44 lessons, grouped by unit. Search by topic, aim, or keyword:
Unit A: Foundations — The Design Process & Purpose 5 lessons
- Lesson 1: Design Is Art With a Purpose — What separates "design" from other kinds of art-making? 1 Day
- Lesson 2: The Design Process: A Tool You'll Use Again and Again — What are the repeatable steps every designer uses, no matter the project? 2 Days
- Lesson 3: Understanding Your Audience: Research Methods & Personas — How do professional designers research a target audience before designing anything? 2 Days
- Lesson 4: Copyright & Licensing for Professionals — What do professional designers need to know about copyright, trademarks, and image licensing that goes beyond the basics? 2 Days
- Lesson 5: Color Theory Deep-Dive: Psychology, Culture & Accessibility — How does color affect meaning, emotion, and readability across different audiences? 2 Days
Unit B: A Brief History of Design 7 lessons
- Lesson 6: Before Print: Symbols, Seals & the Golden Ratio — What design principles have humans been using since long before printing existed? 2 Days
- Lesson 7: The Printing Press & the Birth of Typography — How did Gutenberg's printing press (1440s) create the entire field of typography? 2 Days
- Lesson 8: The Industrial Revolution & the Birth of Advertising — How did mass production in the 1800s create the modern advertising industry? 2 Days
- Lesson 9: Art Nouveau & the War Poster — How did Art Nouveau's decorative style give way to the bold propaganda posters of two world wars? 2 Days
- Lesson 10: Bauhaus & Modernism: Form Follows Function — How did the Bauhaus school (Germany, 1919-1933) create the foundation of modern design? 2 Days
- Lesson 11: The Swiss Style & the Grid System — How did 1950s Swiss designers standardize the grid systems and typefaces we still use today? 2 Days
- Lesson 12: Counterculture to Today: Psychedelia, Punk & Current Trends — How did designers in the 1960s-70s deliberately break the rules of the Swiss Style, and where is design headed now? 2 Days
Unit C: Typography Mastery 3 lessons
- Lesson 13: Anatomy of a Typeface — What are the actual parts of a letterform, and why does that vocabulary matter to a designer? 2 Days
- Lesson 14: Type Classification & Pairing Fonts — How do designers choose and pair fonts that work well together? 2 Days
- Lesson 15: Typography in Photoshop — How do we control typography precisely inside Photoshop using the Character and Paragraph panels? 2 Days
Unit D: Photoshop Mastery & ACP Exam Prep 6 lessons
- Lesson 16: Non-Destructive Editing: Smart Objects & Adjustment Layers — What is the difference between destructive and non-destructive editing, and why does it matter professionally? 2 Days
- Lesson 17: Advanced Selections & Compositing — How do professionals make clean, complex selections to combine multiple images into one believable scene? 2 Days
- Lesson 18: Vector Shapes & the Pen Tool, Round 2 — How do we use the Pen tool with real precision to build clean, scalable vector artwork? 2 Days
- Lesson 19: Filters, Retouching & Photo Restoration — How do designers repair, retouch, and stylize images using filters and restoration tools? 2 Days
- Lesson 20: Preparing Files for Print, Web & Video Export — How do we correctly prepare and export the same design for print, web, and video? 2 Days
- Lesson 21: ACP Practice Exam & Personal Review Plan — How do we assess our readiness for the ACP Photoshop exam and build a targeted study plan? 2 Days
Unit E: Client Projects 3 lessons
- Lesson 22: Client Project: Logo Design — How do we design a complete logo and brand mark from a real design brief, start to finish? 5 Days
- Lesson 23: Client Project: Brand Style Guide — How do we document a consistent brand identity so anyone can apply it correctly? 3 Days
- Lesson 24: Client Project: Ad Campaign Inspired by Design History — How can a historical design movement inspire a modern advertising campaign for a real audience? 4 Days
Unit E.5: Extension & Enrichment (Optional) 7 lessons
- Lesson 25: Design Trend Spotlight: Researching Today's Design World — What design trends are shaping the field right now, and where might they lead next? 2 Days
- Lesson 26: Illustrator Deep-Dive: Building a Vector Icon Set — How do we build a consistent set of vector icons using Illustrator? 2 Days
- Lesson 27: Client Simulation: Rebranding Challenge — How do we give an outdated brand a fresh redesign while keeping its recognizable identity? 2 Days
- Lesson 28: Running a Focus Group: Testing Design on a Real Audience — How do we find out whether a design actually works for the audience it was made for, instead of just guessing? 2 Days
- Lesson 29: Mock Interview & Career Pitch — How do we confidently present ourselves and our design skills to a potential employer? 2 Days
- Lesson 30: ACP Vocabulary Bootcamp Review Game — How much of this year's ACP-related vocabulary can we recall and apply? 2 Days
- Lesson 31: Writing a Process Narrative for Your Portfolio — How do we write a short case-study caption that explains a project's process, not just what it looks like? 2 Days
Unit F: PBAT & Portfolio 4 lessons
- Lesson 32: What Is a PBAT? Understanding the Presentation Format — What is a Performance-Based Assessment Task, and how is it different from a written exam? 1 Day
- Lesson 33: Building Your Digital Design Portfolio — How do we curate and present a full year of work as a professional portfolio? 3 Days
- Lesson 34: Portfolio Review Workshop — How do we give and receive the kind of feedback that actually improves a portfolio before it counts? 2 Days
- Lesson 35: PBAT Presentation Rehearsal & Delivery — How do we deliver a confident, well-supported PBAT presentation to a real panel? 3 Days
Unit G: Beyond the PBAT 9 lessons
- Lesson 36: What's Next: Previewing 12th Grade's Design Studio — Now that the PBAT is behind us, what does senior year in this program actually look like? 1 Day
- Lesson 37: Specialization Intensive: Motion, UX, or 3D — What can we build if we spend real, sustained time in one specialization instead of a single class period? 4 Days
- Lesson 38: Real Client Project: A Second Full Brief — How does a second real client project go differently than the first one this year? 5 Days
- Lesson 39: Client Presentation & Sign-Off — How do we present a finished project so a real client actually understands and approves it? 2 Days
- Lesson 40: Building a Specialist Portfolio Page — How do we show a viewer exactly what we're specifically good at, not just what we've made? 2 Days
- Lesson 41: Design Career Deep-Dive: Applying to the Careers Hub — How does my actual portfolio right now measure up against a real career's entry requirements? 2 Days
- Lesson 42: Peer Teaching: A Mini-Workshop for Underclassmen — What do we understand better about a skill once we have to teach it to someone younger than us? 2 Days
- Lesson 43: Motion Graphics Deep Dive: Keyframing a Title Animation — If you chose (or want to try) the Motion lane, what does professional keyframe animation actually look like, beyond a simple GIF? 2 Days
- Lesson 44: Rising Senior Send-Off: Portfolio Lock & Summer Plan — Looking back at this entire year, what does the evidence actually say about how far you've come? 2 Days