Posters for a cause

secondary: 17 students of secondary 5 between 16 and 19 years old | John F Kennedy High School (Montreal) | January to April 2011

PROJECT: POSTERS FOR A CAUSE

DURATION: 3 to 4 sessions

TEAMS: choice of group work (2 per poster) or individual

KEY CONCEPTS: cause, advertisement, contrast, harmony, composition, color scheme

MATERIALS:

´        Paper

´        Paint

´        Pencils

´        Thick paper for final poster

´        Scissors and glue?

´        Paintbrushes

´        markers

RESEARCH

´        Barbara Krueger

o       Untitled/Questions (1991)

o       I shop therefore I am (1987)

´        Guerilla Girls

o       Pop Quiz (1990)

o       Naked (2004)

´        Tom Whalen

o       Ghost Trap: Quick Start Guide (2010)

o       Global Knowledge: Spy (2010)

´        I Heart Guts

o       What Do My Guts Do?

o       Grab your Gonads

o       Good Ol’ Menstrual Cycle

´        Unicef

o       Bad water

´        Salvation Army

o       We see what most don’t

´        Ilusiones

o       Music heals

STEPS

1.      Exploration AT THE COMPUTER LAB

Part 1: You’ll need to get in teams of 2 or 3 to create a poster about a cause. Remember the process you go through to finish a project. You start off with a goal, do some research, then make sketches, create a composite sketch and/or a final image, then explain your theme and add a justification. To create a poster, you’ll need to start by picking a cause that’s important to you. Then, use composition and color to convey your message as best as possible. Look at the posters in the FEATURED ARTISTS section and determine what they advertise and how they do it. What’s the purpose of a poster? What kind of information can you find on the different posters? What’s their message? What’s the difference between each poster? What elements come back in each of them?

Part 2: You’ll need to create 3 sketches of your poster before you move on to the next step. Make sure each of your sketches has at least: one title, one image, and a bit of text that explain your cause. Experiment with different sizes, fonts, and vary the placement of all your elements to figure out which is the most efficient and interesting layout. Take a look at the RUBRIC to make sure you have every element you need to get an awesome grade.

2.      Final work

Part 1: You’ll have to create a color scheme for your poster as a team. Make sure to start by making a complete color wheel with the primary colors and the secondary colors. Then, paint one main contrast plus one main harmony that you will be using for your poster. Think about the colors you are using: contrasting colors lead the eye to focus on certain elements (ex: a pumpkin in the dark night), while harmonies create a pleasant theme to link all elements together.

Part 2: Start your final work by sketching lightly (don’t press hard!!!) on your Bristol board. Once you have your basic lines down, start by painting the solid shapes. Once dry, then add the shading, let dry, then you can add extra linework and all other details with a smaller brush or opaque marker.

JUSTIFICATION:

This will be done as a 1 page written assignment or sketchbook page. You can write it by hand as long as I can read it properly, otherwise, I suggest typing it. Note that you will get more points if you answer the question and explain WHY. The following questions will have to be answered:

´        Auto evaluation (how did you do? How could you improve? What grade would you give yourself?)

´        Peer evaluation (how did your partners do? How could they improve? What grade would you give them?)

´        How did you work as a team? What was your team tactic? (ex: task distribution, all together, emphasis on specialties, etc.)

´        What should working as a team ideally mean? Give at least one example.

RUBRIC

ARTWORKS:
3 sketches including text	/10
Color wheel, with 1 contrast and 1 harmony	/10
poster has a cause: title and accompanying text	/10
poster has minimum one image that explains the subject	/10
Final poster uses clear color scheme	/10
effort obvious (meaning: no laziness in painting, clean, clear text and image, interesting layout)	/50

JUSTIFICATION:
Auto evaluation describes your (the student) overall performance including notes for improvement	/30
Peer evaluation describes overall performance of teammates including notes for improvement	/30
Explains the team tactic (ex: task distribution, all together, emphasis on individual qualities, etc.)	/20
Definition of the ideal team	/20