The morning session consisted of intern Quentin Barrett reviewing the various aspects of Graphic Design and Visualization. He explained that graphic design is a “visual representation or definition of a concept (data, content, or message)”. He then showed some of the graphics projects he has worked on and what concept or message he was trying to convey with imagery. Next, he explained the difference between bitmap and vector. Then he introduced “GIMP (Graphics Image Manipulation Program)”. He spent time reviewing the tools and allowing the students to explore the tools. Quentin then explained the concept of layers and why they are so important in image editing. Then he led the students in an activity: cutting an image from its background and pasting it onto a different background image. He had the students open a jpeg image of the Taj Mahal and extract the image from its background. The students then took the extracted Taj Mahal and placed it onto an image of fireworks. Then Quentin had them go and change the “hue” of the fireworks from green to any other color and change the brightness and contrast of the building so that it blends better with its new background.
Neal Ramesh taught the afternoon session of Inkscape. He reviewed the concept of vector graphics. He then went on to demonstrate all of the tools and workspace in Inkscape. The students were then given a chance to explore Inkscape for a little while on their own. After that, Heather Marvin guided the students through a few activities using the pen tool, bezier tool, edit nodes tool, etc. They learned how to recreate some of the industry’s most famous logos (i.e. Nike, Honda, NBC etc.). Then she gave them a folder with various logos and icons that would give them the opportunity to try recreating the images using the tools taught on their own.