Today1) How are we doing? 2) The Literary London Brochure: The major project3) All the pretty colors4) How to sample a color palette5) Practice: make a cool three-or-four color palette using Miami red6) Homework

Literary LondonOur major project for the semester will be to work with our client, Kaara Peterson from Miami’s Literary London program to create a new brochure. We will get much more information as the semester runs, but as we get started thinking about it, you’ll want to think about the imagery here. The goal is to create an easy-to-read, easy-to-use brochure that communicates the richness of the program without being too ornate or too sloppy.

The Joy of InfographicsLet’s start our consideration of color with a quick tour of some really impressive infographics that will allow us to condense some of our knowledge and expand on a few interesting ideas.

Soooo… What does all of this tell us?

And how might we apply it?

Activity: One of the best ways to put together a color palette is to sample colors from nature. It might sound sort of overly simple, but we want to see colors that go together naturally, and (of course) things that exist in nature naturally coordinate. A frog, for example, wouldn’t be the wrong colors for a frog.

Activity: To sample colors, you want to do a few things. One, you want to create a set of squares on a blank image (just use the shape tool). You can do splotches if you want, but I like to make sure mine look good. You then use the eyedropper to sample the colors you want, use the bucket to fill your square on the other image, and repeat as needed.

Activity: Using the rest of our class time, I want you to start thinking about colors and how we might use them for our major project. One of the tricks at Miami is often “how do we make something cool that includes the Miami red?” So… that’s what we’re going to do. Come up with solid 3 or 4 color palettes that use Miami red as either the primary color or the secondary.

Homework: For Wednesday: Read for class: Golombisky & Hagen Chapter 6, and  Norman “Why Designers Go Astray” from The Design of Everyday Things (on Niihka)