Name: Rosie Case

Specific Medium Curriculum Outline (18 WEEKS)

Lesson 3-Visual Culture & IDENTITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

LESSON TITLE 3: Self Identity & Visual Culture- Create Your Own Brand

GRADE LEVEL: High School-Adaptable to Middle and Elementary School

MEDIUM: Photoshop & Illustrator

BUDGET: 4 classes of about 30 students=120 students

Photoshop & Illustrator =$600 +

Merchants of Cool DVD =$30

SUPPLY LIST:

Photoshop & Illustrator

Merchants of Cool DVD

Printer paper and color ink

SUGGESTED TEXTBOOK OR READING LIST: Merchants of Cool DVD

Barbara Kruger introduction

TIME FRAME/SCHEDULE: 3-4 class periods

*Class period= one hour and fifteen minutes

LESSON OVERVIEW: This lesson questions how students relate to mass media production of brand names and how visual culture portrays and advertises to convince their target markets to buy their product. Do you know everything there is to know about the brand names that you support? Do they fully and perfectly describe who you are as a person to your peers? Students will use these questions to think critically about what brand names represent and will create their own brand name around their personal identity. Students will use marketing strategies to promote their new product to the mass media.

YOUR RATIONALE: Students in today’s society are bombarded with millions of ads, messages, and visual stimuli every second of every day. They need to understand what to do with this information and how to decode the images that the media is giving us. Being able to question and formulate responses to personal identity is crucial when companies are competing for your conformity.

THEME/ KEY CONCEPT: Self Identity through creation of personal brand name

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Do you know everything there is to know about the brand names that you support/wear/buy?

Do they fully and perfectly describe who you are as a person to your peers?

What do you want other people to know about who you are?

What do you have in common with other students in the world? & How could you create a brand name/product that not only describes you but may relate with your peers as well? -marketability.

How can you question conformity through creation of your own product?

ARTIST NAME: Barbara Kruger

· Key artwork: “I Shop, Therefore I Am”

· Key ideas: Kruger wanted the consumer to question the manipulation of advertisements and visual culture. She wanted to speak to the individual and make them be conscious of the underlying messages and hidden meanings in commercials and images.

· Key art making strategies: Kruger used the same media as what she was trying to question in order to make people really think about how text and imagery affects the consumer.

RELATED STUDIO ACTIVITY

Key ideas: Visual culture is a code that our society needs to be aware of and understand to be able to fully interpret their intentions.

Sub-ideas: Identity can often be described through brand names. So if we created our own brand name, would we be better represented?

· Choice of media, subject matter, formal limitations: digital imagery and manipulation

· Personal connections: Students can take pride in who they are by promoting and designing their own company logo and brand name.

· Development of student ideas for expression: use background info from Merchants of Cool DVD to create a personal business campaign.

· Description of the activity: Use Photoshop or Illustrator to design a personal logo for your own brand name. Students will then describe what their company represent and create an imaginary ad campaign in written form.

CONCEPT MAPPING: in sketchbook about how brand names can affect your personal Identity.

OBJECTIVITIES:

The student will use concept mapping and sketchbooks to develop ideas for final project

The student will create a personal brand name and logo for that new business

The students will describe their logo artwork and business plan in group critique.

The students will create a writing piece to express what their new company represents and describe an imaginary ad campaign.

AREA OF INTEGRATION:

ART AND Business/Social Studies: This lesson directly relates to economics, business, social marketing and product design.

PREPARATION:

Barbara Kruger Info handouts-video-images- prepare background info

Have leading questions to think about while watching the Merchants of Cool DVD

Assignment sheet listing expectations and project checklist w/ rubric- to be turned in at the end of the assignment with student feedback (attached w/ lesson plan)

Have a working knowledge of Photoshop and or Illustrator-if not you can draw ideas

PROCEDURE:

Day one: Introduce Visual Culture and Persuasion through Merchants of Cool DVD

Group discussion about movie

HW: What brand names do you buy? Clothes, food, magazines, phones, shoes, etc. What do they mean to you or to others that see them? Start thinking of ideas for your own brand name…what would you sell? What would the logo look like? Do 3-5 thumbnail logo sketches in sketchbooks

Day two: Introduce logo assignment

Fill out WPS brainstorming wksht

Work on Photoshop and illustrator to complete

Day three: Work Day- Finish logo designs

HW: Write an ad campaign for your new brand name. What

Would a commercial be like? What would a billboard have on it? Do you have celebrity indorcements?

Day four: Finish ad campaigns and group critique

VOCABULARY:

Identity-condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is

Visual culture is a field of study that generally includes some combination of cultural studies, art history, and anthropology, by focusing on aspects of culture that rely on visual images.

Logo-is a graphical element, (ideogram, symbol, emblem, icon, sign) that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand.

EVALUATION AND RUBRICS:

Assessment/Rubric

Assignment:

20pts =Criteria 1 – completion of sketches and brainstorming (MPS wksht)

20pts =Criteria 2 – Photoshop or Illustrator developed logo image

20 pts =Criteria 3 – Effort: took time to develop idea & complete project? (Didn’t rush.) Good use of class time?

20 pts. =Criteria 4 – Craftsmanship – Neat, clean & complete? Skillful use of the art tools & media?

20pts =Criteria 5 – Participation in group & peer critique and written response

Student Rating and Teacher Rating

Student reflection:

Give yourself a numerical grade in the following 4 categories

1. Met criteria of the project_____

Logo design

Written ad campaign

Sketches and WPS wksht brainstorming

2. Creativity ________Why?

3. Level of Effort/ Perseverance ____Why?

4. Craftsmanship ____Why?

Teacher's Comments:

Project Total = 100pts

Grading Scale

95-100: A 90-94: A- 85-89: B+ 80-84: B 75-79: B- 70-74: C+

What problems do brand names present? :

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

What are the solutions to these problems?