VC Family Album pages

If I started teaching now and knew what I know about this assignment, I would make every student in every class do 3 to 5 of these projects every semester. You get points for each to encourage students to work toward the maximum possible. Document field trips, speakers, assignments, best solutions, and semester portfolios.

I would group them into albums. Then, I would give the gazillion pages to some outstanding Special Collections focused on education. Princeton would be a good one because John Nash taught there. The photo at the top is from the results of this assignment done by Ari Garber (VC'05), produced because we watched the movie about John Nash at an in-class event.

Students work as solitary designers on their pages in every instance, though more than one album page may be desired for more important events.
Depending on how you think the students will organize themselves and the relative importance of particular events, more than one student might produce a specific album page.
every assignment, focusing on 3 to 7 of the top solutions
Every student would do a page for a final portfolio showing all of their final work for every assignment produced in the class.
Every field trip (maybe three students would each do one so we could get different points of view), and I would find excuses to take field trips.
Every speaker and I would find excuses to get speakers in front of my students and my students in front of speakers.
Every film was viewed in class, and I would show documentaries, feature films, and shorts.
an explanation of every textbook and maybe every reading
For every weird class, I would find excuses to make them happen.
The instructor should determine how many album pages might be produced during a semester. Say there are 20 students, and the general desire is for every student to make three album pages, giving you 60 pages in that class in that semester. Each student will have a final portfolio page. If there are seven assignments during the semester and you want the top 3 of each task documented, two field trips with every student going, and five other critical in-class events (movies, guest critiques, etc.). You expect students to attend five events outside class (movies, guest speakers, etc.). 20 portfolio pages + 21 individual class project solutions + 2 field trips + 5 in-class events + 5 outside-of-class events would total a maximum of 53 (remember you want 60). You must double up on some last events to provide enough for the students.
And I would add this on top of everything else you are doing, not instead of some things. The students will learn to plow through these things quickly, and the restrictions should reduce the overall effort.

NOTE: Students will complain, but you can help them find ways to get many results from little work. The example at the top was given to a promising student producing the album page for the movie “A Beautiful Mind” I showed in class. He was complaining about how he didn’t have time. He was a great student, and I wanted to help him understand how a design decision could reduce the time. Writing these pages can take a while if they need to be written well with lots of words. So, let’s just set the DVD on the computer, set the captions to be on, and just screengrab every set of words in the most critical scene in the movie. Organize them into a grid, which was pretty much done in less than 3 hours.

Ultimately, it would be the best and most thorough journal about teaching, starting on day 1 and going through day number whatever.

The journal itself, closed—a kind of heavy metal design journal.

The idea for the project came from Rose DiSanto (VC'83) who was teaching a course for us, replacing another faculty member on sabbatical. It was a project set up with a heap of rules.

11" x 17"
A rule ran horizontally right through the middle of the page
main typefaces were Didot and Avenir
seek inventive design while working in an unforgiving format under a lot of restrictive rules

VC family album

Individual pages may have specific guidelines or needs. For instance, a page about a writing class might need more words, but a page about a photographer might need more images.

Click here for an index of some examples (which appear to the right) of pages designed by Ray Nichols, which shows some of the design issues he thought were important for those events.

It is important to remember that pages can be used in three ways.

As pages in the mother VC family album, it will be one of probably 200 pages per book and then multiple books that will develop over the upcoming years.
A page for an event can be used as a thank you. The pages are 17" x 11" but are printed on 19" x 13" sheets. This provides a blank area around the image so that participants in the event can sign the page. The page will then be given to people to be thanked. Hopefully, they will keep it around and be reminded of their interaction with us.
A set of pages can be gathered and used as a mini-book with a particular focus. This can also be given as a thank you. A good example is the VC / London trip. We will do individual pages for all of our visits (which will be given to them) along with a set of all the pages to the Center for International Studies as a document recording the trip. We might also keep a book in VC for students to look at without dealing with the mother-of-all-journals version.

Another point worth making is the importance of subjects for such pages so we will have an excuse to design them. It is the design experience we are looking for. The rest of it is just helpful to do.

To produce pages using these rules and guidelines, you'll need three stuffed files (an InDesign template and the two dominant typefaces, Didot and Avenir).

ALL pages in the book MUST:

Be created in InDesign from templates provided (page size 17" x 11" horizontal only) and use provided stylesheets whenever logical and possible
Be designed with a safe area (within where text falls) that falls on a 12p margin from the left side trim and a 3p margin from the top, bottom, and right side trim.
The text must incorporate any details necessary to place the page content into the correct context as part of the VC history story (date, participants/titles, VC participants, place, etc.).
Include a .2 pt horizontal rule always centered (33p below top trim) across the page ( the rule is locked into the template). There are instances when you might rather have the rule pass behind an image.
Have one headline set in Didot Roman (see image below), 48 points, 100% black, and positioned vertically as dictated by the supplied master page using the appropriately supplied stylesheet. The bottom serifs of the type align tangentially with the .2 rule, with the typography in front. The headline may be positioned anywhere along the line.
Incorporate 1 – 3 characters (no more or less) in any font other than Didot Roman in any form. It is important to choose a font that contributes to the page's design. Additional care should also be taken with sizing and kerning the type.
Incorporate a single line of explanatory type in Avenir Black, 12 pt, any color, which must sit just under (the .2 rule must align with the x-height of the text as dictated by the supplied master page) the horizontal rule using the appropriately supplied stylesheet. The text may fall anywhere along that line.

Below is what the type looks like together. The Didot sits exactly on the rule and the Avenir Black explanatory line is in front.

Set all main body text in Avenir Book (click here to see Avenir Book) 8.5 / 12, 70% black, with an extra 3 points between paragraphs using the appropriately supplied stylesheet
As a general rule, columns of text should align vertically and horizontally (there are instances when you might want to break this rule, but without such an intent, this rule should apply)
Print on the front of super A3 size Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper (19" x 13") and trim to 17" x 11"
Must show a credit line that begins with "Page design:" and ends with " / DEsigners." There are spaces on both sides of the "/". Following the colon, specific tasks performed by others are listed (i.e., Page design: Raymond Nichols; retouching: Hendrik-Jan Francke; copy: Bernie Herman; photography: Bill Deering."

All pages in the book CAN:

Care must be taken to use understandably named files and supporting images
Files should be well-organized in appropriate folders
The designer of any page must supply a folder containing all images (typically, at least 300 dpi at the size used) and any typefaces used beyond Avenir and Didot to the caretaker of the VC family album master copy pages (typically in the form of a CD with all of the appropriate files)