Need something designed? We do it free. Hire Centaurus Studio →
Culver City High School CTE · Visual & Performing Arts Grades 9–12 · 10 Credits UC a–g: F + G Aug 19, 2026 → Jun 11, 2027

CentaurusStudio

Graphic Design · Mr. Darien · Tech Center

This isn't a class where you learn software and then maybe use it someday. It's a design studio. You get real clients, real deadlines, and by June a portfolio that lives on the internet with your name on it.

Right now
Where you should be
Need something designed? It’s free Hire
Centaurus Studio Posters, logos, decks, merch, for anybody on this campus. No budget, no invoice, no catch: the students need the real brief more than we need your money. Here to sign? Read first,
then sign This syllabus and the CRED rubric, with a parent or guardian. Then the form.
The premise

You're not a student here.
You're on staff.

Eight times this year a brief lands on your desk. The client is the yearbook, or theater who need a poster by Tuesday, or a Game Dev team four feet away who need it to look like a store page. Once it's you, designing your own identity, because you can't sell a brand until you've built one.

A month sounds like a lot of time. It isn't. Somebody is waiting on the other end, and they will notice if the work is bad.

Underneath all of it sits one more job: an open work order. Somebody on this campus needs something designed and does not care what month it is. You'll find them, or I'll assign them, and you'll work on their schedule instead of mine.

Every job hands you a direction to choose and the exact lessons to watch. I teach the concept, demo the hard part, then circulate. The videos can be rewound at eleven at night.
I can't.

Before job 01

How to actually
do this

The jobs below throw words around like everyone already knows them. Read this once now, then come back whenever one of them stops you.

Mood board

A page of images that isn’t yours yet

12–20 images that feel like the thing you're about to make: colors, fonts in the wild, layouts, textures. Not to copy. To find out what you like before you're stuck defending a bad first idea.

Build it in Pinterest, a Google Slides deck (one image per slide), or Canva. I need a link I can open, not a promise it exists on your phone.

Thumbnail

A tiny, fast, ugly sketch

Postage-stamp size, under a minute each, pencil and paper, one idea per box. Ten bad small ideas beat one slow pretty one, because you find the good layout before you fall in love with the wrong one.

Proof of work: photograph the page and bring it to standup.

Direction

One specific idea, not a vibe

One describable choice: bold and geometric, handwritten and warm, loud color versus one color and lots of type. Not "cool." If you can't say it in one sentence to a stranger, you don't have a direction, you have a mood.

Spec sheet

One page listing exactly what you used

A list, not an essay: every font and its license, every photo or asset and where it came from, plus dimensions, resolution and color mode. It answers everything a stranger would otherwise have to ask you.

Behance

Where finished work lives publicly

Free, owned by Adobe, and designers actually check it. Account at behance.net. A project is a cover image, 3–6 supporting images, and two sentences. Fifteen minutes once the work exists.

This page

It knows what day it is

One job below is outlined in pink with a NOW tag. The page works that out from today's date and moves the marker itself, all year. The thin blue line down the left edge is the school year filling in.

So this page is never out of date and never in a backpack. If a printed copy disagrees with it, this page wins.

Dates move

The schedule is a plan, not a promise

Clients go quiet, a lesson needs another week, the district adds a day off. When something moves it moves here first and I say so out loud. Ship dates and the final never move: somebody downstream is waiting on both.

Case study page

Not a gallery. A story with five parts

Who it was for, what made it hard, your process, a photo of it in context, one honest sentence on what you'd change. That order, every time. Full version in portfolio.

Handing it in, step by step

Every job ends the same way. Nobody loses points for not knowing the mechanics, so here they are once.

Step 1

Export to the spec, not to whatever

Print, from Canva: Share → Download → PDF Print, then check Crop marks and bleed. That checkbox is the bleed. Skip it and the file is not print-ready.

From Photoshop or Illustrator: File → Save a Copy → PDF, or Export As for PNG. Set CMYK and 300dpi before you build. Converting at the end shifts your colors.

Screen: PNG for flat color, text or transparency. JPG for photographs. Exact pixel dimensions, no rounding.

Step 2

Name the file like an adult

lastname_job##_what-it-is_v##, so darien_job02_poster_v03.pdf. Lowercase, no spaces, hyphens or underscores only.

In June you will have ten minutes to find every file from this year for your final, and final_FINAL_use-this-one (2).psd will not help you.

Step 3

Everything goes in Google Drive

You never upload a file to Canvas in this class. Every job gets one folder on your school Drive, named like your files: lastname_job02. Final files, process documentation and paperwork all live inside it, and what you hand in is a link.

Step 4

Share it so I can actually open it

Right-click → Share → change Restricted to Anyone with the link · Viewer. Then copy that link.

Test it yourself. Open your own link in an incognito window. If incognito can see it, I can see it. Ten seconds, and it is the whole difference between a grade and a zero.

Access

"I couldn't open it" is a zero with extra steps

A locked link is a missing assignment. Not late, missing, until it's fixed. Same rule for a private Canva site, a Behance draft, a folder shared with nobody.

I'm not going to email you for permission and wait. A real client wouldn't either.
They'd hire somebody else.

Step 5

Submit the link on Canvas

Canvas gets one thing: the URL of that job's folder. That's the entire submission. The grade and my feedback still live there, so check it.

Inside the folder: final files at spec, process documentation (sketches, thumbnails, rejected directions), and any paperwork that job requires.

Step 6

Post the final to Discord

Drop the finished piece in #dsn-shipped as an image, not a link, with one line about what it was for.

Canvas is the grade. This is the studio wall.

Step 7

Put it on your site

Nothing counts as finished until it's live on your portfolio as a case study, all five parts, ideally the day it ships while you still remember what was hard.

Canva: Share → Publish as website → the free option, which ends in my.canva.site. Your subdomain can't be changed later, so pick your name like it's permanent. School accounts need my approval first, so publish early in the week, not at 11:58pm.

Print terms, defined once

These four show up in almost every spec block below.

Bleed Trim Safe pink = gets cut off · dashed = where the blade lands · blue = keep text inside
The blade is never exact. Bleed covers it cutting wide. Safe margin covers it cutting narrow.
Bleed
Extra image running past the trim, so an off cut never leaves blank paper at the edge. 0.125in all sides unless a job says otherwise.
Safe margin
The opposite problem. Nothing important sits inside this distance from the trim, or a bad cut takes a bite out of it.
CMYK
The four inks a real printer uses. Screens use RGB, which makes brighter colors than ink can hit, so anything printed gets built in CMYK or the colors shift.
DPI / resolution
How much detail is packed into the file. 300dpi for print, 72–150dpi for screen. That gap is why a print file is so much bigger.
The month

How a job runs

Same loop every month. Learn it once and the rest of the year is new content on the same engine.

