Design principles, typography, color palettes, and messaging, are some of the concepts kids learn at The Club. In each session we apply problem solving and healthy constructive critic.
DESIGN A GAMING APP
In this last session of the Winter/Spring season kids had fun designing a gaming app using paper. No coding, no digital devices. We guided them through the process by plotting a story loop and characters, while using storytelling and design principles. A great collaboration with Laura Plevin, British writer and educator, who joined us from The Story Forest to help kids structure their gaming app story. As usual, we conceptualized, sketched, designed, and prototyped! Follow our Instagram feed for more exciting hands-on work and updates.
DESIGN A BOOK DUST JACKET
We learned about the design components of a book jacket, discovered visual contrast between big and small for readability, identified objects of our story to become topic hints on the cover, and thought about big words to praise our books. Kids took a blank hardcover book home to continue writing the rest of their stories in it, or simply journaling or doodling.
DESIGN A FLAG FOR A CITY
This was so much fun all around! We looked at so many flags, from different countries, different cities, good and bad. While thinking of a nice place, we thought of how its flag would look like too. We used the 5 rules of glass design: keep it simple, no words, no shields, up to 3 colors, and make it unique. At the end we glue it to a small pole and took it home. During our two breaks, we did some crunches, frog jumps, and played who-am-I trivia!
DESIGN YOUR OWN LOGO
Kids learned to observe what a logo can communicate, make you feel, and how much you can remember them. We looked at famous logos and observed that abstracting and simplifying shapes and color make logos memorable. We added the extra challenge of creating with color and shapes limitations. Kids came up with names for what the logo was for by following a word association technique. That was so much fun! Each kid sketched 3 ideas on paper from which they selected the final one to polish up. Parents received a cleaned-up digital version of their kids' logos so they can print stickers or merch.
DESIGN A SET OF EMOJI(S)
Emoji has become a key part of digital communications and here, at The Club, we embrace it. We learned about where emoji came from, who invented them, what makes an emoji, an emoji, and also how to name them. I'm very proud of all the kids for truly embracing creativity and emotions in this process.
DESIGN A CANDY WRAPPER
We designed a chocolate bar case and a loose candy bag using real chocolate and candy! We learned about what's on a label such as the logo, the description, and nutrition facts. We observed examples, selected our own color palettes, and made associations between graphics, texture, and flavor. The most amazing part was coming up with a unique product name utilizing word mash-ups. And we obviously tasted the candy inside our newly designed label as a reward.
DESIGN A BAUHAUS STYLE POSTER
We learned so much in this project! We discovered the use of a grid, worked with a limited color palette (3 colors only!), used geometric shapes to create new ones, made messaging choices, and applied visual hierarchy.
OPEN HOUSE
We had a full house while we played the "Roll a Bauhaus Pattern" game, created post-modern collages, and learned about serif and sans-serif typography.
