april 22 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
populous field trip
arrive at the building at 8:50
be in the lobby at 9:00 – suite 300

4800 Main St #300
Kansas City, MO 64112

park in the garage on 48th street (the entrance is next to the yoga studio). then walk back out to the street and enter the building at the doors with the populous banners above the door. walk to the elevator and take it to level 3.

after the tour, we will meet back at class to cover any info about junior reviews, your studio report, and your reflection paper. we will do course evals either during this time or on wednesday the 24th after studio reports.

new work for next class
studio reports due at noon. 5 minutes max in length. here is the original brief.

an idea to keep you sane:
1. take one hour to research agencies, studios, in-house, collectives, or whatever design situation you think would be a “dream job”. do quick skims to learn the basics.
2. take one hour to research more deeply and put together a presentation. give us the basic “who, what, where, when, why” but more importantly, tell us why this place is great. is it the location, the size, the type of projects, the space, something else?

final deliverable
— pdf with presenter notes of your studio report. filename: lastname_firstname-pp-studioReport.pdf
or
— pdf, jpg, mp4, or other appropriate file formats if your studio report takes a different form.

april 15 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
guest speakers:
- kendell warner, user experience lead at cerner, at 8:00
- andy heise, assistant director, regnier institute for entrepreneurship & innovation, umkc at 9:30

sign thank you cards for folks!

don’t forget studio reports are due for presentation wednesday april 24.

next class – wednesday april 17
11:00–12:00 in 101
alumni panel with myles thompson, caylie hausman, and eric mclaughlin
bring yo lunch!

meet at design ranch at 1:00
1629 walnut st
kansas city, mo 64108

april 10 class /  by tyler galloway

reminders / announcements
alumni panel series – 11:00–12:00 wednesday april 17 and wednesday april 24. bring your lunch!

who is committed to the informational interviews from 1:30 to 2:50 on wed may 1st?

in class
portfolio website critique: each student will navigate through a peer’s site and lead the critique of the work. once they are done, classmates may chime in. things to focus on:

based solely on the home page [no scrolling], describe your first impression of what this designer is like.

how well does the site integrate with other identity elements you’ve seen?

the work
- how easy and quick is it to view?
- how professional is the presentation?
- does it tell an interesting and logical story?

contacting and additional info
- how easy is it to contact the designer?
- how easily can you find their resume?

any additional comments?

april 8 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
8:00 kelly radiel [kcai gd ‘09] from brr architecture

9:00-ish: discussion of mock interview time and commitments from students

9:30 matt mcinerney [kcai design ca. 1990s] and bethany foss [kcai gd ‘12] from hok architecture

next class
whiskey studio tour @ 1pm
821 W 17 St
Kansas City, MO 64108

same drivers as last time.
on-street parking along 17th street.

reactor / barkley studio tours /  by tyler galloway

plan on arriving in the crossroads at 11:45

park in the barkley parking garage [orange structure on the west side of main]
1720 main street
kansas city, mo 64108
when we get to barkley, we will validate tickets so parking will be free.

walk south on main street to 18th street

walk east on 18th street to grand blvd

Reactor Design Studio
1817 Grand Blvd
Kansas City, MO 64108

april 1 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
review project 4 brief.

collect four drivers licenses and insurance cards for wednesday’s field trip.

discuss dates / times for alumni seminar.

discuss mock interview session, tentatively slated for may 1, 1:30–2:50

work time on portfolio sites.

portfolio sites will be due by noon on wednesday april 10.

new work for next class
continued production on portfolio site.

make sure to be at reactor at noon o’clock sharp on wednesday.

project 3 crit format /  by tyler galloway

as these portfolio sites ought to be self-evident, there will be no presentation aspect during this crit. we will take eight minutes max for each student, viewing their site on our individual laptops and phones. these are the questions we will collectively answer for each student in that time:

is the site visually integrated with the other business materials?

is there a memorable p.o.v., attitude, or character to the site and the work?

is navigation clear and efficient?

how many clicks to get to a project screen?

do the projects tell good stories in text and images?

is the writing professional and concise?

is any process evident? is it compelling?

is it easy to contact the designer?

is it easy to view their resume?

march 27 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
explanation of senior mentorship award and voting.

Kansas City Art Institute Mentorship Awards

This special award category, conceived by students, recognizes student involvement that creates a sense of community at KCAI. Mentorship awards, recognizing one senior from each department (selections are made by students and faculty in each department) are announced and presented during the commencement ceremony.

Mission Statement:
The Mentorship Award is awarded to the senior who has best promoted community spirit within the department, helped other students, encouraged others and kept spirits and enthusiasm high, was available and accessible to others, gave criticism, engaged fellow students in dialogue, provided inspiration, exhibited a strong and positive work ethic, or in some other way supported other students in an open and generous way.

linkedin! yes, no, maybe, why?

feedback from alumni guest critics.

work time and desk crits.

