AVC 283 Graphic Design and Digital Publishing II
Courses and Programs · Case study
The second course in the graphic design sequence. Open the full student course. Students build a visual identity system for a client, document it in an accessible brand guidelines book, design and test a brand generator that applies the brand, and present the work as a portfolio case study.
Goal
Move students from a single logo to a governed brand system, from a single layout to a long, styled, accessible publication, and from a finished brand to a system that applies it. The brand projects build on each other: the brief becomes the mark, the mark becomes the identity system, the system becomes the brand guidelines book, and the book drives a brand generator. Typography, layout and production exercises run alongside.
The course is AI-forward. Gemini supports research, writing and critique throughout, plays the client’s marketing team in the brand generator, and works inside agents students define themselves. AI never designs the brand and never makes images; every mark is drawn by the student in vector.
Audience
Second-year Digital Media Arts students who have completed AVC 183 Graphic Design and are building toward a professional portfolio.
Process
Students choose one of three fictional client packets (a coffee roaster, a trail running club, and a bilingual community health clinic), each with an audience, goals, real production constraints, deliverables and an email from the client. An instructor-arranged real client is an optional alternative, with a no-penalty return to a packet if the client goes silent. Constraints such as two-color kraft labels, one-color screen printing and photocopied bilingual flyers make the design problem authentic rather than open-ended.
Production skills employers test for (styles, parent pages, anchored objects, accessible tagging) are taught on a document the student authored, not on isolated drills, and each phase ends in a presentation.
The arc of the semester
| Weeks | Phase | Signature work |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Getting Started | Module 0: syllabus, AI in This Course, the AI Primer, setup and introductions |
| 2 to 7 | Identity | Research notebook and creative brief, sixty thumbnails and three directions, a refined vector mark, an accessible palette and type system, stationery and a 3D brand application; Project 1: Visual Identity System and Client Presentation |
| 8 to 12 | Publication | The brand guidelines book in InDesign: type hierarchy, grids and parent pages, paragraph and character styles, image integration, interactive features and an accessibility audit; Final Project Part A: Brand Guidelines Book |
| 13 to 15 | Brand generator | An open design challenge: a challenge brief and agent plan, quick prototypes of at least two approaches, then one direction built, run, critiqued and run again; Project 2: The Brand Generator |
| Finals week | Portfolio | Final Project Part B: a case study on Google Sites and a recorded presentation, then a final revision |
Outcomes
Six course competencies, each mapped to module objectives written with the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and to criteria in the projects. A student can:
- Develop visual identity systems through logo design and brand applications.
- Apply advanced typography, composition, and color techniques to graphic design projects.
- Use advanced digital design and publishing tools for complex layouts, styles, and document organization.
- Produce professional graphic design materials for print and digital applications.
- Create multi-page publications incorporating advanced layout techniques, technical document features, and interactive elements.
- Evaluate graphic design projects for visual effectiveness, accessibility, technical quality, and portfolio presentation.
Deliverable options in development with the STEAMworks XR lab include an NFC brand object, a laser-cut packaging prototype, an AR layer on the guidelines book and drone imagery of the client’s location, each with an equal path for online students and the same rubric.
Pacing and interaction
About eight hours a week, about 123.5 hours in all, across sixteen modules (Module 0 to Module 15). Two noon deadlines a week; process steps and projects are posted to Discord the day before for critique in a fixed three-part format (a strength, an issue and its location, a suggestion tied to a design principle). Process-step feedback returns within two to three days, and any process step may be resubmitted once within seven days of feedback.
AI in This Course
Gemini and Gemini Notebook are the only AI tools, used with the Maricopa (Google Workspace for Education) account, under which student data is not reviewed by people, not used to train models and not used for ads. Gemini writes, questions and checks; it never makes a mark, image, moodboard image, mockup or any other visual. In the brand generator, students build Gemini skills (saved instructions with files) as agents with one job each.
| Tool and feature | What students do with it | Where in the course | What it is not allowed to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini Notebook | Build a client research notebook from four sources (the client packet, two competitors, one audience or industry source); ask five research questions the student wrote; verify two answers against the original source | Client Research Notebook and Guideline Audit | Write the research questions; stand unverified |
| Gemini app, writing support | Suggest structure and edits on the creative brief; extend word lists; suggest moodboard search terms | Creative Brief; Thumbnails, Word Lists and Moodboard | Write the positioning statement or brand attributes; generate moodboard images |
| Gemini app, critique partner | Review the mark and identify where it fails at small size; the student records what was changed and what was rejected | Refined Mark, Lockups and Rationale | Draw, redraw or generate any mark; Image Trace of AI output is not allowed |
| Gemini app, brand voice | Rewrite a sample paragraph at different voice settings for the guidelines book’s voice section | Guidelines Book Plan and Brand Voice | Set the final wording; every edit is marked in the log |
| Gemini app, technical tutor | Explain a GREP pattern for InDesign styles, which the student tests and records | Styles Drill | Replace the student’s test of the expression |
| Gemini app, alt text | Draft alt text for the book’s images, reviewed against WebAIM guidance | Accessible Full Draft | Stand in for the Acrobat accessibility check |
| Client content agent (Gemini skill) | Plays the client or its marketing team and writes website copy, post copy or long text from the client packet, the brief and the voice pages | Brand Rules and Client Content through Project 2 | Design, choose images, or invent facts; every fact is checked and every word edited by the student |
| Brand checker (Gemini skill) | Checks each generated piece against the student’s rules and photo rules | Brand Rules and Client Content through Project 2 | Stand in for the student’s own scoring of every piece |
| Gemini Canvas, code from a spec | Writes HTML, CSS and JavaScript for a generator or a small brand site from the student’s spec (one optional approach) | Prototypes and Direction; Build and First Batch; Project 2 | Add colors, fonts, images or effects that are not in the student’s rules |
| Image scout (optional) | Picks real photos from a free stock site that match the photo rules | Brand Rules and Client Content through Project 2 | Make or edit images; every photo is opened, license-checked and logged by the student |
| Gemini app, copy edit | Edit the case study for length | Final Project Part B | Supply the story or facts |
How AI Supports Learning Here
- Grounded research with verification. A source-grounded notebook speeds discovery, and checking its answers against the originals builds source evaluation into the brief.
- AI as critic, designer as decision-maker. Gemini’s small-size critique is one input; the log records which suggestions the student accepted and which were rejected, making design judgment visible.
- AI as tutor for technical production. Explanations of GREP and text patterns support the transfer of InDesign skills, with the student’s own test as the evidence.
- Agents students define. In the brand generator, each student writes an agent plan (role, inputs, outputs, what the agent must never do, and how its work is checked) and builds at least a client content agent and a brand checker.
- Verify and revise. The AI Primer in Module 0 has students question a Gemini answer like a critic, rewrite the prompt with role, task, context and format, and start an AI-use log. AI in This Course covers the costs of AI, including energy use (data centers drew about 1.5% of global electricity in 2024, per the International Energy Agency).
- AI-use log. One log all semester, one row per work session (date, tool, prompt, what it produced, what was kept or changed and why); “No AI used” is a complete entry.
Guardrails
- Account and data. Maricopa account only, under the district’s Gemini for Education terms. The instructor never places student work in a public AI tool.
- Never AI-made. Every logo is drawn by the student in vector, with the construction file submitted. Every image is a client photograph, the student’s own photograph or illustration, or an openly licensed image, credited. In the generator, AI may select real photos from a free stock site; it never makes them.
- Fictional means fictional. Each client packet is labeled as fictitious; students research real competitors only for analysis.
- Students under 18. Where a feature is blocked, each assignment names an equivalent (for example, research in a Google Doc with GCC Library databases in place of Gemini Notebook), and no grade depends on access to a specific AI feature.
What Students Build
- A client research notebook. A Gemini Notebook grounded in the client packet and competitor sources, used to inform the creative brief.
- A brand generator. A small brand website (3 to 5 pages), a scheduled social media campaign (a few weeks to three months), or an approved idea of the same size, built from the student’s own rules, content sheet and agents, with a demo video and a process log.
- A brand guidelines book. A styled, interactive and tagged InDesign publication, exported as a print PDF/X and an accessible interactive PDF, written so that a printer, staff member or future volunteer could apply the brand.
The Brand Generator
In Weeks 13 to 15, students build a brand generator: a system that applies their brand to new content. This is where experimentation comes in. Each student sets a challenge (a small brand website, a scheduled social campaign, or an approved idea of their own), defines the agents it needs, and prototypes at least two approaches on a small test batch, choosing from Figma templates with a sheet, Figma Buzz, a generator vibe-coded with Gemini, a scheduled social calendar, InDesign Data Merge or their own method. They pick one direction with a rationale, build it, run it, critique every piece against their own rules and against “usable at a job without a designer fixing it,” revise the rules and run it again.
The inputs are the brand book’s visual rules, the brand’s written side (audience, key messages, voice, tagline) and real images from the student’s own bank or a free stock site. A client content agent writes the copy and a brand checker reviews each piece; the student edits every word and scores every piece. Grading weights the process (prototypes, tests, rationale, iteration) over polish, and the brand book stays the center of the course.
How to Adapt This
- Write realistic client packets. Fictional clients with real production constraints give every student a bounded problem, and the packet becomes the source of truth for the client content agent.
- Make AI critique accountable. Require the student to log which AI suggestions were rejected and why, not only which were used.
- Grade the generator’s process. Weight prototypes, test results, the rationale for the chosen direction and the second run more than the polish of the final batch.
Technology
- Canvas: modules, rubrics, grades, submissions and the two graded discussions.
- Adobe Illustrator: thumbnails to vector directions, the refined mark and lockups, stationery and collateral on multiple artboards.
