Collaboration is a great way to generate ideas, but can cause problems when it comes time to implement those ideas. When the big ideas are done and details come into play, group work can slow things to a near halt.

This class exercise involved students working in groups to create logos based on three things – a product, a target audience, and some sort of descriptive term. The photos are labeled with terms each team was given. All of the conceptual and design work had to fit into a one hour time block.

A “must have”, expensive cheese aimed at families.

Vitamin aimed at the “jet-set” crowd.

A controversial energy drink marketed to physicians.

This image began life as a color photo, now the image is mostly made of type.

The young witch was a great photo before the transformation, but became a completely new piece when converted to type.

Applying layer masks, creating basic brushes and working with tonal range can be mundane topics – but they don’t have to be.

Bismarck State College Graphic Design and Communications students incorporated all of the techniques into type portraits – photos created primarily with type in Photoshop.

The process is time and step intensive, but the students stuck with the process and many had created very interesting pieces.

Freshmen Graphic Design and Communications students were asked to create an original fall-inspired limited-color illustration in vector format. For several weeks the students have been learning about the finer points of working with Adobe Illustrator to transform traditional hand-drawn creations like these into a digital medium. As many students have found, drawing using vectors is a transition that takes time  – a factor that the deadline-driven graphic designer must learn to minimize while maintaining quality and concept.

A gradient map adds a different feel to a black and white image.

This time the map is a gradient map – allowing Photoshop to remap an image using colors of your choice.

The technique is simple, but sometimes overlooked. The method can harness the power and emotion of a black and white image, but utilize a color to help convey the message.

Graphic Design and Communications students learned the technique today, something that took minutes to learn, but has infinite applications. As we head into the next semester and photography takes the lead over daily Photoshop instruction, we’ll begin putting methods like this one to work.

John Lennon – displaced

Blood displaced all over this shirt – it pairs with a Halloween poster design.

Several incarnations of Photoshop ago there was a lot of excitement about displacement mapping. Using a black and white image to create a map over which an image could be “bent” to create a more realistic look. It was interesting, but seemed very complex. In that era, computers moved a little slower and sometimes a lack of patience won out over computing time.

Fast forward 10 years and the displace function of Photoshop, while not forgotten, has lost a little of its star power. It’s still a great tool to mimic a graphic overlaying a textured surface.

Graphic Design and Communications students tried displacement mapping with great results. Some images work better with a map than others, but the process helped students learn the steps involved and open their minds to the uses of the technique.

Prints from a recent trip to Buckstop Junction

Buckstop Junction, just east of Bismarck, is a photo student’s dream. It’s full of historic buildings with tons of texture and character. Mike LaLonde took advantage of the historic village by having his students meet their to shoot photos for an assignment.

The black and white prints were created using traditional printing techniques, then mounted and are now displayed outside the Graphic Design and Communications Department. LaLonde’s class is an elective focusing on traditional film photography and is open to all students, not just GDC students.

In order to assist in the process of educating prospective students about the BSC Graphic Design and Communications program, a new promotional spot was created. Using the premise that all great design starts with an idea, the video spot features a number of famous quotes on the topic creatively interwoven with images of design work done by 2009 program graduates. The 90 second video premiered today to a select audience of curious students during Bismarck State College’s Explore BSC event.

The Graphic Design and Communications students created interesting Photoshop brushes as part of an assignment. After checking with the students, many allowed their brushes to be assembled into a package for free download from this site.

Not all of the submitted brushes are represented, because of the number of brushes submitted, the file grew too large to offer for download. The group available has been cut by about two-thirds to create a more manageable file.

Click here to download the brushes

To install the brushes in Photoshop:

1. Download the brushes and decompress them.

2. In the brushes palette, click the fly-out menu and go to Load Brushes.

3. Locate the GDESBRUSHES2.abr file and click Load.

4. Start using your new brushes compliments of the Graphic Design and Communications students at Bismarck State College.