East Detroit Public Schools
Lesson Design

Author: Jill Booth
Subject: Art
Grade: High School
Course: Adventuring in Art: 2D
Title: Creating Logos for Business

Length of Unit:Approximately two weeks
Materials Needed:
Power Macintosh G3 computers
access to the Internet
a large monitor
overhead projector
Yellow Pages
fabric paints
construction paper
tagboard
glue
scissors
white T-shirts from students’ homes
iron
Xacto knives
Clarisworks Draw (software)

Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):

Arts Education:

Content Standard 4: All students will respond to creative processes, products, and performances of oneself and others as a way of creating meaning and expressing ideas.

2. Apply creative processes, products, and performances of oneself and others to satisfy and respond to human needs.

English Language Arts:

I. Meaning and Communication

Content Standard I, 3: All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.

2. Consistently use strategies to regulate the effects of variables on the communication process. An example is designing a communication environment for maximum impact on the receiver.

II. Language

Content Standard II, 4: All students will use the English language effectively.

1. Demonstrate how language usage is related to successful communication in their different spoken, written, and visual communication contexts, such as job interviews, public speeches, debates, and advertising.

Career and Employability Skills:

Content Standard 3: All students will demonstrate the ability to combine ideas or information in new ways, make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, and organize and process symbols, pictures, graphs, and other information.

1. Transform ideas and requirements into actual products.

Content Standard 4: All students will make decisions and solve problems by specifying goals and constraints, generating alternatives, considering risks, and choosing the best alternatives.

1. Use a variety of methods to solve problems or complete tasks.

Prior Knowledge:

• Students must have basic computer skills.
• Students must know the basic color systems.
• Students must be able to execute and compose line drawings.

Cue Set:

• The teacher begins the lesson by posing these questions:
  • What does the drawing on the board (the Nike swoosh) represent ?
  • What other symbols for companies can you name?
• The teacher then gives the students a pre-test on symbols by using the overhead projector. She shows them a number of symbols and asks them to write down the companies or products which the symbols represent.
  • Example: The golden arches stand for McDonalds. A bell outline stands for Bell Telephone.

Best Shot Instruction:

• In the library, students work in pairs while searching the Internet to find examples of logos. Looking in areas such as “Logo Design Directory”, they note how many different, but similar, logotypes can be designed for the same company. One set of at least five logos for the same company is downloaded for each pair of students. The logos are collected on one page and then a transparency is made.
• Back in the art room, students present the logos they have downloaded explaining to the class the strength or weakness of each design.
• The teacher explains the important role of the logo on a business card or letterhead in capturing the attention of the viewer. Several types of business cards and letterheads are viewed by the students. They then pick a page from the Yellow Pages to find a company for which they can design a logo. If time permits, students can jot down some ideas for their companies’ logotypes.
• In the computer lab, the teacher uses the large monitor to demonstrate elements of the Clarisworks Draw program. As each of the drawing tools is demonstrated, the students use that tool at their own terminals. Students use the rest of the time practicing on the computer by composing and drawing simple houses on their screens.
• After a discussion which reminds them of how logos simplify ideas, the students are ready to begin designing on the computer. They work on their logotypes and revise them if necessary to fit the requirements of their business cards and letterheads.

Reteaching and Enrichment:

• Reteaching: Students discuss their graphics, font choices, and wording with the teacher to see if both business criteria and drawing criteria are met. Students then print the logo, business card, and letterhead. They mount them on construction paper.
• Enrichment: Each student designs a logotype for him/herself on a computer. The logo is enlarged to fill a sheet of computer paper. Back in the art room, each color needed for the logo is traced and cut out of tagboard. These stencils are used with fabric paints on a white T-shirt which the student has brought from home. When dry, the stencilled paint is set with a heated iron to become permanent.

Review and Closure:

When all of the students are done working, the logos are presented to the class with explanations by the artists. T-shirts are also shown and modeled, if possible. (Some students design and make T-shirts for their younger siblings or nieces and nephews.)

Assessment:

• Each student’s business presentation is judged for artistic merit, creativity, and effectiveness.
• Students evaluate their projects and explain in writing the problems that had to be solved during the course of the work.

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