those who do gain entry into the graphic design program will sometimes either decide it's not for them, decide to get married, decide to transfer to another school, decide that they want to purse another major or else just flunk out. It's not unusual to loose 1-3 design majors each year.

I'll make sure that we go over the "Application to Major" for those of you wanting to gain entry into the graphic design program. This process is not meant to be a scary or anxiety-ridden one, instead it should serve for you to raise the bar regarding your own creative work this semester. Each student will be scored against their own work...from start to finish. Your work should demonstrate progress, although creativity is not always a linear one as you probably know already.You will have every chance to tell your own creative experience. It should be serious fun.

I promise to do the best I can at assisting each of you reach your individual goals. Please remember that much of it depends on your participation, your enthusiasm and actually your love for what you will be doing as an artist/designer. I want each of you to not only learn more about becoming a designer/artist, but to also to assist you in finding more confidence in yourself, to become more self-assured and to listen to your inner artist voice.

You have to love what it is you want to pursue in this life. Find something you love doing and do it without any apologies.

Time to Blast off!