Did you know that you can LEGALLY make some serious money by taking something that someone created a long, long time ago, repackaging it, and selling it yourself?

Copyright exists on everything that you create. If you compose music, create art, design a logo, or even take a photograph, you have the right to choose what happens to that creation and nobody can take your creation without your permission. You don’t have to do anything other than prove that you are the one who created something in order to own a copyright.

However… those copyrights don’t last forever! Copyright laws are kind of different in different places, and I’m by no means a lawyer…

There are many places on the Internet where you can go and download a book that’s already been written and you can do whatever you want with it! Legally! Isn’t that insane? Ain’t capitalism grand?

You could go and create your own version of any of the following:

• Frankenstein
• Romeo and Juliet
• Dracula
• Alice in Wonderland
• Sherlock Holmes
• Peter Pan
• The Wizard of Oz
• heck, even Winnie the Pooh is in the public domain now! (but watch out if you’re going anywhere near Disney…)

Sources of Public Domain books:

https://www.gutenberg.org/

https://www.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about/free_books.html

https://archive.org/details/texts

You’re going to pick a book and design a cover (front and back) and lay it out. What you do with it from there is up to you… just don’t get me involved!

When it comes to the layout portion, I recommend finding one that has a PLAIN TEXT version. For example, here’s a link to download Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I used to love Mark Twain when I was a kid. I was a weird kid.

The plain text version looks like this

I can download the whole book just by pressing Ctrl + S on my keyboard!

That book has been published countless times by countless jokers looking to make a buck!

Now, I do not expect you to read the book or have already read the book. You can pick whatever you want. I’m not about to read the thing and make sure that you’ve portrayed the book accurately, so feel free to pick whatever you want and have fun with it. The thing is, you have to come up with your own design and use images that are not protected by copyright.

Photos and images can be used from Creative Commons sources such as:

• Unsplash
• The Noun Project
• AI/Firefly
• Creative Commons
• or just take photos and create images yourself!

How & where you create this is kind of up to you! Keep in mind that sometimes you need to revise your design, adapt it for physical or digital releases, or your book gets turned into a movie or a stage production (hint, hint…)

Your first job is to pick a book and design a cover and the back of the book, which usually has a little summary of the book and perhaps some testimonials from others who have read the book.

Ideal dimensions for ebook cover files are 2,560 pixels in height x 1,600 pixels in width.

Examples (although not necessarily good or creative ones…):

One of the most common tasks for a designer is to come up with a logo that represents a brand/business/service/product/etc. It’s not easy. A logo has to be simple but it can convey a lot:

The first thing you want to do when figuring out a brand identity is to consider some words and associated images that might fit.

You’re going to design a logo for my class. So, the first thing to do might be to come up with some descriptive words that will help you figure out what the logo should look and “feel” like.

Here are the results of that little poll. Check out these words and ideas to help you come up with something suitable for your logo design.

Once you have some ideas for the direction of your design, you want to consider what type of logo it’ll be and what it’ll be used for:

Ideally, you’d want a logo that could be scaled up or down by adding or removing text. Once a brand has some recognition, or in a place where it isn’t as important to get all of the information across, you can use a simple Wordmark, Pictorial Mark, or Abstract Mark.

Because you’re designing a logo for a “brand” that isn’t exactly world famous, you’ll need to incorporate some kind of images/shapes/icons/etc. and some text to form either a Combination Mark or Emblem.

A couple of sites/resources to consider:

fonts.adobe.com – you have access to a massive library of fonts. Don’t go with something easily recognizable or standard. Think about those descriptive words and pick a font that conjures up some of those emotions/descriptions/reactions.

The Noun Project – Many of you can draw really well. I can’t. At all. So I often need a little help with the artwork. The Noun Project is a great place to start.

A logo needs to be scaleable! You need to be able to use it in places where it’s going to be really tiny, like on the side of a pen, and really huge, like on a billboard. In order to be that versatile and adapt to any size/scenario, it needs to be a VECTOR design! Use Illustrator!

If you need a simple, effective tutorial to help you get started with the program or review what you might have forgotten, go here: Get to know Illustrator tutorial

Upon completion, you will have to assess your own logo and hand in a reflection. Later, you will take a look at everyone’s logos and help assess theirs based on the same criteria:

• Appealing (Does this logo catch your eye and make you want to pay attention?)
• Interesting (Does this make you interested and want to check out the business/service/place?)
• Creative/Unique (Does this stand out as being different and creative?)
• Memorable (Later on, if I asked you what the logo loos like, would you remember?)
• Appropriate (Does the design suit the business/service/place and its target audience?)
• Clear and informative (Can you tell what type of business/service/place this logo is for?)

Fill this out when you are finished your own logo. Be honest and provide some real thought into the choices you made:

Mr. Donohoe is considering setting up some cool new clubs in the school, but first he needs to get the word out and get people interested. He wants you to help design some posters that will be appealing and will let people know about this exciting opportunity.

He wants to set up:

• Electronics Club
• E Sports League
• Video Game club

There will be a meeting on Oct. 18 at lunch time in room 118 (Electronics). Anyone interested is asked to attend or see Mr. Donohoe if they can’t or want more information.

I would suggest designing these for print on 11 x 17 paper, but 8.5 x 11 or larger are options.

