9th Grade 32 lessons
Unit 0: CTE Onboarding & Career Readiness 3
- Lesson 1: What Is a Career? What Is CTE? Setting Up How We'll Learn Together — What is a career, what is a trade, what happens after high school, and how does CTE connect all of it to real skills and employability? 1 Day
- Lesson 2: Setting Up Your Career Pathways (CPP) Account — How do we register for NYC Career Pathways, and why does it matter? 1 Day
- Lesson 3: What Does a Digital Designer Actually Do? — What skills, tools, and daily tasks define a career in digital design? 1 Day
Unit 1: The Client & The Designer 4
- Lesson 4: Purpose, Audience & Demographics — How do designers identify the purpose and audience of an image before they ever start designing? 2 Days
- Lesson 5: Copyright, Licensing & Fair Use — How does copyright affect what images and content a designer is allowed to use? 2 Days
- Lesson 6: Managing a Design Project — What are the steps of managing a client design project from start to finish? 2 Days
- Lesson 7: Communicating Like a Professional — How should designers communicate with clients and co-workers? 1 Day
Unit 2: Understanding Digital Images 4
- Lesson 8: Image Terminology — What key vocabulary do designers use to describe digital images? 2 Days
- Lesson 9: Design Principles for Layout: Repetition, Contrast, Proximity, Alignment & Scale — How do repetition, contrast, proximity, alignment, and scale make a layout stronger? 3 Days
- Lesson 10: Typography & Color Basics — What makes type readable, and how does color create a first impression? 2 Days
- Lesson 11: Behind the Image: File Types, Resolution & Visual Hierarchy — Why do designers choose different file types and resolutions for print vs. web vs. video, and how do they guide the eye through a page? 2 Days
Unit 3: Elements & Principles of Design Studio 13
- Lesson 12: How to Talk About Design: Critique Language & the Growth Mindset — How do designers talk about work -- their own and each other's -- in a way that actually helps it get better? 2 Days
- Lesson 13: Elements & Principles of Design: Line — What is line, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 14: Elements & Principles of Design: Shape & Form — What is shape & form, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 15: Elements & Principles of Design: Color — What is color, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 16: Elements & Principles of Design: Value — What is value, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 17: Elements & Principles of Design: Texture — What is texture, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 18: Elements & Principles of Design: Space & Perspective — What is space & perspective, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 19: Elements & Principles of Design: Pattern — What is pattern, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 20: Elements & Principles of Design: Rhythm & Movement — What is rhythm & movement, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 21: Elements & Principles of Design: Proportion & Scale — What is proportion & scale, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 22: Elements & Principles of Design: Balance — What is balance, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 23: Elements & Principles of Design: Emphasis — What is emphasis, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
- Lesson 24: Elements & Principles of Design: Unity — What is unity, and how do designers use it on purpose? 2 Days
Unit 3.5: Extension & Enrichment (Optional) 6
- Lesson 25: Typography Deep-Dive: Hand-Lettering & Poster Design — How do we use hand-lettering and typography together to design a complete poster? 2 Days
- Lesson 26: Design & History: How Ancient Civilizations Used Symbols and Design — How did ancient civilizations use symbols, pattern, and design principles thousands of years ago? 2 Days
- Lesson 27: Redesign Challenge: Applying Peer Feedback — How does peer feedback make our design work stronger, and how is that exactly what happens in a real client relationship? 2 Days
- Lesson 28: Client Simulation: A Full Mini-Project — How do we apply everything we've learned -- audience, copyright, project management, and design -- to one small client project? 2 Days
- Lesson 29: Vocabulary & Concept Review Game Day — How much of this semester's vocabulary and concepts can we recall and use? 2 Days
