TODAY!: Sactown's art director to speak to GCOM students

Jason Malmberg of Sactown magazine is slated to speak to the GC Club, Thursday, September 25 at 3pm in T100, and all GCOM students are invited to attend. Come hear this nationally award-winning designer and art director talk about his process and design. 

For more info and to RSVP, please email gcClubSCC@gmail.com.

Photojournalist Guest Speaker - Sept. 18

The SCC Photography department invites all interested GCOM students to join them for a multimedia presentation and Q&A session with Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Renee C. Byer of the Sacramento Bee.

Renee's photo feature "A Mother's Journey" won the 2007 Pulitzer for feature photography.

Sept. 18, 2008

SCC Main Auditorium

6:30pm, doors open at 6.

FREE event

MEET THE GCOM TEACHING FACULTY...

This Fall the number of Graphic Communication Department faculty professors has doubled in size from last year, so I thought it might be a good idea to introduce you to all of us.

First off, Tom Cappelletti, a former adjunct and long-term temporary instructor is now a full-time professor. He teaches Dreamweaver (361) and Illustrator (340) and always keeps the class entertained with his frenetic energy and fast-paced lessons. Tom is a former GCOM student, successful freelance designer, and he is also our multi-modality master, teaching in class, online and interactive TV classes. 

Next, it was a long time coming, but we finally have a full-time Animation instructor—Patrick Crandley. Pat has been a professional animator on a number of exciting TV and advertising projects and is new to teaching profession. He also has a ton of energy and will keep you on your toes in three of our core animation courses (400, 401, and 402).

Last, but not least, is our 1-year long term temporary instructor, Andrea Diaz-Vaughn. She goes by "Dre" and has been an adjunct here for a couple years. She has a background as a very successful designer and creative director at places like SN&R, Sol Design Group, and California Restaurant Association. Dre will be sharing her expertise in InDesign (314), Adv. Illustrator (341), Photoshop (330), and GCOM Studio + Club (490). 

And, if you didn't know, I'm Don Button. Third year full-time prof, five-year adjunct prior to that, and long time SN&R Creative Director and freelance designer. I teach QuarkXPress (316), Newspaper Design (319), Photoshop (330), Adv. Photoshop (331) and Fireworks (360). I'm also department chair, and usually try to cram 2 hours of teaching into every 1.6 hour class.

Here's to a good semester for all!

TWO GREAT CLASSES YOU SHOULD TAKE NOW!

Hey there GCOM students... Welcome Back to SCC!! We're planning for a great semester and we can't wait to see all you students in class and get some creativity going. 

There is still room in two of the MOST IMPORTANT CLASSES GCOM HAS TO OFFER—our 490 Graphic Communication Studio class and our 319 Newspaper Design class. What makes these so important you may ask. Well, they offer something our other great class don't—REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE WITH REAL DESIGN WORK. Both classes are more like internships. 

In 490, you work on real projects for real clients that really get printed and used. You work on team projects and go through a the actual design process of a working design studio.

In 319, you work with journalism and photography  students to create, design and produce the student newspaper, The Express, every two weeks. Even if you aren't into newspapers, the experience and specialized training you get is invaluable and unmatched. 

Both of these classes offer you the best opportunity to create excellent portfolio pieces and they look great on your resume when you start looking for a job. 

Both classes also have scheduled lab sections and meet twice a week. For more information, check out this FLYER with class days and times, and instructor contact info. If you want to join, just come to the next class and you can get added! 

Fall Classes Are Filling Up – Sign Up Now!!

Fall 08 registration is in full swing so if you haven't signed up for your GCOM classes yet, you better get on it soon. The most popular classes Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and InDesign, but there are some other great classes you may not know much about:

GCOM316, Intro to Page Layout using QuarkXPress 7

Quark is an excellent graphics layout program for both print design and web sites and has been an industry standard for nearly 20 years. It's not as well known as InDesign these days, but it is still used by many design professionals and SCC is the only school teaching it in Northern California.

GCOM319, Newspaper Design

This class works directly with journalism and photography students to learn about news media design for both printed newspapers and web sites. But it is also one of our most important  "real-world" experience classes because the students design and produce the campus newspaper The Express and the E-press web site every 2 weeks. It's a great chance to put your page layout skills to the test, work in a team atmosphere, and produce some excellent portfolio work—not to mention the boost a class like this gives your resume. (Note: this class includes both lecture and lab and is scheduled for Mon/ Wed, 1:30-4pm, but there is some flexibility and the time required can vary depending on the production schedule)

GCOM363, Advanced Creative Web Page Design using Adobe Flash

GCOM383, Interactive and Motion Design using Adobe Flash

If you've learned Dreamweaver and have an interest in more advanced Web sites and motion, Flash is the way to go. And if you've already taken 363, this Fall will be the first chance to take 383 in over 2 years. We don't offer this advanced course every year, so you don't want to miss it! Plus, both classes are taught by Flash Guru, Phuong Nguyen, considered by many local design firms to be the top Flash designer in all of Sacramento. (Note: regardless of the what the SCC catalog says, we are teaching Adobe Flash CS3, not Macromedia Flash)

GCOM420: Intro to Video Game Design

Our long awaited Game Design courses finally begin this Fall with the first class of the program. This will be an exciting and dynamic theory and concepting class that will lead to an intermediate and advanced class to be offer in later semesters. And it's already filling up, so get in quick.

GCOM490: Graphic Communication Studio

This is another one of our very unique and exciting "real-world" experience classes. This class doubles as the GC Club and operates like a working design studio where students work in teams on actual design projects for actual paying clients. This is one of the best opportunities in our curriculum for you to put your skill to the test and develop actual work for your portfolio. It will also look great on your resume! This class includes lecture and lab and meets 2 days a week—Tues/Thurs, 3-5pm.

If you have any questions about these, or any other GCOM classes, feel free to contact Don Button at buttond@scc.losrios.edu.

Summer's Here And The Time Is Right...

For Dancing in the ...  no, wait... the time is right for DESIGNING in the streets! 

Welcome to GCOM@SCC — The Summer Sessions. It's a great place to cool off at the end of a long, hot summer day in Sac. We've got beginning classes in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and InDesign. We've got the best Mac Lab in NorCal. And we've got the best instructors in Sac to teach you what's up: Heather Hogan, Jodi Adkins, Angela Jackson, and your's truly, Don Button.

Welcome to where it's at for the next 8 weeks!

Report From The Animators Ball...

We had a Big Orange Ball last night!

They were shiny, bouncy, funny and creepy... the animations, not the balls. We nearly filled the Student Center to capacity with college and high school students, friends and family, and creative professionals.

We ate some great food and watched some truly entertaining student animation reels. 

And we saw and heard an excellent keynote speech from Pixar animator Austin Madison—that's him in the photo hugging his own big orange ball and holding court with a bunch of very excited animation groupies.

We'd like to express our deep gratitude to all the students who participated, as well as ADAC, and Elara Systems and Wirestone, who donated the bucks for the free grub!

Tom has created a quicky photo gallery of shots he took at the event. CLICK HERE TO SEE.

Until next year....