10th Grade — Deeper Illustrator: A Personal Mark or Logo

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

If you had to represent yourself with one simple mark -- no words -- what shapes or ideas would you reach for first?

🎯 Today's Big Question

What does it take to design a mark that could genuinely represent you?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Sketch at least 3 concepts for a personal mark or monogram before opening Illustrator.
Build the strongest concept as a clean, scalable vector file.
Explain the design decisions (shape, weight, meaning) behind the final mark.

🧰 What You'll Need

Sketchbook
Illustrator (from earlier this year)

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Sketch

Do Now (5 min, above).
Independent sketching (35 min): develop at least 3 real concepts on paper before touching software.

Day 2: Build

Independent work (40 min): build the strongest concept as a clean vector file in Illustrator.

Day 3: Refine & Explain

Independent work (25 min): refine details.
Write (15 min): a short explanation of the design decisions behind the final mark.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

📚 Key Words

Monogram: A design built from a person's initials, used as a personal or brand mark.
Scalable: A design that stays clean and sharp at any size, tiny or huge -- the whole point of a vector file.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Final mark assessed for clean vector construction and a genuine connection between concept and the written explanation.

Exit Ticket: What did you cut from your original sketches, and why did the mark get stronger without it?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

How you submit today's work depends on what kind of work it was. Physical/paper work (most of this semester so far): photograph it with a classroom camera, upload the photo from its SD card onto a computer, and save it into your portfolio -- that upload is your submission, and the physical piece itself is yours to keep, the same as in Grade 9 (your notebook is the one thing with a home base in the room, and even that's your call to bring home when you want it). Digital work (once you're producing files in Photoshop, second semester on): no camera needed -- instead, EXPORT the file. Export your finished project as a JPG, as a PNG, AND save a copy as a PSD (all three), then upload all three into your portfolio. Either way: the portfolio upload, with a description, is what actually counts as turning the assignment in for credit.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress piece to your portfolio (the Google Drive folder you started in Grade 9, becoming your Google Sites portfolio in Lesson 10) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what tool/skill it used, and one thing you learned. Keep it current -- don't save it all for the portfolio-website lesson.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Deeper Illustrator: A Personal Mark or Logo.” This project asked: “What does it take to design a mark that could genuinely represent you?” I used Monogram by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 4: Creating and Modifying Visual Elements

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same precision-tool discipline a Drafting/Engineering CAD class teaches.

Career Connection: A personal mark is exactly the kind of branding work done in Advertising & Marketing and Illustration.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Apply your personal mark across three real items (a sticker, a shirt mockup, a business card). Start here: export your mark as a vector (SVG or AI) file, not a flattened PNG, so it scales cleanly from sticker size to shirt-print size without pixelating.
Design a second mark for a real club or family business using the same process. Start here: interview whoever runs the club or business for two minutes about what they want it to communicate before sketching a single shape.