Art Department - Spring 2026 - Digital Art - Anita Cheng
ARTD 2811 Introduction to Digital Art - Desktop Publishing (Formerly ART 48.11)
Section: MON - Class Number 17294 - Mon 9:30AM - 1:10PM - Jan 26th to May 26th, 2026
Instructor Email: achengnyc@gmail.com
Spring 2026
Please watch any relevant 2811 videos on the Bright Space web site or in Linkedin Learning before each class
Class 1
Brooklyn College will be remote on Monday January 26 due to the snowstorm. Zoom link
Discussion: Syllabus & Course Projects and the Bright Space web site.
Overview of the course
Bright Space Areas
Network and Tools
Adobe Software
On line assignments
All the materials that will be used in the demonstrations during the semester are available for download in the Bright Space web site for the class on the Course Documents page. Videos classes are also avaliable in the Course Documents page.
Your final projects will be uploaded as PDFs in the Assignments page.
Assignment: There are 3 videos about Project 1 on the Bright Space class site to help you with this project.
Project #1- Designing a business identity system:
Letterhead (8 1/2 x 11)
Business
Card (2 x 3 1/2), and Envelopes (9 1/2 x 4 2/16)
Explanation of Bezier curves: open/closed paths
Illustrator Features:
Drawing tools: pen, type, basic shapes
Creating objects (setting attributes: line, color, fills)
Transformations: scaling, rotating, reflecting, duplicating
Text (horizontal scaling, kerning, joining text to path)
Incorporating images
Using Layers
Creating and modifying a path, add to/subtract from a path, joining end points, splitting paths
Grouping and ungrouping
Class 2
Slide presentation and discussion of award winning stationary designs.
Demonstration: Recreating one logo from the samples in the slides.
Illustrator Tool Box:
• Create a grid layout with guidelines
• Basic functions: line, curve, corner, segments
• Creating objects (setting attributes: line, color, fills)
• Transformations: scaling, rotating, reflecting, cloning, duplicating.
• Explanation of Bezier curves: open/closed paths
Assignment: Continue work on project #1
Class 3
Typography: Slide presentation and discussion
Typographical refinements:
Kerning, fractional point sizes
Tracking
Leading
Base line shift
Scaling type horizontally and vertically
Vertical justification
You might what to look at Typographica.
Other ways of working with text:
Text (Horizontal Scaling, Kerning, joining text to path
Text Boxes (click versus drag)
Assignment: Prepare your draft version o Project 1 for presentation next class.
Class 4 - Individual presentation of project #1 (Draft)
Discussion: PhotoShop Interface
PhotoShop is a program designed for photo retouching and illustration. Paint programs like PhotoShop, usually work natively with bitmapped images (scanned files obtained from flatbed or slide scanners, digital cameras or generated completely in the program using the paint tools.)
PhotoShop Tool Box:
Selection tools: rectangular marquee, elliptical marquee, lasso, magic wand
Viewing: zoom in/out
Painting tools: pencil, brushes, line, airbrush
Color chip: background and foreground color
Editing tools: crop, smudge, blur, rubber stamp
Fill tools: paint bucket, blend, eyedropper
Text tool
Project #2 : Design a One Page Poster. Create one poster to communicate the opening of a art show at the Gallery in Brooklyn College. Bitmapped images (scanned images) and PostScript typefaces should be used.
Assignment: Collect reference materials for project #2.
Class 5
Slide presentation and discussion of poster designs.
Discussion: Essential element of graphic design
Demostration: Recreating a poster fron the sample slides.
Illustrator and PhotoShop:
Importing Images
Assigning color in Illustrator (Pantone, RGB, CMYK, HSL)
Color text and graphics
Tracing images from scanned artwork
Exporting files to other applications
Assignment: Continue work on project #2. Individual presentation next week.
Class 6
Vector and Bitmaps & Resolution: Slide presentation and discussion.
Discussion: Different types of resolution (line screens, dots per inch, pixels per inch)
You can find an overview of digital art terms and definitions on geeksforgeeks.org.
Illustrator and PhotoShop:
Importing Images
Assigning color in Illustrator (Pantone, RGB, CMYK, HSL)
Color text and graphics
Tracing images from scanned artwork
Exporting files to other applications
Assignment: Continue work on project #2. Individual presentation next week.
Class 7 - Individual presentation of project #2 (Draft)
Discussion: Page Design Elements
Demostration: Intro to InDesign
Assignment: Project #3 - Three-Fold Brochure (8.5" x 11" printed both sides)
Class 8
Discussion: The general procedures in graphic design.
Brochure A: We will work on a simple three pannel brochure in order to explore the InDesign features.
Placement of text
Placement of photos
Typographical refinements:
Kerning, fractional point sizes
Scaling type horizontally and vertically
Vertical justification
Drop caps as style
Assignment: Development of project #3. Individual presentation next week.
Class 9
Discussion: Organization and placement of content.
Brochure B: Brochure annuncing a coference. Setting up bleeds and typesetting forms.
InDesign Features 1:
Text handling and word processing, document search and replace (text and type attributes),
global spell checker, show/hide invisible characters, hyphenation controls
Specify type: classification of the fonts, type styles
Leading, kerning and tracking
Text alignments
Text flow and text wrap
Measurements palette
Document layout window
Individual presentation of project #3 (Draft)
Assignment: Project #4 - Design a four-page newsletter containing text, illustrations and scanned images.
Class 10 - Project3:draft on-line individual review
Discussion: Organization and placement of content in multiple page documents with facing pages.
We will work on a four page newsletter with footers and headers and explore diferent techinics to wrap text around images.
Development of master pages (footers and headers), design of the masthead and page numbers
Elements of the Page:
Body copy
Images
Headlines
Sub headlines and captions
Headers and footers, rules and boxes
White space
Class 11
Continue to work on the four page newsletter.
InDesign Features :
Editing default specifications of tools
Style Sheets: keyboard commands
Edit text boxes
Column settings
Gutter width
Text inset
Background and shade of boxes
Rotating text, images, lines
Editing the contents of rotated boxes
Anchored boxes to attach pictures and pull quotes
Anchored rules
Layout Advice: Basic guidelines for a good design; keep it simple; make it suitable; be consistent; avoid crowding; limit type styles; aim for variety.
Assignment: Conclusion of the project #4. Individual presentation next week.
Class 12 - Individual presentation of project #4 (Draft)
Workday - Q&A (all projects)
Assignment: Project #5 - Digital Image Collage (manipulation of scanned images.)
Class 13
Adobe PhotoShop - Retouching and Compositing 1:
PhotoShop layers and masks
Use of Alpha Channels
Image file formats
Assignment: Scan the pictures to be used on project #5.
Class 14
Adobe PhotoShop - Retouching and Compositing 2:
Image Adjustments and modes
Color Corrections
Use of Filters
Importing and Exporting
Assignment: Conclusion of the project #5.
Note: Friday, May 15th - FINAL PROJECTS DUE