Week 1 · Brief

Job drops Monday. I talk 30 minutes on the idea underneath it, the only lecture you get, then demo the one technique that's miserable to learn from video. Then the rubric: my four criteria, two more you propose and vote in, all six locked before anyone opens software. Research, thumbnails, mood board. Direction by Friday.
Pencils before pixels.

Week 2 · Build

Software week. The assigned lessons are on you: pause, rewind, 2× at 11pm, they don't mind. I'm walking the room, so wave me over. The 20-minute rule: stuck for 20, then you ask. Post your standup with a screenshot even when it's ugly. ESPECIALLY when it's ugly. Wednesday, your 45 seconds.

Week 3 · Critique

Work goes up, the room talks, you take notes. Thursday that week, not Wednesday: a real critique needs a full-length period. Actual rules below, because "everyone say something nice" is not a critique.

Week 4 · Ship

Act on your notes. Export to the spec, and the numbers in the spec are not vibes. Deliver to the client, post to #dsn-shipped, project page up with all five parts. Checkpoint hit. New brief Monday.

Critique, in detail

Thursday of week 3, dates printed on each job below. The 10% critique grade lives here, so here's the hour.

The setup

Your work goes up. You get 90 seconds.

Printed or on the big screen. What the brief was, what you tried, where you're stuck. No apologizing, no "it's not done." Nobody's is.
Critique on finished work is a eulogy.

The rounds

The room runs three passes. You stay quiet.

One: what's working, and specific. "The type" doesn't count. "The size jump between the headline and the date" counts. Two: what's not landing, at the work and never the person, phrased as your problem: "I can't find the date." Three: one concrete thing to try, each person.

Then you talk

Say what you heard. Say what you'll act on.

Some notes are wrong, and knowing which is the skill. You still hear them all without defending, and you write them down. Week 4 starts with those notes, and your process doc shows what you did.

The 10%

Graded both directions. Co-op, not PvP.

Giver: specific, usable notes. "Looks good" is a participation zero. Receiver: real work on the wall, notes written down. Empty-handed is a zero for the cycle, no exceptions.
The score is the room getting better.

Wednesdays: the 45

Short period, so no new instruction. Everybody shows what they have. 45 seconds each, out loud, everyone. No passing, no "same as him." Seventeen people, twenty minutes, done. Every week, week one of a job or week four.

Wednesday is 36 minutes and it is never anything else. Not a crit, not a lecture, not a work day I took from you. It is the only period all week where the whole room is in one conversation instead of seventeen people at seventeen machines, and it is the one thing on this calendar that does not move.
Thursday of week three is where the room tells you what it thinks. Wednesday is where you tell the room what you're doing.

The clock

45 seconds, and it is a real 45 seconds

Timer on the screen where everybody sees it. At zero you stop, mid sentence if that's where you are. The person after you deserves their 45 as much as you did.

What you say

Three things, in this order

What you did. The actual thing, not "I worked on it." What is stopping you. What you need. Whole script, same one my Yearbook staff runs. No process story, no apology, no warmup.

Show the screen while you answer.

Be ready

On screen before your name comes up

Order posts in #dsn-standup that morning. File open, right thing showing, before you walk up. Seventeen people fumbling ten seconds each is three minutes of the period gone.

Nothing to show

Say so and sit down

"Nothing this week, I got stuck on the export" takes five seconds and is a completely acceptable demo. Three in a row and you and I have a different conversation.
One is just a week.

Questions

Hold them until the end

One question inside somebody's 45 eats their turn and the schedule behind them. Write it down: there's time at the end, there's #dsn-crit, and a real blocker gets somebody grabbing you after. The exception is me, kept short.

No standup

Wednesday does not need a written update

The demo is the update. Typing it out after is filing a report on a meeting everybody attended. Dojo-kun does not count Wednesdays against you. Post anyway for the screenshot in your record and it still scores.

Why 45 seconds. It's the real length of the question: somebody in a hallway or an interview asks what you're working on, and their attention moves at about that mark. If it takes three minutes to explain what you're making, you do not know what you are making yet.

The other reason you'll feel by October. Somebody's blocked on an export, somebody two seats away fixed that Tuesday, and a lost week gets handed back. The clock is not the obstacle.
The clock is the assignment.

Week three breaks the pattern, and it does not break it on a Wednesday. The full critique needs every one of you presenting and every one of you answering, which runs about twice a standup, and Wednesday is 36 minutes. Thursday is 57. So that week it moves, and Wednesday goes back to being a build day with your 45 seconds in it.
Wednesday is the heartbeat. That Thursday is the appointment.

One exception to the loop: Job 00 runs on your client's calendar, not mine. Its critique happens whenever you have something, in #dsn-crit or by grabbing me.

The docket

Eight jobs,
plus one that never closes

00
Client
Somebody real
Tool
Whatever fits
Dates
Aug 19 – May 7
Ships on the client's date, not mine
Claim + intake anytime → Signed by Dec 18, or assigned (by Mar 19 latest) → Crit in #dsn-crit as needed → Ships by May 7

The Open Work Order

Real work doesn't arrive on a schedule. Theater needs a poster in October. The front office needs a form that stopped making sense in 2011.
Somewhere on this campus, all year, there is an adult with a design problem and no designer.

You work in pairs: two people are likelier to survive a client who goes quiet. The board opens in September and the good jobs go early. A signed work order in my hand before winter break (Dec 18), or I pick your client for you, starting in January. Between intake and May 7 the schedule is yours.
It ships by May 7: the last possible date, not the target.

Who's hiring
  • Theater: posters, programs, title cards, lobby boards
  • Film: title sequences, key art, festival graphics
  • ASB: dances, rallies, spirit week, elections, merch
  • Admin & the front office: forms, signage, handbooks, anything printed in 2011 and never touched since
  • Athletics: schedule posters, team graphics, banners
  • Counseling: college and career night, one-sheets people actually read
  • Band, choir, clubs: concert posters, logos, fundraiser materials
  • Game Dev: the room you're already in, if they need something outside of April

That list isn't a menu. It's who has asked before. Somebody not on it needs something? Bring me the request. Teachers, clubs, and local businesses also submit through the public request page, and those land on the board.

Landing the client
  • You can use this period. Email from your station or walk the campus. Tell me before you go.
  • Outside it: lunch, before or after school, or CP Flex. Claim your Minga space first or you don't have one.
  • In person, or at worst a voice call. Never just email. Email intake is how you build the wrong thing politely.
  • Ask for examples and every previous version. "Like the last one but better" is only usable if you have the last one.
Pick a direction

A print piece

Poster, flyer, program, banner. Real bleed, real vendor, real specs.

