Art 4527 (LSU)
ART 4527 is the second typography course for graphic design majors at LSU, usually taken in the third year of the BFA program. During this course students gain an understanding of typography in terms of its history, application, and aesthetic considerations. Students learn how to apply typography as a communication tool in graphic design. Topics include: implementing grid systems, working with character and paragraph styles, understanding typographic accessibility in both screen and print media, and developing multi-page publications.
InDesign Exercises
Grid Exercises
Students are given unformatted text content and asked to create a gridded 2-page spread in Adobe InDesign. The exercise has progressive levels of complexity as the number of columns and rows is increased for each portion.
Pull Quotes & Lists
Students are given unformatted text content and asked to design compelling visual page designs to experiment with pull quote and list formatting.
Information Hierarchy
Students are given unformatted text content and asked to assign a clear visual hierarchy utilizing Adobe InDesign Paragraph & Character Styles.
Anatomy Poster Project
Students are challenged to create an 11×17 in. poster featuring typographic anatomy terms and concepts. In the process, they learn the terminology, work with a tricky information hierarchy, and create a compelling visual design.
AIGA Get Out the Vote Poster Project
Students participate in the AIGA call for posters to inspire voters to get to the polls for the 2020 election. They identify a specific target audience and work to create original imagery and a clear call to action.
Travel Guide Book Project
Students choose a location and design a guidebook for visitors. They analyze the audience (who is traveling there?) and research points of interest (what should their audience do there?). Using Adobe InDesign, they work in a gridded layout of their own design and apply Paragraph and Character styles throughout.
Font Design Project
Students select a specific point of inspiration and design a font from scratch. The project has two portions: a clean presentation of at least 14 characters (covering four categories of form—straight, curved, angled, straight+curved), and a creative display of their designed characters in any format they choose.
M.Saas Design 