- Lesson 30: Designing for Everyone: An Intro to Accessibility — How do we design so people with different vision, hearing, or reading needs can still understand our work? 2 Days
Unit 4: Bringing It Together 2
- Lesson 31: Career Research + Analog Mood Board — How can we visually represent a digital-design-related career using everything we've learned this semester? 3 Days
- Lesson 32: Semester Portfolio & Review — How does everything we've learned this semester fit together, and what are we most proud of? 2 Days
10th Grade 27 lessons
Unit 5: Welcome to Year Two 1
Unit 6: Intro to 3D Design 1
Unit 7: Meet Photoshop (Before You Touch It) 1
Unit 8: Getting Comfortable in Photoshop 1
Unit 9: Photoshop Production Projects 5
- Lesson 5: Traditional Recipe Poster — How do we design a poster that shares a family or cultural recipe using design principles and Photoshop? 4 Days
- Lesson 6: Pin Making Using Photoshop — How do we design a small-scale wearable graphic (a pin) in Photoshop? 3 Days
- Lesson 7: Creating Business Cards with Photoshop — How do we design a professional business card that represents a personal or invented brand? 3 Days
- Lesson 8: Ink Portrait — How do we combine images using selections, masking, and layer opacity to create a stylized ink portrait? 3 Days
- Lesson 9: Creating Vectors & Adding Pizzazz in Photoshop — How do vector shapes differ from raster images, and how can filters and layer styles add polish to a design? 2 Days
Unit 9.5: Extension & Enrichment (Optional) 6
- Lesson 10: Photo Manipulation Challenge: Surreal Composite — How do we combine multiple images into one surreal, believable scene using everything we've learned this semester? 2 Days
- Lesson 11: Typography Poster Remix — How can we apply stronger typography and layout principles to improve an earlier project? 2 Days
- Lesson 12: Intro to Illustrator: Getting Started — What is Adobe Illustrator, and how is it different from Photoshop? 2 Days
- Lesson 13: Peer Critique & Revision Sprint — How does structured peer feedback help us improve our strongest projects? 2 Days
- Lesson 14: Career Connections: Meet a Working Designer — What does a real working designer's day-to-day job actually look like? 2 Days
- Lesson 15: Intro to Motion: Animated GIFs in Photoshop — How do we use Photoshop's Timeline panel to build a simple looping animation? 2 Days
Unit 10: Sharing Your Work 1
Unit 11: Certification Prep 1
Unit 12: Going Further 10
- Lesson 18: The ACP Exam: Take It For Real — After all that practice, what does it actually feel like to sit the real Adobe Certified Professional exam? 1 Day
- Lesson 19: Intro to Video: Your First Timeline Edit — Everything you know about layers and time already applies to video -- so what happens when we add motion? 4 Days
- Lesson 20: Deeper Illustrator: A Personal Mark or Logo — What does it take to design a mark that could genuinely represent you? 3 Days
- Lesson 21: Passion Project: Design Something You Actually Want — What happens when the brief is entirely your own choice? 5 Days
- Lesson 22: Passion Project Critique & Revision — What does this project become with one more real round of feedback? 2 Days
- Lesson 23: Career Deep-Dive: Matching Yourself to a Path — How does my actual work right now compare to what a real entry-level design job expects? 2 Days
- Lesson 24: Expanding Your Portfolio Website — How do we make sure a growing body of work still reads as organized, not cluttered? 3 Days
- Lesson 25: Design History Preview: One Movement, One Reinterpretation — What can looking at design history teach us before we spend a whole year studying it? 3 Days
- Lesson 26: Adding Motion: Your First Keyframe Animation — Your video timeline edit already moved clips through time -- what happens when a single object moves, fades, or grows within one clip instead? 2 Days
- Lesson 27: Second-Year Send-Off: Portfolio Review & Summer Plan — Looking back at two full years, what does the evidence actually show about how far you've come? 3 Days
11th Grade 44 lessons
Unit A: Foundations — The Design Process & Purpose 5
- Lesson 1: Design Is Art With a Purpose — What separates "design" from other kinds of art-making? 1 Day
- Lesson 2: The Design Process: A Tool You'll Use Again and Again — What are the repeatable steps every designer uses, no matter the project? 2 Days
- Lesson 3: Understanding Your Audience: Research Methods & Personas — How do professional designers research a target audience before designing anything? 2 Days
