Notepad Project

As part of my digital file preparation course at PSU, I was assigned a project which I was to design a notepad of my chosen size using black ink only. The notepad would be printed 50 sheets a pad and perfect bound. The notepad project was aimed at creating a notepad which would be given to high school students visiting the College of Technology at Pittsburg State University. The notepad was intended to inspire and entice high school students visiting the college to consider pursing a degree in the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department at Pittsburg State University. The process began with brainstorming ideas by use of a word matrix to generate words associated with high school students:

Next I created thumbnail sketches based on ideas I had generated through my word matrix:

The next stage required creating two roughs based on two of my thumbnail sketches. I decided to make my roughs, and ultimately my notepad, 6.5" x 4.25" with one featuring a landscape layout and one with a portrait layout:

Of these two roughs I decided to go with the one depicting the graphics symbols at the top of the notepad. However I decided to leave out the bottom images and leave only the web address because I felt as though these elements did not match the feel of the rest of the piece. Here is a printed proof of the final result:

Notepad Synopsis

The notepad assignment was a 50 page notepad of a chosen size aimed at attracting the attention of high school students visiting the Pittsburg State University's College of Technology. The notepad could be any size and I chose to make mine 4.25" x 6.5". Some of the ideas I associated with high school students were sports, music, electronics, and art. I tried to incorporate these elements in my thumbnail sketches, and then took my two favorites and created roughs. One of the roughs originally had a combination of more than thumbnail, but after a class critique I decided to leave the vector elements at the bottom out of the piece, as it did not seem to relate to the feel of the rest of the piece. I decided to go with the rough that featured elements of the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department, including the images of a camera for photography, a CD for gaming or programming, a paper for page layout, and a computer for imaging. In this rough I used symmetrical balance with the four graphics spaced evenly apart over text reading 'Department of Graphics and Imaging Technologies'. The bottom of the piece is also symmetrical with the centered web address. The other rough, which I decided not to use for my final piece includes symmetrical balance with images from outer space in the corners. My original thought was that this design might appeal to a high school age student's interest in their future as well as possible art interests. In both pieces there is reference to the PSU College of Technology or the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department. I decided to go with the piece that had the vector art of the computer, CD, camera, and paper because I felt that it better related to the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department.