DCA

A Final Portfolio was required to graduate from the program and earn an academic certificate in Design Communication Arts.

Web Design Courses for the certificate:

  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • HTML5

First Term of Courses

  • Design Fundamentals
    • Line Continuity: Notebook Page
    • Shape Integration
    • Figure-Ground Reversal
    • Hierarchy
    • Autobiograph
    • Framing
    • Connection
  • Drawing for Communication
    • Sketch set 1 - direct observation
    • Sketch set 2 - light logic
    • Sketch set 3 - linear perspective
    • Sketch set 4 - quick sketch
    • Sketch set 5 - hand lettering & drawing from reference
    • Sketch set 6 - hands
    • Sketch set 7 - proportion/shape - heads
    • Sketch set 8 - heads/two- & four-legged
    • Sketch set 9 - Storytelling: Animals & People
    • Term Project

Second Term of Courses

  • Typography
    • Project 1 - expressive design using letter forms
    • Project 2 - letter form arrangement establishing focal point
    • Project 3 - letterhead design
    • Project 4 - editorial page layouts
    • Project 5 - type specimen poster
    • Project 6 - Web Design Project
    • Bonus - Found Imagery; "Type Around Town"

Third Term of Courses

  • Design II
    • Introduction - exercise on typography and legibility
    • Project 1 - promote a charity event of your choice that is associate with a celebrity and design graphics to apply to a t-shirt
    • Project 2 - create a print or online ad for a consumer product of your choice
    • Project 3 - case study
  • Mixed Media and Collage
    • Landscape
    • Animal
    • Fortune Cookie
    • Defacing
    • Food

Fourth Term of Courses

  • Color Methodologies
    • Project 1 - Subtractive Hue Study
    • Project 2 - Intensity/Neutrality Study
    • Project 3 - Value & Tonality
    • Project 4 - Color & Space
    • Project 5 - Color Interaction App Icon
    • Project 6 - Response
    • Project 7 - Color Trends
  • Design History and Context
    • Project 1 - Psychedelic Movement
    • Project 2 - Infographic Poster

Final Term of Courses

  • Icons, Logo and Logotype Design
    • Project A - design of a logo for a retail or public space
    • Project B - focus on the overall visual branding design
    • Project C - create a communication system based on a historical look at cave paintings, icons, patterns, pictographs, languages, hieroglyphs, phonetic alphabets and the concepts of semiotics (context related meanings).