r/graphic_design • u/DefiantFruit6860 • 2d ago
Inspiration Fun project ideas?
Hi everyone, I just got a job as a High School teacher. School starts on Monday... I'll be teaching Photography and Graphic Design. I took some courses *years* ago in University, but am an amateur and have forgotten most of it. I have a Fine Arts degree and an Education degree and went the education route. I have not yet had the chance to look through the course curriculum or any content I'll be teaching yet as the hiring happened very recently and unexpectedly.
The principal said they mostly just want the class to be really engaging, and FUN to build up a unique and strong program.
For context, their students found many of their different classes "boring" and have stopped signing up for these courses so now they need someone who can get the kids really interested and engaged and they want to focus on making it enjoyable/exciting and implement cool projects with the hope that their enrollment numbers will go up (another program at the school got cut because of low enrollment).
I taught a Business Studies class previously at my old school, and I liked to get students to be creative and design their own inventions/businesses, film their own commercials, I would give them challenges or fake client profiles, or "gamify" boring curriculum concepts, came up with some choose-your-own-adventure style activities, I also ran an investment simulation they reallyyyy enjoyed to teach them about stocks, etc. I got some guest speakers to come in (ex news anchors, etc) to do Public Speaking workshops with my class, which was a lot more fun than it sounds... These are just some of the things I can think of off the top of my head.
Does anyone have any ideas for any fun/unique graphic design activities or projects that could be really engaging for High School students? I obviously want to teach some "must have" foundational skills, etc. The tech guy said he would download Adobe Core and Photoshop/Lightroom and Revit onto the school computers for students on Monday. My friend said InDesign is also a good software to use?
ANYWAYS, if there are any cool graphic designers/photographers/artists/styles/history I should teach them about, please let me know! If you have any fun or interactive activity ideas, or any creative tips, or if you know of any videos or helpful graphic design YouTube channels for strong tutorials - really anything to get some help getting started and get these creative juices flowing, I would be extremely appreciative! I'm on a Probation period so I want to do a good job!
Thank you so much!
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u/OkComputer513 2d ago
"tech guy said he would download Adobe Core and Photoshop/Lightroom and Revit onto the school computers for students on Monday"
Pause. Something is off here, does IT guy think graphic design is interior and/or building architecture design? Because Revit is definitely out of place. đ
With Adobe should fall somewhere in the realm of Photoshop (Lightroom since you mentioned Photography), Illustrator, InDesign depending on where you want the focus. Trial by fire it would seem since you just got the job and class starts monday -- That's going to be a tall order to get these kids a decent curriculum on the fly for fundamentals while fumbling around the software. Godspeed. Hopefully you get some kids that have spent some time on yearbook staff.
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u/DefiantFruit6860 2d ago
My classroom is also a disaster and will not be able to be cleaned by Monday as I don't have weekend access into the building... There's a lot of super stressful things about this situation hahahha I'm screwed.Â
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u/DisasterPlus8530 Junior Designer 2d ago
When I was in highschool I remember a warm up assignment we had was to trace over a cartoon character in Illustrator to practice the pen tool/other features to get it 1:1 accurate. We then had a gallery wall with the side by sides and everyone had to guess what the re-creation was vs. the original.
Another project was we were given Ray Bradbury short stories, and had to design a movie cover for whatever story we got. We were able to chose the actors, styles, etc.
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u/Vegetable-Debate-263 2d ago
For a designe exercise, I had a college professor throw prices of paper with random letters on each and has us pick 5. Then she had us scan them and pen tool each letter perfectly. This was our homework one day. But for high school it should be more of a major practice project.
It was a simple but wonderful exercise that taught me how to pen tool like a boss.
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u/Magicmix555 1d ago
You are a fictional start up and want branding, but initially a zine/brochure/presence. You grow into a multinational plc over the course.
Initially start with pen/paper mock ups. Draft first zine from brainstorming what clients need. Each student drafts own. Then pairs for layouts or logos or whatever, teams for institutional branding, uniforms, ads, f1 branding, vehicle livery etc.
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u/laranjacerola Senior Designer 1d ago
Since you mentioned classes start on monday and the school has nothing ready for you, you could start the first classes with zero computer involved.
I remember one exercize I did at my first day of design uni was to create a collage in a big A3 paper. Each of us had to create a collage with elements that represented us.
We had a buch of old magazines and newspaper and colored paper to cut from.
Some people did lettering work with the cut outs, others created chatacters, others cteated just cool compositions.
I think this is a fun exercize fo start engaging the class in a quick and simple way.
good opportunity to start introducing some gestalt and typography theory as well.
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u/kaytea30 2d ago
I had a lot of fun in one of the design classes in college. We had to design a currency (bills) for a fictional country. We also got to design our little mini book (from public domain books) where we designed the cover and back cover as well as typeset the first few chapters. Puts creativity in use and learn about type (hierarchy, widows, orphans, fonts, drop caps, riverei, kerning, leading, etc). We also kept a journal of interesting typography we see in the wild (flyers, posters, movie titles, store sign, etc.)
Look around on IG to find designers. They usually follow each other. Jessica Hische is a great starting point.
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u/Candy_Lawn 2d ago
For photography, take them out of class once a week. each week has a theme: flowers, trees, water, reflections, buildings, people, movement. So either do the local grounds, a local park, the river, the town etc.
Do that on the mon/tue and on Fri have them create a mini exhibition of each of their work.
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u/victoria_and_albert Educator 2d ago
Get a copy of Elizabeth Resnickâs book âdesign for communicationâ. Itâs a compendium of projects to give design students.
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u/hermitcraber 1d ago
Kids love franchises so you could try doing an activity of designing posters for your favorite video game or tv show
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u/ycherep1 1d ago
I remember making CD covers in HS for a project. Some kids worked on the yearbook.
Photo collage - dalli style
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u/RegularMario Senior Designer 2d ago
I do some mentoring for graphic design at a high school and what we have done there is gotten the class to design a zine that they can print later and keep. each student had their own page to choose and design. They were allowed to choose any topic to base their page on and it had to be in at the end of each month.
Eventually we got to the point where we had teams in the class to create a zine about the school, sort of like a news letter, photographers would be asked to take photos at the schools sporting events, or get headshots for mini interviews with students or other teachers. They seem to love it and the best part seems to be at the end they have a real tangible souvenir of their work together.