Projects

A publication has assigned you the art for one feature article: a featured illustration that runs as the hero at the top of the story, and two spot illustrations that run through it. The article runs on the web, in the newsletter, and as a card in a feed. Read the article, then design a hero that carries what it argues and two spots that belong to the same family: one palette, one drawing logic, one voice. Hand in production-ready vector files. You will learn the pen tool and curve construction, shape building and boolean operations, color as a reusable system, and how design principles work at editorial scale.

You are given

Sixteen commissions, grouped by theme below. Each links to the full brief: the publication, its audience, the story, and what the desk will not accept. The story text and the photography that ran with it are in the packet handed out in class.You may propose your own article instead; clear it with me before the thumbnail review.

The commissions

The machine and the handIs Artificial Intelligence a Friend or Foe to Local Tattoo Artists? Alyssa McDowell · Charleston City Paper, 2026Researchers Weigh the Use of AI for Mental Health Ramin Skibba · Undark, 2025The waterBuilding Toward Disaster: Growth Collides with Rising Seas in Charleston Ames Alexander · Floodlight, with the SC Daily Gazette, 2025A 'Devil' Seaweed Is Spreading Inside Hawaii's Most Protected Place Nathan Eagle · Honolulu Civil Beat, 2024What gets hiddenBill Shielding SC College NIL Agreements from Public Records Law Advances SC Daily Gazette · SC Daily Gazette, 2026Microsoft Chose Profit Over Security Renee Dudley · ProPublica, 2024Kept in the Dark: The Hired Guns Who Keep School Cyberattacks Hidden Mark Keierleber · The 74, with WIRED, 2025The cityThe Great Downzoning Samuel Hughes · Works in Progress, 2025The Wrong Kind of City? Dietrich Vollrath · Asterisk Magazine, 2024Deep time and memoryWhat Can a Cell Remember? Claire L. Evans · Quanta Magazine, 2025High Mountains, Ancient Shells and the Wonder of Deep Time Katy Kelleher · Nautilus, 2024The spectacleThe Dionne Quintuplets Captivated the World. But Their Fame Came at a Cost Jordan Friedman · Smithsonian Magazine, 2025Quantifying the Diva-ness of 138 National Anthem Performances Jan Diehm and Michelle Pera-McGhee · The Pudding, 2024The everyday99 Problems: The Ice Cream Truck's Surprising History Olivia Potts · Longreads, 2025Put Down Your Phone and Engage in Boredom Mehmet Sebih Oruc · The Conversation, 2025Scientists Know Our Bodies Are Full of Microplastics. What Are They Doing to Us? Will Stone · NPR, 2024

You will learn to

Translate a written argument into a visual concept, not a picture of the article's nouns.Generate range on purpose: many distinct concepts before any one gets rendered.Build a family: a hero that leads and two spots that belong to it, one palette and one voice across all three.Produce production-ready vector artwork a designer could place without touching it.Present the work and defend the concept in critique.

What you make

One featured illustration and two spot illustrations that read as a family: the hero leads, the spots echo its palette, drawing logic, and voice.The hero is built at 16 by 9 inches and runs full width at the top of the article. It has to survive the share-card crop and a thumbnail.Each spot is built at 3 by 3 inches and has to read at one inch.Vector only, drawn in Illustrator. Color built from global swatches, one palette across the family.One working file, three artboards at run size.

Hand in

One Illustrator file, lastname-p1.ai, built from the hand-in template: the hero and both spots on their artboards at run size, the proof artboard filled, and your thumbnail sheets placed on the thumbnails artboard. Named layers, global swatches, no stray points.

Graded on

Concept: the hero carries what the article argues, and each spot says something the article says. An image that only shows a noun from the article is illustration of the topic, not the idea.Formal resolution: the family reads together. The hero works at full width and in the share crop; the spots work at run size and at one inch.Craft: clean paths with economical points, named layers, global swatches, no stray points. The file is the evidence.Process: the thumbnail sheets show real range, three concepts and not three versions, and they get turned in with the final.

Milestones

Sep 3: p1a, at least 12 thumbnails across 3 distinct concepts, pinned up, the hero frame marked in each concept. Done means the room can name what each concept says.Sep 10: p1b, the hero and both spots roughed in one file with a working palette. Done means the family is visible, even if rough.Sep 17: final, handed in at run size, in the share crop, and at one inch. Done means the hand-in list is complete.

AI use

Ideation is Open: research, reference, moodboards and concept development, disclosed and cited in the department format. Output is Closed: the finished artwork is drawn by you.

1. ThuSep 3

   Concepts and thumbnails

   Bring the article you chose and at least twelve thumbnails across three different concepts, with the hero frame marked in each. We will pin them up and go through them as a group.

2. ThuSep 10

   Vector drafts

   The hero and both spots roughed in Illustrator, in one file, with a working color palette.

