Meeting & Agendas

Gail welcomed all participants and thanked them for attending the meeting. Workforce programs rely heavily on input from industry advisory committee members in order to provide up to date and relevant learning experiences for ACC students.

One item was left off the agenda. The Visual Communication Department wants to offer students the option of taking either ENGL 1301 English Composition I OR ENGL 2311 Technical and Business Writing. To gain committee approval for this change, members were sent this email on 1/14/2013: Dear Graphic Design Advisory Committee members- Thank you very much for participating in the meeting last Thursday evening. Your input was most helpful, and we will be presenting the approved changes to the Curriculum and Programs Committee next week. There is one item that was overlooked when the agenda was compiled, so we\'d like to address it via email. Workforce programs are required to include five General Education courses on the AAS degree plan, including an English course. Currently, the English course required is ENGL 1301 English Composition I. However, we are allowed to give students the option of taking ENGL 2311 Technical and Business Writing, which is a more practical course, teaching students scientific, technical or business writing, and information design. This course emphasizes clarity, conciseness, and accuracy of expression. We feel that if a student is going to take only one writing class, this is a better fit for our program. We would like to offer students the option to take either course, but we need your approval to make this change. Please respond to this email, giving or denying your consent. If you have questions, please don\'t hesitate to ask. Thanks for your help! Within two hours of sending the email, all members had responded, unanimously approving this change.

Members in attendance included: Clark Bystrom, graphic designer, Bystrom Design; Anita Lam, production artist, Mutual Mobile; Chris Visit, graphic designer, Frank+Victor; Russell Toynes, designer, Dell Global Marketing Team; Anne-Charlotte Patterson, graphic designer, Southern Combustion Creative; Felipe Villela, assistant art director, SicolaMartin. ACC faculty present included: Gail Bayeta, Visual Communication Dept. Chair and Graphic Design section leader; Sam Coronado, full time faculty and Foundation section leader; Priscilla Wicker, Assistant Department Chair and full time faculty; David Tobey, full time faculty and Graphic Arts Technology section leader. ACC staff present included: Alida McCullough, Visual Communication administrative assistant.

Since this is a new committee, it was necessary to elect a Chair and Vice Chair. Russell Toynes was elected Chair and Clark Bystrom was elected Vice Chair. The meeting was called to order at 6:10 pm.

• Move GRPH 1359 Vector Graphics to Semester I and ARTC 1402 Digital Imaging I to Semester II Discussion: Students taking Basic Graphic Design are at a disadvantage if they come into the class not knowing how to use the basic tools of Adobe Illustrator. Having students take Vector Graphics in the same semester as Basic Graphic Design would give them familiarity with the basic tools of Adobe Illustrator, thus alleviating this problem. • Drop IMED 1441 Interface Design (retain as restricted elective), replace w/ARTC 1459 Visual Design for New Media Discussion: Conversations with Oen Hammonds, an industry professional who also teaches advanced graphic design classes in VisCom, reveal that students are not coming out of the Graphic Design program with the web skills that would best serve an entry level graphic designer. An existing course in the Web and Interactive area, ARTC 1459 Visual Design for New Media, will be reframed so that it will meet the needs of graphic design students better than the current combination of IMED 1441 Interface Design and IMED 1416 Web I. • Drop IMED 1416 Web I (retain as restricted elective), replace with a second Type class, ARTC 2417 Typographic Design Discussion: Industry portfolio reviewers always mention the need for improved typography skills. Many students express interest in an additional typography class, but it is difficult to get sufficient enrollment for the advanced class to make if it is only offered as a restricted elective. Making it a required class will insure that the class will make. Action: A motion was made to approve these three changes. The motion was seconded, and passed unanimously.

• ARTC 2472 Precertification for Graphic Arts- this is the capstone class for the Graphic Arts Technology degree. Students hone their software skills by working in a production environment to preflight files, make corrections, and prepare them for final output. They also learn how to prepare for Adobe certification exams. • ARTC 1421 Illustration Techniques I (traditional techniques) and ARTC 1353 Computer Illustration I (combining traditional and software skills)- many graphic design students have talent and interested in traditional and computer illustration. Having these classes available as restricted electives will give these students the opportunity to advance their skills. • Screen Printing (new course)- Screen printing is a popular trend in graphic design. Other traditional print-making methods are taught in the Fine Arts program at ACC, but screen printing is not. The technology that students are already using in other VisCom classes supports creating files that can be used in this process. Prerequisites would be Basic Graphic Design, Vector Graphics and Color Theory. Action: A motion was made to approve these three changes. The motion was seconded, and passed unanimously.

Currently using “Exploring Typography” by Rabinowitz as the required textbook in ARTC 1427 Typography. Also “Thinking with Type” by Ellen Lupton will be recommended for ARTC 1427 Typography. Meggs’ “Typographic Design” will be the recommended text for ARTC 2317 Typographic Design.

7) Discussion of software used in production side of program- Committee members who had been through the VisCom program did not feel that they had graduated with any big gaps in their software knowledge. However, committee members said that these things are important: • Explore the interactive features of InDesign, including interactive pdfs. While InDesign produces “dirty” code, a graphic designer with some coding knowledge can go in and fix things when required. The InDesign file is a good starting point. • Font management software. Gail teaches this in Typography class, but is not sure how other instructors handle it. • File management. This is an important fundamental skill. Graphic Arts Technology classes such as Digital Imaging I and Digital Publishing I classes stress file management and logical, consistent file naming conventions, and these procedures should be reinforced in later semesters. Also, students should be made aware that the naming convention varies from one workplace to another. • Suggestion for a project with a budget, teach students to work within real world limitations. Priscilla noted that the Digital Publishing II class has a project like this. • Time tracking applications- make students aware of how much time a job really takes, and the need to work efficiently

• Responsive design- is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones) • Screen printing- Lots of designers want to do it, but don’t know how. There is great appreciation for the craft. • Online portfolios- students could create a Wordpress site to use as a portfolio that follows them throughout their studies. The site could be viewed by instructors who would then have a better idea of what their students’ skill levels are. The learning curve for Wordpress is pretty low, unless you want to alter templates.

Russell Toynes moved to adjourn the meeting. The committee unanimously agreed, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:40 pm.