Most of us nowadays are probably happy going about our lives without needing anything else in our hands other than our phone. So, what about printing? Let's face it, a printed large-format poster is far more effective than a digital copy on your phone screen - no matter how much you zoom in, you are not able to get the same tactile quality! Also, printing is a lot more accessible and affordable that you might find yourself opting for a physical copy anyway.
I designed the following workshop to introduce some of the basics in graphic design that are especially important when working in the digital age. These basics will ensure that you set up correctly so your end design can be printed, and will look as awesome printed. The background really is that we have got so many great projects coming out of the inquiry learning model, that I know our learners can benefit from using print to promote and showcase their learning.
This is designed as a 60 minute workshop that is broken into the following parts:
- The concept of a frame and how to describe the size of it.
- The different types of units of measurement.
- Aspect ratio and paper size.
- Set up and design a poster
This workshop is best with small groups max of 20 students. As you can see the presentation also touches on the maths that is relevant to the NZ Curriculum Level 4 Meaurement and Ratio. The presentation is a good lead in to check learners' prior knowledge. You are free to use it however you like and build on it. During the workshop, I used Pages on the iPad to make posters with the learners. Specifically I instructed them to start with the "Poster Big" template. This way, they are able to apply the basics and keep it simple. The general rule is the power of three (as how I call it) - max. three elements. For example, there should be no more than three different font sizes in one poster, no more than three colours in one poster, etc. Based on the template one should always make these decisions based on the image, as it is the main focus of the poster.
[A poster showing the student's project inquiring into the visual representation of culture.]
The above poster uses a striking contrasting colour scheme based on the black and white line drawing that the student created.
[One poster in a series of seven to present a case study inquiring into relationships with pets.]
This poster uses the cute pet image to grab audience's attention so that they will come closer to read the information. The small texts are set to 12pts so they are easy on the eye, but not able to be read from afar. The choice of orange in the subtitle is based on the subject in the picture. This is a good example to show learners that although there are a lot of 'things' in this poster, it can be clean and effective based on the power of three.
Both posters above are able to be printed to A1.
This post shows how a simple exercise can embed the fundamental working knowledge of a graphic designer to learners. You will find yourself loving designing posters and being proud of the epic effects!
Love it. Do it!