2pm, gather in 102 for a special presentation to the dept.

new work for next class
final production touches and the emailing of the deliverables to me before the start of monday’s class.

march 25 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
discuss readings from last class.

prep for guest user testers, who will be here at 9:00 until the end of class:
anna gonzales [kcai gd 2014]
nick howland [kcai gd 2015]
ashton shechter [kcai gd 2016]
y pham [kcai gd 2018]

new work for next class
final touches on production. fully functioning websites are due by 8:00am, april 1.

don’t forget the deliverable, from the project sheet: email to me, in a professionally written manner, a link to your shiny new url. subject line, “professional website”

we will also vote on the senior mentorship award during next class.

march 20 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
work time and desk crits. remember you are shooting for having a decently working site by monday. you probably won’t have all pages functioning, but it should give a solid overview of the home screen, a few portfolio pieces, and the about/contact screen.

new work for next class
read the following two articles on aiga’s “eye on design” online magazine, and be ready to discuss. good stuff.

What Will the Future of Work Look Like in 2019? We Make Some Predictions

What To Do After Graduating from Design School? Refinery29’s Art Director Isabel Castillo Guijarro Has Some Advice

have several pages of your site [as mentioned above] ready to show to some visiting alumni designers. i have two committed; still working on two more.

march 18 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
discuss upcoming studio tours – is it feasible to squeeze two in to one class session?

work time / desk crits: review one functioning page [or thereabouts].

continue site production.


new work for next class
continued site development. aim for 3–5 additional screens on wednesday, so you have a total of 4–6.

important: make sure your field trip forms are filled out and up-to-date. also, i will need about four drivers for multiple field trips – current license and insurance is needed to have on file. it’s best if the drivers are the same for all trips.

march 13 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
guest alumnus hugh dewitte here. yay guests!

review of internship sites, including the nelson durwood internships, DI, and frequent designalogue listings.

update on mid-term grades.

discussion of portfolio process and expectations. you have two weeks to have your site live.

small group crit on 3 visual directions for your site. select a direction to pursue.

new work for next class
begin production work on your site – customizing templates, coding an initial page, figuring out usable typefaces, etc.

have at least one sample page in good working order to show for desk crits next class.

march 11 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
review “flaunt” reading

  • any new insights as to how to handle your portfolio?

  • any thoughts on how to handle an in-person interview so you are not just re-visiting your website?

discussion: what web infrastructure are you using and why? a template site, built from scratch, etc.

work time and desk crits

  • 5 minute check-ins on all required assets – be prepared to quickly show wireframes, project documentation and descriptions, and “about me” writing.

  • develop three different approaches to a home screen, portfolio screen, and about screen that fit within your existing visual identity – 9 screens total.

new work for next class
have your site infrastructure decided.

have your 9 screens described above ready to show for small group critique.

at noon, we will have guest alumnus hugh dewitte here, speaking about his current work as a strategically-focused experience designer working on creating strong customer engagement for businesses.

feb 27 class // final personal/professional framing crit /  by tyler galloway

in class
critique on your business materials.

review project 3: professional portfolio site


new work for next class

#1: enjoy your spring break!

read “flaunt” section 4 – census of portfolio etiquette, pp 131–141. there are some helpful insights in there.

skim / read through a few of the “flaunt” portfolio case studies that make up the bulk of the book. there are many good ideas for how to take advantage of being in a face-to-face interview so you are not just replicating your website 100%. good food for thought.

make sure you are ready to roll with all of your assets for the website project: wireframes, project documentation and descriptions, and “about me” writing.

website platform options /  by tyler galloway

hand-coded
code is written by you or use code-based software like dreamweaver or muse.

buy a domain and website hosting from a host such as bluehost, inmotion, host gator. beware, the pricing is often quite misleading, as they show you a monthly price but that’s what you get if you agree to pay up front for a year or two or three. if you buy a domain from them [recommended, and sometimes free with a hosting purchase], you will get multiple emails with that host as the suffix. example: tylergalloway.com; hello@tylergalloway.com

once your site is coded, you log on to your webhost using your username and password and upload your html, css, and image files and you have a live website!

the big downside here is making a mobile-first site, and/or one that is responsive, which is considerably harder than just designing a site for the desktop. it’s certainly not impossible, but worth mentioning.

wordpress
this is a kind of middle-of-the-road option between doing it yourself [above] and turnkey services [below]. wordpress is a web publishing platform that is free to the general public and has a huge community of users offering technical support, designing visual templates, etc.

wordpress.org – free! and with many free and paid templates. you will have to download the wordpress files and then install them on a host server, like above, so the files can be seen out on the web.


turnkey [all-inclusive] web services
these are very handy b/c you just pay your annual [or monthly] fee and everything is included. more expensive and more restrictive. templates mean you’re sharing the same site structure with many other designers out there. templates are often modifiable to greater or lesser extents, including changing typefaces, using google fonts, etc.

cargo – $99 per year or $13/month. looks like domains are extra. no obvious blog capabilities. looks like most people here are linking to tumblr for blogging. 

squarespace – $144 per year or $16/month. combined portfolio and blog options. custom domains. 

virb – $10/month. combined portfolio and blog options. custom domains.  

wix – $132 per year. free domain for one year. a few combined portfolio and blog options. may be possible to add blog pages but not sure. 

webflow - $12–16/month, paid annually for the basic setup. domain name purchase is extra.

online portfolio service
these are self-contained communities for creatives that utilized a common format for all users. simply become a member by signing up and then upload your work. it’s nice to be a part of a specific creative community, but the sheer volume of people there makes it hard to stand out.

behance

coroflot

dribbble

feb 25 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
check-ins: project 1 deliverables, extra credit opportunities

review project 2 brief

9:30 belinda waggoner, ceo & founder of people people, here

www.peoplepeopleus.com 

new work for next class
final production refinements and printing.

make sure all deliverables are completed and ready to hand in, as well as emailed before class.

make sure all blog posts are completed.

critique format
criteria-based written input + post-it notes.
all work will be set out on the table as complete sets.
a feedback sheet will accompany each project and each student will provide input.
2 min +/– for each student.

feedback sheet contents:
how would you describe this designer, based purely on looking at [not reading] their work?
based on the visual design, what does this designer value? ex: experimentation, process, d.i.y.
what do[es] the typeface choice[s] communicate to you?
what does the typographic arrangement [composition, spacing, scale shifts, etc] communicate to you, if different from above?
what meaning do the materials [paper color, weight, texture, etc] contribute the work?
mark the overall quality of the letter writing, 1–10.
mark the overall quality of the resume writing 1–10.
how memorable is this work, 1–10?

feb 18 class /  by tyler galloway

announcement
in prep for the upcoming tiff hockin workshop, please make sure you have google chrome browser on your laptop and download sublime text note: you’ll be prompted to purchase; this software is free to use indefinitely — though tiff does recommend it as a general power-tool!

reminder
thank you for turning in all deliverables for project one. know that as future-professional designers, you are now responsible for reading directions carefully and following them precisely. this includes asking for clarification on anything not specified, for which you have questions. i will provide occasional reminders, but will not babysit you through every single requirement for each project.

as stated in the syllabus and gd policies:

Being absent for a final critique / projects not properly submitted at the start of final critique /Being tardy for a final critique will result in being marked absent for the day and not receiving credit for the project.
”projects not properly submitted” means not turning in all required deliverables by the required time. i am also 100% serious from here on out about tardies on critique day – not acceptable.

in class
brief check-in for questions, comments and general peer-to-peer help.

work time and desk crits: speed round reviews [5 minutes each] of design iterations and writing. work with me and/or your peers to determine the most appropriate direction to pursue. base the notion of “appropriateness” on the considerations in the project 2 brief and on your selected attributes.

be working on domain name ideas if you have not already purchased one. a domain is required as part of your final project 2 deliverables.

new work for next class
the tiff hockin workshop is wednesday.

our next class will be monday feb 25. belinda waggoner from people people will be here at 9:30 to talk more about resume and writing dos and don’ts, and to take a look at your near-final artifacts.

have a semi-final resume, business card, and cover letter on letterhead ready for belinda’s review. other materials [#10 envelope, thank you card and a1 or a2 envelope] are gravy if you have those ready to look at, but not required. they will be required for final crit though.

final crit for project 2 is wed feb 27.

feb 13 class /  by tyler galloway

in class
dept meeting for a bit.

extra credit reminders: aiga portfolio review, national student show

group reflection on project 1 – what did you learn? attention to detail on deliverables and follow-through.

review aiga reading.

review initial samples of personal identity materials from feb 6 homework. 

small group crits, then desk crits and work time

  • review mood boards

  • review writing revisions on cover letter, resume

  • get started on creating design elements – color and type options/selections and begin visual design.

new work for next class
many many design iterations of quick test applications [see the design brief for required artifacts]. work out at least five different directions – not slight variations, but distinct approaches – that all relate back to your attributes and mood board in some way. they could emphasize various attributes, for example, as a way to push into different directions. how can you push type, color, and composition to the extremes of each attribute to achieve a wide range of formal solutions?