Behance: event posters ↗

A screen piece

Social set, slide template, signage. One message, resized five ways.

Behance: social campaigns ↗

A system

Wayfinding, templates someone else uses after you leave. Hardest brief, biggest payoff.

Behance: wayfinding systems ↗
Deliverables
  • Signed work order: the studio intake form, filled out sitting with the client. To me before winter break.
  • Two proposed directions, presented to them
  • The deliverable, to the spec they need
  • Handoff package: final files, formats, and a short "how to use this". Three or four sentences: which file goes where, what opens it, who to call for changes. For an adult who doesn't know what a PSD is.
  • Postmortem: required either way, the only deliverable if the client vanishes
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Dimensions
    Whatever the work order says. You got them in writing, at intake.
  • Files
    Whatever the client can open. Ask. “I’ll send a PSD” to someone without Photoshop is a failed handoff.
  • Handoff
    Final files plus the “how to use this” note. Editable source if they’ll update it.
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · final piece to #dsn-shipped
The rubric: four of mine, two from your client · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    Work order complete and signed. No blanks.
  • 2
    Communication stayed professional and on time, and the paper trail proves it.
  • 3
    The deliverable matches the work order, in a format the client can use.
  • 4
    The postmortem is honest, however it ended.
  • 5
    ClientWritten with them at intake, in their words
  • 6
    ClientWritten with them at intake, in their words
MineWritten with your client
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Get the specs at intake. Not by email three weeks later. Every blank is an argument you’re scheduling for April.

Confirm receipt in writing. “Sent” is not “delivered.” Get them to say they have it and it works.

Big idea: The brief is the jobClients say "I need a flyer" and mean six different things. Getting the real requirements out of someone who can't give them to you is the professional skill, and every other job in this class is training wheels for it.
01
Client
Yourself
Tool
Canva
Dates
Aug 24 – Sep 18
Ships Sep 18
Brief Aug 24 → Crit Sep 9 → Ships Sep 18

Personal Brand

Before you design for anyone else, design yourself. A mark, a card, and a live website that will hold everything you make this year.

1000px 500px 100px 32px design this one first
If it survives on the right, everything to the left is free. Build it the other way around and you find out too late.
Your self-brief: fill this out first
  • Who is this for? Not you. Whoever sees your site or card later: a client, a recruiter, a college. Name them.
  • Three words a stranger should think within five seconds of your mark. Pick them before you open Canva.
  • One thing that would look wrong on you, even if it's nice design. A boundary set in advance beats a good excuse later.
  • What already exists, kept or replaced: a nickname, a color you always wear, a phrase people use about you, or honestly nothing yet.

You're the client on this one. Interviewing yourself about your own business is a strange way to spend a Tuesday.

Pick a direction

Monogram

Your initials, built from geometry. Hardest to do well, best when it works.

Behance: monogram marks ↗

Wordmark

Your name, typeset with intent. Nothing to hide behind but the type.

Behance: wordmarks ↗

Symbol + type

A mark that stands alone, locked to your name. Most flexible, most pieces to get right.

Behance: symbol + type ↗
Deliverables
  • Your mark. Three concepts, one final
  • Business card, print-ready
  • Portfolio website, published, real URL: built to the studio spec
  • Two Canva certifications, passed. Proof is the completion screenshot or Canva's PDF, in your job folder.
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Mark
    SVG (type outlined) + PNG at 1000px, 500px, 100px, plus 32px favicon. Transparent background.
  • Business card
    3.5 × 2 in · 300dpi · CMYK · 0.125in bleed · 0.25in safe margin · PDF
  • Portfolio site
    Live public URL. Not a draft link, not a shared file.
  • Certificates
    Two Canva certificates as PDF or screenshot
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    The mark survives at 32px.
  • 2
    Card, site, and mark read like one person made them.
  • 3
    The site is live at a real URL with Job 01 posted, all five parts.
  • 4
    Both certs done, everything shipped to spec on time.
  • 5
    ClassClass vote: the room scores it 1 to 5
  • 6
    ClassSays something true about you
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Design the 32px version first. Design at 1000px, shrink it, and you find out too late that it turns to mush.

Outline your type before exporting SVG. Otherwise it renders in whatever font the viewer has, which is never yours.

Big idea: ConstraintLimits make better work than freedom does. You'll get two colors and one typeface and be annoyed about it for roughly a week, and then you'll understand.
02
Client
Campus org
Tool
Canva
Dates
Sep 21 – Oct 16
Ships Oct 16
Brief Sep 21 → Crit Oct 8 → Ships Oct 16

The Event Poster

A real event, a real client, a real date it has to be up by. One message, three completely different shapes.

works nothing wins vs
Hierarchy means deciding what gets read first, second, third. If everything is the same size, you decided nothing.
Pick a direction

Type-dominant

No image. The words are the artwork. Loud, cheap to print, nowhere to hide.

Behance: typographic posters ↗

Image-dominant

One photo doing the heavy lifting, type quiet underneath. Lives or dies on the photo.

Behance: photo posters ↗

Modular grid

Swiss-style, information-forward. Best when the event has a lot to say.

Poster House archive ↗
Deliverables
  • 11×17 print poster, with bleed
  • Instagram story, 1080×1920
  • 16:9 for the hallway screens
  • A signed work order, completed with the client before you build anything
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Poster
    11 × 17 in · 300dpi · CMYK · 0.125in bleed · 0.5in safe margin · press-ready PDF and PNG preview
  • Vertical
    1080 × 1920 · RGB · PNG or JPG
  • Square
    1080 × 1080 · RGB · PNG or JPG
  • File size
    No cap, you're submitting a Drive link. Export to spec anyway: 300dpi, not 600.
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    One message, readable in two seconds.
  • 2
    Hierarchy survives at poster distance.
  • 3
    Three formats designed separately, not one design resized.
  • 4
    Print-ready: bleed, margins, and CMYK all correct.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Three designs, not one design resized. A poster read from twenty feet and a story read at arm’s length need different type sizes and different amounts of information. Resizing is the most common way this job fails.

Nothing important inside the safe margin. Trimming is mechanical and never perfect. Text near the edge gets cut and the client gets 200 of them.

Big idea: Visual hierarchyWhat the eye hits first, second, third, because a designer chose that order. Three shapes is how you find out whether you had a hierarchy or just a layout.
03
Client
Self-directed
Tool
Photoshop
Dates
Oct 19 – Nov 20
Ships Nov 20
Brief Oct 19 → Crit Nov 12 → Ships Nov 20

Panel to Panel

Put images in an order and a stranger moves through them the way you built it. Or the way you didn't. Panel size is emphasis. The gutter is pacing. The page turn is a punchline. Manga, comics, and storyboards are one skill in different clothes, so pick the clothes.

