⏰ Do Now — Start Here
Answer Yes or No: Is it OK to work on a client project without ever communicating with the client? Why or why not?
🎯 Today's Big Question
- What are the steps of managing a client design project from start to finish?
📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To
- List the 5 steps of the design project process in order: Planning & Analysis, Design, Building & Testing, Proofing & Revising, Implementation/Publishing.
- Define scope, pitch meeting, timeline, and scope creep.
- Map a sample project onto the 5-step process using a paper flowchart.
🧰 What You'll Need
- Large paper or poster board (1 per pair/group)
- Markers
- Sample project brief (teacher-provided, 1-paragraph scenario)
📋 Your Plan for Today
Day 1: The 5-Step Process
- Do Now + discussion (5 min).
- Mini-lesson (15 min): introduce the 5 steps of managing a design project in order, with a real example for each.
- Vocabulary (10 min): scope, pitch meeting, timeline, scope creep -- and why scope creep is dangerous for a project's deadline and budget.
- Guided start (10 min): as a class, begin mapping the sample brief onto Step 1 (Planning & Analysis) together, so everyone starts Day 2 knowing what's expected.
- Preview (5 min): tomorrow, groups finish mapping all 5 steps on their own.
Day 2: Mapping a Project
- Do Now (5 min): put the 5 project steps in order from memory.
- Group project (25 min): build a paper flowchart mapping the sample brief onto all 5 steps, with at least one specific detail per step.
- Gallery walk (10 min): groups post their flowcharts and compare approaches.
- Exit ticket (5 min).
🖨️ Print Your Handout
Word, picture, and definition for today's vocabulary, plus a place to write and draw. Available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.
📚 Key Words
- Pitch Meeting
- The initial meeting with a client to discuss the project's basic goals and plan.
- Scope
- The work required to deliver a project's final product; changes to scope must be managed carefully.
- Scope Creep
- When a project keeps growing beyond its original plan, threatening the timeline and budget.
- Timeline
- A schedule that lays out when each part of a project should be finished.
✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include
Flowchart rubric: all 5 steps present, in order, with at least one specific detail per step.
Exit Ticket: Put the 5 project steps in order from memory, then circle the one you think is easiest to skip by accident (and explain why that's risky).
📊 Before You Leave
Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.
🎓 ACP Exam Prep
This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry
🔗 Want to Learn More?
🚀 The Extra Mile
Cross-Class Connection: The same timeline-and-milestone planning your Social Studies research paper or a Science fair project needs.
Career Connection: Project management is the hidden skill behind every career here, most directly Video Design and Architecture, where missed deadlines cost real money.
Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:
- Build a real project timeline (Gantt-style, even hand-drawn) for an actual upcoming school event you're involved in. Start here: list every task and its deadline in a plain bullet list first, then convert that list into a timeline — not the other way around.
- Design a one-page "project brief" template other students in a club could reuse for their own events. Start here: sketch the five sections a real brief needs — goal, audience, deadline, deliverables, contact — on paper before you open a design file.