- Lesson 4: Copyright & Licensing for Professionals — What do professional designers need to know about copyright, trademarks, and image licensing that goes beyond the basics? 2 Days
- Lesson 5: Color Theory Deep-Dive: Psychology, Culture & Accessibility — How does color affect meaning, emotion, and readability across different audiences? 2 Days
Unit B: A Brief History of Design 7
- Lesson 6: Before Print: Symbols, Seals & the Golden Ratio — What design principles have humans been using since long before printing existed? 2 Days
- Lesson 7: The Printing Press & the Birth of Typography — How did Gutenberg's printing press (1440s) create the entire field of typography? 2 Days
- Lesson 8: The Industrial Revolution & the Birth of Advertising — How did mass production in the 1800s create the modern advertising industry? 2 Days
- Lesson 9: Art Nouveau & the War Poster — How did Art Nouveau's decorative style give way to the bold propaganda posters of two world wars? 2 Days
- Lesson 10: Bauhaus & Modernism: Form Follows Function — How did the Bauhaus school (Germany, 1919-1933) create the foundation of modern design? 2 Days
- Lesson 11: The Swiss Style & the Grid System — How did 1950s Swiss designers standardize the grid systems and typefaces we still use today? 2 Days
- Lesson 12: Counterculture to Today: Psychedelia, Punk & Current Trends — How did designers in the 1960s-70s deliberately break the rules of the Swiss Style, and where is design headed now? 2 Days
Unit C: Typography Mastery 3
- Lesson 13: Anatomy of a Typeface — What are the actual parts of a letterform, and why does that vocabulary matter to a designer? 2 Days
- Lesson 14: Type Classification & Pairing Fonts — How do designers choose and pair fonts that work well together? 2 Days
- Lesson 15: Typography in Photoshop — How do we control typography precisely inside Photoshop using the Character and Paragraph panels? 2 Days
Unit D: Photoshop Mastery & ACP Exam Prep 6
- Lesson 16: Non-Destructive Editing: Smart Objects & Adjustment Layers — What is the difference between destructive and non-destructive editing, and why does it matter professionally? 2 Days
- Lesson 17: Advanced Selections & Compositing — How do professionals make clean, complex selections to combine multiple images into one believable scene? 2 Days
- Lesson 18: Vector Shapes & the Pen Tool, Round 2 — How do we use the Pen tool with real precision to build clean, scalable vector artwork? 2 Days
- Lesson 19: Filters, Retouching & Photo Restoration — How do designers repair, retouch, and stylize images using filters and restoration tools? 2 Days
- Lesson 20: Preparing Files for Print, Web & Video Export — How do we correctly prepare and export the same design for print, web, and video? 2 Days
- Lesson 21: ACP Practice Exam & Personal Review Plan — How do we assess our readiness for the ACP Photoshop exam and build a targeted study plan? 2 Days
Unit E: Client Projects 3
- Lesson 22: Client Project: Logo Design — How do we design a complete logo and brand mark from a real design brief, start to finish? 5 Days
- Lesson 23: Client Project: Brand Style Guide — How do we document a consistent brand identity so anyone can apply it correctly? 3 Days
- Lesson 24: Client Project: Ad Campaign Inspired by Design History — How can a historical design movement inspire a modern advertising campaign for a real audience? 4 Days
Unit E.5: Extension & Enrichment (Optional) 7
- Lesson 25: Design Trend Spotlight: Researching Today's Design World — What design trends are shaping the field right now, and where might they lead next? 2 Days
- Lesson 26: Illustrator Deep-Dive: Building a Vector Icon Set — How do we build a consistent set of vector icons using Illustrator? 2 Days
- Lesson 27: Client Simulation: Rebranding Challenge — How do we give an outdated brand a fresh redesign while keeping its recognizable identity? 2 Days
- Lesson 28: Running a Focus Group: Testing Design on a Real Audience — How do we find out whether a design actually works for the audience it was made for, instead of just guessing? 2 Days
- Lesson 29: Mock Interview & Career Pitch — How do we confidently present ourselves and our design skills to a potential employer? 2 Days
- Lesson 30: ACP Vocabulary Bootcamp Review Game — How much of this year's ACP-related vocabulary can we recall and apply? 2 Days
