Photoshop Obama Hope Poster Project #busedu

As we are nearing the end of the presidential term and entering election season, it's fun to see the various takes people have made on the "Obama" Hope poster. I found it quite amusing and then it served as inspiration for my next class project!

From Pinterest

I actually started by watching a tutorial on how to do this from Blue Lightning TV, but it didn't use our version of PS, utilize shapes, and wasn't clear on clipping adjustments, and I wanted to incorporate that into the project. So, I developed my own resource adapted from theirs. I figured I'd share it with you! I really enjoyed their tutorial. I didn't really use the Channel Mixer or the Gradient Map adjustment features in Photoshop before, so I was psyched to learn something new.

• Handout Link
• YouTube Playlist Link

Here is one of my examples:

I'm going to have the students follow the steps (and/or watch the video tutorial I created) to recreate it using their own image of themselves. Then, my early finishers will have the option to parody the poster for a character of their choosing. Like this!

What do you think? It's actually a pretty quick, short project. So, if you are headed into Spring Break with a day or two to kill, maybe give it a shot! Or, perhaps district testing is happening soon and you need filler. Enjoy!

Photoshop Class Group Project #busedu #gafe

Last year, I was watching an episode of Celebrity Apprentice and got inspired to create a Photoshop project for my class.


The whole task is from about the 5 minute mark to the 31 minute mark (if you want to see which team wins) or the  43 minute mark (if you want to see the Board Room to see who goes home). My students enjoyed getting to watch the thought process and pitches and I liked that it gave me a little more "business" in my Photoshop class.

The students enjoyed it when we did it last year and, though we didn't do it last semester, I decided to bring it back this semester. It's sometimes difficult to do cooperative activities in computer classes so this is another effort to incorporate.

I changed a few things around this time. Here's the general process:

1. I talk about the project and my inspiration and show them clips from the show.
2. They pick groups (I let them pick by putting a sign up sheet on the wall with assigned group names and then a certain number of lines underneath, so anyone without a group could easily just add themselves to a line and not feel totally left out).
3. Day 1: They decide a leader and a recorder. Groups do a brainstorming session and the recorded writes down info. They all sign their names to the sheet and record the product and a shared hashtag that they will all use. They write that down and I pick up those papers to review and return the next day. 
4. Day 2: The group leader sets up a Google Slides project and shares to all group members and me. The leader sets up the first slide, which is the title (includes the product, hashtag, and group member names) and the second slide, which is the "logo brainstorming" slide. All group members then locate and copy/paste logos for this company/product from online. They must source the image in a comment. Then, all group members collectively decide which one to use. All group members will use the same product logo. The leader adds the chosen logo to the title slide. All group members create two slides with their first names at the top for their finished projects. Then, they all set up the basic page setup (10"x8") and put their logo on the page (removing the background if it has one). Finally, they start obtaining images for the first project OR they can work on finding the perfect font and adding their slogan and hashtag. 
5. Day 3: All group members will update their class portfolio to embed the group Slides presentation and to discuss their project so far (what they picked and why, etc.). Then, they continue working.
6. After that, they continue working on the project with the last 5-7 minutes daily being group feedback time. Group members walk around to provide feedback. They are collectively in charge of ensuring all group members have the requirements, the logo, a slogan and the shared hashtag, and that the project is set up correctly. 
7. As they finish an ad design, they are to save it for the web and post to their class portfolio AND to the Google Slide. (My students write a reflection for their projects on the class portfolio site)
8. Eventually, each student will have 2 or 3 designs. I grade the best 2. And, the group will present their group slideshow and discuss (using Photoshop terms) how they created the design.

Here is one of last year's projects (it doesn't have the logo and feedback portion... that's new, but this one was used to show my kids examples of good and not great... and we also did a short fonts unit before this project because you could obviously see font issues on a few of these ads):

Here is a link to my project explanation and scoring guide:
http://classjump.com/s/skinner/documents/Hashtag_Photobomb_Campaign_Group_Project.docx