Course on Fun Effects

The world of design is vast, yet much of it feels like a Pinterest vibe.

This course is about effects—cool, vibrant, strange, and ordinary (sometimes we forget how to create these), but sometimes beauty lies in simplicity.

This course is about pushing past the familiar—beyond the confines of minimalist design.

This course is for the bold, the strange, the crazy, the fun—a design course for yourself, allowing you to create what you want to see, to embrace chance and oddity, to combine the incongruous, and to move away from typical, standard solutions in the search for something new, daring, vibrant, experimental, and sometimes provocative.

To make people question things. To evoke diverse emotions. To discover your own individuality, style, and image. To step beyond the conventional world and experience design for your own sake. What if absolutely anything is possible? What if you overlay text and use huge letters? What if you hyperbolize everything?

Course Prerequisites.Foundational competencies in graphic design.It is desirable to possess additional competencies, or be willing to acquire them concurrently with the course: basic or advanced proficiency in any game engine, prototyping and web programming skills, or proficiency in any augmented reality software.

Throughout the course, students will learn to:

— Identify and apply graphic techniques that enhance visual impact and make design more expressive;

— Utilize color, texture, layers, distortions, shadows, gradients, and other effects to establish mood and visual character in a piece;

— Create effects of varying complexity—from simple techniques easily integrated into daily practice to experimental and unconventional solutions;

— Direct the viewer’s attention using contrast, hyperbole, compositional tension, and unexpected pairings;

— Consciously break conventional rules of composition, grid structure, and visual hierarchy while maintaining the integrity of the graphic statement;

— Combine elements that appear incompatible at first glance, transforming visual randomness into a compelling design technique;

— Analyze references, discern the logic behind effect creation, and adapt discovered techniques to personal objectives;

— Experiment with visual language, moving beyond typical solutions to develop a unique personal style;

— Produce independent graphic works and series that evoke emotion, are memorable, and prompt the viewer to ask, «How was this made?»

Throughout the course, students will complete the following assignments:

here is some sort of planWe had some sort of plan. We are following success closely.Classes aboutHand Graphics (playdough, markers, pencils, paint, gouache, ink, pastel—you can write any word using different tools)Lesson: Fruits and Vegetables FoodYou can print out fruits and vegetables.Lesson: ThreadsYou can draw with threads.Lesson: BagYou can gather items from the bag and photograph them to process them.Lesson: InternetYou can take 10 photos from the internet and collage them together in black and white to find a shape.Lesson: Street Voices (Street Letters)You can ask for photos of street signs, select interesting pieces, and assemble them into a mini font.Lesson: PlaydoughYou can make figures from air-dry clay, let them harden, and then use them to create prints and patterns.Lesson: B&W Repetition of Actions with Different MaterialsYou can take a standard B&W template and have the students apply various materials on top of it.Lesson: PaperYou can do something with paper—for example, cut it into 10 pieces and ask students to assemble them into new shapes.Lesson: BagYou can take a bubble bag and print its bubbles onto paper using watercolor paints.Lesson: WireYou can assemble strange shapes from wire, scan them, and convert the patterns into effects.Lesson: 50 TimesYou can choose one element and create 50 variations of it (draw a line 50 times, draw a circle 50 times, draw a triangle 50 times, draw a square 50 times).Lesson: TapeWe cut tape, glue tape, scan tape, burn tape, assemble tape pieces, collage them together, and form letters and pictures.

Here is a project concept, something related to «wow»Identity design
PostersVideoBasically, something that captures all possible aspectsPerhaps a long-form portfolio on HSE Art and Design with cool effects—like, «What I can do»Alternatively, a separate portfolio with custom effects and a Telegram channel to document the work and track the results.