A poster for a real Charleston exhibition or festival, or a recent film or book, made from a drawing you make by hand. You pick one subject from a list of thirteen, and the words the poster has to carry are given to you. You finish a real drawing on paper, then capture it and build the poster from it at 18 by 24 inches, in whatever software suits it: cleaned and colored in Photoshop, traced to vector in Illustrator, or anything else. The words can be drawn by hand, set in a font, or kept small so the picture does the talking; whichever you choose, you plan them in the first thumbnail. The file is set up for screenprint, with each color on its own solid black layer and registration marks, so it is ready if we get into a screenprint shop to print. That may not happen. It has to stop someone from across a room and still read as a small image on a phone. You will learn how poster artists handle words and pictures together, mark-making that survives capture, scanning and clean-up, and color under a drawn line.

You are given

Pick one subject from the thirteen below: a real exhibition or festival in Charleston, or a recent film or book. Check the venue's own page for the dates before you put them on the poster.Exhibition. Rodin: All the Truth of Nature. Gibbes Museum of Art, through Jan 17, 2027.Exhibition. Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence. Gibbes Museum of Art, Oct 16, 2026 to May 9, 2027.Exhibition. GROUNDED IN GRAIN, WASHED IN THE WATER. Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, through Dec 5, 2026.Exhibition. middle of somewhere: the art and the legacy of Black Southern makers. International African American Museum. No closing date is announced, so this poster says on view now in place of a date range.Festival. Charleston Literary Festival. Dock Street Theatre, Nov 6 to 15, 2026.Festival. Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. Marion Square and venues downtown, Feb 12 to 14, 2027.Festival. Charleston Wine + Food. Across the city, Mar 3 to 7, 2027.Film. Past Lives. Celine Song, 2023.Film. Everything Everywhere All at Once. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022.Film. Sinners. Ryan Coogler, 2025.Book. Demon Copperhead. Barbara Kingsolver, 2022. She speaks at the Literary Festival in November.Book. James. Percival Everett, 2024.Book. Klara and the Sun. Kazuo Ishiguro, 2021.The words, in order of size. An exhibition or festival carries the title, the venue, the dates and the website. A film or book carries the title, the director or author and the year, then the invented night: Tuesdays at 7 PM, Library Room 110, free and open to everyone. Nothing else.Watch, read or go see your subject before you draw it. Do not look at the official poster or book cover until your thumbnails are done. Want a different subject? Bring it Sep 22.

You will learn to

Make one image do a poster's job: stop a person, tell them what the thing is, then hold up on a second look.Choose how the words work with the picture: drawn, set in a font, or kept small, and plan that choice from the first thumbnail.Draw for reproduction: marks that survive the scanner and hold up when the sheet doubles in size.Carry a finished drawing onto the poster: capture it, clean it, and color or vectorize it without losing what made it a drawing.Present the work and defend the concept in critique.

What you make

One poster, 18 by 24 inches, portrait.The picture is drawn by hand on paper at 9 by 12 inches or larger, the same proportion as the poster.The words are yours to handle one of three ways: drawn by hand on paper with the picture, set in one type family chosen for the subject, or set small so the picture carries the poster. The small print may always be set in a font.Captured so the finished file is 18 by 24 inches at 300 ppi. A 9 by 12 drawing scans at 600.Line separated from the background and color added in any software. Scanned line colored in Photoshop, or traced to vector in Illustrator, both work. Three colors plus the line, and the words use those same colors. Full color is allowed if you prepare it for process printing (CMYK halftone) or pull it back to flat colors.Set up for screenprint: every color, the line included, sits on its own layer in solid black, with the same registration marks on every layer. We will try to get into a screenprint shop to print the posters, and it may not happen. The file has to be ready either way.The poster is built from the finished drawing. Lettering or sketches may be digitized and vectorized; a picture drawn from scratch on the computer does not meet the brief.

Bring

Paper for the final: a pad of smooth bristol or mixed-media paper, 9 by 12 inches or larger. 11 by 14 gives you more room and keeps close to the proportion.Cheap paper for thumbnails and studies, and a few sheets of tracing paper. Tracing over your last try is the fastest way to improve a drawing or a letter.Pencils, an HB and a 2B, with a white vinyl or kneaded eraser and a sharpener.Black ink: fineliners in three widths, such as 01, 05 and 08, and a brush pen or a broad black marker for fills.A ruler, 12 inches or longer, and low-tack tape.Your phone camera or a scanner for capture, and the flash drive you already bring.Optional: a drawing tablet. Nothing in the project requires one.

Hand in

The layered working file, Photoshop or Illustrator: drawing, color and words on their own named layers.A flattened PDF at 18 by 24, and the proof. The proof is the final: a printout of the poster to scale, at a size you can print yourself, like 6 by 8 on letter paper.The original drawing, on paper, hung beside the proof at the critique.Separations: one PDF page per color, each in solid black with registration marks, plus a color key.Your in-class studies, thumbnails and words studies, photographed or scanned, in one PDF.

