Design & Visual Communication

YEAR 10 DESIGN & VISUAL COMMUNICATION

Design and Visual Communication is about developing the ability to design functional products and environments then to communicate these ideas effectively through a variety of visual techniques.

Students in Year 10 Design and Visual Communication are introduced to a wide range of media, modelling and drawing skills used for design in preparation for Level 1 NCEA. They will experience drawing for architectural, product and media design. As well as traditional freehand and instrumental drawing techniques, students will have the opportunity to use industry standard software such as Adobe CS4 design suite, Google SketchUp and other freeware programmes to visualise and produce their designs.

At Year 10 students will follow a design process and develop their own ideas from sketch to final presentation. They will use a more advanced mock up and modelling process producing complex scale models of their proposed designs. The use of appropriate computer software such as SketchUp,Sweethome,Photoshop, TinkerCad, Illustrator, Flash and 3D Printing, will be integrated into the design process. There is a focus on increasing students’ awareness of the principles of good design and presentation. New drawing techniques, both Freehand and Instrumental, are introduced at each level building on prior knowledge and extending students visual communication capabilities.