Gadsden State Community College News August 2014 New digital media lab and digital art courses Gadsden State College is offering two new courses Fall Semester that will be attractive to many students in addition to art majors. Students may take advantage of the new digital media lab located in Wallace Hall and explore the possibilities of digital art. Both digital photography (Art 175) and graphic design (art 253) are new courses being offered for the first time this semester. Mario Gallardo, division chair of fine arts, said, "We are pleased to offer our students this opportunity and hope to expand the course offerings in the future to include digital drawing and new media." The Digital Photography course focuses mainly on post production of digital images using the latest in Adobe Photoshop to edit images to create stunning results that move far beyond the original image. Using high-end computers loaded with the best digital media software, coupled with the use of Intuos digital tablets, and a large format printer, students can expect to be wowed by the lab and their results. The Graphic Design course will introduce students to concepts of branding, marketing, and messaging through the visual language of design. Students will use Adobe InDesign, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and more to create logos, posters, and various promotional products with an emphasis on typography and images working together to create beautiful and effective designs. The digital media lab has been a work in progress over the last couple of years. In 2012, plans were put in place to create a lab in Wallace Hall to allow students access to the latest in digital tools that are used by professionals in the field of photography, graphic design, and digital media. Included in the lab are 20 workstations each fully loaded with Adobe Creative Suite, along with audio and video editing software. The lab has several printers including a large format printer capable of printing images over 30 inches wide and continuous in length. Gallardo remarked: "We are beside ourselves with excitement to be able to give students the opportunity to create art in a digital media lab. I think back to when I was a beginning art student and I could only dream of such an opportunity. Today we have the ability to create art on a single computer that 15 years ago required multiple studios with hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment to produce." Graphic Designer and Gadsden State alumnus Alan Curtis Jr. will teach both courses. Curtis is a conceptual artist, writer, and graphic designer, who has taught as an adjunct instructor in the Art Department since fall of 2013. He has won numerous collegiate and professional awards in both art and English. He has worked as an art instructor and freelance web designer/ programmer for over ten years and has created product logos, websites, brochures, posters, and many other products for clients including Downtown Gadsden Incorporated, The Carver Museum, The Gadsden Museum of Art, The Walnut Gallery, Gadsden State, and many others. His book-art and contemporary art installations have been exhibited in both local and national exhibits. Curtis also produces an ongoing web comic with his wife Crystal Curtis titled "Lost in the Vale" and has written an accompanying novel "Fairchild," a prelude to "Lost in the Vale." The digital courses are open to all students and do not require a prerequisite to register. For more information about the lab, courses or to schedule a visit contact Mario Gallardo at mgallardo@gadsdenstate.edu<mailto:mgallardo@gadsdenstate.edu>. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/2014meeting-form.html for the October 26-28, 2014 HBCU Library Alliance 6th Membership Meeting in Atlanta GA!