Graded on

Concept: the poster says one thing about its subject. A picture of the main character with the title on top is a record of the subject and carries no idea.Formal resolution: the words and the picture were planned together and look like one poster. It holds from across the room and as a phone-size image.Craft: a clean capture, the line separated, color tight to the drawing, whether pixels or vector, layers named. Drawn letters are even in weight and spaced by eye; set type is one family, sized and placed on purpose. The separations are clean enough for a printer to use.Process: the in-class studies are done, the thumbnails show real range, and the words were tried more than one way.

Milestones

Sep 17, in class: pick a subject from the list, and try its words three ways on paper.Sep 22, in class: a mark sheet scanned and photographed, and a thumbnail sprint. Supplies in hand.Sep 24: p2a, your subject, 12 thumbnails with the words placed in every one, the one you are taking forward marked, and a words study at a larger size. In class: the phone test, a three-value plan, and the final drawing starts.Sep 29, in class: Exercise 4, then drawing time with desk visits.Oct 1: p2b, the finished drawing, captured in class and cleaned, line separated in a working file, raster or vector.Oct 6, in class: color for print, spot colors and separations, then work time with desk visits. Get the poster to three colors plus the line, each on its own ink layer.Oct 8, in class: the wall and phone test on a small print, then a work day with desk critiques. Fall Break is finishing time.Oct 15: final, the proof on the wall beside the original drawing. Done means the hand-in list is complete.

AI use

Ideation is Open, disclosed and cited. Output is Closed: the drawing is yours on paper and the finish is yours on the computer.

1. ThuSep 24

   Title, thumbnails and words study

   Your subject from the list and the exact words the poster carries. Your thumbnail pages: the subject worked through as an object, a symbol, a pattern, words, and a scene, one folded page of eight each, plus the sheet where you refined the ones you liked, with the one you are taking forward marked. One study of the words at a larger size: drawn letters, or your font printed and placed on the sketch.

2. ThuOct 1

   Finished drawing, captured

   Your finished drawing on paper, lettering included if you drew it, captured in class and cleaned up, with the line separated from the background in a working file, Photoshop or Illustrator.

3. TueOct 13no class

   Fall Break

A small food or beverage company needs packaging for a new product. The logo already exists; you are given a simple wordmark to place. You will design the package and the illustration system that covers it. The artwork has to work on a dieline, survive a fold, and hold up on a shelf. Hand in production files and a photographed mockup. You will learn dielines and package structure, how an illustration behaves on a surface that wraps, pattern and repeat, and print production basics: bleed and color separation.

You are given

The company's wordmark as a vector file. You place it; you do not redesign it.One folding carton dieline. Everyone builds the same structure, so the work goes into the illustration.

What you make

One product, one carton, one illustration that runs across every panel and survives the folds.A repeat or pattern somewhere on the carton, on a side panel, the back, or the inside.Print-ready: bleed on every edge, and a stated decision on spot versus process color.The wordmark placed with clearance, legible at shelf distance.

Hand in

Production files on the dieline, with bleed.A flat PDF of the dieline at 100 percent.A paper mockup, built and photographed. Present the package on the form at critique.

AI use

Ideation is Open, disclosed and cited. Output is Closed: the illustration system and the production files are made by you.

1. ThuOct 22

   Illustration on the flat dieline

   Your product named, and the illustration roughed onto the flat carton dieline: the front panel resolved in sketch, and how the art continues around the folds.

2. ThuOct 29

   First mockup

   The carton printed, cut, folded and photographed, with the illustration and the repeat on it. It can be rough; it has to be built.

You choose the subject and the venue. Design an illustration that moves and deliver it as a seamless loop along with the still image it came from. You will learn to prepare artwork for animation, timing and easing, and loop construction and export, using every tool the term has covered.

You are given

The venue is yours to pick and name in one sentence: where does this loop live, and at what size does it play?

What you make

One seamless loop, three to ten seconds, from artwork you made: vector, drawn, or both.The loop has to actually loop. The last frame hands off to the first with no seam.Timing is designed: eased, not linear, and readable at the venue's size.Deliver alongside the finished still it came from.

Hand in

The loop as an mp4 and a gif, sized for the venue you named.The still image at full quality.Working files: the layered artwork and the animation file.

AI use

Ideation is Open, disclosed and cited. Output is Closed, and for this project that includes motion: generated video, generated frames and frame interpolation count as output. The artwork and the movement are made by you.

1. TueNov 17

   Motion study

   One short study: a single element moving, eased, looping cleanly. This confirms your tools and your export work before the project depends on them.

2. TueNov 24

   Rough loop

   The whole piece moving, rough. Timing should be readable; the artwork does not have to be finished.

3. ThuNov 26no class

   Thanksgiving

The final loops screened and defended, in the exam slot the registrar assigns. The final project is due at the start. You talk about what the image is for, what you tried, and what you would do next.

1. Dec 8 to Dec 14

   The last class

   What is in the repository at the end of class is what is graded.