Graphic Design Digital and Career Skills Syllabus

Which Creative Commons license is the most permissive (besides CC0) and which is the most restrictive?

Most permissive: CC BY — any use, including commercial and derivatives, as long as the creator is credited. Most restrictive: CC BY-NC-ND — sharing only, with attribution, no commercial use, and no modifications.

Roughly how many projects should a graphic design portfolio contain, and what principle governs selection?

About $10$–$15$ strong projects. Quality over quantity: one weak piece lowers the perceived level of the whole portfolio, so include only work you would be happy to be hired to repeat.

How should you curate portfolio work when targeting a specific niche or employer?

Select and order pieces that match the kind of work you want to be hired for — show branding work to branding studios, UI work to product teams. Tailor the portfolio to the audience's needs rather than showing everything you have ever made.

Where in a portfolio should your strongest pieces be placed, and why?

First and last. Viewers skim, so the opening piece must hook them immediately, and the closing piece shapes the final impression (primacy and recency effects).

What is the standard narrative structure of a design case study?

1) Brief/problem: client, goals, constraints; 2) Process: research, sketches, iterations, decisions; 3) Solution: the final design and rationale; 4) Results: outcomes, metrics, or client impact.

Why should a case study show process work (sketches, iterations) rather than only final images?

Process demonstrates how you think — problem-solving, research, and decision-making — which employers and clients value more than polished finals alone; it proves the result was reasoned, not accidental.

What kinds of results make a case study more persuasive, and how should they be stated?

Measurable outcomes stated concretely: e.g., conversion rate up $25\%$, engagement doubled, award won, client revenue growth. Quantified impact ties design work to business value.

Compare Behance and Dribbble as online portfolio platforms.

Behance (Adobe): full multi-image case-study projects, integrated with Creative Cloud, good for in-depth presentations and job listings. Dribbble: short 'shots' (single images/small sets), community- and trend-oriented, good for quick visual exposure and freelance leads.

What advantages does a personal portfolio website have over relying only on platforms like Behance or Dribbble?

Full control of branding, layout, and presentation; a custom domain that looks professional; no competing designers one click away; ownership independent of platform changes; and better SEO for your own name.

What is a design brief and what key elements should it contain?

A document defining a project before work starts. Key elements: client background, project goals/objectives, target audience, scope and deliverables, budget, timeline/milestones, brand or technical constraints, and success criteria.

What is scope creep, and how does a designer prevent it?

The gradual expansion of a project beyond the originally agreed work without added pay or time. Prevent it with a written contract that defines deliverables and a fixed number of revision rounds, plus a change-order process that prices any additional requests.

In client work, what are 'deliverables,' and why must they be specified precisely?

The concrete final items the client receives — e.g., a logo in AI/SVG/PNG formats, a 20-page brand guide PDF, three social templates. Precise specification prevents disputes over what was purchased and defines when the project is complete.

Compare hourly and flat-fee (project-based) pricing for freelance design.

Hourly: paid for time spent — fair for open-ended or ongoing work, but penalizes efficiency and caps income. Flat fee: one price for defined deliverables — rewards speed and is easier for clients to budget, but requires accurate scoping to avoid unpaid overruns.

What is value-based pricing in freelance design?

Setting the fee according to the value the work creates for the client (e.g., a rebrand expected to lift revenue) rather than the hours it takes. It typically yields higher fees for high-impact work and focuses the conversation on outcomes.

Give the formula a freelancer uses to calculate a minimum hourly rate.

$$\text{hourly rate} = \frac{\text{desired annual salary} + \text{annual overhead costs} + \text{profit}}{\text{billable hours per year}}$$ Billable hours are far fewer than total working hours (often around $1000$–$1400$/year) because of admin, marketing, and unpaid time.

What is a kill fee in a freelance contract?

A pre-agreed payment the client owes if they cancel the project before completion — commonly a percentage of the total fee or payment for work completed to date — compensating the designer for reserved time and finished work.

What essential terms should every freelance design contract include?

Scope of work and deliverables; number of revision rounds; timeline; payment terms including an upfront deposit (commonly $30\%$–$50\%$); ownership/IP transfer terms (usually on final payment); kill fee/cancellation terms; and confidentiality if needed.

What distinguishes a design critique from mere criticism?

A critique is a structured, objective evaluation of how well a design meets its stated goals, offering specific, actionable observations ('the low contrast makes the CTA hard to find'). Criticism is subjective judgment or personal taste ('I don't like it') without rationale or direction.

Describe the 'I like / I wish / What if' feedback framework.

A critique format where each comment starts one of three ways: 'I like…' (name what works), 'I wish…' (name a concern constructively), 'What if…' (propose an idea to explore). It keeps feedback balanced, specific, and non-personal.

What are best practices for receiving critique of your own design work?

Listen without defending; ask clarifying questions; evaluate comments against the project's goals rather than your ego; take notes; separate the work from yourself; and decide deliberately which feedback to act on — feedback is data, not orders.

What does 'packaging' a design file (e.g., File > Package in InDesign/Illustrator) do, and why is it done before handoff?

It collects the document plus all linked images and used fonts into one folder, with a report. This prevents missing-links and missing-font errors when a printer or collaborator opens the file on another computer.

Why might a designer convert text to outlines before sending final artwork, and what is the trade-off?

Outlining converts live type into vector shapes so the file renders identically without the fonts installed (and avoids font-license transfer issues). Trade-off: the text is no longer editable, so an editable master version must be kept.

What conventions make collaborative file naming and versioning reliable, and what do handoff tools like Figma Inspect or Zeplin provide?

Use descriptive, consistent names with dates/version numbers (e.g., 'brandlogo_v03_2026-07-02.ai'), never 'final_FINAL2'; keep versions in shared, organized folders. Handoff tools give developers exact specs — measurements, colors, type styles, and exportable assets — straight from the design file.

Who founded the Bauhaus, and where and when did it operate?

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. It moved to Dessau (1925) and Berlin, and was closed under Nazi pressure in 1933; its emigrating teachers spread modernist design worldwide.

What core idea does 'form follows function' express in modernist/Bauhaus design?

An object's or design's appearance should be determined by its purpose, not by decoration: eliminate ornament, let structure and utility drive the form, and unite art with industrial mass production.

Name the key visual characteristics of Bauhaus graphic design.

Geometric primitives (circle, square, triangle), primary colors (red, yellow, blue) plus black and white, sans-serif typography, asymmetric functional layouts, and rejection of ornament — merging art, craft, and technology.

Where and when did the Swiss (International Typographic) Style emerge, and who are two of its leading figures?

In Switzerland in the 1950s (building on 1930s roots in Zurich and Basel). Leading figures include Josef Müller-Brockmann and Armin Hofmann; the style spread internationally as the International Typographic Style.

What are the defining features of the Swiss International Style?

Mathematical grid systems for layout, asymmetric arrangements, flush-left/ragged-right sans-serif type, objective photography instead of illustration, generous white space, and a belief in neutral, universal, content-first communication.

Which typeface is most identified with the Swiss Style, and who designed it, when?

Helvetica, designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger (with Eduard Hoffmann) in Switzerland, originally named Neue Haas Grotesk; it descends from Akzidenz-Grotesk, the earlier Swiss-Style favorite.

How did postmodern graphic design react against modernism, and which designers/movements exemplify it?

It rejected modernist neutrality and rigid grids in favor of rule-breaking, ornament, eclecticism, layering, and playful or chaotic typography. Exemplars: Wolfgang Weingart (New Wave), the Memphis Group (1981, Ettore Sottsass), and David Carson's deconstructed 'grunge typography' in Ray Gun magazine (1990s).