Meeting & Agendas

Gail welcomed everyone and each person introduced themselves. Members present included: ● Crystal Glover, Sr. Graphic Designer, Asterisk Group ● Anne-Charlotte Patterson, Graphic Design, Southern Combustion Creative ● Stephanie Romero, Jr. Art Director, Dell ● Russell Toynes, Creative Director, Studio Dzo Members unable to attend were: Oen Hammonds, Anita Lam, and Chris Visit ACC faculty and staff present included: ● Gail Bayeta, Dept. Chair, Visual Communication ● Breanna Whitener, Ass’t. Dept. Chair and Graphic Design Section Leader ● Kimberly Aland, Program Specialist, Visual Communication ● Alida McCullough, Administrative Assistant, Visual Communication

Gail thanked everyone for attending the meeting, went over the role of the advisory committee, and turned the meeting over to Chair Russell Toynes, who called the meeting to order at 6:20 pm. The first order of business was to approve the minutes from the November 2017 meeting. Action: Russell asked for a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Crystal Glover moved to approve the minutes, and Stephanie Romero seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously.

Departmental Updates- Departmental Goals Gail explained that as part of the instructional program review, the department worked together in the past year to come up with goals for the next three years: 1 Goal 1: Increase awareness of department - at least two shared partnerships within ACC - social media promotion and engagement Goal 2: Increase student engagement - one persistent advisor for each student - annually create a plan from student data Goal 3: Improve course accessibility to students - research 3 LMS options -collect student data to inform course scheduling Goal 4: Increase student employability - incorporate human centered design in studio courses - increase enrollments in internship classes - establish real work opportunities: internship, industry sponsored project industry shadowing/reporting - two partnerships outside ACC Departmental Updates- Personnel Changes The Department has recently experienced various retirements and one new hire. Some job duties have been redistributed among the current staff. Alida McCullough , Administrative Assistant, will coordinate schedule planning and purchases, book requests, and payments. Jennifer Jones , Instructional Associate, will mainly support faculty, including policy compliance, Blackboard content expert, and working on dept. professional development opportunities, as well as back-up advising. Kimberly Aland , new Program Specialist, will be the primary student advisor, develop a communication plan, report data, coordinate events, and be our stakeholder connector. Departmental Updates- Road to Highland Campus Plans continue for all VisCom classes to move to the Highland Campus when the Phase 4 improvements are complete by Fall 2020. Gail shared the floor plan for the VisCom dedicated space and also showed pictures of the new furniture.

