Coming soon:

Helvetica: The Motion Picture

Yes, I'm serious.

No doubt this will be followed by a parody called Arial! from Mel Brooks, Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, or possibly the Wayans brothers.

Here's the schedule for September

I am hoping to make some sense out of the schedule that you see. Here’s the breakdown:

To download the schedule pdf, click here

Portfolio Creation
I am teaching this class and giving the students the option of working at home. There is a lab time scheduled at 5-9p (immed. following class) that I will take care of in case there are students who wish to work at school.

Type & Page Layout
The lecture is scheduled at 9a and there really isn’t a way around it. So I will teach this class for this month. It also has double labs, one at 1p and the other at 5p. Dawn Beard is starting this month but will be unable to lead the class within this time slot. So is how I would like it to go down: Fatima will cover the 1pm TPL labs. I would like to pair Dawn and Ashley together to lead the 5pm lab. This will help her get oriented to Full Sail, get an idea of the pacing and class structure without having to also be thrown into teaching at the same time.

Digital Publishing
This will leave Digital Publishing with concurrent labs going from 9p-1a to be covered by Brian, Denny, Giancarlo, and Leslie. There will be 17 labs this month. I am ok with one person to each lab (they are right across the hall from each other so should there be trouble, it is easy to grab help) so it leaves the four of you scheduled for about 9 labs each. I will leave Brian to do the scheduling of individual time slots since he is better familiar with schedules, etc.

I know this is a little wacky, but we will get through it. If you have any questions in the meantime, let me know.

I appreciate you :-)

Triesta

Pictures that Lie

I remember a few of these images from what Triesta used to present in DP. Brad, if you're still doing that, there might be some nice new additions--if nothing else, it'll keep you from getting bored presenting the exact same material every month. :-)

Fonts
I've been meaning to talk about this forever, and now that I have a forum, I think I will. :-)

Long story short: I think we have too many fonts. A lot could be scrapped altogether--most people (myself included) can't tell the difference between Times, Adobe Caslon, Adobe Garamond, Bodoni, Palatino, etc. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all fonts are unique and beautiful, and students should be aware of their existence--maybe we could even spend some time talking about a bunch of similar fonts like the ones I mentioned, or maybe a little time on Helvetica vs. Arial--but finding a good font by paging through the 3841-page list is painful. (Plus, Preview will crash if you scroll through that PDF at full speed for a minute or two.) I think 500 would be plenty. You can cover a pretty wide range with that. With fewer fonts, we could leave them all open, all the time, which would make working easier--you wouldn't have to deal with font activation. (On the other hand, it's good to teach font activation... but then again, forcing its use in all classes, all the time, might not be the best way to go.)

Also, I think they should be grouped in a more usable way. A-Z is a handy way to keep them straight if you know the name of what you want, but it doesn't tell people who are new to the collection anything. I'd suggest breaking them into different groups: classic serif, classic san-serif, fun, classy, techno, etc.

I don't mean to put down the effort involved in creating this. I just think, now that we've spent some time using it as it is, it would be better for our purposes here if it were different, and I'll be happy to be involved in changing it. Also, one thing that definitely needs to be changed: a lot of the fonts that are in the book are not actually in the system. In one of my last months in DP, a student was looking through there for fonts, and of the 10 or so he picked, we couldn't find at least 5. Or maybe they were there, but unfindable for some reason. That's entirely possible, given that there are 4,879 items in the 'Fonts' folder on the server.

Thoughts? Leave a comment!

0608 Calendar
Here is the calendar for the August classes.

xls version

pdf/grid version



Double-click pic to see full-size version. Please note that the purple boxes denote what days Fatima will be visiting the lab, and the boxes will be next to whichever lab she will be in.

You can ignore the posts below--I am just posting so I can set up the categories section on the bottom right.

Birthdays
I want to make a list of our birthdays. I will fill in the info as I get to work tomorrow, but feel free to add your own in the meantime.

Triesta December 15th
Ashley August 18
Brad March 13
Brian November 11
Denny June 17
Fatima January 17
Giancarlo February 20
Leslie October 13

-----------------------------------------------
I think we should add a section for the kids too.
Donnie January 12 ?
Piper February 24, 2004
Luke ?
Katie May 9
Austin November 9
Lauren December 6

Are adding pets too much?!

Computer problems?
If there any computer problems, including permissions issues, in the lab, email "*Student Network" ( student.network@fullsail.com ) (cc Triesta) and outline the problem. Make sure you are specific about room number, computer number or location, and give as many details into the problem as possible.

Update from Brian: at the last lab instructor meeting (yes, I actually go to those! sometimes...) Bill said he'd like to be CC'd on any emails sent to student.network as well.

Printer Problems?
If there are problems with either printer in lab, or it is in need of supplies, email Michelle Goff (cc Triesta) with a description of the problem. Make sure you include the printer id number in the email.

Also remember that there is a lot of extra paper in the digpub pit group as well as replacement inks. I have also placed several reams of paper in the lab instructor breakroom in one of the overhead cabinets.

Guidelines on Professionalism and Intellectual Property

Ever wonder what the student are able to use (read: appropriate) from the internet and other sources for their student projects? Here is an outline of files answering those questions as stated by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).

- Print Design and Environmental Responsibility
- AIGA & Sales Tax
- Use of Photography
- Guide to Copyright
- Use of Software
- Use of Illustration
- Use of Fonts
- A Client's Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process
- Business and Ethical Expectations for Professional Designers
- Standards of professional practice

Educational Discounts
Before heading to the retail store to get the latest iPod, look at the educational dicounts that Full Sail staff and students get. In fact, there is even a Full Sail Apple Store. There are discounts on computers and software alike. Plus even a few local businesses that give discounts. Check out the educational discount page for more info.

BTS
What is BTS? It stands for Behind the Scenes, a monthly event at Full Sail for prospective students and also an opportunity to make some extra money. For every 4-hour shift you work, Full Sail will pay you $100. There are many roles to play from tour guide to tour stop speaker. Check out the link here to find out more info and contact Courtney Caton or Amanda Kent of the BTS Department.

eTime
eTime is something that seems such an afterthought when you have students asking questions, etc., but eTime is essential tool for our Payroll department. It is important to clock in and out at every shift so we can keep things moving smoothly :-)

School Calendar
Wonder when our holidays will fall? Check out the Staff411 calendar. It has everything mapped out as far ahead as the next two years. It also includes the dates of graduation and other pertinents!

Hello everyone. I am going to create a series of posts of information that can eventually reside in the categories for reference purposes.

Brad shared this video of the 20/20 report on graphic design :-)

Random design idea link: some people did a bunch of famous logos in 'web 2.0' style.