Presidential Campaign Designs

Ever since I took the Visual Culture & Studio Practice class from UNK as part of my Master's program, I've been thinking about assignments that could come up in election seasons. With this year's presidential election generating crazy amounts of animosity, I thought it would be good to try to avoid drama in my classroom and get students to think about the actual qualities they would want in their ideal candidate, instead of their name or political party. My computer graphics class seemed like a good place to tackle presidential campaign designs.

Besides the big ideas of reading images and thinking about political issues and character traits instead of labels, I also wanted students to see the difference between logos and posters, because a lot of people tend to make logos that have way too much going on in the design! We did a critique toward the end of the assignment and gave suggestions to several students on how to correct that mistake.

Is Harambe a "thing" at your school like he is at mine?

The lesson plan is below, and you can also "keep" it on the smARTteacher. The slides presentation, planning sheet, and rubric are linked at the very bottom.

Katie Morris

Jackson Heights High School

Lesson Title: Presidential Campaign Design Package

Rationale: This lesson is intended to teach students graphic design principles, how to visually communicate a message, and how to “read” images in our visual culture.

Essential Questions: How do images affect us? How do you read an image? What is the goal of a campaign poster? How can we design images to communicate a message?

Objectives

1. The students will discuss a variety of campaign posters from the past & present.
2. The students will evaluate the effectiveness of campaign package designs- logos, posters, and websites.
3. The students will brainstorm qualities they would want in an ideal presidential candidate and the opposites.
4. The students will create a campaign package including a logo and poster that communicates the qualities they would want in a president.
5. The students will participate in peer critiques about their work.
6. The students will write an artist statement explaining their idea and purposes for their design choices.
7. Optional: The students will work in groups to plan, direct, act in, and edit a campaign ad for a made up presidential candidate.

Resources: Slides presentation, planning sheet, rubric

Procedure: This lesson is estimated to take 10 class periods, or more if the students create a video.

Day 1: The teacher will start with a disclaimer that though we will be discussing political ads, we will focus on the design choices and what they communicate, not making negative comments about politicians we don’t agree with. Discussions should be respectful and on-topic.

The class will view a slides presentation featuring different campaign ads, historic and modern. They will discuss design elements and what/how they communicate. What do the designs communicate about what kind of president they would be?

Next, students will brainstorm a list of qualities they look for or would want in an ideal candidate, as well as their opposites. The class will share their thoughts and discuss. The teacher will explain the assignment: design a campaign package- logo, poster, possibly a website (blog), and video- for someone who is NOT currently a politician. The idea is to focus more on the ideas about what would make a good president instead of on a real person. The poster designs could be sincere or satirical- using the opposite of the good qualities to poke fun or make a point.  The teacher will remind students of the differences between a logo and a poster. A logo is much simpler and more versatile. The logo could be used on a t-shirt, bumper sticker, website, poster, anything that will brand the campaign. The logo should be incorporated into the poster design.

The students will brainstorm ideas using the planning sheet, sketch, and begin.

Days 2-6: Student work time. The teacher will circulate to check progress and help troubleshoot.

Day 7: The students will participate in a peer critique. Each student will share their progress and consider the feedback of others in the class.

Days 8 & 9: Student work time.

Day 10: When the students are finished they will self-assess with a rubric and write an artist statement.

Later: The teacher will set up a display of the printed posters. The class will view and discuss the exhibit. The teacher will ask how the display could affect the students in school who see it.

National Visual Arts Standards

VA:Cr1.2.HSI

I can use contemporary practices to plan and make art or design about an aspect of present-day life.

VA:Cr3.1.HSI

I can examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for works of art and design in progress by applying relevant criteria.

VA:Pr6.1.HSI

I can discuss how an exhibition can impact awareness of social, cultural, and political beliefs and understandings.

VA:Re7.2.HSI

I can analyze how visual imagery can affect understanding of the world.

Assessment: The students will self assess using a rubric. Their scores will be combined with the teacher’s scores for the final grade.

Slides presentation: https://docs.google.com/a/jhcobras.net/presentation/d/1rMcUfA-kQ2CdwIUujROXUIpRGGk54G0WGyZoVcV4zv4/edit?usp=sharing

Planning sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bbzplsxWl1ee-FwR6FNgR7chSepbi14Nc4DWD_n7V7U/edit?usp=sharing


Rubric: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kBLdS_g41l77XIPkdkUNiyxgDiuNbTAwSWBr3EtLL4c/edit?usp=sharing

Native Americans in the Art Room!

Art teachers, and educators in general, PLEASE view this Prezi entitled Teaching Visual Culture: Native Americans in the Art Room by Kimberly Rutledge. I was put into contact with the creator when I asked a professor to point me in the direction of resources concerning teaching multicultural art lessons without stereotyping. Kimberly graciously shared her advice and experience as an educator and a Native American. This Prezi (like flashier PowerPoint for those of you who are unfamiliar) highlights some stereotypical images we've all seen on TV and in schools. I think it's important for educators especially to reexamine traditions and make sure they are in the best interest of our students and to make sure we are not marginalizing or stereotyping a culture. (Yes, I'm talking about the pilgrim and "indian" projects that spring up around Thanksgiving...) Anyway, please take a minute to view and have a great day!

6th Grade Manga

The longest project of last semester was my 6th grade Manga lesson. As soon as I found out that Cultural Heritage Week would focus on East Asian cultures, I wanted to teach about Manga. I read a great article that was published in Art Education in 2001 on Manga as part of Visual Culture and was immediately interested. Manga is basically a Japanese comic book, the print form of Anime. 

*Did you know that Manga is read top to bottom but from right to left?

I ordered a couple of books on drawing Manga with some PTO money and also found some video tutorials from Sakura useful. (You can find the videos on my Asian Art Ideas Pinterest board.) 

