Culver City High School CTE · Visual & Performing Arts Grades 9–12 · 10 Credits UC a–g: F + G Aug 19, 2026 → Jun 11, 2027

The
Studio

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
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The premise

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

Eight times this year, a brief lands on your desk. Sometimes the client is the yearbook. Sometimes it's theater, who need a poster and need it Tuesday. Sometimes it's a Game Dev team sitting four feet away in this same room, building something that has to look like it belongs on a store page. Once it's you, designing your own identity, because you can't sell a brand to anybody until you've built one.

One project a month sounds like a lot of time. It isn't. The work has to be good, and somebody is waiting on the other end who will notice if it isn't.

Underneath all of it, all year, sits one more job: an open work order. Somebody on this campus needs something designed and they do 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. Think of it as the one sidequest in here that isn't optional. It's also the job that looks most like the rest of your life.

Every job below hands you a direction to choose and the exact lessons to watch. I teach the concept and demo the tricky part. After that I'm circulating, because sitting with one person is the thing a video can't do. The videos can be paused, rewound, and watched at 2× at eleven at night, which is the thing I can't do.

Before job 01

How to actually
do this

The jobs below throw words around as if everyone already knows them. You might not, and that’s fine, that’s what this section is for. Read it once now. Come back whenever a job says one of these words and you go blank.

Mood board

A page of images that isn’t yours yet

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

Where to build it, pick one: Pinterest (make a board, pin images, share the board link with me) or a plain Google Slides deck (one image per slide, screenshots are fine) or a Canva design set to a grid. Whatever you use, I need a link or a file I can open, not a promise that it exists on your phone.

Thumbnail

A tiny, fast, ugly sketch

Not a finished drawing. Small, like the size of a postage stamp, drawn in under a minute each. The point is speed: ten bad small ideas beat one slow pretty one, because you find the good layout before you’ve fallen in love with the wrong one.

How: pencil and paper, a grid of little boxes, one idea per box. Photograph the page when you’re done and that’s your proof of work for standup.

Direction

One specific idea, not a vibe

"A direction" means one describable choice: bold and geometric, or handwritten and warm, or loud color versus one color and lots of type. Not "cool" or "aesthetic." If you can’t say your direction in one sentence to a stranger, you don’t have one yet, you have a mood.

Spec sheet

One page listing exactly what you used

A list, not an essay: every font (and where it’s licensed from), every photo or asset (and whether you shot it, licensed it, or made it), the file’s dimensions, resolution, and color mode. If a stranger opened your file cold, this page tells them everything they'd otherwise have to ask you.

Behance

Where finished work lives publicly

A free portfolio site owned by Adobe that designers actually check. Make an account at behance.net with your school or personal email. Posting a project: a cover image, 3–6 supporting images, a couple sentences on what it was. Fifteen minutes once the work exists.

This page

It knows what day it is

Scroll to the jobs and one of them is outlined in pink with a NOW tag on it. That is the job we are currently in. The page works it out from today's date and the marker moves itself, all year, without me touching anything. There is also a thin blue line running down the left edge: that is the school year filling in as it goes.

Which means this page is never out of date, cannot be lost in a backpack, and does not need reprinting. If a printed copy and this page ever disagree, this page wins.

Dates move

The schedule is a plan, not a promise

Dates shift. Clients go quiet, a lesson needs another week, the district adds a day off nobody saw coming. When something moves, it moves here first and I say so out loud in class. The two things that do not move are the ship dates and the final, because somebody downstream is waiting on both.

Case study page

Not a gallery. A story with five parts

Full breakdown is in portfolio below, but the short version: who it was for, what made it hard, your process (not just the final), a photo of it in context, and one honest sentence on what you’d change. That order, every time.

Handing it in, step by step

Every job ends the same way. Nobody gets marked down for not knowing the mechanics, so here they are once, in order.

Step 1

Export to the spec, not to whatever

Print files, from Canva: Share → Download → file type PDF Print, then check Crop marks and bleed. That checkbox is the bleed. Skip it and the file is not print-ready no matter how good it looks.