- Adobe InDesign: the guidelines book, with OpenType features, modular and baseline grids, parent pages, paragraph and character styles, anchored objects and interactive features.
- Adobe Photoshop: brand image treatments and mockups.
- Adobe Acrobat: the Accessibility Checker and Reading Order tool for remediating the book’s PDF.
- Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Color: shared brand swatches and palette variations.
- Figma and Figma Buzz: a warm-up in Module 3, then brand templates and batch runs for students who choose a Figma approach in the generator.
- Gemini skills and Gemini Canvas: the agents students define for the generator, and code written from a student’s spec.
- Google Sheets: the generator’s content sheet or posting calendar.
- Meta Business Suite or Buffer (optional): scheduling a social campaign; a calendar marked ready to schedule earns full credit.
- Google Slides or Adobe Express: the client presentation deck.
- Google Docs and Drive: the creative brief, kickoff email and the semester-long AI-use log.
- Google Sites: the published portfolio case study, Restricted by default (only invited people can see it) and public when the student chooses. A student who already has a Behance portfolio may use it instead.
- WebAIM Contrast Checker: every text and background pairing recorded against WCAG AA.
- OBS Studio, Google Meet, Zoom, QuickTime or the Windows Snipping Tool: the recorded walkthrough and presentation.
- Discord: the course channel on the Digital Media Arts server for questions and critique.
How the Course Was Tested
Before launch, the course went through synthetic student walk-throughs, a quality-rubric review, and an alignment and AI-exposure audit. No real students were involved in testing. Every course in the program goes through the same build and review method.
Synthetic Student Walk-Throughs
The testers are synthetic students: AI agents, each built from one persona in the Student Journey Barriers Study. Each agent worked through the course module by module as that student and logged every point where it got stuck or could not finish. A fixer pass applied the findings, and a second round re-ran all eight agents against the revised course.
| Persona | Tested for | How the course addresses it |
|---|---|---|
| Phone-only student | Whether each step can be completed on a phone | States that Creative Cloud work requires a computer and points to laptop and hotspot loans through GCC’s Office of Information Technology |
| Screen reader or low vision | Evidence formats and recorder access | Written confirmation in place of screenshots, the student’s own recorder, alt text on every posted image |
| Rural, limited data | Bandwidth and large files | Hotspot loans and asynchronous delivery |
| Student with ADHD | Clarity, chunking, competing deadlines | A time budget in every module, a fixed submission checklist on every step |
| Online working parent | Time and schedule flexibility | Asynchronous design, a 24-hour late window, one resubmission per process step |
| Student under 18 | Blocked Gemini features | A named equivalent on each assignment, with no grade tied to a specific AI feature |
| Spanish-dominant student | Reading load and vocabulary | A fixed critique format with a short list of named principles, annotated sample brief and kickoff email |
| Student with dyslexia | Text-heavy evidence | Recorded walkthrough and presentation as graded evidence, captioned instructor video with transcripts |
Quality and Alignment Reviews
The course was reviewed against the SUNY OSCQR online course quality rubric, and every objective was audited against the revised Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) so that each sits at or below its parent competency and is measured by a graded item. Evaluation, the highest competency, is practiced in every critique and assessed in Project 1 and both parts of the final project.
Every Assessment Checked for AI Resistance
Every graded assessment was audited for AI exposure, asking whether a student could hand the task to an AI and pass. The design answers are process evidence (sketches, construction files and screenshots on every step), work tied to the student’s own client and brand, recorded explanation, peer critique on Discord, the AI-use log, and the rule that Gemini never designs.
| Assessment | What makes it hard to outsource |
|---|---|
| Thumbnails and Three Logo Directions | Sixty hand thumbnails; each vector direction shown beside the sketch it came from |
| Refined Mark | The construction file with anchor points visible; generated-looking marks prompt a request for sketches |
| Accessible Palette | Every pairing’s contrast ratio recorded and justified |
| Project 1: Visual Identity System | A recorded three-minute walkthrough in client language |
| Accessible Full Draft | Acrobat checker results on the student’s own book, with each remediation recorded |
| Project 2: The Brand Generator | Prototypes, two scored batches, the rule changes between runs, a process log and a demo video, all on the student’s own brand |
| Final Project Parts A and B | Preflighted print and interactive files from the student’s InDesign document; a recorded presentation explaining decisions |
Accessibility
Designed with Universal Design for Learning to WCAG 2.1 AA: captioned instructor video with corrected captions, accessible color in every palette, and laptop and hotspot loans for any student without a computer or reliable internet. Student work carries hand-corrected captions, corrected transcripts, alt text and tagged PDFs, worth about 10 percent of each media rubric, and the guidelines book itself must pass an accessibility check, so students learn tagging and reading order on their own work.
Status
Designed and fully built: sixteen modules (Module 0 to Module 15), nineteen process steps, two graded discussions, two projects, a two-part final project and three client packets.
Course materials are shared under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: faculty may adapt them with credit, for noncommercial use, under the same license.