CalSTRS in West Sacramento is hiring an entry level Graphic Designer 1. They have a One Day File-In-Person date of December 14, 2011.

Get the job details here!

Learn more about CalSTRS here.

Wed. Nov. 30th Special Event: Learn How to Transfer to Sac State's Graphic Design Program

Join Sacramento State Department of Design Chair John Forrest along with GCOM alumni and current Sac State Junior Bill Smith for an informative brown bag discussion on what it takes to get into their program.

Sac State has one of the best public university graphic design programs in the state of California. Find out how to be a part of it!

Snacks will be served.

When? Wednesday, November 30 at 12:15pm in Room T-100!

The debate over data visualization

Here's an interesting post on The Guardian's DataBlog addressing the pros and cons of the data visualization trend. Be sure to watch the video link.

TWO Design Internship openings... for MONEY!

News from the Los Rios Internship & Career Services: Unify Corporation AND The Faculty Assoc. of Ca Community Colleges Educ. Institute are both looking for paid graphic design interns.

If students are interested, they can contact either May Yang, (yangm@scc.losrios.edu; 558-2069) or Wendy Slobodnik (slobodw@scc.losrios.edu; 558-2383) to apply. 

Or visit the LINCS office in Rodda North room 147— Counseling room, in the back next to International Student Center.

You can find out more about these internships in the graphics below, or by visiting the LINCS web page, where you can find other internships as well.

Special student price for Crocker event!

Click on image for more detail.

The student price for Licensing in the Digital Age is now only $10 (at the door with current student ID; this special discount is not available online). This special price includes admission to the entire Museum.

Hilarious Design Parody

This is a brilliant commentary on "mediocrity." Be sure to watch the "Designer" video.

Mediocrity.com

And take special note of the pervasive color scheme. LOL.

But what is this site selling, you might ask... look closely at the actual site address!

Wacom's newest product

Check out this new digital sketch pad, due for release next month. Technology is so cool!

Remembering Brainstorm

Back in May, at the end of the Spring semester, GCOM hosted our annual Brainstorm Student Design Showcase. It was and excellent event full of amazing student work. And now, after 4 months, we're finally getting around to publishing some photos!

Join our GCOM@SCC Facebook group and check them out.

(And let's take this opportunity to thank Sean Brainerd and his two stellar student Jessica Blizzard and Ali Gerriets on all the work they put into this event.)

Congratulations to student Laura Lee

Laura Lee won a total of $350 in the California State Fair this year with her "Personal Sustainability" book that she designed, produced, and hand-bounded in GCOM 345 (Advanced Graphic Design Production).

Her awards included:

First Place
Outstanding Award
California Graphic Arts Education Association Award

Congratulations Laura from all of us here in GCOM!

Brainstorm student winners announced!

The Brainstorm event was a great success. The department displayed nearly 300 pieces of student work and the show was attended by an estimated 150 students and guests.

Congratulations to our faculty curated winning designs:

Best of Show: "D'lish branding design" by Charles Henderson
Gold Award: "I love Meat" book design by Anna Cisneros
Silver Award: "Jungle" video game design by Nick Williams
Bronze Award: "Type Poem" poster by Nellie Coats

And our student-submitted "Non-Class work" winner:
"Japan 2011" commemorative poster by Lori Llanillo

See you all next Fall!

            —your GCOM faculty

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Brainstorm this Friday!

2010-2011 Student Design Showcase
4-7pm, COS 108-110

Stop by to view a collection offaculty-curated student workfrom the last year, along with entries from the "non-class" work competition. See which design will pick up "Student Design of the Year" and the "Popular Choice Award" during the Awards Reception.

Brainstorm will also feature a "Jeopardy" inspired design competition in which 3 competitors will be challenged to answer a range of design questions. There will be separate student and faculty competitions. Join us for great design, music, food, a chance to see your friend and favorite faculty match wits, and a chance to win some great prizes.

Call for Entries!!

SHOW US YOUR BEST ‘NON-CLASS’ WORK
Did you do a great freelance or personal design project this past year? This is your chance to show it off and get the recognition you deserve. Print, Web, Motion, Interactive, Digital Imaging or Illustration, Animation, or 3D model — they're all acceptable, but there's only one catagery - "non-class" work.

ALL ENTRIES DUE MONDAY 5-9-11*

All entries must be created between Jan. 2010 - May 2011.

Print entries must be printed and trimmed, or in finished form (brochure, CD cover, etc.)
Flat print items under 11 x17 should be mounted on black poster board or foam core.
Digital illustration, imaging, or 3D model should be printed, trimmed and mounted.
Motion, Intereactive or Animation should be devilered as digital file on CD or flash drive.
Web entries: e-mail URL to buttond@scc.losrios.edu
All entry materials must be turned in to the Brainstorm Box in the Design Lab office.
All entries must include your full name, e-mail, clients name and month/year produced. 
Failure to not follow the above instructions may disqualify your submission.
*SUBMISSION DOES NOT GUARANTEE EXHIBITION IN SHOW

Upcoming ADAC Events: Jeff Toll of BKWLD and Wordpress

GCOM friend—former Student Design Awards Judge—and BKWLD creative director Jeff Toll will be speaking to ADAC this Friday, May 6, 2011, at 6pm, at the AIA Central Valley building, 1400 S Street, for their Words of Wisdom series. Free for members, $3 for student (non-members).

Mark your calendars!