1 2 3 4 gutter = the gap = time passing big panel = slow down last panel = the punchline
Gutter width is time. Panel size is attention. That is the whole craft.

You are not graded on how well you draw. Photo reference, traced composites, type-only panels, Unreal or game-engine screenshots as underlays: all fair game.

Pick a direction

Manga page

Right-to-left reading order, irregular panel breaks, tone and texture, sound effects drawn as type.

Behance: manga pages ↗

Comics page

Western grid, balloons and tails, lettering that sits inside someone else’s speech.

Behance: comic lettering ↗

Storyboard sequence

Shot by shot for something that moves. Camera notes and timing. Rough is correct here.

Behance: storyboards ↗
Deliverables
  • Cover or title frame
  • One full spread, or 8–12 sequential panels
  • All lettering set by you. No default type
  • Annotated reading-order map: where the eye goes, in what order, why
  • Storyboard direction only: board something that exists in this building. A Game Dev level, a film class short, a May sting
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Comic / manga page
    8.5 × 11 in · 300dpi · 0.125in bleed if panels run off the edge · layered PSD kept, flattened PDF submitted
  • Storyboard
    16:9 frames · 1920 × 1080 each, or a contact-sheet PDF · camera and timing notes beside each frame
  • Lettering
    Live type layers. Not drawn, not rasterized. I will check.
  • Reading-order map
    One annotated page. A phone photo of a marked-up printout is fine.
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    A stranger moves through the page in the order you built.
  • 2
    Panel sizes and gutters are decisions. The map proves it.
  • 3
    Lettering is set type, legible, placed with intent.
  • 4
    The cover or title frame sells the thing it belongs to.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Thumbnail the whole page first. Panel sizes are the design. Decide them last and the page controls you.

Leave room for the balloons. Everyone draws a beautiful panel, then finds nowhere for the words. Place lettering early, even as gray boxes.

Big idea: Reading order is designedExisting characters are allowed, but push them into something of your own and never let them be the only thing you show. Client jobs later this year can't use them at all: why, in December.
Nobody reads a page. They follow a path somebody built, and one panel's size changes what the page is about.
04
Client
Open
Tool
Photoshop
Dates
Nov 30 – Dec 18
Weight
Midterm
MIDTERM · Ships Dec 18 · 3 weeks only
Brief Nov 30 → Crit Dec 10 → Ships Dec 18

The Composite

A composite is several photographs blended so cleanly they read as one real photo. Build an image that cannot be photographed: a poster for a movie that doesn’t exist and now, briefly, looks like it does.

No written exam, no test week. This project is the assessment. Hard stop before winter break, and it carries more weight than a normal job: everything you’ve learned since August has to show up in one image.

You don't have to download the world. Best source is often one you shot yourself: your phone (teacher-directed use, just ask), the class camera, or a lit photoshoot if the image deserves it. Stuff you shoot is stuff you own, which makes the license sheet a very short read.

Pick a direction

Scale shift

Something tiny made enormous, or the reverse. Surrealism's oldest trick, still the most reliable.

Behance: scale surrealism ↗

Double exposure

Two images sharing one silhouette. Lives or dies on your masking.

Behance: double exposure ↗

World mashup

Two environments stitched into one that reads as real. Hardest lighting problem here.

Behance: composite worlds ↗
Deliverables
  • One seamless composite, minimum six source images
  • Technical spec sheet, with your reasoning for every choice on it
  • Source log. Every asset licensed, credited, or shot by you. One row per image: where it came from, the license (or "own photography"), and a link if it has one. A Google Doc or text file is fine. Every single source, including the ones you barely used.
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Poster
    11 × 17 in · 300dpi · CMYK · 0.125in bleed · PDF + PNG preview
  • Working file
    Layered PSD retained. Non-destructive: adjustment layers and masks, no flattened edits.
  • Source images
    List every source with its license. Shot-it-yourself counts, is often better, and gets listed as "own photography." Unlicensed assets = zero, no resubmission.
  • Spec sheet
    One page: dimensions, color mode, resolution, fonts with licenses, image sources, AI disclosure.
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    Light matches across every source: direction, color, edges.
  • 2
    The image reads as one photograph of an impossible thing.
  • 3
    Non-destructive build: masks and adjustment layers, nothing flattened.
  • 4
    The spec sheet is complete: every source listed and licensed, AI disclosed.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Match the light before anything else. Wrong light direction reads as fake instantly, even to people who can’t say why. Color and edges are fixable later. Light is not.

Your spec sheet is graded. This is the midterm and the ethics unit. A perfect image with a sloppy spec sheet does not get full marks.

Big idea: Visual metaphor, and the lawSaying one thing by showing a different thing. Also the unit where we cover font licensing, stock rights, fair use, where generative AI is and isn’t allowed in this room, and where fan art sits: legal, tolerated, or neither. "It's transformative" is a much narrower defense than the internet thinks.
Designers get sued over this.
05
Client
Yearbook
Tool
Photoshop
Dates
Jan 4 – Jan 29
Ships Jan 29 · semester portfolio due
Brief Jan 4 → Crit Jan 21 → Ships Jan 29

Yearbook Handoff

The yearbook has a grid, photo specs, and a deadline that does not move. You get one spread inside all of that. Design to somebody else's constraints, hit their standard, and the good ones actually run in the book.

0.5in each side of center: nothing important lives here binding eats this
That pink strip is roughly an inch of your spread. Everything that matters lives outside it.
Pick a direction

Editorial

Magazine logic. Big photos, generous space, quiet type. Looks expensive.

Behance: editorial spreads ↗

Archival

Documentary. Contact sheets, captions, dates, index logic. A record, not a scrapbook.

Behance: photo book layouts ↗

Graphic / zine

High contrast, flat color, type as a blunt instrument. Riskiest, most memorable when it lands.

Behance: zine spreads ↗
Deliverables
  • Theme and mood board. Direction, palette, type pairing
  • One full spread on the yearbook’s actual grid and specs
  • Six photos edited to the book’s standard, consistently graded
  • Caption and headline system others could follow. Write down the rules you used: headline font, size, weight; caption font and size; caption distance from the photo; what gets capitalized. One short page. The test: could next year’s staff match your spread without asking you.
  • Jobs 01–05 all live on your site by Jan 29
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Spread
    17 × 11 in. Two letter pages · 300dpi · CMYK
  • Bleed & safety
    0.125in bleed all around · 0.5in safe margin
  • Gutter
    Nothing critical within 0.5in of center, either side. No faces, no headlines, no captions. That inch disappears into the binding.
  • Photos
    300dpi at placed size. No upscaling: an 800px photo at half a page is visibly broken in print.
  • Deliver as
    One 17 × 11 PDF and two single-page PDFs
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    Built on the book’s actual grid, margins and gutter respected.
  • 2
    Photo edit is consistent across all six, 300dpi at placed size.
  • 3
    Another student could follow your caption and headline system.
  • 4
    Semester portfolio live: Jobs 01 through 05, all five parts each.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Print it and fold it. Actually. Tape two sheets together and fold them. You will see what the gutter eats. On-screen checking does not substitute.

