Hello and welcome to Graphics at Reigate College.
My name is Kristina Sinclair and I’m the course leader for Graphics A Level. I’m looking forward to welcoming you to the Art & Design Department in person at the beginning of the academic year, but in the meantime I’d like you to complete a series of tasks and activities in preparation for the course.
These tasks have all been designed for you to complete independently from home over the coming weeks and months. When we start the course in September, there’ll be the chance to share your work with other Graphics students and discuss what you’ve learnt.
The tasks will be released here, in three phases (see table below) and should be completed by Choices Day on 1 September 2021. Please throw yourself into them and above all enjoy them!
Please note, some Course Leaders (for example for Music) may release their tasks earlier, as they may form part of the College’s audition process. If this applies to you, you’ll be notified separately.
New Starters Course Tasks and Activities
| Release date | To be completed by | |
| Explore your Subject | 1 June | 1 July |
| Get Going | 1 July | 1 Aug |
| Aim High | 1 Aug | 1 Sep |
Explore your Subject
Welcome back!
The Graphic Design Department is a warm and welcoming place to be. We’ve created a department that will introduce you to new and exciting design skills as well as allowing room to develop your existing creative attributes. We encourage creatively, individualism and room to develop innovative design concepts. We hope you get a flavour of this through this first set of activities.
Introducing Graphic Design
Graphic Designer Paul Rand said:
“Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”
Graphic Design is a creative process most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form (i.e. printers, sign-makers, etc.) undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term ‘graphic design’ can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that focus on visual communication and presentation.
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).
Task 1: Watch the following YouTube video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFWJGA7qrc
Typography is all around us, but each version tells a different important message. We can see type used in everything from street signs, magazines, posters and clothes to packaging and tickets.
Task 2: Collect a diverse range of examples of creative typography used in media such magazines and posters or online digital media. Focus on use of colour and composition.
Task 3: Now evaluate how they use design, colour and style to communicate a message. How effective are they in doing this?
Here are some examples we found:
Please present your findings, giving examples of what you think are successful uses of typography.
We’re looking forward to sharing everyone’s ideas at the start of the course – and in the meantime, remember to be alert to the many examples of typography around you.
Get Going
Creating alphabets
Design inspiration is all around us and can be found in the most unexpected places. Searching your environment can make you look at everyday objects in a new and creative way.
TASK 1: Look around your home and search for objects that could represent each letter of the alphabet. Be creative and look for the unusual!
See if you can photograph each ‘letter’ to create an alphabet gallery as in the examples below:
TASK 2: Now select one object and try to achieve each letter of the alphabet by manipulating the object to different shapes and angles. (You may need to experiment with different objects to find one that works – see the examples below for some ideas.)
How successful were you? Which letters proved most challenging?
If you can, please photograph what you created – you’ll have the chance to share your ideas and find out what other students did when we start the course.
We hope you enjoy creating letters out of everyday objects!
Aim High
Communicating meaning with colour and shape
TASK: How easy do we find it to communicate? We’d like you to find a way of writing each of the six words below so you communicate their meaning using only colour and shape:
- Angry
- Fizzy
- Hot
- Cold
- Natural
- Hungry
You’ll need to:
• Use suitable colours to communicate your ideas for each word
• Choose shapes and patterns for designs
• Use a different design for each word in order to communicate its meaning
The aim of the task is to choose the right shapes and colours to convey the essential meaning of the chosen words.
Think about the quality of shapes, for example, a circle may suggest softness because of its continual round edges, whereas a triangle could suggest something heavy or sharp. A small square and a large square could communicate distance or size. Colour can give impressions of meaning or emotion, such as red implying heat and warmth due to its association with fire, blue being cold or sad, and green natural and earthy.
You can choose how you would like to approach this task, either drawing your designs by hand or completing them digitally. For example, you could download and print out the words below, and draw over them with your designs; copy and sketch out the words and overlay them with your designs; or use a digital programme such as Photoshop. You can also choose whichever medium you think works best for your design, e.g. paint, colouring pencils, fine liners, etc.
ANGRY
FIZZY
HOT
COLD
NATURAL
HUNGRY
Download the words here
Here are some ideas of what students have done in the past:
We hope you enjoy working on this task and we’re looking forward to seeing your ideas and designs.
Course Leader – Graphics A Level