Sunday, May 8 (Part 2), May 15 (Part 3) - WordPress Design Workshop - RSVP Required.
For more information, please visit: http://adac.org/wpworkshops/

Help a local high school win $50k for art programs!

Design students at Sacramento New Tech HS made it to the semifinals for a VANS Custom Shoe Design Contest!

Please take a moment to vote in this popularity contest and help them get into the finals. If they win, they will receive $50k for our art program, and the shoes may be put into production. 

http://www.vans.com/customculture/  
(Sac New Tech HS / bottom, left on screen)


Out of 400 schools, they made the cut.
They are 1 of 10 schools from California.
They are the only Northern California school.
They are a computer design class, not traditional media.
They are talented and deserve recognition. 
And please forward this to anyone in your network that might be sympathetic to our cause.

New GCOM Advising / Course Sequence sheets

Having trouble deciding what GCOM classes to sign up for in the Fall? Well help is here!

Here are two brand new GCOM Advising sheets based on our new 30 unit A.S. Degree and our four new Certificates: Graphic Design - Print and / or Web (21 units), Interactive Design (18 units), Video Game Design (21 units), and 3D Animation (12 units).

These give you a four-semester look at what we believe would be the best order to take your courses.
For more personalized information, feel free to set up a meeting with Robyn, Tom, Pat, Don or Chris.

Graphic Design / Interactive Certificate Sequence Sheet

3D Animation / Game Design Certificate Sequence Sheet

Many new changes for GCOM in the Fall

The Fall 11 schedule is now available on line, so you should start planning you classes and be ready to register as soon as you day and time arrive.

But the Graphic Communication department will be going through some important changes in the Fall, so please read this message to be prepared.

COURSE NAME CHANGES
In an effort to better represent our department philosophy and align our course names with many of the 4-year institutions our students transfer to, beginning Fall 2011, our core GCOM classes will be undergoing a name change.

course # / old name                                     new name
313 Beg. Page Layout using InDesign        Digital Layout I
314 Adv. Page Layout using InDesign        Digital Layout 2

330 Beg. Photoshop                                 Digital Imaging I
331 Adv. Digital Imaging for Print              Digital Imaging 2
332 Adv. Digital Imaging for Web/Multi.     Digital Imaging 3

340 Beginning Illustrator           Digital Illustration for Graphic Design I
341 Adv. Digital Illustration      Digital Illustration for Graphic Design 2

380 Beg. Interactive Design                       Interactive Design 1
383 Intermediate Interactive Design           Interactive Design 2
390 Beg. Motion Design                            Motion Design 1

(note: similar name changes are likely to take place for these courses in the following school year: 343, 345, 360, 361, 362)


NEW LECTURE / LAB CHANGES

For many years nearly all of GCOM’s graphic design and web design courses have been offered as a scheduled Lecture with the Lab portion listed as TBA — allowing students to complete their lab work on their own schedule at home or in our Design Lab.

Due to changing administration directives and state regulations, beginning in the Fall 2011 semester many of our core classes will be scheduled with a required scheduled Lab section with the instructor.

As an example, our current Beginning Photoshop class is scheduled as a weekly 2 hour Lecture class, for which the student is expected to complete approximately 3 hours of assigned Lab work per week on their own.

In the Fall, the 2 hour Lecture will be immediately followed by a 1.25 hour in-class Lab. The students will be expected to attend and use that time to produce class work, along with an additional 1.75 hours of TBA Lab time.

Some of these classes may be scheduled in a “hybrid” modality, which means the instructor may be choose to make some Lab time flexible or online.

However, not all GCOM courses will change to the scheduled Lab. Some of our advanced, principles, and distance ed courses will continue to only have unscheduled TBA lab.

The GCOM faculty believes that offering scheduled Lab classes with the instructor, especially for our core introductory courses, will provide a more engaging and enriching educational experience for our students.

NEW DEGREE / CERTIFICATE INFO

The Fall 2011 semester will also bring changes to the requirements of our GCOM A.S. Degree and our Career Certificates. If you began taking GCOM classes before Fall 11, these changes may not directly effect you. 

More information about the degree and certificates will be coming soon, as soon as they are fully approved.

Engineering vs. Design (Liberal Arts) degree - who gets hired?

Bill or Steve, who's right?

Read this interesting article from TechCrunch for an interesting and surprising perspective from an engineering professor.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/21/engineering-vs-liberal-arts-who’s-right—bill-or-steve/

And visit this New York Times "Room for Debate" section for a variety of other perspectives.

Design Articles for your e-readers

Smashing Magazine has just released a new collection of graphic design articles for e-readers. Check them out HERE.

The Modernism of Mac

Here's nice little essay on the Apple design aesthetic — Is it retro? Is it modern? Is it even there?
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GCOM 490 Studio Class moved for Spring

IMPORTANT NEWS: If you were enrolled in, or planning to sign up for, our capstone real-world design class, there has been a change to how we're offering it.

It had to be cancelled due to low enrollment, but our GCOM students will still be able to take the class by signing up for the PHOTO 490 class. The time is the same and our instructors, Sean Brainerd and Dre Diaz-Vaughn will still be co-teaching. We will also be able to credit the Photo class units toward your GCOM degree or certificate.

This is a great class that will be working with Photo students on some excellent, high-profile design projects. Teamwork, portfolio pieces, and great for the resume... how could you miss out on that?

For more info, contact Sean at volume11creative@gmail.com

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