A photo crossing the gutter is a decision, not an accident. Put the boring part of the image in the center. Never a face.

Big idea: Systems beat one-offsAnyone can make one good page. Designing a system that holds up across 200 pages made by other people, most of whom are not designers, is the actual job.
06
Client
Campus or real
Tool
Illustrator
Dates
Feb 2 – Mar 19
Ships Mar 19 · before break
Brief Feb 2 → Crit Feb 25 & Mar 11 → Ships Mar 19

The Identity System

A club, a local business, or the studio you'll start someday needs an identity. Not a logo. An identity. The mark, the icons, the rules, and the document that keeps it intact in somebody else's hands. Seven weeks, because a real one takes seven weeks.

Pick a direction

Geometric mark

Built from circles, squares, and angles on a construction grid. Scales anywhere.

Behance: geometric marks ↗

Lettermark

The initials drawn as a shape. Type and mark become one object.

Behance: lettermarks ↗

Emblem / badge

Type locked inside a container. Traditional, trustworthy, a nightmare at favicon size.

Behance: badges & emblems ↗
Deliverables
  • Signed work order, completed with the client
  • Primary mark, one secondary, one at favicon scale
  • 8–12 supporting icons on a shared grid. Siblings, not cousins.
  • Brand sheet. Clear space is the minimum empty margin around the logo, measured in units of the logo itself. Misuse is the "do not do this" panel: stretched, recolored, rotated, on a busy photo. One 11×17 page.
  • Icon style guide. Stroke weight, corner radius, padding, sizing
  • Exported as SVG and PNG at three sizes
  • 200-word rationale on what the mark means
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Logo
    SVG with type outlined + PNG at 2000px, 1000px, 500px, 100px, 32px. Transparent.
  • Icon set
    8–12 icons · SVG + PNG at 512px, 256px, 64px
  • Icon grid
    One base grid. 24 × 24 or 48 × 48 · identical stroke weight and corner radius across the whole set
  • Brand sheet
    11 × 17 in PDF · palette in hex and CMYK · type system · clear space · misuse examples
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    The mark works at favicon size and in one color.
  • 2
    The icons are siblings: same grid, same stroke, same radius across the set.
  • 3
    The brand sheet is complete enough for a stranger to use without you.
  • 4
    Files exported correctly: SVG outlined, PNGs at every size.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Draw the icons on the grid, not near it. Snap to it. One icon at 1.5px when the rest are 2px looks wrong to everyone and nobody can say why.

Test the logo in one color. Solid black, no gradients, no effects. If it stops working, it isn’t finished. It will be embroidered, engraved, or faxed someday.

Big idea: Reduction, and symbols you didn't chooseHow much can you take away before the meaning breaks? Find that edge, then step back one. Your mark will be read by people who don't know you, in places you've never been, carrying history you never put into it. Design for that.
07
Client
Game Dev 1 & 2
Tool
Illustrator
Dates
Apr 6 – Apr 30
Ships Apr 30 · the big one
Brief Apr 6 → Crit Apr 22 → Ships Apr 30

The Game Studio Contract

A Game Dev team hires you, and they're sitting at the next table. They need a title, an interface, key art, and a store page that makes someone stop scrolling. Four weeks, a client you cannot avoid at lunch, and work that ships inside something people actually play.

Pick a direction

Flat vector

Clean shapes, no gradients, bold color. Fastest to produce, easiest to keep consistent.

Behance: flat game UI ↗

Pixel / retro

Built on a hard grid. Nostalgic, extremely readable, brutal about alignment.

Behance: pixel game art ↗

Hand-drawn vector

Sketched, then traced. Warmest look, hardest to keep consistent across a set.

Behance: hand-drawn game art ↗
Deliverables
  • Signed work order, completed with your Game Dev client
  • Game logo / title treatment
  • UI kit. Buttons, health bar, menu frame, HUD
  • 3–5 character or prop vectors, game-ready
  • Key art and a store page mockup
  • Handoff package. Organized, named, spec'd, with an asset manifest. A manifest lists every file you're delivering: filename, what it is, dimensions, format. One text file or spreadsheet at the top of the folder, so your client knows nothing is missing.
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Scope
    Set by the work order with your Game Dev client. Get their engine, target resolution, and file format at intake.
  • Title treatment
    SVG + PNG at 2000px wide, transparent
  • UI elements
    PNG with alpha at 1× and 2×. Textures going in-engine: power-of-two dimensions (256, 512, 1024).
  • Store art
    1920 × 620 capsule + 1080 × 1080 social
  • Handoff
    Organized folder they can drop straight in. Not a zip of loose files named final2.png.
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    Work order signed, with specs pulled from the client’s engine and target.
  • 2
    The art holds one consistent tone the game can live inside.
  • 3
    Files drop into their project without rework: naming, formats, sizes.
  • 4
    The client signs off, and the thread shows revisions handled professionally.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Ask what engine before you export anything. Unreal, Unity, and Godot want different things. Ten seconds of asking saves a re-export of everything.

Design UI at the size it will be seen. A button drawn at 400px and shown at 60px is a different object. Zoom to 100% constantly.

Big idea: Working to someone else's visionThe hardest professional skill there is. Your taste is not the point. Their game is the point. Every designer learns this, and most learn it late.
08
Client
You
Tool
Your call
Dates
May 3 – May 28
Proposal due May 7 · ships May 28
Proposal approved by May 7 → Crit May 20 → Ships May 28

Pitch Your Own

Every other job this year, somebody handed you the brief. This time you write it. On paper, presented to me, approved or sent back before you open a single file.

The proposal is the graded gate. A brief that says "a poster, kind of, for the school" gets rejected and you rewrite it.

Pick a direction

One piece, done properly

A single artifact taken further than anything else this year. Narrow scope, no excuses about time.

Behance: single-piece work ↗

A set

A series that has to hold together. A campaign, a zine, a card deck, a poster run. Consistency is the assignment.

Behance: poster series ↗

Something that moves

Motion, animation, an interactive piece. After Effects is taught this month so this option is real.

