Design and film school spotlights
Students and instructors in higher education design and film programs are always finding new ways to use Adobe software products. This page is an archive of articles about such innovative, cutting-edge projects.
Spotlights
The theory and practice of media
See how the University of Southern California planned a curriculum to blend design, technology, and theory. Then, join them in on-line panels and workshops to discuss issues of convergence and to learn more about Development for the Flash Platform.
Reel Ideas Studio – Building an Online Community
The Vancouver Film School collaborated with Adobe to create an online community site for Adobe's Cannes Film Festival documentary competition. They created a web site that served both students in France and around the world.
Designing against your creed
Can students produce good design work when they are assigned to work for an organization that represents ideas they abhor? And should they? This was a challenge Emily Wallace presented her students at the University of Dayton to help them see the power of design and consider its ethics.
Tapping individual and collaborative creativity
The University of Wisconsin-Stout Multimedia Design concentration requires its seniors to complete a thoroughly original final design project. They must compete and collaborate at the same time, and the result is stellar work displayed in a student-directed exhibition.
Learning the Art of Motion Graphics
When Adobe needed a video curriculum for Adobe® After Effects® to guide designers and students familiar with 2-D design into motion graphics, it called on John Vondracek and Eric Finkelman, a former ADAA winner, to create and produce the lessons. Learn how the course evolved and was produced using Adobe® Production Studio®, then try it out.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Students in RIT's New Media Design program learn to blend design concepts and technical skills. In their Advanced Design for Networking course, they tackle the visual design aspects of website construction and learn to use Flash as a tool for communicating concepts graphically.
Savannah College of Art and Design
When Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) was seeking technology to enable eLearning, it chose Breeze (now Adobe Acrobat Connect). They found it not only improved interaction with remote students, but effectively served many other campus needs as well.
University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Art
The University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Art offers a Graphic Design Practicum where students work in teams for real customers using Adobe Creative Suite® 2 and learn that design is more about thinking than about art.
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts offers an MFA in design that focuses on teaching designers to communicate their clients’ messages and author their own content. See what projects and products some of the students in SVA’s Designer as Author program have created.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
When the School of the Art Institute of Chicago wanted to collaborate with two other local schools to produce an exhibit of architecture student visions for Chicago in 2020, they selected a video format that would allow students to speak directly to the viewer in their own words and their own voices. They also selected a video editing tool that would be easy to use and quick to learn, Adobe Premiere.
University of Notre Dame
Read about a team of graphic design students who were challenged to establish a viable brand, develop marketing strategies, and create visual communications for a population with minimal reading levels.
Guerilla Studio
This unique venue at the SIGGRAPH Conference gives participants hands-on experience with exotic technology. Read about a project that involved collaboration between participants in the United States and India, resulting in 17 original books full of culturally rich images.
Collaborative learning at Gobelins, l’Ecole de l’Image
Learn how this institution's Photography Department emphasizes teamwork, instruction from professionals, and the use of industry-standard tools like Adobe Photoshop. Read about unique student projects, such as one designed to help psychiatric patients.
Design for Television
Find out how students in a Design for Television course at the School of Visual Arts imagine and design identities for their own fictional television channels. Adobe After Effects figures prominently as the students design channel logos and ID spots.
More than the sum of its parts
Learn how students at California State University, Chico, explore the mechanics of creating books — from type to grids, from images to bindings. Discover how these students stretch the rules using Adobe InDesign.
Communicating brand characteristics at Ohio State University
Learn how students at Ohio State University use Adobe Creative Suite to create corporate identity programs that effectively communicate brand characteristics to customers.
Communicating concepts through motion graphics at Vancouver Film School
Students use Adobe software to create a 60-second motion graphic while learning the complete video production process and expressing their personal artistic visions.
Design makes a difference at Cornish College of the Arts
Read how professor Claudia Meyer-Newman had her students use Adobe Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, and InDesign CS on a project to promote recycling in Seattle.
Upcoming events
Read about upcoming conventions, training opportunities, festivals, and other events that focus on film and design work.
