Preface to the Assignments

These projects were developed as part of the Publication Design coursework at the University of South Florida School of Mass Communications. The class met twice weekly, for a 70 minute lecture and for a 2-hour lab session later in the week.

Lectures provided an overview of design topics and a look at the work of design professionals. Labs built on lecture topics and were used to demonstrate layout techniques, teach software usage and provide students with in-class time to work on assignments with faculty assistance available.

Since learning to critique one’s own work and the work of others is an important part of design, class time was reserved for students to present their work to the class in “gallery sessions.” Gallery sessions required students to discuss the rationale of their work and how it met the needs of real or imagined clients. Presentation skills were part of the grade.

The ability to interpret and respond to class critique was also part of the grading process. Students were reqquired to show visible change/improvement in their work from draft to final. (Note: Simply “making the changes the class told me to” was not always enough.)

As most design work is the product of group collaboration, some assignments were developed as group activities.

The assignments are presented as developed to fit the USF Mass Comm course structure. Feel free to use them as they are or adapt to your own purposes.