Behance: logo animation ↗
Deliverables
  • Written proposal, approved by May 7: audience, deliverable, exact format and dimensions, deadline, rationale
  • The thing itself, built to the spec you wrote
  • Process documentation. Including the parts where your own brief turned out to be wrong
  • Presentation-ready by May 28 for the June showcase
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Dimensions
    You define them in your proposal. Exact numbers, color mode, file types, resolution. A proposal without specs gets sent back.
  • Proposal
    Due May 7, approved before you build. Audience, deliverable, format, deadline, why it should exist.
  • Deliverable
    Built to the spec you wrote. If you miss your own spec, that’s worse than missing mine.
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · #dsn-shipped after it ships
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    Proposal approved by May 7, with a real spec in it.
  • 2
    What shipped matches what you proposed. You hit your own spec.
  • 3
    Scope was honest: finished completely, not ambitious at 70%.
  • 4
    Process doc shows the brief evolving, including where you were wrong.
  • 5
    ClassVoted in week 1
  • 6
    ClassVoted in week 1
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Scope creep is the final boss. A modest thing that is genuinely done beats an ambitious thing at 70%. Do not be the cautionary tale I reference next year.

Write the spec like you’re handing it to someone else. If a stranger couldn’t build to your proposal, it isn’t a spec, it’s a wish.

Big idea: Nobody hands you the briefAfter school, the hardest part is rarely the making. It's deciding what deserves to be made, defending it to somebody, and then being stuck with it. You've spent a year pulling requirements out of other people. Now pull them out of yourself.
09
Client
Drawn at random
Tool
Everything
Dates
Jun 1 – Jun 11
Weight
Final exam
FINAL · In the scheduled exam period
Gate Jun 1 → Exam in the final period → Defense that week

Ship It

Your site goes public. Then you sit down, draw a client you weren’t expecting, and prove in two hours that a year of work actually taught you something.

Two parts, and the first one gates the second. By Jun 1 your portfolio site is finished and every job is exported as PNG at presentation size, in one folder, ready to place. Miss that and the exam becomes unpassable. You cannot spend your exam hunting for files or re-exporting a PSD.

The exam: 110 minutes
  • 0:00–0:05. Draw a client scenario at random. Read it twice.
  • 0:05–1:00. Build one new piece for that client, in two formats, correctly sized. Made cold, no revisions, nobody to ask.
  • 1:00–1:30. Canva deck: cover with their name, then three pieces you already made, one line each on why this client, then your new piece.
  • 1:30–1:45. Closing slide, export, submit.
  • Later that week. Defend it out loud. Why these three, why that order, what you cut.

You get all ten scenarios in advance. Working out which of your pieces suit which client is the preparation. That’s the point, not a leak. Read the ten client scenarios here. A horror game studio. A taco shop’s second location. A music venue. An indie film distributor. Red Bull. Each one names exactly what you’ll make and at what dimensions.

Seniors: you leave a week early, so you take this across two class periods during your last week. Make on day one, deck on day two, same clock. Everyone else is at their stations finishing portfolios while you do it, and you’ll defend in front of them. Consider that a gift you’re giving the sophomores.

Pick a direction: your portfolio site

Grid

Everything visible at once. Best when the work is strong and speaks for itself.

Behance: grid portfolios ↗

Case study

Long-form, one project per page, process shown. What actually gets you hired.

Behance: case studies ↗

Single scroll

One continuous narrative top to bottom. You control the order people see things in.

Behance: scrolling sites ↗
Deliverables
  • Due Jun 1. The gate: portfolio site final, every job with process documentation, plus an export folder of every piece as PNG at presentation size. Longest edge 2000px, RGB, named job##_what-it-is.png (drop the lastname and version for these, it is your own folder). One flat folder, no subfolders. You will be opening this under time pressure.
  • 300-word artist statement
  • In the exam: one new piece in two formats, and the Canva deck
  • The defense. Ten minutes to an outside audience, then questions
  • Studio retrospective. What we’d do differently
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Portfolio site
    Live public URL, every job, all five case-study parts. Due Jun 1.
  • Export folder
    Every job as PNG, longest edge 2000px, RGB, clearly named. Due Jun 1. This is the gate. You cannot re-export during the exam.
  • Exam output
    Canva deck, 5 slides, exported PDF · plus the new piece in both formats from your scenario card
  • Artist statement
    300 words
  • Submit to
    Drive folder link on Canvas · deck presented live · site posted to #dsn-shipped
The rubric: four of mine, two of yours · each scored 1–5
  • 1
    Gate hit Jun 1: site complete, exports named and ready.
  • 2
    The new piece reads the brief: right client, right hierarchy, both formats sized correctly.
  • 3
    The three chosen pieces argue for THIS client, in an order.
  • 4
    The defense: you can say why, out loud, without the deck saving you.
  • 5
    ClassVoted late May, before the gate
  • 6
    ClassVoted late May, before the gate
MineVoted by the class
Watch these
Loading screen tips

Name your exports properly on Jun 1. job03_panel-to-panel_page1.png, not Untitled-4.png. On exam day you have 30 minutes to build a deck and you will be hunting.

Rehearse the defense out loud, once. Not in your head. The first time you hear yourself explain a piece, you find out which parts you can’t actually justify.

Big idea: This is a careerFreelance, in-house, agency. What a junior portfolio actually needs and what gets it thrown out. And the part nobody warns you about: the work does not speak for itself. Someone always asks why, and the designer who can answer gets the job over the designer whose work was slightly better. The exam is graded on decisions, not polish. Rough and on-brief beats pretty and off-brief, every time.
The deliverable that outlives this class

The portfolio

Nothing here is finished until it's on your site. Not turned in. Published, at a URL you can text somebody.
It's the only thing from this year that still works after you graduate.

Build
here

Canva Websites. Required

Free, no code, runs on a Chromebook, and publishes to a real address ending in my.canva.site. You're already in it for Job 01. Two things before you publish. Your subdomain can never be changed, so pick it like it's permanent, because it is. And on a school account I approve the site before it goes live.
Do not publish at 11:58pm on the 18th.

Post
here too

Behance: strongly encouraged

Free, run by Adobe, and every "see it done" link here goes there. Post after each job ships: fifteen minutes once the work exists.
Your own site is yours. Behance is where strangers find you.

Or
this

Something else? Ask first

Already build sites? Use what you like. Same requirements, same deadline, and I still need the URL. Don't spend three weeks learning a framework instead of designing.
A gorgeous site with three projects loses to a plain site with ten.

What every project page has to contain

Pretty pictures are not a portfolio. What gets you hired is evidence you can think, in five parts:

One

The brief

Who the client was, what they needed, the real constraints. Two or three sentences. Self-assigned? Say what problem you gave yourself.