- Lesson 31: Writing a Process Narrative for Your Portfolio — How do we write a short case-study caption that explains a project's process, not just what it looks like? 2 Days
Unit F: PBAT & Portfolio 4
- Lesson 32: What Is a PBAT? Understanding the Presentation Format — What is a Performance-Based Assessment Task, and how is it different from a written exam? 1 Day
- Lesson 33: Building Your Digital Design Portfolio — How do we curate and present a full year of work as a professional portfolio? 3 Days
- Lesson 34: Portfolio Review Workshop — How do we give and receive the kind of feedback that actually improves a portfolio before it counts? 2 Days
- Lesson 35: PBAT Presentation Rehearsal & Delivery — How do we deliver a confident, well-supported PBAT presentation to a real panel? 3 Days
Unit G: Beyond the PBAT 9
- Lesson 36: What's Next: Previewing 12th Grade's Design Studio — Now that the PBAT is behind us, what does senior year in this program actually look like? 1 Day
- Lesson 37: Specialization Intensive: Motion, UX, or 3D — What can we build if we spend real, sustained time in one specialization instead of a single class period? 4 Days
- Lesson 38: Real Client Project: A Second Full Brief — How does a second real client project go differently than the first one this year? 5 Days
- Lesson 39: Client Presentation & Sign-Off — How do we present a finished project so a real client actually understands and approves it? 2 Days
- Lesson 40: Building a Specialist Portfolio Page — How do we show a viewer exactly what we're specifically good at, not just what we've made? 2 Days
- Lesson 41: Design Career Deep-Dive: Applying to the Careers Hub — How does my actual portfolio right now measure up against a real career's entry requirements? 2 Days
- Lesson 42: Peer Teaching: A Mini-Workshop for Underclassmen — What do we understand better about a skill once we have to teach it to someone younger than us? 2 Days
- Lesson 43: Motion Graphics Deep Dive: Keyframing a Title Animation — If you chose (or want to try) the Motion lane, what does professional keyframe animation actually look like, beyond a simple GIF? 2 Days
- Lesson 44: Rising Senior Send-Off: Portfolio Lock & Summer Plan — Looking back at this entire year, what does the evidence actually say about how far you've come? 2 Days
12th Grade 43 lessons
Phase 1, Unit Y1: Kickoff & Planning Systems 3
- Lesson 1: Understanding the Yearbook as a Whole Project — What actually goes into producing a full school yearbook, and what are we responsible for? 1 Day
- Lesson 2: Assigning Sections & Roles — How do we divide the yearbook into sections with clear owners, and get the plan approved before we start? 2 Days
- Lesson 3: Setting Up Our Shared Systems: Drive, Planning Doc & Tracking Spreadsheet — How do we build the shared systems that will keep the whole class organized for months? 2 Days
Phase 1, Unit Y2: Content Collection 3
- Lesson 4: Building the Photo Submission Form — How do we build a self-serve system for classmates to submit their own photos and quotes? 2 Days
- Lesson 5: Planning & Running In-School Photoshoots — How do we plan and run photoshoots at school so every senior actually gets their portrait taken -- without disrupting anyone else's class? 3 Days
- Lesson 6: Collecting Senior Quotes & Baby Photos — How do we make sure every senior's quote and baby photo actually gets collected and tracked? 2 Days
Phase 1, Unit Y3: Layout Production 2
Phase 1, Unit Y4: Proofing & Print 3
- Lesson 9: Proofing & Teacher Approval Cycle — How do we catch errors and get every section approved before it goes to print? 3 Days
- Lesson 10: Finalizing & Preparing for Print — How do we assemble every approved section into one final book and prepare it correctly for the printer? 3 Days
- Lesson 11: Yearbook Wrap-Up & Reflection — What did we learn from producing a real, whole-class project from start to finish? 1 Day
Phase 2, Unit S1: Studio Orientation 3
- Lesson 12: Welcome to the Studio: What Is a Design Agency? — How does a real design studio operate, and how will our classroom studio be organized? 1 Day
- Lesson 13: Building Our Intake System: The Client Request Form — How do teachers, admin, and other staff actually request a design job from our studio? 2 Days
- Lesson 14: Triage & Assignment: How We Pick Up a Job — How does the class decide who works on which incoming request, and in what order? 1 Day
Phase 2, Unit S2: Real Client Work 3
