YDA 1 Spring 2019 Oakland — Week 2

Last week students came to class with their parents, now this week was their first class on their own. We watched as students slowly opened up and became more interested design.

It was a beautiful day out so before starting class, we played Question Ball outside! Students tossed the ball around and answered questions to get to know each other.

Intro to Communication Design

After the icebreaker, we quickly recapped last week before diving into the seminar. This week’s class was on Communication Design.

What is Communication Design? Communication Design includes branding, logos, book covers, marketing design, packaging, advertisements, and more! We covered different elements of communication design, such as color, typography, photography, logos, and branding.

As we dove into each topic, students were eager to share stories related to the lesson. Whether it’s their favorite font or the way they take their own photographs.

What’s Your Brand?

Using what they just learned, students designed their own moodboards and logos to represent themselves. They had to think about what makes them unique and what was important to them. As they searched through magazines for the perfect picture to use, students also had a chance to notice each ad, photograph, and cover of the magazines they flipped through. Each page was created by a designer who used the same elements of design we had just gone over.

Community Challenge — Design a new school program

After lunch we played Pictionary to prepare for the community challenge. For the community challenge we split the students up into groups. These groups are the groups they will be working together in for all the community challenge activities. This week’s community challenge was focused on designing a print ad on a life skill they’d love to learn at school.

Both groups had to learn to work together and decide on the skill they wanted to focus on. Then they had to create an ad using the elements of design they had just learned about when it comes to communication design. After 40 minutes, students shared their poster with the whole class. One group created an ad on job skills while another focused on mental health.

Coming Up

Next week we will be going over digital design! This includes websites, apps, animation, and more!