I was planning on this project taking 3 classes but it ended up requiring 4. The first day was introduction and explanation of all the choices. The students could choose to tell a whole story in multiple panels on their page, tell part of a story in multiple panels, or focus on one character with a speech or thought bubble. If the students decided to tell a story, I asked them to make a simple list of what would happen in each frame. It's a lot easier to tell a story in comic form if you know what needs to happen! The next class and usually part of the 3rd were spent drawing with pencil. When everything was planned in pencil, the students checked with me and started tracing with sharpie after they were approved. 

TIP- Have the students trace the words inside their bubbles before they trace the bubble itself. Students tend to write small, forgetting that tracing in sharpie makes it spread a bit. If the words end up too big, they can always redraw the bubble.

 Violence is an issue that needs to be addressed with this project. Lots of anime has fighting in it. I told the students if they had people fighting in their story, it could not end with someone getting hurt. I asked them to think of a surprise ending that's more appropriate for school. 

I really, really love this project. It allowed the students to learn about Manga as an important part of Visual Culture, practice a style of drawing different from strict observation, incorporated writing and story telling, and they were able to show their interests. Some of the drawings were funny or silly, some a little, well, shallow, but I found many to be very honest. I had several students tell me their drawing was based on a true story, and several showed insecurities or vulnerabilities. It was nice to see from my 6th graders who are starting to suffer from the elementary school version of Senioritis.

Some of the drawings were a bit puzzling. The following drawing was described as a true story. I think maybe inspired by a true story since anyone old enough to have a married ex would probably not ask their mom for permission to go to the mall. :)

1st Grade Presidential Posters

The week of the 2012 US Presidential election, my first graders started working on campaign posters. We viewed and discussed some of the campaign posters I collected on my Pinterest board. We talked about symbolism (red/white/blue, flag, white house, eagle, etc.) and design features including the composition, year, name, and portrait. I also used the famous Shepard Fairey "HOPE" poster to touch on copyright. (If you don't know the story, read a summary here.) The students' assignment was to think of someone they would like to be president- it could not be someone really running- like a family member, friend, or his or herself.

 

I didn't go over facial proportions, but we did talk about including all of the necessary features. It's amazing how many students skip noses and ears! We had a lot of self portraits, siblings, parents, and a couple animals. And, if you look a little below, you'll see that one student put me on her poster! This was a fun lesson, and fairly simple. The only needed supplies are paper, pencils, sharpies to outline, and crayons.

Incorporate Visual Culture in the Art Room this Election Season

 

Over the summer I took a graduate course titled "Visual Culture and Studio Practice". Since it's an election year, political ads were a big focus. I've been thinking about how some ideas from that course could translate into the upper elementary Art room.
The second assignment in my class was to design two different posters about political/social issues using a similar composition. We had to incorporate one of our photographic self portraits from the first assignment. Since I had taken a photo posing with a hayfork (I think, I'm not a specialist in farm tools) and conservation is important to me, I decided to make my first poster about conserving native plants. I used the phrase "preserve the prairie" first but decided that "protect the prairie" was a little more forceful and fit the tone of my photo better.
For my second poster, I decided to work with breastfeeding. I was still nursing my son at the time and there had been recent stories in the news about nursing mothers being treated unfairly. I think we have problems with this for two reasons. One reason is that there is a totally undeserved negative stigma with breastfeeding in our culture. People who don't understand think it's "icky". I think the second reason we have problems is women not knowing their rights. I wanted to make a poster that would encourage breastfeeding women to know their rights, and stay strong when faced with public "opinions".
I decided to use a photo of my son and I sitting on a swing and a tutorial from Layers magazine about painting with text. The custom paintbrushes I created in Photoshop included: "breastfeeding", "parenting", "nutrition", and my personal favorite, "stop staring". *The background text is from a La Leche League article on breastfeeding legislation in the US, found here: http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvjunjul05p51.html
After I had finished the swing design, I found out that I had to start with the exact same photo, though it could be altered. After some problem solving, the poster below was what I turned in.

So how could this be used in the classroom? If you taught older students and had photoshop, you could have them incorporate a self portrait into a poster for an issue that is important to them. If the timing works out right with my older students, I'd really like to have make a poster with something like drawing, painting, or collage. The poster topic wouldn't have to be political, but I would ask them to chose something to promote. If you wanted to tie in with the election, I would have the students make a campaign poster promoting either a fictional candidate or themselves. 

The capstone assignment for my class was to produce a VIDEO campaign ad as if we were running for president. I've gotten comfortable photographing myself but video is a whole 'nother story. I was surprised that I was the only "candidate" in my class who used being an Art teacher as the main selling point. (One of my male classmates dressed in full theatre makeup as two opposing, mudslinging candidates in a pair of ads. It was pretty cool.) In my faux ad, I talked about standardized tests, turning STEM into STEAM, the 4 "C"s, and say that if we want to improve education, we should try putting an educator in the white house. In preparation for making our own videos, we watched a LOT of campaign ads (real and satirical). I know that there is a whole team running each campaign, but until I tried to make my own ad, I never thought about just how carefully wording is chosen, and how difficult it must be for the candidates to present themselves as they desire. I found it hard to achieve the right tone- trying to sound firm but friendly, down to earth but an expert. I filmed my video using an iPad and edited in iMovie. I wish I had something that would have allowed me to change the pitch of my voice for the voiceover, but honestly, I would probably feel awkward no matter what!

How cool would it be to have students work in teams to create a video campaign ad? There are so many possibilities and I think it would help them be more aware of the strategizing that goes into the ads they see on TV.

I can't believe I'm posting this video, because I feel pretty silly, but if you would like to see my faux presidential ad, watch below!