Learning Materials Design • Illustration • Document Design
As an instructor for NAIT’s Graphic Communications program, I taught students how to use the Adobe Creative Suite to create vector illustrations, page layouts, and commercial artwork. One of my responsibilities was to develop course content and design assessments for students.
This anatomical heart illustration was a twofold challenge. First I needed to illustrate a realistic looking vector heart, such that the drawing process touched on specific learning outcomes for the course. Then I broke down the entire process into simple steps so that my students could replicate the drawing. After completing the drawing, students used it to design a medical diagram poster. Finally, I walked students through printing a poster-size copy on our press.
Instructions were relayed to students in multiple ways: pictured here are the written instructions, but I also demoed aspects of this build live in class, and recorded videos that covered other steps. The idea was for students to have multiple avenues for learning the content.
The result was an extremely sophisticated vector illustration that students could use to showcase their technical skills. Many students use this project in their portfolio to display their proficiency with Adobe Illustrator, and this assessment was highlighted presented to management and industry as an example of the high level of skill and challenge our students were able to achieve.