When designing for a client, you often have to give them an idea how your design is going to look on different products and in different situations. Sometimes you’re suggesting or actually designing products that the client can buy or even sell. Plus, it helps you to see how your design is going to work in different places.

So often you’re creating something called a mockup. Sometimes you’ll have to create the mockup yourself by using your mad Photoshop skills, but luckily there are tools that you can use to make that job really easy.

Finding yourself some good templates can make your life much easier, and there are a LOT of them available for free online. Just search for Photoshop mockup and see what comes up. There are also a lot of graphic design sites that provide templates and tutorials as well. One that I like a lot is called Makerbook, and they have links to some great sources: http://makerbook.net/mockups

Using a mix of those pre-made templates and some of your own mad skills, I want you to come up with at least 3 different product mockups. Make them products that would actually make sense for that client to use (so a team would be more likely to sell clothing, the cafeteria could use some mugs, etc.) At least 1 of the mockups must be your own creation (not a pre-made template.) Consider looking at a tutorial and then applying those skills though.

For example, in the past I’ve used a tutorial like this: https://youtu.be/f7d0yeMDhoM and then ‘painted’ it onto an object instead of a face.

Important note: Often you’ll need to CHANGE or ADAPT or ADD TO your logo in order to make it work in some places. The soccer logo in my examples work fairly well there, but wouldn’t work as well as the main image in the middle of a t-shirt (it looks more for a smaller crest), so it may need to be changed a bit to fit a situation like that. That’s also part of your job.

We’ve practiced a bit with InDesign and Photoshop, but the other big program that you definitely need to know in order to be a designer is Illustrator. Having scalable vector graphics is key, and something your clients will definitely want, especially for their logo, which may be used on something as small as a business card, or as large as a billboard.

Here’s a great tutorial that will get you started designing a logo. Please work through it a bit at a time and create a logo. It will be easiest if you just copy the pizza parlour logo in the demonstration, but if you like you can start to work on something of your own design.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/logo-design.html

Your next assignment will be to design a logo for a program/department here at St. James. Choose your favourite (or something that inspires you) and come up with a logo that represents that department/program and incorporates effective colours. Use the Jimmies logo and/or colours somewhere, but also choose your own colours that represent the right mood/feeling. Choose an effective typeface or two and use those. You may wish to incorporate creative commons vector shapes & images. For now, I’d like to recommend a site called The Noun Project. The free versions of their icons usually have attribution information on screen, but for now you can leave that in or cut it off.

If you want to include a Jimmies logo or get the proper colours, follow this link and download whatever you need.

Examples of programs/departments:

• Art
• Autobody
• Band
• Electronics
• English
• Foods & Nutrition
• French
• Graphic Tech
• Jimmie Jam Radio
• Jimmies Junction store
• Math
• Science
• Technology
• Woods
• etc!

Open Adobe In Design (you may have to do a spotlight search or look in your Applications folder)

You want to Create a New Document

Please pay attention to the document settings below. Your document should be EXACTLY the same setup (Print document, 2 pages, Facing Pages, Letter size, with a .2 in Bleed)

One tool that you will probably use A LOT is the Frame tool. Note that there are 3: rectangle, ellipse, and polygon!

In this program, you need to always create a Frame then PLACE a file into that frame. This is a LINK TO THE FILE. If you move the file from its original location, the link will be broken, so I STRONGLY RECOMMEND putting ALL ASSETS into ONE FOLDER! When you download an image to put into your document, put it in this folder! Do not just leave it on your desktop where it can get deleted or moved!

You are going to create a poster. The topic is up to you, but there are some important limitations.

You must ONLY use Creative Commons or self-created elements for this poster! You must use a font that is licensed for use in this situation!

visit my “Links” page and look under “Copyright Free Content” for links to sites that you can use, or use a site like CCSearch or makerbook.net to help you find sites, or you could take some of your own photos or create some of your own artwork. If you are doing a search, you DO NOT NEED to be licensed to use the items for commercial use! You will get more results if you take off that limitation!

You need to have AT LEAST 4 properly collected and ATTRIBUTED photos. Use AT LEAST 2 different sites to gather your photos.

Use at least 2 of MY fonts (consult the posters: Fonts 200 plus or 100 Copyright Free Fonts)

Design your poster on PAGE 1 of your document. Page 2 will be for ATTRIBUTION information (links to your pictures/creators’ names, and font info.)

When you are done, you need to PACKAGE your project together (which will include the fonts and links to images, documents, etc.) and drop off that newly created package folder.

Please fill in a form for each project!