ACAP- as mentioned at the 2017 adv comm meeting, an ACAP (Austin Competency Analysis Profile) was conducted to look at how the visual communication curriculum meets the needs of local employers for certain job titles: - Visual Designer - Communication Designer - UI Designer - Graphic Designer - Junior Graphic Designer - Interactive Designer - Multimedia Artist - Junior Art Director - Graphic Artist - Product Designer Seven professionals, including several members of the advisory committee, spent a Saturday meeting with ACC Instructional Designers to establish competencies. The competencies where then mapped to courses currently taught, and certain gaps were identified: • Accessibility • UI Design • Laws around creative work • How to communicate with clients • Cross team collaboration Graphic design degree updates In light of the ACAP findings, and also following up on discussion from last year’s advisory committee meeting, changes to the existing Visual Communication: Graphic Design AAS and Level 2 certificate were proposed. Proposed changes: • EDUC 1300 Effective Learning Strategies- Change to POFT 1300 to create a customized version of this course which will teach effective learning strategies as provide an overview of various roles and jobs in the visual communication industry. Topics/activities could include an overview of what is taught in Visual Communication, studio tours, guest lectures, history of graphic design in Austin, how to set up a portfolio, laws relevant to freelance and in-house design, etc. This class would be required for students with fewer than 12 SCH of successful college credit. Students with 12 SCH or more of successful college credit will be required to take a speech class, SPCH 1321 Business and Professional Speaking, instead, if they preferred Discussion: Committee members agreed that it would be a big plus for students to be aware of legal matters, and to realize that the end goal in the program is to build a portfolio. • IMED 1316 Web Page Design I - remove the prerequisite for this class (ARTC 1302 Digital Imaging I) since it is no longer necessary • Replace IMED 2311 History of Communication Graphics with ARTS Art History II , a General Education class, to meet the requirement for “Language, Philosophy, and Culture OR Creative Arts”. We will work with the Art Dept. to create restricted sections of ARTS 1304 which include content pertinent to graphic design. • Remove ARTC 2313 Digital Publishing II from the degree plans. Discussion: Russell Toynes was concerned that without this course, students would lack experience building multi-page documents when they were putting together their portfolios, but Gail said that the new Design Studio I class could include a persistent multi-page project to reinforce Indesign skills. • Add ARTC 2371 Design Studio I - this proposed new local needs course will provide students the opportunity to function as an instructor-led team, experiencing the intersection of industry, learning, entrepreneurism and team dynamics. Students will work with industry partners on directed projects, work from/with a creative brief, practice professional conduct. Students may alternate roles, such as art director, graphic designer, client lead, on various projects. The client will be aware of the parameters of the team’s experience and abilities. It will be the first time students work as a team, create a timeline, and manage a project. Prerequisite: ARTC 1317 Design Communication I or ARTC 2313 Digital Publishing II. Discussion: Committee members wanted to know who would determine projects to accept and who would fulfill which roles. Gail explained that clients would be made aware of the students’ abilities, and the instructor would be highly involved, as this will be the first time students work as a team, create a timeline, and manage a project. • Add ARTC 2372 Design Studio 2 - this proposed new local needs course function as a student led and student run design studio. Prerequisite: ARTC 2371 Design Studio I • IMED 2388 Internship - offer as an alternative to Design Studio 2. Enhanced Skills Certificates Gail explained that some courses were removed from the Graphic Design degree plan to make room for Design Studio I and Design Studio II, but it would also be possible to offer “Enhanced Skills” certificates so that students could obtain additional skills. (To qualify for the ESC, a student would be required to first complete the Graphic Design AAS.) Example: Graphic Media Production Enhanced Skills Certificate First Semester: GRPH 2371 Vector Graphics II, ARTC 2305 Digital Imaging II, ARTC 2313 Digital Publishing II. Second Semester: ARTC 2348 Digital Publishing III Total credit hours: 12 Example: Motion Graphics Enhanced Skills certificate MOTG 1475 Introduction to Motion Graphics, Animation and Compositing MOTG 1370 Design for Motion I MOTG 1474 Motion Design Concepts Total credit hours: 11 Visual Design degree Breanna explained the visual design job title has been becoming more common, and the department sought to clarify the differences in the roles between a visual and graphic designer. She analyzed local job postings for both graphic designers and visual designers to discover key similarities and key differences. Visual vs. Graphic Design Similarities: ● Understanding of layout/composition ● Understanding of color theory ● Ability to create and/or work with branding guidelines and design systems ● Ability to produce new ideas • Ability to collaborate with a multidisciplinary team ● Good communication skills Visual vs. Graphic Design Differences: ● Visual Design, Process and Digital Focus- Ideation, Storyboarding, Usability, Accessibility, Iconography ● Graphic Design, Output and Print Focus- Marketing Materials, Photo Editing, Graphic Production Visual vs. Graphic Design conclusions: ● We need to keep pace with market and job titles ● We want to train for workforce needs in Austin ● A visual design program map gives the department the ability to pair curriculum with our user experience (UX) program to strengthen overall department. To that end, Branna presented a proposed a new Visual Design degree plan, featuring select classes from the Graphic Design and User Experience Design degrees. Discussion: Committee members suggested that more Indesign and Photoshop skills could be needed, that Powerpoint could possibly be a good addition, and that maybe Adobe XD should be included. Russell questioned the rationale for not including a basic Photoshop class. Crystal Glover thought that Illustrator is more useful across the board, and Breanna noted that some visual designers say they never use Photoshop. A compromise was reached by replacing Design Communication I, which is mainly directed toward creating projects for print, with Digital Imaging I. Then when students move into Design Studio I they will come from either the graphic design, graphic media production, or UX design areas, to create true teamwork.

Action Items: 1. IMED 1316 Web Design I- Remove the prerequisite, ARTC 1302 Digital Imaging, since it is no longer needed. ● Ann-Charlotte Patterson moved to remove the prerequisite. ● Stephanie Romero seconded the motion. ● All were in favor, so the motion passed unanimously. 2. Vote on changes to Graphic Design AAS and Level II certificate ● Stephanie Romero moved to approve the proposed changes. ● Crystal Glover seconded the motion. ● All were in favor, so the motion was passed unanimously. 3. Move to approve the proposed Visual Design AAS and Level II certificate, with edits. ● Ann-Charlotte Patterson moved to approve the awards. ● Stephanie Romero seconded the motion. ● All were in favor, so the motion passed unanimously.

Stephanie Romero moved to adjourn the meeting, and Ann Charlotte Patterson seconded the motion. All were in favor, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:12 pm. 5