For this exercise you will be divided into groups of 3-4 group members arranged by common identified topic areas and artistic interests during the January 16 & 21 lab times. You will be put into groups and discuss your interests which will result in personally tailored recommendations of artists you can chose from via your TAs suggestions in class.  If needed, consultations can continue with Christine or TAs during office hours, or in some cases via email in the week following.

The visual artist recommended and chosen by each group must be contemporary, and practicing within the last 50 years (therefore 1970’s and on) that way it is relevant to our contemporary understanding -the more recent the better!  Your artist can use any medium to make their work, they do not have to be lens based. It is more about the research topic and content than media they use, however they must be a visual artist.

As a group, please pick one artist from the suggestions of the TA or Christine, or you can ask for permission to choose an artist of your choice. Each group member will choose a single work of art by that artist, and create a poster about that specific work.  This means there will be multiple posters about the same artist, but each poster will feature a different work. The digital “poster” will be created in Photoshop, featuring images of work by that artist that your topic areas had a connection to. You must have your chosen artist officially approved by Christine and/or your TA via email or in person by January 22. The art work you chose will become the basis of the poster.

In order to choose an artist and find a work you will focus on, research your artist using books in the library, or credible sources online. For example, large institutions and galleries like the Tate Gallery in London will have more reliable information than a fan page or random blog on the internet.  As mentioned before, find work where there is overlap with your interests, or that you are intrigued by their approach to a common subject, (even if you don’t like it) -use it to understand how the artist approaches certain topics.

For your poster, scan in or download images of the artwork and other supporting images, and create a thoughtfully composed poster of the work, communicating information about the work.  Make sure you only feature relevant information and that your poster is legible, sophisticated, and visually communicates ideas in design decisions.

 Poster Specifics:

• Dimension of the poster should be 18 x 12 inches, either landscape or poster, (your choice) at 100 dpi.
• The poster should comprise of various layers in one single Photoshop document. There should be several and different types of layers, such as text layers, image layers, and adjustment layers, relating to the specific requirements outlined below.

1. 1. Please place the artists name as the title, spelt correctly, as well as a sub-heading detailing where the artist is from geographically. (1-2 text layers)
   2. Please indicate the title of the work in a smaller heading, including date of production, dimensions or duration and media of the work. (at least 1 text layer, but can be 2 layers if you wish to put the information in different areas)
   3. There should be at least 2 images, one must be of the art work you are focusing on, the other two images are your choice but some options might be to display an image of the artist, gallery installations, close up, other perspectives or video stills, or  other images relevant to the content.  Images should be arranged well into a considered composition and the scale/size adjusted in proportion. (2 image layers)
   4. The poster must contain one text area that features a description of the work in your own words, use the topic of interest to approach as a specific way to focus on the artwork, this should not be over 100 words and relate to your own interests. (1 text layer)
   5. Feel free to include any other relevant information, but be sure to also keep it clear and think of how the design will visually communicate the content (using lines, colour, shapes, borders and fonts) (couple of extra layers might happen).

• Please be sure that all images are density and colour adjusted. Density adjust and/or colour balance using adjustment layers “Levels” on at least one of the images on a layer, and isolate/attach that adjustment layer to the specific layer it is working with.  This means you might have a few adjustment layers connected to image layers, which is a good thing, practice makes perfect and adjustment layers are an important skill to learn in Photoshop! (1-3 layers)
• The goal of your poster is to showcase a work of a contemporary artist, in particular how your interests relate, and what you learned about how they -a professional artist- approached the same topics you are interested in.  Overall, we want you to uncover a work of contemporary art and communicate it to your colleagues in the class.

Note:  The “Basic Design” and “Layout” video modules are not required, but could be a great help to you in creating this poster in a tactful and visually clear and communicative way.  Be careful of how you relay information, and show a sense of maturity in your design selections including your font, background, etc…  Everything in the poster should relate to the larger purpose of the poster, and there will be deductions for unconsidered distractions to the relevant information.  In design terms -white space is not your enemy!

Why are you doing this exercise?
This is a low-stakes exercise, with much to learn from.  Creation of this poster will utilize the lessons from the technical demonstration and help you to get started using and experimenting with Photoshop.  You should have the Introductory Photoshop modules complete before you start this to give you the best advantage.  This project will allow you to practice creating a specific size document, adding in many layers into one document image, transforming size, scale and placement of different objects in one document, adding text of different sizes, adjustment layers to correct colour and density of images, and other extras of shapes, brushes, lines, effects, etc…

If this is your first-time using Photoshop, you might feel overwhelmed, this happens your first time and is completely normal!  Getting a bit lost in Photoshop is part of the process of learning it. This exercise is designed to help you practice with Photoshop, so please jump in to the program and persevere, I promise you will learn something even though it feels like you’ve opened up a portal to the unknown, learning a new program is usually just a matter of pressure rather than anxiety.  This exercise also helps to continue your work with your research questions as you discover how your artist works while creating a poster!

Due:  For display January 23 & 28 during lab time, please upload the poster as an UNFLATTENED (photoshop document) PSD in this assignment portal before your lab session.  Please note that the poster is due at the start of your specific lab time, this varies between labs.

In-Class:  Disciplinary Approach Poster Presentation

Either in groups of 4-5 (try and put them into groups where they might have similar approaches) or in 2 groups of 10, have students visit each other while their poster is up on the computer.  For example, if students are in 2 groups, have 10 students present their posters while the other 10 students visit them.  You can either time them (5 minute “speed dates”) or have them leisurely wander if you can trust that they will engage in conversation.  Once 20 minutes (10 minutes for groups of 4) has passed, have the other 10 students put their posters up and the first 10 students who showed first will now become the visitors.

Rubric: