The Museum Entry (ME) project asks you to create a digital document suitable for inclusion in an online museum that demonstrates your ability to write focused, concise descriptions, and that demonstrates your growing design knowledge, and your technical proficiency with appropriate design tools. The ME is challenging because it requires you to harness knowledge of design, genre, media, professionalism, and audience expectations in the production of an authentic content-driven information experience.
This project requires prototype and final submissions (Version 1, Version 2). All files are submitted to a Museum Entry folder in your shared course space on Dropbox.com.
For you prototype submission, post the following documents:
For you final submission, post the prototype and final versions of the following documents:
Document type: memo, digital museum exhibit
Document length: 150 words (memo), 350 to 500 words, 2 pages (exhibit)
Project value: 250 points (50 for prototype; 200 for final)
Evaluation rubric:_RPW233_Eval_MuseumEntry.pdf
The ME project requires you to construct a digital exhibit document using professionally appropriate design tools that brings together text and images in a format that meets the specifications provided in the description below. Your exhibit document will present an item that is meaningful to you in some way in a 2-page entry that includes a combination of descriptive and contextualizing text and complementary images.
You select the subject of your museum exhibit. Choose a thing (see below) that you attach some significance or meaning to. It must be something in your possession, because you need to be able to include images of the thing you document. Consider the following possibilities.
Your museum entry is a 2-page document that presents visual and textual descriptions of the exhibit subject. In addition to the specifications provided here, use the sample document provided through SVSU Canvas as a design standard.
Your document should incorporate all of the following content elements.
Your document should meet the following design specifications.
If you have trouble translating the specifications here to design decisions, consult the sample documents (see SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) for additional guidance.
A memo of transmittal introduces the document it accompanies, providing context for its audience(s). You will craft such a memo for the submission of each stage of the Museum Entry project. Your memos should be addressed from you to me.
Your prototype memo should incorporate the following content and design elements.
Your final memo should incorporate the following content and design elements.
Consult the sample documents (see SVSU Canvas Files: Project Support) for additional guidance.
Recommended tool(s): Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, scanning device/app, digital camera
This section offers guidance for how to interpret the project and how to proceed with your work on it. Consider the following 3 strategies.
Approach this project as a design strategist. Consider how audience needs and expectations for documents of this type, and how all of the design components coordinate and complement one another. Pay attention to the design specifications you have been given to work with. Because consistency of experience is a goal for museum curators, you must meet the expectations established in the specifications.
I assume that you will encounter the need to use design processes for tools this semester that are new to you. When that happens, do the research to locate support through web spaces (i.e., for companies that provide the tool) or video services (e.g., YouTube). Doing so puts you in charge of your knowledge acquisition and supports you in the use of the tools and technologies that you have access to.
The heading says it clearly. Do not invest time in a project without also investing in the professional tools and technologies necessary for producing quality work. Take advantage of the university's resources and of the open-source tools that complement them. Part of your bigger goal for the semester is to learn how and when you can incorporate tools such as your personal technologies into your professional development processes.
If you have never used Adobe InDesign, then recognize that doing so may slow you down. Plan for that extra time commitment. This assignment likely expects more of you than your experience has prepared you for, if your experience is comparable to most students at the beginning of their time in an RPW program. When it comes to image preparation, Adobe Photoshop is your only option if you want to have an easy time prepping image 1 with its transparent background. However, you could crop the image and make it square in another app / package if there is one you know better than Photoshop.
Do not attempt to do the whole project in Adobe Photoshop. That package is not designed for this kind of project. Do not use Adobe Illustrator either. It is designed to create single page/panel documents such as posters. Absolutely stay away from Adobe Canva. Canva is great for objects and for creating images for social media, but the students who attempted to use it for this assignment last time around struggled mightily and earned fewer points for their work than their peers.
This section is designed to help you anticipate and avoid problems as you work on this project. Therefore, as you work, consider the following 5 hints and tips.
I have made it easy to make design decisions by specifying all of your available choices. However, that means you must meet those specifications so your museum entry is consistent with the submissions presented by your peers. That is a design challenge in and of itself.
Professional designs typically present meaningful visual content; that is, content that contributes meaning to the experience of the document. This is no different. Although the first image ought to present the thing itself as clearly and completely as possible in a single image, the other 3 images offer you an opportunity to contribute meaning with the way you present your subject. Consider how those images might add meaning to the text in the document.
Remember that communication in professional and technical contexts values highly the ability to write and speak with economy, directness, and professionalism. Another way of saying this is to make every word count. Stay focused on the details necessary to communicate effectively with your audience(s). Write and rewrite until your description and contextualization of the subject make sense and represent careful, concise, professional communication.
Edit carefully, seeking to express your ideas clearly and concisely. Edit out loud with the intent of writing in such a manner that your sentences sound professional and focused. Work to meet the design specs. Scrutinize your work so it is consistent, professional, and quality. Refine your document continuously throughout the stages of development.
The revisions and refinements you make as you prepare your submission may help you understand your design process, and therefore your professional development in more-sophisticated ways. Archive your prototype of this project and of your final submission when it is ready, so you are able to examine your growth and maturation as you progress through the program.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in points lost on the final evaluation of your project.
Create a folder for this project inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside the shared folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not in practice submitted them.
Name the folder Museum Entry.
Note. Do not share this folder with me. By placing it in your class folder, you have already shared it by default.
Make sure the files listed below are available to me in the project folder by the project deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Note. Do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
Make sure the files from your prototype submission and those listed below are available to me in the project folder by the project deadline. Model your filenames on the listed examples:
Note. Again, do not share the individual files with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
This section describes the standards by which your draft and final submissions will be evaluated.
There are 50 possible points for the prototype stage of this project. You will earn points according to the following standard.
There are 200 possible points for this submission. You will earn points according to the following standard: content development (40%); design execution (20%); professionalism and attention to detail (20%); and impact of revision (20%). The specific areas of emphasis for this project are drawn from the description and discussion of the project, and are detailed in the evaluation rubric (_RPW233_Eval_MuseumEntry.pdf).
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will post the details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file.
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