Sessions28
  1. Part IEditorial
  2. 01Tue Aug 25Course Introduction
  3. 02Thu Aug 27Reading an Editorial Brief
  4. 03Tue Sep 1The Pen Tool
  5. 04Thu Sep 3Thumbnail Review
  6. 05Tue Sep 8Shape Building and Pathfinder
  7. 06Thu Sep 10Color Systems
  8. 07Tue Sep 15Type and Image
  9. 08Thu Sep 17Project 1 Hand-In, Project 2 Opens
  10. 09Tue Sep 22Capturing a Drawing
  11. 10Thu Sep 24Starting the Drawing
  12. 11Tue Sep 29Brushes From Your Own Marks
  13. 12Thu Oct 1Capture and Check-in
  14. 13Tue Oct 6Color for Print
  15. 14Thu Oct 8Setting Up for Screenprint
  16. Oct 13No class
  17. 15Thu Oct 15Project 2 Critique
  18. Part IISurface and Motion
  19. 16Tue Oct 20Package Structure and the Dieline
  20. 17Thu Oct 22Illustration on a Dieline
  21. 18Tue Oct 27Pattern and Repeat
  22. 19Thu Oct 29Mockups
  23. 20Tue Nov 3Print Production
  24. 21Thu Nov 5Project 3 Critique
  25. 22Tue Nov 10Illustration in Motion
  26. 23Thu Nov 12Preparing Artwork to Move
  27. 24Tue Nov 17Timing and Easing
  28. 25Thu Nov 19Loops and Export
  29. 26Tue Nov 24Rough Loop Review
  30. Nov 26No class
  31. 27Tue Dec 1Final Work Session
  32. 28Thu Dec 3Final Work Session and Export Check

ART 220 · Charleston Southern University · Fall 2026

Project 3. Packaging Illustration (3 weeks)

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.

The run

Every due date is a class day. Work is turned in on Blackboard, presented in class, or both. The late-work policy is in the syllabus.

Project 3. Packaging Illustration (3 weeks)

20% of the grade · 2 milestones

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. TueOct 13no class

    Fall Break

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

Final critique

no weight of its own

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.

Finding the audience

Your personal statement points at the audiences you already know. Bring three candidates, each found in one of these four places, due Sep 9.

A world you know
A craft, a job you have held, a subject you are inside. You already know what the people in it buy and what they complain about.
Your community
A group or place you belong to. You can ask people directly what they need.
Yourself
You would use this product if someone sold it to you right. The risk is that you are the only one; the research will tell you.
A wild card
An audience that simply interests you. Held to the same evidence as the other three.

Problem framing

Problem framing is discovering and defining a problem your audience shares. It comes from design thinking, which puts people at the center of the work. Skip it and nobody can see what your product is for. Answer four questions, then compress the answers into one statement.

Who
Who has the problem, and how do you know?
What
What is the problem, and what signs show it?
Why
Why solve it, and what does it cost unsolved?
Where
In what circumstances does it show up?

Your problem statement is the four answers written as one short statement from the audience's side, due Sep 14.

The creative brief distills what the pitch settled: the client, the budget, the date, the audience, and the business problem. It is the reference every later phase answers to.

The deck

You prepare and present a deck of your research and initial insights: nine slides, three minutes.

  1. 01

    Cover

    The subject, one line saying what it is, your name and the date. No version number; the repository tracks versions.

  2. 02

    The product

    What it is and what it can do, compressed out of your problem statement. One slide. The source is on it.

  3. 03

    The audience

    Specific people, named the way you would name them to a client. Not a demographic bracket.

  4. 04

    The problem

    One sentence, set large, alone on the slide. If it needs a second sentence it is two problems.

  5. 05

    The evidence

    What you actually found, sourced. This slide decides whether the problem is real.

  6. 06

    What they buy today

    What the audience uses instead, and what those choices cost them.

  7. 07

    The four questions

    Who, what, why, and where, answered short. This is where a bad problem gets caught early.

  8. 08

    What you do not know

    The open questions, written down as questions. Every honest deck has some.

  9. 09

    What the machine did

    The three lines. Same format as everything else you hand in.

How you show your work

The work lives in one repository, with a running log of what you decided and what the machine did. How to set both up, and what a good entry looks like, gets its own note early in the term.

The stand-up
Work sessions open with three minutes each, screen up: what moved, what is stuck, what you will have done by next time. Participation is graded here. The rest of the session is yours to work in, with me in the room.
Say what moved
When a piece is re-presented, one line on what changed and why: critique, evidence, or the machine.
What the machine did
Three lines closing every piece you hand in: the tools you used by name; what you asked for and what came back; what you changed, cut or overruled. "None" is a complete answer.
The rule under all of it
Use AI on anything in this course, and defend everything you turn in as your own decision. Check every fact a model gives you; when one fails in the room, the error is yours.

How it is graded

Every piece of work is graded on the same four counts, each a quarter of that piece's grade. Participation and presentations are graded on their own; their weights, and each milestone's, are in the syllabus.

Participation/Process · 25%
Contributing to class discussions and critiques; improving work as a result of research and iteration.
Concept · 25%
Responding to the problem statement innovatively; thinking critically about work based on critiques, readings and discussions.
Formal Resolution · 25%
Making work that is aesthetically sophisticated, effective and appropriate given concept and context.
Craft · 25%
Taking care in manufacture of work; showing technical ability.
0:00–0:00