Thought-starter samples: He sent over some images of things that he thought might help with some basic information and inspiration, but the design and content are up to you:

Our lovely librarian, Ms. Lontajo has asked for some help advertising a condo that her family wants to rent out in The Phillippines. She is looking for something that could either be posted online or printed and handed out.

You can visit the library if you have any questions. Photos and info are in the hand out folder HERE

Ms. Butcher is spearheading the creation of a new Westwood Special Olympics team! They need a logo and some team t-shirts to wear.

Create a logo/graphic that combines (perhaps) the Westwood logo and the Special Olympics logo (samples), or somehow identifies this as our new Westwood team.

What that looks like is kind of up to you! Come up with some ideas/concepts and we’ll run it by Ms. Butcher.

First event is Sept. 28, so we need to get a fairly quick start on this one!

When I was a kid, collecting trading cards was a big thing. I had trading cards for all of the major sports, some music ones, and even trading cards for TV shows like Star Trek, Welcome Back Kotter, and Happy Days. (Yeah, I’m old.) There were even U.S. Military trading cards.

Now, you’re most likely to find sports cards, but there’s also a huge line of Manga based games and stuff (Pokemon, Digimon, whatevermon.)

The cards would be a set with a similar theme and design, and the goal was to collect the set (or at least your favourite ones or the ones that would be most rare/valuable.)

You’re going to design a set of at least 8 trading cards (although have fun and keep going if you like!) Then you’re going to put them together on a sheet, print them and cut them out.

Think of how cool it would be to have actual cards for your hockey/baseball/football/volleyball team! You could make real cards for student council, Westwood teachers, the place where you work, etc!

You could design your card using any of the major Adobe apps. I preferred InDesign. The standard size for these cards is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

InDesign:

Photoshop:

Samples:

IMPORTANT TIP:

Have a similar layout and ESPECIALLY a SIMILAR BACKGROUND! When you put your individual cards together on a sheet for printing & cutting, you’ll want a BLEED area that works for all of the cards. I found it easiest to NOT include a bleed in the design, but use my background as a background when I laid out the cards on one sheet.

I was able to comfortably fit 16 cards on one sheet of 11″ x 17″ card stock:

You can use my grid if you like (unless you have a better idea, which I’m open to!) and add your own Guides to help line up the actual cards. My grid: TradingCardGrid

We have been approached by our division arts coordinator to submit a design for a very exciting project – a large scale banner that would be hung on the school division office at Portage & Moray. Your art could be hanging in a very public, very large way and represent our community to anyone who passes by!

Here’s the idea that we’ve been given:

My hope is that students will each take a St. James landmark/monument and transform it into a symbol of inclusion. For instance, a group takes Grant’s Old Mill and turns the water wheel into a Sacred Circle and the water flowing over and past the mill is made orange. Maybe another group takes an airplane and covers it with the inclusion flag. I am hoping that students will come up with ideas of how to change images that people associate with St. James and transform it to look more indicative of our changing community to show that we are diverse and that we embrace people of all cultures and walks of life.

Your job would be to think of St. James landmarks or community icons or things that represent this community and turn them into something inclusive and welcoming.

Because the finished product will be so large, you would need to create vector artwork using Illustrator! Actual photographs won’t work here, but you’d likely need to create art based on actual photos/locations.

You would need to incorporate the school division logo and possibly the colours that it uses. You can find logos HERE.

I don’t have any other specific information yet about the actual size or requirements of the finished artwork or a due date yet, but will update once I find out.

Your job here is simple. Make me an advertisement (designed for PRINT – although you do NOT have to print it) for some product/service/band/sports team, etc. that you are interested in. You can use any program you wish. Personally, I’d recommend Photoshop, but if you don’t know Photoshop and aren’t ready to learn, use Word or whatever you’re comfortable with. Heck, make it on paper if you really want, but you’ll have to look back on this and make changes/improvements to it later, so having a digital copy will really come in handy!

The ad needs to have one or more images

The ad needs to have one or more block of text.

The ad needs to be creative and interesting.

Other than that, the rest is up to you! Make an advertisement about something you’re interested in. I want the ad to tell me why this thing/person/event means something to you. Get me as interested and excited as you are!

Try to think about an advertisement’s purpose. Where do you see them? What should they do? If I place this ad in a magazine or newspaper, what am I hoping will happen? Those are some thoughts to consider.

You can (and probably should) look at some examples of PRINT advertisements. Online ads can be different, so make sure you are considering that this is designed for print. I have some magazines that you can flip through if you need inspiration, or you could look for some samples online.

Along with your advertisement file (named FirstAd or ConcertAd, etc. Anything untitled or unnamed won’t be opened!), you will hand in a reflection. I’d recommend creating a Word document and calling it AdReflection, or something like that. If you know InDesign or some other way of doing the reflection, that’s fine. If writing isn’t your thing and you’d rather just talk about your work, come see me at lunch.

Reflection questions:

1. What does a “good” advertisement have/do? How do you know if an ad is “good”?
2. What did you do that is “good”? What do you like about your ad? What are you proud of?
3. What do you think could be improved on your ad? What could you have done better? If you had to do it again, what would you change?

Put some thought into those questions and explain yourself well for full marks! If it’s really short or not in full sentences, you won’t get full marks. This isn’t a writing class, so spelling and grammar and all of that stuff don’t really count, but they always help to make you look more intelligent.