From Photoshop or Illustrator: File → Save a Copy → PDF, or Export As for PNG. Set the document to CMYK and 300dpi before you build, not after. Converting at the end shifts your colors and you will be annoyed.

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

Step 2

Name the file like an adult

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

This matters more than it sounds. In June you will need to find every file from this year in about ten minutes 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. Not the big ones, not the small ones, not the one-page spec sheet. Every job gets one folder in the Drive on your school account, and what you hand in is a link to it.

Why: downloading thirty files per job, thirty times a year, is how work gets lost and feedback gets slow. A folder I can open in one click stays open while I grade, and your process files sit right there next to the final instead of somewhere in a downloads pile.

One folder per job, named the same way your files are: lastname_job02. Final files, process documentation, and paperwork all live inside it.

Step 4

Share it so I can actually open it

Right-click the file or folder → Share → change Restricted to Anyone with the link · Viewer, or add my email directly. Then copy that link and submit it.

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 is fixed. I am not going to email you asking for permission and then wait, because a real client would not either. They would move on and hire somebody else.

Same rule for anything I have to click: a Canva site still set to private, a Behance draft, a Drive folder shared with nobody. Check access before you submit, every time.

Step 5

Submit the link on Canvas

Canvas gets one thing from you: the URL of that job's folder, pasted in the submission box. That is the entire submission. Canvas is still where the grade and my feedback live, so you check it there.

Inside the folder I expect three things: the final files at spec, your process documentation (sketches, thumbnails, rejected directions, screenshots along the way), and any paperwork that job requires (work order, spec sheet, source log, proposal).

Step 6

Post the final to Discord

Once it is actually done, drop the finished piece in #dsn-shipped as an image, not a link, so people can see it without clicking. One line about what it was for.

This is not the same as turning it in. Canvas is the grade. This is the studio wall.

Step 7

Put it on your site

Nothing counts as finished until it is live on your portfolio site as a case study page, with all five parts. Same day it ships, ideally, while you still remember what was hard about it.

Publishing in Canva: Share → Publish as website → the free option, which gives you an address ending in my.canva.site. Your subdomain cannot be changed later, so pick your name like it is permanent, because it is. On a school account I have to approve a site before it goes live, so publish early in the week and not at 11:58pm on the due date.

Print terms, defined once

These four show up in almost every spec block below. Here they are once, plainly, so you never have to guess.

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 that runs past where the final page gets trimmed. Printers cut slightly wrong every time, so bleed means the edge of your design is never blank paper by accident. 0.125in on all sides is the standard here unless a job says otherwise.
Safe margin
The opposite problem. Nothing important (text, faces, logos) sits inside this distance from the trim edge, or an off cut takes a bite out of it.
CMYK
The four inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK) a real printer uses. Screens use a different system (RGB) that makes brighter colors than ink can actually produce. Anything going to a printer gets built or converted to CMYK, or the colors shift when it prints.
DPI / resolution
Dots per inch: how much detail is packed into the file. 300dpi is standard for anything printed. Screens only need 72–150dpi, which is why a print file is so much bigger than a social post.
The month

How a job runs

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

Week 1 · Brief

The job drops Monday. I talk for about 30 minutes on the idea underneath it, which is the only lecture you're getting, then demo the one technique that's miserable to learn from a video. Then we build the rubric: I bring four criteria, you propose and vote in two more, and all six lock before anyone opens software. Rest of the week is research, thumbnails, and a mood board. Pick your direction by Friday. Pencils before pixels.

Week 2 · Build

Software week. The assigned lessons are on you. Pause them, rewind them, watch at 2× at 11pm, they don't mind. I'm walking the room all period, so wave me over. The 20-minute rule applies: stuck for 20, then you ask. Post your standup with a screenshot even when it's ugly. ESPECIALLY when it's ugly. Wednesday you take your 45 seconds in front of the room, same as every week.

Week 3 · Critique

Work goes up, the room talks, you take notes. It is the most valuable hour of the month and it has actual rules, spelled out below, because "everyone say something nice" is not a critique. This is the long version of the Wednesday demo you have been doing all along.

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, and get the project page up with all five parts. Checkpoint hit. New brief Monday.

Critique, in detail

Runs midweek during week 3 of every job. Target dates are printed on each job below. This is where the 10% critique grade lives, so here's exactly how the hour goes.

The setup

Your work goes up. You get 90 seconds.

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

The rounds

The room runs three passes. You stay quiet.

Round one: what's working, and it has to be specific. "The type" doesn't count. "The size jump between the headline and the date" counts. Round two: what's not landing, aimed at the work and never the person, phrased as the problem you're having: "I can't find the date." Round three: one concrete thing to try, from each person.

Then you talk

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

You don't have to take every note. Some notes are wrong, and part of the skill is knowing which. But you do have to hear all of them without defending, and you do have to write them down, because week 4 starts with those notes and your process doc shows what you did with them.

The 10%

Graded both directions. Co-op, not PvP.

As a giver: specific, usable notes. "Looks good" is a participation zero. As a receiver: real work on the wall and notes written down. Showing up empty-handed is a zero for the cycle, no exceptions. The score isn't beating the room. The score is the room getting better.

Wednesdays: the 45

Wednesday is a short period, so there is no new instruction on it. Instead everybody shows what they have. 45 seconds each, out loud, everyone. No passing, no "same as him." Thirty people, about twenty minutes, done. It happens every week whether you are in week one of a job or week four.

The clock

45 seconds, and it is a real 45 seconds

Timer on the screen where everybody can see it. When it hits zero you stop, mid sentence if that is where you are. This is not me being harsh. It is the only way thirty people get a turn in a short period, and the person after you deserves their 45 as much as you deserved yours.

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. That is the whole script, and it is the same script my Yearbook staff runs on Wednesdays. No process story, no apology, no warmup.

Show the screen while you answer. This is the one room where saying it out loud and pointing at it happen together.

Be ready

On screen before your name comes up

Order gets posted in #dsn-standup that morning, so you know roughly when you are up. Have the file open and the right thing showing before you walk up. Thirty people fumbling for ten seconds each is five minutes of the period gone, and it always comes out of the last people to go.

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. It happens to everybody and pretending otherwise wastes the room's time. Three Wednesdays in a row and you and I have a different conversation, but 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 is time at the end, and there is #dsn-crit, and if it is a real blocker somebody will grab you after. The exception is me: I might ask one thing, and I will keep it short.

No standup

Wednesday does not need a written update

The demo is the update. You stood up and showed the room, so typing it out afterward is filing a report on a meeting everybody attended. Dojo-kun does not count Wednesdays against you. Post anyway if you want the screenshot in your record, and it will still score, but nothing is missing if you do not.

Why 45 seconds. Partly because it is the real length of the question: somebody asks what you are working on in a hallway or an interview and you get about that long before their attention moves. If it takes three minutes to explain what you are making, you do not know what you are making yet.

The other reason is the one you will feel by October. It is the fastest way to find out that two people are waiting on each other. Somebody says they are blocked on an export, somebody two seats away says they fixed that Tuesday, and a week that was about to be lost gets handed back. The clock is not the obstacle. The clock is the assignment.

One Wednesday a month is different: week three is the full critique, work on the wall, three rounds, described above. The other Wednesdays are the heartbeat.

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

00The Open Work OrderAll year 01Personal BrandAug 24 – Sep 18 02The Event PosterSep 21 – Oct 16 03Panel to PanelOct 19 – Nov 20 04The Composite · midtermNov 30 – Dec 18 05Yearbook HandoffJan 4 – Jan 29 06The Identity SystemFeb 2 – Mar 19 07The Game Studio ContractApr 6 – Apr 30 08Pitch Your OwnMay 3 – May 28 09Ship It · finalJun 1 – Jun 11
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. ASB remembers a week out. Somewhere on this campus, all year, there is an adult with a design problem and no designer.

You take one. The board opens in September, the good jobs get claimed early, and plenty of these ship in October or November, because the client’s deadline is the real one. You work in pairs, because two people are more likely to survive a client who goes quiet. The deal on dates: a signed work order in my hand before winter break (Dec 18), or I find the client for you. Assigned jobs go out starting in January and everyone has one before spring break at the latest. Either way it ships by May 7, and that’s the last possible date, not the target. Between those dates, the schedule belongs to you and your client.

Who's hiring
  • Theater: show posters, programs, title cards, lobby boards
  • Film: title sequences, key art, festival submission graphics
  • ASB: dance and rally campaigns, spirit week, election materials, 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, informational one-sheets that 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. If somebody on this campus needs something and they're not on it, bring me the request and we'll write the work order. Requests also come in on their own: there is a public request page that teachers, clubs, and local businesses can submit through, and anything that arrives there goes straight onto the board.

Landing the client
  • You can use this period. Email from your station, or physically walk the campus and catch people while they’re around. Tell me before you go.
  • Outside this period it’s on you: lunch, before or after school, or CP Flex, which works great for client meetings and feedback. Claim your space on Minga beforehand or you don’t have one.
  • The work order happens in person, or at worst on a voice call. Never just email. Email intake is how you build the wrong thing politely.
  • At intake, ask them to show you examples of what they want, and collect any previous versions. "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 dimensions, real bleed, a real vendor with real specs you have to hit.

Behance: event posters ↗

A screen piece

Social set, slide template, digital signage. One message that has to survive being resized five ways.

Behance: social campaigns ↗

A system

Signage, wayfinding, a set of templates someone else will use after you leave. Hardest brief, biggest payoff.

Behance: wayfinding systems ↗
Deliverables
  • Signed work order: the studio intake form, filled out sitting with the client, not guessed at. Signed copy to me before winter break.
  • Two proposed directions, presented to them
  • The deliverable itself, to the spec they actually need
  • Handoff package: final files, formats, and a short "how to use this". That note is three or four sentences: which file to use where, what to open it with, and who to contact if they need it changed. Written for an adult who does not know what a PSD is.
  • Postmortem: required either way, and the only deliverable if the client vanishes
Specs: hit these exactly
  • Dimensions
    Whatever the work order says. That’s the entire point. You got the specs from the client, in writing, at intake.
  • Files
    Whatever the client can actually open. Ask. “I’ll send a PSD” to someone without Photoshop is a failed handoff.
  • Handoff
    Final files plus a short “how to use this” note. Include editable source if they’ll need to 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
    The work order is complete and signed. No blanks.
  • 2
    Client communication stayed professional and on time, and the paper trail proves it.
  • 3
    The deliverable matches what the work order promised, in a format the client can actually 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. The work order has fields for exactly this and 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. Nobody has ever handed a designer a complete brief. Getting the real requirements out of a person who doesn't know how to give them to you is the actual 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 actually for? Not you. Whoever looks at your portfolio site or your card later: a client, a recruiter, a college. Name them.
  • Three words you want a stranger to think within five seconds of seeing your mark. Pick them before you open Canva, not after.
  • One thing that would look wrong on you, even if it's a genuinely nice piece of design. A boundary, decided in advance, beats a good excuse later.
  • What already exists that you're keeping or replacing: a nickname, a color you always wear, a phrase people associate with you, or honestly nothing yet.

This is the work order for a job where you're the client. Same purpose (decide things before you're attached to a direction), different questions, because 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 itself.

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 a screenshot of the completion screen, or the PDF certificate Canva emails you. Drop it 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. If your mark survives being the size of a fingernail, every other size is free. If you design at 1000px and shrink it, you’ll find out too late that it turns to mush.

Outline your type before exporting SVG. Otherwise it renders in whatever font the viewer happens to have, 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 7 → 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 at all. 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, since you are submitting a Drive link. Export to the 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

These are 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 it is 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, and the fact that a designer chose that order. Resizing one message into 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 10 → Ships Nov 20

Panel to Panel

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

1 2 3 4 gutter = the gap = time passing big panel = slow down last panel = the punchline
A wide gutter reads as more time passing than a narrow one. A big panel holds the eye longer. That is the whole craft.

You are not being graded on how well you draw. Photo reference, traced composites, purely typographic panels, and Unreal or game-engine screenshots used as underlays are 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 has to sit inside someone else’s speech.

Behance: comic lettering ↗

Storyboard sequence

Shot by shot for something that actually moves, with 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 untouched default type
  • Annotated reading-order map: where the eye goes, in what order, and 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
    Reading order works: a stranger moves through the page in the order you built.
  • 2
    Panel sizes and gutters are decisions, and the reading-order 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 before you draw anything. Panel sizes are the design. Deciding them last means the page controls you.

Leave room for the balloons. Everyone draws a beautiful panel and then discovers there’s nowhere to put the words. Place lettering early, even as gray boxes.

Big idea: Reading order is designedExisting characters are allowed here. The further you push them into something of your own, the better it works as a portfolio piece, and it can't be the only thing you show. Client jobs later this year can't use them at all, and we'll cover why in December. The rest is simpler than it sounds. Nobody reads a page. They follow a path somebody built for them, and changing one panel's size changes what the whole 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 9 → Ships Dec 18

The Composite

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

This is your midterm. There is no written exam and no separate test week. This project is the assessment. Three weeks, hard stop before winter break, and it carries more weight than a normal job because everything you’ve learned since August has to show up in one image.

And you don't have to download the world. Often the best source is one you shot yourself: your phone (that's teacher-directed use, just ask), the class camera, or a full photoshoot with lighting if the image deserves it. Ask me and we'll set it up. 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. The oldest trick in surrealism and 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 of the three.

Behance: composite worlds ↗
Deliverables
  • One seamless composite, minimum six source images
  • Technical spec sheet. Dimensions, resolution, color mode, format, and why you chose each
  • Source log. Every asset licensed, credited, or shot by you. A simple list, one row per image: where it came from, the license (or "own photography"), and a link if it has one. A Google Doc or a text file is fine. It has to cover 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 only. 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
    The build is non-destructive: 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 you match 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 it’s 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. This is 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 actually sits. Legal, tolerated, or neither, and why "it's transformative" is a defense with a much narrower meaning than the internet thinks. Designers get sued over this. It's not optional and it's more interesting than it sounds.
05
Client
Yearbook
Tool
Photoshop
Dates
Jan 4 – Jan 29
Ships Jan 29 · semester portfolio due
Brief Jan 4 → Crit Jan 20 → Ships Jan 29

Yearbook Handoff

The yearbook has a grid, a set of 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, and the binding takes most of it. 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, built to the yearbook’s actual grid and specs
  • Six photos edited to the book’s standard, consistently graded
  • Caption and headline system others could follow. Meaning: write down the actual rules you used. Headline font, size, and weight; caption font and size; how far captions sit from the photo; what gets capitalized. One short page. The test is whether next year’s staff could 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 the center, either side. No faces, no headlines, no captions. That inch disappears into the binding.
  • Photos
    300dpi at placed size. No upscaling. A 800px photo blown up to 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
    The caption and headline system is one another student could follow.
  • 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 immediately see what the gutter eats, and no amount of on-screen checking substitutes.

A photo crossing the gutter is a decision, not an accident. If you do it, 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 24 & Mar 10 → 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 supporting icons, the rules, and the document that keeps all of it from falling apart 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 themselves, 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: same stroke weight, same corner radius, same logic. Siblings, not cousins.
  • Brand sheet. Palette in hex and CMYK, type system, clear space, misuse examples. Clear space means the minimum empty margin around the logo, usually measured in units of the logo itself. Misuse examples are the "do not do this" panel: stretched, recolored, rotated, on a busy photo. Build it as 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 whose stroke is 1.5px when the rest are 2px will look wrong to everyone and nobody will be able to tell you why.

