This course offers an overview of visual arts as a foundation to explore and further develop their artistic and creative skills in the area of media and graphic design. Students will be introduced to new ideas, become familiar with the elements and principles of visual communication design and the expressive qualities of various materials through working with a range of processes, techniques, and styles used in artistic thinking and creating. They will create studio works that are reflective of real life media and graphic design situations. Students will learn and use methods of analysis and criticism and will study the characteristics of particular historical art periods and a selection of Canadian graphic art and the art designs of other cultures.

The expectations of this course will be met through the study of digital photography, computer layout and design, and writing for print and digital publishing. Use of a sketchbook for documentation and development of the creative process is stressed. Portfolio development is an important part of this course.