Two

The problem

What made it hard. Every job has one real difficulty. Name it.
"The client wanted six messages on one poster" beats any other opening line.

Three

Process. At least three images

Sketches, rejected directions, the version that didn't work. A killed direction with one sentence on why beats another view of the final.
Everybody skips this and professionals look at it first.

Four

The final, shown in context

Not the flat file. On a wall, on a phone, in somebody's hands. A mockup takes ten minutes and changes how the work reads.

Five

What you'd change

One honest sentence. Critiquing your own work is the clearest signal you're not a beginner.

Everywhere

Your name and how to reach you

On every page: a real sentence about you, and an email you actually check.
A portfolio with no contact info is a very pretty dead end.

See it done

Case-study portfolios

The format above, done properly. Read three before you build yours.

Behance ↗

Student portfolios

Your actual peer group. Some of it's better than you expect and some of it isn't.

Behance ↗

Mockups in context

How to mock up flat work so it reads as a real object. The difference between a B and an A on half these jobs.

Behance ↗
Three checkpoints

Sep 18. Site live with Job 01 on it, real URL submitted to me. Hard gate: everything after depends on it.

Jan 29. Jobs 01–05 up, each with all five parts. Half your portfolio grade.

Jun 11. Everything up, artist statement written, presented to an outside audience.
Then it's yours, and it keeps working whether or not you ever take another design class.

Seniors, and anybody leaving CCUSD: your school account closes when you go, and every file in that Drive goes with it. Four years of work, gone, and not recoverable by me or by anyone. Copy what matters to a personal drive or Google account before you leave. That's why your portfolio lives somewhere you own.
The work has to outlive the account.

Two rules that get broken every single year. Check it on a phone: that's what people will open it on, and Canva's mobile view is a toggle, not a promise. And no dead links, ever.
A broken link is worse than no link, because it says you didn't look.

Assessment

How you're graded

60

The jobs

Nine of them. Eight scheduled plus the open work order. Two carry extra weight: Job 04 in December is the midterm, Job 09 in June is the final. No written exams in here. A final should work like a boss stage: nothing new, everything the game already taught you, tested at once. Rubric-scored, and you write two of the six criteria. My four are printed on every job below. The class proposes and votes the other two on day one, and all six lock before anyone builds. Each job is graded on the finished piece and the evidence of how it got there: iterations, directions you killed, why.
A designer's process is part of the deliverable, not extra credit.

20

CRED

Career Readiness, Engagement & Discipline. Same rubric as every CTE course I teach. 40 points a month, a self-assessment on Canvas at each month's end, and a substantial daily post in #dsn-standup. Read the full rubric here. It needs a signed acknowledgment before this part of your grade can be entered. Gated on the course quiz: pass it at 100% (unlimited retakes) before CRED points post.

10

Critique

Graded both directions, every cycle: the notes you give and how you take the ones you get. Full protocol is in how a job runs. Co-op, not PvP.

10

Portfolio

Checked at semester and at the end. A project isn't finished until it's on your site with the process shown.

What the numbers mean

On every rubric below, pink rows are mine and blue rows are yours, voted in by the class. Job 00 is the exception: its two are written with your client at intake. Every criterion is scored 1 to 5. Six criteria, so 30 points a job. Same scale in August and June, same for all ten jobs. Learn it once.

5 · Ships
A client would take this and use it without asking for changes. Not "perfect." Done.
4 · Solid
One round of notes away from shipping. Everything works, something is still slightly off and you probably know what.
3 · Meets the brief
You did what was asked. Nothing is wrong with it and nothing is memorable about it. This is a fine grade and most first attempts land here.
2 · Attempted
The intent is visible, the execution is not there yet. Usually means it was started late.
1 · Barely engaged
Something exists in this slot. It does not really address the criterion.
0 · Missing
Nothing turned in for it. The only score that is not on the 1 to 5 scale, because it is not a judgment, it is an absence.

Some criteria are yes-or-no. A work order is signed or it isn't. Those land on a 5 or a 1, no middle, and that is deliberate.
Paperwork is not a place to be creative.

The class vote

Some jobs put one criterion in the room's hands. Everybody scores everybody 1 to 5, anonymously, and the median becomes your score for that line. Not the average: one person who dislikes you cannot move a median, and neither can one friend.

You score against the stated criterion, not "do I like this," and every score comes with one sentence explaining it. A number with no sentence gets thrown out and costs the person who submitted it, not the person being scored.
Scoring lazily is the only way to lose points here.

Answers before you ask

Questions
you will have

Submitting

Canvas or Discord?

Both. Canvas is the grade: submit a link to your job folder in Drive, never an uploaded file. #dsn-crit is work-in-progress, for feedback. #dsn-shipped is finished work only, posted after it ships. Discord alone is not turned in.

The quiz

What is SYLLABUSCEPTION?

The course quiz. 122 questions, open book, covering this syllabus, the CRED rubric, the work order, and the final exam scenarios. 100% to pass, unlimited retakes, and it gates your CRED grade. Getting one wrong tells you which page to go read.

Wednesdays

What happens on a normal Wednesday?

Short period, no new instruction. Everybody talks for 45 seconds: what you did, what is stopping you, what you need. Screen up while you say it. No written standup that day: the demo is the update. Full rules in how a job runs.

Wednesdays

I have nothing to show. Do I still go up?

Yes. Five seconds: say what stopped you and sit down. That is a real demo. Skipping your turn is the thing that gets noticed, not having a bad week.

Late

What if I miss a deadline?

Turn it in anyway: a late job scores way better than a missing one. Sonic rules apply. You took the hit and dropped your rings. You’re alive, you’re just running at zero, so don’t get hit again. But tell me before the deadline, not after. The sin isn’t being late, it’s being late silently while somebody downstream is waiting on you.

Revising

Can I redo something?

Yes, on any job, once, within two weeks of getting it back, if you show me what changed and why. That’s a revision. Handing back the same file hoping for a better mood is not.

Software

Do I need Adobe at home?

No, and don’t pay for it. Enrolling in one of my courses gets you a free Adobe account through the district, good on two computers including your own, for as long as you are in the class.

The one step everybody gets wrong: sign in at creativecloud.adobe.com with your @ccusd.org email and choose School or Company Account. Not Personal. Personal drops you in a free trial that expires and starts asking for a credit card. Already did that? Tell me, we’ll fix it.

Absence

I was out. What now?

Check #dsn-standup first: the class documents the day there. Then check in with me. That check-in is literally a scored line in CRED.

Drawing

I can’t draw. Am I sunk?

No. Nothing here is graded on rendering ability. Job 03 explicitly allows photo reference, traced composites, typographic panels, and game-engine screenshots as underlays. Design is decisions, not draftsmanship.