- Lesson 15: The Design Process on a Real Deadline — How do we apply the full design process to an actual staff request instead of a hypothetical one? 2 Days
- Lesson 16: Client Approval & Revision Loop — How do we present a draft to a real staff client and manage their feedback professionally? 2 Days
- Lesson 20: Delivery & Installation: Getting Work Into the Building — How do we make sure finished studio work actually reaches where it needs to be used in the school? 1 Day
Phase 2, Unit S3: Production Skills 3
- Lesson 17: Production Skills: Large-Format & Photo Printing — How do we correctly prepare and run a design on our large-format and photo printers? 2 Days
- Lesson 18: Production Skills: 3D Printing for the School — How do we design and produce a useful 3D-printed object for a real school need? 2 Days
- Lesson 19: Production Skills: Video Capture & Editing Basics — How do we capture and edit a short video for a real school purpose? 3 Days
Unit S3.5: Extension & Enrichment (Optional) 6
- Lesson 21: Print Shop Partnership: Working with an External Vendor — How do we prepare a design job to be printed by an outside print vendor instead of our own printers? 2 Days
- Lesson 22: Design for Social Media: School Announcements & Promotion — How do we adapt our design skills to create effective social media graphics for the school? 2 Days
- Lesson 23: Mini Job Sprint: A Quick-Turnaround Request — How do we manage a small design job under a tight, realistic deadline? 2 Days
- Lesson 24: Team Leadership Rotation: Running the Studio for a Day — What does it take to lead and coordinate a whole team's work for a day? 2 Days
- Lesson 25: Studio Systems Retrospective: What Should We Improve? — Looking back at how our studio has operated this semester, what's working and what should change? 2 Days
- Lesson 26: Packaging & Handoff: Preparing Files a Client Can Actually Use — How do we package and organize a finished job so the client (or a print vendor) can actually open and use every file? 2 Days
Phase 2, Unit S4: Running Real Jobs 3
- Lesson 27: Studio Job Cycle: Complete a Real Request, Start to Finish — Can we run one full request through our entire studio pipeline -- intake, design, approval, production, and delivery -- on our own? 4 Days
- Lesson 28: Archive & Portfolio: Documenting Your Studio Work — How do we properly document finished studio work for our portfolios and for the school's records? 2 Days
- Lesson 29: Year-End Studio Showcase & Reflection — How do we celebrate and reflect on a full year that took us from the yearbook through real client work for the school? 2 Days
Phase 3, Unit C1: Capstone Orientation 1
Phase 3, Unit C2: Going Deeper 4
- Lesson 31: Specialization Sprint: Choose Your Lane — What happens when we take one production skill from 'competent' to genuinely strong? 4 Days
- Lesson 32: Mentoring the Next Wave: A Studio Job With an Underclassman Partner — What do we understand better about our own skills once we have to teach them to someone else? 3 Days
- Lesson 35: Closing the Loop: Presenting Finished Work Back to the Client — What happens to a client relationship after a job is delivered -- does it just end? 2 Days
- Lesson 40: Studio Job Sprint: One More Real Request — With everything we've learned this year, how efficiently can we run a full job now compared to the first time? 4 Days
Phase 3, Unit C3: Checkpoint 2
- Lesson 33: Midterm Capstone Showcase: Where We Stand — Halfway through this final stretch, what does our work actually prove -- and what's still missing? 2 Days
- Lesson 34: Internship & College Class Check-In: Documenting Outside Learning — How do we connect what we're learning outside this room back to the design skills we've built in it? 2 Days
Phase 3, Unit C4: The After-Graduation Plan 4
- Lesson 36: After Graduation, By Design: Research & Concept — What's actually next for me after this year, and how would I explain it to someone else in one page? 2 Days
- Lesson 37: After Graduation, By Design: Build the Presentation — How do we turn a real plan into something genuinely persuasive to look at? 3 Days
- Lesson 38: After Graduation, By Design: Present & Get Feedback — How does it feel to present a plan for your own actual future, not a hypothetical client's? 2 Days
- Lesson 41: Building Your After-High-School Leave-Behind — How do we package a full year of real work into one thing you'd actually hand someone? 2 Days