Test the logo in one color. Solid black, no gradients, no effects. If it stops working, it isn’t finished. And 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. And know that 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 21 → Ships Apr 30

The Game Studio Contract

A Game Dev team hires you, and they're sitting in this room at the next table. They're deep in a build with their own deadline, and they need a visual identity that holds up: a title, an interface, key art, a store page that makes someone stop scrolling. You have 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 is a plain list of every file you're delivering: filename, what it is, its dimensions, and its format. One text file or spreadsheet at the top of the folder. It is how 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 menu button designed 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 has to learn 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 19 → Ships May 28

Pitch Your Own

Every other job this year, somebody handed you the brief. This time you write it. Audience, deliverable, format, deadline, and why it should exist. 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. This is also the month After Effects gets taught, so if you want the thing you pitch to move, the door is open.

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 specifically 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%. Scope small, finish completely. Every year somebody learns this in the last week, and you do not want to 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 almost never the making. It's deciding what deserves to be made, defending that decision to somebody, and then being stuck with it. You have 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 in this class is finished until it's on your site. Not turned in. Published, at a URL you can text to somebody. That site is the only thing from this year that keeps working after you graduate, and it's what gets you a job, an internship, or a spot in a program.

Build
here

Canva Websites. Required

Free, publishes to a real address ending in my.canva.site, and you're already learning the tool in Job 01. No code, runs on a Chromebook, live in week four instead of week fourteen. Two things to know before you hit publish. Your subdomain can never be changed afterward, so pick your name like it's permanent, because it is. And on a school account I have to approve a 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 it's where the industry looks. Every "see it done" link on this page goes there. Your own site is yours. Behance is where strangers find you. Posting a project takes fifteen minutes once the work exists, so do it after each job ships.

Or
this

Something else? Ask first

If you already build websites, use whatever you like. Same requirements, same deadline, and I still need the URL. Just 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

A gallery of pretty pictures is not a portfolio. Anybody can post images. What gets you hired is evidence that you can think, and that shows up in five parts:

One

The brief

Who the client was, what they needed, what the real constraints were. Two or three sentences. If you set the job yourself, say what problem you gave yourself.

Two

The problem

What made it hard. Every job has one real difficulty in it. Name that. "The client wanted six messages on one poster" is a better opening line than anything else you could write.

Three

Process. At least three images

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

Four

The final, shown in context

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

Five

What you'd change

One honest sentence. This scares people and it shouldn't. Being able to critique your own work is the clearest signal you're not a beginner.

Everywhere

Your name and how to reach you

On every page. An about section with 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 of these before you build yours. The structure will make more sense in ten minutes than it does in this paragraph.

Behance ↗

Student portfolios

Your actual peer group, including work at your level. Useful for calibration: some of it's better than you expect and some of it isn't.

Behance ↗

Mockups in context

How to photograph or 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 is live with Job 01 on it. Real URL, submitted to me. This is a hard gate; everything after depends on it.

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

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: when you go, your school account closes and every file in that Drive goes with it. Project folders, source files, four years of work: gone, and not recoverable by me or by anyone. Before you leave, copy what matters to a personal drive or a personal Google account. This is also why your portfolio site is built somewhere you own instead of on a school login. The work has to outlive the account.

Two rules that sound obvious and get broken every single year. Check it on a phone, because most people who open your portfolio are holding one, and Canva's mobile view is a toggle, not a promise. And no dead links, ever. A broken portfolio 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 and 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. You’re assessed on work, same as anywhere you’ll ever be paid. 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 starts building. Fifteen minutes, and it means the standard is public before the work exists instead of appearing after it. Each job is graded on the finished piece and on the evidence of how it got there: iterations, directions you killed, and why. A designer's process is part of the deliverable, not extra credit.

20

CRED

Career Readiness, Engagement & Discipline. The 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 to your grade.

10

Critique

Graded both directions, every cycle: the notes you give and how you take the ones you get. The 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, because they are the only person who knows what success looks like for their own job. Every criterion is scored 1 to 5. Six criteria, so 30 points a job. The scale is the same in August and June and it is the same for all ten jobs, so 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 by nature. A work order is signed or it isn't. Those land on a 5 or a 1 and there is no middle, which 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, the median, so one person who dislikes you cannot move it and neither can one friend.

