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Visual Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

Work to have done:

  • Read up on and maybe play with fonts
  • Work on your visual arguments, and push a rhetorical collage preview to GitHub: .xcf file, GIMP screenshot, and text description, plus updated list of assets/credits. Exported .png of the collage-in-progress.

Plan for the Day:

  1. Reflective writing (5 min)
  2. Refresher on visual arguments we’ve liked (5 min)
  3. Gathering criteria (45 min)
  4. Sharing insights (10 min)
  5. EXT: Studio

1. Reflective writing (5 min)

In your own space – you won't have to share this unless you want to – do a little writing about your visual argument in progress. What's exciting about it? What's challenging about it? What are you unsure of?

2. Refresher on visual arguments we’ve liked (5 min)

Shift now in your writing to think about the blog posts on rhetorical collages in the wild – or, if you haven’t read through them in a while, look at them quickly now with an eye toward what you’re drawn to in these images: what seems to make a visual design work well, especially for making some intervention in the world or the viewer? Jot down some notes.

3. Gathering criteria (45 min)

Primed now by that writing and thinking, I’m going to ask you to get in groups and brainstorm in pursuit of baseline and aspirational criteria for this unit.

3a. Preamble (5 min)

There are several reasons I like this collaborative process:

  • It helps keep my own expectations in the realm of what’s possible, especially but not only in world altered by COVID, and so sets you up for success.
  • It asks you to talk to each other about what you value. Sometimes you only figure out what you value by talking to other people about it – whether because you realize you disagree, or because someone puts words to something previously inchoate.
  • It gives you practice in making explicit otherwise implicit criteria. This isn’t the last time you’ll be asked to compose in a new genre, and only rarely will someone tell you how it’s supposed to work.

3b. Crowdsource ideas (15-20 min)

In breakout rooms, take 10 minutes to make some lists in the class google doc: given the goals of the unit, what should we set as our minimum criteria for full credit? What are some ways we might push beyond that minimum – not merely in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality or challenge level?

That is, I really want you to see these aspirational goals as opportunities to stretch yourselves and your skills, not just to do more of the same. Think about what would be new and potentially exciting – but not required for everyone.

Remember that criteria should ideally be describable: we should easily be able to say whether the quality you're naming is present or absent.

EXT: If your group feels finished, skip ahead: read through other groups’ notes, or start gathering thoughts on fonts and/or GIMP.

3c. Comment and Discuss in the Doc (15-20 min)

Read through the other groups’ notes, adding collegial comments in the margins to upvote, ask for clarification, or propose modifications. As I see consensus forming, I’ll propose an official version for our list of shared criteria. If debates emerge, we can probably use mutually exclusive aspirational goals!

ALT: If you're joining us asynchronously, please also leave comments, especially with questions or suggestions. Should something currently baseline be moved to aspirational? You will be held to these criteria, so make your voice heard!

I’ll work solo to write up a list that reflects your consensus in the comments, while you move to the next section.

4. Sharing insights (10 min)

If we have time left, make two quick lists (just about a minute each):

  1. Things I’ve learned about fonts (or GIMP)
  2. Questions I have about fonts (or GIMP)

Share within your group, using what you’ve learned to try to answer each others’ questions.

Questions your group can’t answer? Post them to the google doc, and see if another group can answer. I’ll look there, too.

EXT: Check to see if you can answer questions in the doc; otherwise, use any remaining time as a studio: work on your projects and any needed tutorials.

NB: If you're joining us asynchronously, use this as studio time: please do add your goals and reflections to the doc, as usual, whenever you're able to "do" today's lesson.

For next time:

  • Work to bring in a full draft: a solid attempt at a complete visual argument, ideally meeting baseline criteria. Rough edges are still welcome.
  • Continue taking periodic screenshots and posting meaningful commit messages in Git
  • Remember that you should give your project a name you can continue using through the final draft, so you can track the changes with version control
  • Push a full draft, with the same four parts as the preview plus an updated file crediting your sources and permissions/license to use them
    • NB: I’m only suggesting all-caps for special files readers might want to find quickly. It kind of loses the effect if everything is in caps. (Better to be all lowercase, if you have to choose.)
    • Whether Box or GitHub, double-check that you can open the file: try downloading it into a different location. If it doesn’t open with all the layers you’d want, try saving the project again. (You may have exported the first time.)
  • Bring a camera (phone is fine), to take photos of feedback received

NB: If GitHub is giving you trouble with large files, you can try Git Large File Storage (git-lfs). See the section on the Resources page about What to do if your files are too large for GitHub.

And if all else fails, you can use Box instead. Just make sure that you...

  • add a link to the Box folder at the top of your GitHub README.md file.
  • grant the organization, which is Pitt, Downloader or Editor permissions in the Box folder
  • include all the same files as you would have if you were only using GitHub.