Topics
Course Description
Business acumen plays as much of a role in the success of a graphic designer as do mastery of colour, layout and typography. Students interact with industry professionals who share their current, in-depth knowledge in their area of expertise. Guest lectures allow students to acquire the latest relevant and specialized knowledge about finance, intellectual property, ethics, employment and more. Through case studies, group activities and quizzes, students take steps towards gainful employment or even starting their own graphic design firm.
Course Info
- Course Code: DSN1696
- Start Date: September, 2018
- Level: 3
- Number of Normative Hours: 45 hrs.
- Passing Grade: 50% (D-)
- Grade Scheme:
| Percent Grade | Letter Grade | Numeric Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | A+ | 4.0 |
| 85-89 | A | 3.8 |
| 80-84 | A- | 3.6 |
| 77-79 | B+ | 3.3 |
| 73-76 | B | 3.0 |
| 70-72 | B- | 2.7 |
| 67-69 | C+ | 2.3 |
| 63-66 | C | 2.0 |
| 60-62 | C- | 1.7 |
| 57-59 | D+ | 1.4 |
| 53-56 | D | 1.2 |
| 50-52 | D- | 1.0 |
| 0-49 | F | 0 |
Weekly Topics
- Getting Things Done Aside from their expertise and their talent, designers sell their time. We’ll learn to maximize our productivity.
- Networking: Take a Penny, Leave a Penny Building a diverse professional network will help you access resources you couldn’t find otherwise. You’ll also be able to offer support to others, which can be a reward in itself.
- Find a Gig That You Love After exhaustive industry research, you’ve found companies you dream of working for. Where do you go from here? Portfolio, interview, followup, etc… Oh, my!
- Client Relations We’ll learn how to tame even the most prickly clients to build more collegial relationships.
- Your Career Path Today more than ever, graduates of our program have a vast choice of design disciplines available to them. We’ll help you carve out a path for maximum professional fulfillment.
- Hiring Professional Services You can’t do it all yourself. We’ll explore how to hire professional services such as photographers, writers, translators and even accountants.
- Business Ethics & Professional Conduct Committing to the highest level of professional and ethical standards will get you a clear conscience, guaranty work you can be proud of and keep you out legal trouble.
- Profitable Freelancing Striking out on your own? These are some hard-learned lessons to make sure you prosper.
- Pricing your work We’ll consider the many factors that go into building a competitive price list.
- Collections (Receivables) Writing an invoice is simple. Actually collecting your fees can sometimes be challenging.
- Maintaining Your Creativity Maintaining & maximizing your creativity throughout a long career in design.
- Intellectual Property What’s whose when?
- Estimates, Proposals & Briefs Crafting business documents.
- Certification as a Designer What is RGD? What are the benefits of certification?