Month 1: Designing Computer Graphics

Designing Computer Graphics was a beginner class. It focuses on the basics of Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop to create graphics and advertisements. I'm already quite advanced with Photoshop, so this month was extremely easy. Applying some fundamental concepts to Illustrator helped with the learning curve, but overall, I would say it's a very easy month.
At the beginning of the month, they hand out some basic tutorials that you are required to finish and turn in by the end of the month. We also had four projects that we did throughout the month.

Project 1: Self Portrait
The first project they had us do was a Self Portrait. It was supposed to be very basic, and we weren't allowed to use any gradients: just solid colors. Here is my self portrait, done completely in Illustrator. (We weren't allowed to use Photoshop.)

Project 2: Identity Mark
The second project was pretty easy. They gave us a list of random words. We were to choose three, and creative graphics for each that kind of went together. Black and White are my favorite colors (even thought they're technically 'hues'), so I went with very simple graphics for loneliness, rage and combustion. These had to be done in Illustrator.

Project 3: Movie Poster
The third project that we were to do was a movie poster. We could only use up to 3 colors plus white. We were given a list of movies to choose from. I chose Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange." I ended up doing two movie posters. The teacher allowed me to submit them both, since they were so different. Again, these were to be done solely in Illustrator.

Project 4: (Final Project)
For the final project we were to do an ad campaign. We were allowed to select from a list of companies. We also had to choose a slogan from a list given to us, and match up with a company. Needless to say, at a first glance, nothing looked like it "fit." They were trying to help us push our concept a little bit more. I ended up choosing the slogan "Some secrets are worth sharing." with the History Channel logo. We were finally allowed to use Photoshop, so I basically did a matte painting.

Overall, I felt that the month was pretty easy. The hardest thing was probably the self portrait. I put in about 8 hours. Though the Final took about 20 (total), I already knew Photoshop, so there wasn't that much trial and error.

Overview:
This month teaches you about the fundamental concepts of Illustrator and Photoshop.