PART I

Learning About the Programs

"Design and Community Engagement" (DART 453) is a course under the Department of Design and Computation Arts, in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University. In the introduction to the course, the participants and students worked together on digital literacy, learning about how to use programs including Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Participants familiarized themselves with the tools they would use to create their artwork and practiced making patterns and holiday cards. Additionally, the participants and the volunteers learned how to assist one another, developing one-on-one partnerships as the class progressed.

PATTERNS

In this drawing exercise, the participants learned about how to navigate the programs and use different tools in their designs. They worked with colour, pen, and brush tools to create their patterns.

SNOWMAN

The snowman exercise provided an introduction to using Adobe Illustrator. Participants learned about how to fill in background colours, make circles using different shape tools, and how to shade their drawings. They also learned how to group objects together on the same layer in this project.

HOLIDAY CARD

For the holidays, the participants produced Christmas cards. The cards were made using Adobe Illustrator, incorporating various texts and images, as well as music and voice recorded greetings. These artworks were printed out and folded into 3D cards to be mailed for the holidays.