December Holiday’s – Traditions and Celebrations.

This month the Multimedia class took on the task of creating Infographic Posters of the various traditions and celebrations going on in December.  The only real limitation the students hadwas that the event does occur in December.

Because we learn much more than just graphic design techniques, this assignment was multi-faceted.  The students started off by writing a short research paper on the chosen tradition/celebration.  It’s imperative that as a designer, you understand the subject matter that you are designer for.  Furthermore, regardless of what profession you enter into, knowing how to gather information and put it together in a cohesive and presentable manner is a value skill.

After the research paper had been approved they moved on to creating mood boards for their individual subject matter.  A mood board (or inspiration board) is a physical or digital collage of ideas.  It serves both the designer and the client. For this project the students create TWO mood boards.  Each address their subject matter but came at it from two different directions. Outside of the design field, this teaches the student to think creatively, formulate different options for completing the same task and, again, affords them to opportunity to further research their topic.
Finally, after both the research paper and mood boards had been approved they were to design a poster that would educate the viewers to the various traditions and celebrations that occur during December.  

The students really rose to the occasion. Extremely proud and pleased to see the varied subject matter: History of the Candy Cane, why we give gifts, mistletoe, Hanukkah (Chanukah), Kwanzaa, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Christmas vs. Xmas, Yule, Mawlid al-Nabi, Christmas in the Philippines, history of the Christmas tree,  just to name a few.