Design Vocabulary Word Wall
40 print and cut cards with student friendly definitions.
Classroom resources
Design lessons that are ready to teach.
40 lessons, projects and printables for art, graphic design and digital media classes, written by a digital media design teacher and used in a real classroom. Start with the free ones.
Why teachers like them
- Every unit has a day by day plan, student worksheets and a rubric.
- Software projects show every click with real screenshots.
- Most work with paper and pencil. Software lessons fit Adobe or free tools.
- Animation lessons use free Oexta apps with no student accounts.
Free to try
Print these today. They're free here and on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Elements and Principles Posters
Two illustrated posters for the classroom wall.
Photoshop Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
The keys students use every day, Windows and Mac.
Stop Motion Student Handout
The illustrated how to and a storyboard sheet.
Uses the free app Oexta Stop Motion
Critique Sentence Stems
Eight stems that turn I like it into real feedback.
Phone and Tablet Wireframe Templates
Printable frames for sketching app screens.
Camera Shots and Angles Poster
Illustrated shot types and camera angles.
Ready for tomorrow
For the days you need a plan that just works.
Emergency Sub Plans for Design Class
Five days of real design work, no computers needed.
Design Bell Ringers: A Full Year
180 five minute warm ups in 36 weekly themes.
Design foundations
The ideas every design student needs, made visual.
Elements and Principles of Design
Illustrated sheets, scavenger hunt, quiz and poster project.
Color Theory Unit
The wheel, harmonies, psychology, RGB and CMYK, and a rebrand project.
The Psychology of Color
How we see color, a survey and graph, brands, culture and accessibility.
Typography Basics
Anatomy, type families, spacing, hierarchy and a one word poster.
Process and business
Students work the way real designers and studios do.
Design Thinking Unit
Interview, define, ideate, prototype and test a real school problem.
Design for Business: A Guided Brand Project
Client interview to logo, card, social post, flyer and pitch.
Logo Design Project
A personal brand from your initials, with a client critique.
Software, step by step
Picture guides made in the real apps, so every click is shown.
Photoshop Project: Social Media Post
A 13 step guide, then a post for a new client.
Illustrator Project: Logo with the Shape Builder
A 12 step guide to a scalable vector logo.
Photoshop Try It Pack
Layers, masks and exporting, aligned to the Adobe certification.
Photo, web and video
Media skills students use everywhere: the camera, the web and the edit.
Photography Basics
Composition, light, phone camera controls and a photo walk.
Layout and motion
Editorial design, yearbook and moving type.
Magazine Layout Project
A two page feature spread with grids and hierarchy.
Yearbook Spread Design
Modular layouts, captions, coverage and pre press.
Motion Design and Kinetic Type
Easing, timing and a 10 second kinetic title.
Projects with free apps
Real projects in any subject, using free Oexta apps with no student accounts.
Technical Writing: Step by Step Guides
The paper airplane challenge, then a real picture guide.
Uses the free app Oexta Steps
Paper Prototype an App
Persona, user flow, wireframes and usability testing on paper.
Animation
Movement, timing and storytelling, with free apps that need no student accounts.
Stop Motion in 3 Days
Plan, shoot and share a film with Oexta Stop Motion.
Uses the free app Oexta Stop Motion
Animation Basics: Flipbook to Frame by Frame
A paper flipbook, then onion skin in ZenAnimator.
Uses the free app ZenAnimator
The 12 Principles of Animation
Principle cards and exercises for paper or ZenAnimator.
Uses the free app ZenAnimator
The professional side
File types, copyright, critique and careers: what working designers need to know.
File Formats and Resolution
Raster and vector, PPI math, a format guide and a card sort.
Copyright, Fair Use and Creative Commons
What students can legally use, with scenarios and attribution.
The Critique Toolkit
Four protocols, stems, feedback forms and a rubric.
Design Careers and Portfolio
Career cards, research, portfolio plan, resume and interviews.
Design across the curriculum
Bring design into history, math and English, or invite those teachers into yours.
Design History: 12 Movements
Movement cards, a timeline, poster analysis and a restyle project.
Math in Design
Ratios, scale, resolution, grids and symmetry with answer keys.
Visual Rhetoric
Ethos, pathos and logos in ads, and a book cover project.
A whole department?
School licences for the Oexta apps come with every lesson pack for your teachers, invoiced to the school. Tell us how many teachers and computers.