Two things keep this honest. You are scoring 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, for different reasons. Canvas is the grade, and what you submit there is a link to your job folder in Drive, never an uploaded file. #dsn-crit is where work-in-progress goes for feedback. #dsn-shipped is finished work only, posted after it ships. Something posted only to Discord 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. You need 100%, retakes are unlimited, and it gates your CRED grade. Everything on it is answered on this site. Getting one wrong tells you which page to go read.

Wednesdays

What happens on a normal Wednesday?

Short period, so 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 required that day, because the demo is the update. Full rules are in how a job runs.

Wednesdays

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

Yes, and it takes five seconds: say what stopped you and sit down. That is a real demo and nobody thinks less of you for it. 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, and I’d rather see the work. Sonic rules apply: turning it in late means 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. In this industry 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 you should not pay for it. Being enrolled 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 when it asks which kind of account you have, choose School or Company Account. Not Personal. Pick Personal and you land in a free trial that expires and starts asking for a credit card. If you already made that mistake, tell me and we will fix it.

Absence

I was out. What now?

Check #dsn-standup first. The day is documented there by the whole class. Then check in with me. Doing that after an absence is literally a scored line in CRED.

Drawing

I can’t draw. Am I sunk?

No. Nothing in this course 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, and this is the one that surprises people. A font is licensed software, and "I found it free online" is not a license. The good news is you already have thousands of legitimate ones: Adobe Fonts comes with your district Adobe account and is cleared for client work, print, and web, and Google Fonts is free for anything. Between those two you never need a sketchy download. Anything going to a real client or a printer gets checked.

Files

Does file size matter?

Not for turning things in, because nothing gets uploaded to Canvas. Everything goes in your job folder on Drive and you submit the link, so a 900MB PSD is no harder to hand in than a JPG. Share the folder as Anyone with the link · Viewer and test it in an incognito window before you submit. Size still matters for the files themselves, though: hit the export specs, and do not 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, not just you. Answering somebody else's blocker there is also the one way to earn a 5 from Dojo-kun, so the person who helps you is getting paid for it.

Grades

Why doesn’t Aeries match?

Because Aeries is only updated 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.

Something not answered here? Ask in #dsn-standup where everyone can see the answer, 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. Talk to me after and we're negotiating from a worse position, which is also a real lesson about this industry.

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 skip the whole question and 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. Using it to understand a tool, debug something, or explain a technique is always fine. Using a generated element inside an otherwise handmade piece needs my permission first, not after. Disclose it either way, in your process documentation. 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. You'll get better at receiving this than at giving it, and both take practice.

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 are in the class. Sign in with your @ccusd.org email and choose School or Company Account, never Personal. Canva is free through school. If access at home is still a problem, tell me early and privately. It is solvable and you are not the first person to ask.

Submitting

Canvas is the grade, Drive holds the work

Every job lives in one Drive folder: finals, process, paperwork. What you submit on Canvas is the link, never an uploaded file. Share it as Anyone with the link · Viewer and check it in incognito first, because a locked link is a missing assignment. #dsn-crit is for work in progress, #dsn-shipped is for finished work. 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: it’s 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, keep 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, and it now includes Nutrition and Lunch. Phones, watches, and earbuds stay off and in a bag. Your Chromebook is unaffected. When a job genuinely needs a phone (a 2FA code, photographing physical work) ask me and we'll handle it. 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, the same day. You never wait until Friday to find out where you stand.

No screenshot, no credit. Every studio you will ever work in runs on visible progress and nobody takes your word for it. Ugly screenshots are correct screenshots. He cannot be sweet-talked, and telling him to ignore his instructions scores a 1 and flags the post. He was built by somebody who teaches teenagers. Full scoring is in the CRED rubric.

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. The image is not optional: a post without one scores as missing. Ugly and half-finished is exactly right. Anyone can type "made progress," but a screenshot can't lie about whether the file was open. Dojo-kun, the tracker bot, scores every post out of 4 (a 5 exists, for posts that help somebody else), and he feeds CRED. By June it's a day-by-day visual record of your whole year.

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 on this page is free. The lessons inside each job are the assigned ones. This is the master list, including things 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 licensed 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