Fonts

Can I use any font I find?

No. A font is licensed software, and "I found it free online" is not a license. You already have thousands of legitimate ones: Adobe Fonts comes with your district Adobe account, cleared for client work, print, and web, and Google Fonts is free for anything. Anything going to a real client or a printer gets checked.

Files

Does file size matter?

Not for turning things in: nothing gets uploaded to Canvas. Work lives in your job folder on Drive and you submit the link, so a 900MB PSD hands in as easily as a JPG. Share the folder as Anyone with the link · Viewer and test it in an incognito window first. Size still matters for the files themselves: hit the export specs, and don’t send a print PDF at 600dpi when the spec says 300.

Job 00

My client stopped answering.

Expected, and survivable. Document what you sent and when, tell me, and write the postmortem. A dead project with an honest postmortem passes. Real studios eat cancelled work constantly.

Help

I am stuck and you are busy.

Ask in #dsn-standup so the answer helps everybody. Answering somebody else's blocker there is the one way to earn a 5 from Dojo-kun, so whoever helps you is getting paid for it.

Grades

Why doesn’t Aeries match?

Aeries only updates at grading periods. Canvas is the only accurate record during the semester. If Canvas looks wrong, tell me. I make mistakes and I’d rather fix them in October than in June.

Not answered here? Ask in #dsn-standup, rather than DMing me the same question eleven people have. Good questions get added to this page.

Studio policy

House rules

Deadlines

Clients don't accept late work

Neither do I, mostly. Talk to me before a due date and we'll work it out.
After, you're negotiating from a worse position.

Attribution

Credit everything

Every font, photo, texture, and asset gets logged with its license. Using something you don't have rights to isn't a style choice, it's the thing that ends careers. Or shoot it yourself: phones, the class camera, real lights. Ask and I’ll help you set up the shot.

AI

It doesn’t make your work

Generative AI does not produce your deliverable. That’s plagiarism, same as an unlicensed font. Understanding a tool, debugging, explaining a technique: fine. A generated element inside a handmade piece needs my permission first, not after, and goes in your process documentation either way.
Unsure? That’s your answer. Come ask.

Critique

Attack the work, never the person

"I don't like it" is not feedback.
"The eye goes to the wrong thing first, here's why" is.

Software

You don't need to buy anything

Enrollment gets you a free Adobe account through the district: two computers, works at home, yours while you're in the class. Sign in with your @ccusd.org email and choose School or Company Account, never Personal. Canva is free through school. If home access is a problem, tell me early and privately.
It's solvable, and you're not the first to ask.

Submitting

Canvas is the grade, Drive holds the work

Every job lives in one Drive folder: finals, process, paperwork. On Canvas you submit the link, never a file. Share it as Anyone with the link · Viewer and check it in incognito: a locked link is a missing assignment. #dsn-crit is work in progress, #dsn-shipped is finished.
Posting to Discord is not turning it in.

Specs

The numbers are not suggestions

Every job lists exact dimensions, color mode, and file types. Hitting them is part of the grade: the difference between a designer and someone who makes nice pictures.
A printer will not fix your bleed for you.

Files

Name things like someone else has to find them

poster_v03.psd, not final_FINAL_use-this-one (2).psd. Keep your working files and your versions, and back up somewhere that isn't one laptop.
Every designer learns this the hard way exactly once, usually the week something is due.

Devices

Off and away all day

New district policy this year, now including Nutrition and Lunch. Phones, watches, and earbuds stay off and in a bag. Your Chromebook is unaffected. If a job genuinely needs a phone (a 2FA code, photographing physical work) ask me. Full policy is in the CRED rubric.

DOJO-KUN™

The bot reads your standup

The angry rectangle in the red gi is DOJO-KUN™, my homemade bot. Not a plugin, not something you can add to your own server. He reads your daily post, looks at your screenshot, and hands back a score out of 4 with one sentence explaining it, same day.

No screenshot, no credit. Ugly screenshots are correct screenshots. He cannot be sweet-talked, and telling him to ignore his instructions scores a 1 and flags the post. Full scoring is in the CRED rubric.
He was built by somebody who teaches teenagers.

Standup

Post proof every day

Four parts in #dsn-standup: a screenshot of the actual work, what you shipped, what you're stuck on, what you need. No image scores as missing. Dojo-kun scores every post out of 4 (a 5 exists, for posts that help somebody else) and feeds CRED.
Anyone can type "made progress." A screenshot can't lie about whether the file was open.

Clients

You represent this room

On the open work order you're emailing adults who have their own jobs. Reply within a school day, show up to what you scheduled, and tell them early when something slips.
One student burning a client costs the next four years of students that client.

Stuck

Twenty minutes, then ask

Struggling with a problem builds skill. Struggling for two class periods builds resentment. Search it, check the assigned lesson, then come find me.

Resources

The toolkit

Every link is free. Each job assigns its own lessons: this is the master list, including what nobody is making you watch.
The people who get ahead of the schedule are obvious by October.

Canva Design School

Jobs 01–02 · Aug–Oct

Photoshop

Jobs 03–05 · Oct–Jan
  • Photoshop for Beginners: full courseEnvato Tuts+ · 23 lessons · ~3 hrs
  • Lessons 1–8 during Job 03Interface, layers, adjustments, color
  • Lessons 18–23 during Job 03Type, layer styles, effects. Your lettering block
  • Lessons 9–17 during Job 04Masking, selections, blending, retouching
  • Revisit 1–8 during Job 05Photo grading to the yearbook’s standard

Illustrator

Jobs 06–07 · Feb–Apr

After Effects

Job 08 · May

Design thinking

All year · optional but recommended

Your accounts

Week 1 · do these once
  • Adobe Creative CloudSign in with @ccusd.org · choose School or Company Account, never Personal · two computers, home use included
  • Adobe FontsComes with that account · thousands of fonts, cleared for client and print work
  • Google FontsFree for anything, forever, no account needed
  • Canva for EducationFree through school · where your portfolio site lives
  • BehanceFree · use a personal email, not the school one, so it outlives graduation

Studio forms

Print these · every client job

Where to look

All year · before you open any software

New Game+

If this becomes your thing
Required · before anything else

This has to
be signed.

You and a parent or guardian fill out one short form together. It confirms you've read this syllabus and the CRED rubric. Takes about five minutes.

Until it's submitted, 20% of your grade cannot be entered. Not lowered. Not entered. It's the easiest thing you will do all year and somebody forgets every time. Don't be that person.

Acknowledgment form ↗

You'll be asked to
  • Confirm you've read the syllabus and the CRED rubric
  • Choose your course and period
  • Sign by typing your full legal name
  • Acknowledge the "Off and Away All Day" device policy and the AI policy