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At year 9, students build on their awareness of how designers communicate ideas with a specific purpose, to a targeted audience, using different visual communication design practices and viewpoints (VCAA, 2020). Students critically reflect on the contribution of visual communication designers to various historical and cultural design movements as they carry across skills developed in year 7 and 8. At this level, it is a great opportunity to introduce students to the influence of visual culture and visual language from a range of different artists and designers globally.

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At year 11, students are guided by the VCD Study Design. At this level, students will complete Unit 1 and 2 of the VCD Study Design. Printmaking knowledge and skills within Unit 1 and 2 can be used when refining and presenting any form of visual communication design through the design process. Students have the ability to confidently self-direct their work while addressing complex concepts and big ideas. Unit 1 and 2 present present opportunities for students to experiment with printmaking as a means of communicating their ideas and applying design thinking skills within their visual journals.

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Fun Fact —  Infographic

Students are to develop an infographic poster about a classmate/favourite legend/ someone special revealing fun and interesting facts to present to the class. The infographic can be designed digitally or freehand however they must include a printmaking technique which best describes their aesthetic style.

Students will be drawing upon their design elements and principle knowledge. They are also developing and refining their own visual language and style. They are also building upon skills by appropriately referencing research materials from a range of sources to present their findings.

Students may look into the works/resources of the following:

Picktochart

Design Inspiration

Infographic Tools

Behance

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At year 8, students identify, analyse, interpret and evaluate visual communications from a range of cultures, times and places.
Students begin to investigate the use of visual language through drawing conventions, design elements and principles and how these communicate ideas to different audiences in different contexts and locations (VCAA, 2020). At this level, students will continue to explore contemporary printmaking techniques while also drawing upon traditional printmaking methods. Students are becoming more self-directed as they begin to experiment with complex ideas, processes and techniques.

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At year 7, students will be introduced to printmaking as finished artworks in a contemporary practice. Students will experiment with their own works by exploring intriguing mark making techniques from found objects, food and materials. Students will begin to develop and get to know their own craft, using tools within a studio practice. They begin to see themselves as a designer-student while getting comfortable with the design process of visual journal experimentation.

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Kunmanara Williams — Kamantaku Tjukurpa wiya. (The Government doesn’t have Tjukurpa.), 2018

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Elton John — James O'Brien,  2020

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Connections to the Land —Responding and Making through Relief printing

Students begin to identify and explore their connection to the land. They will develop their own acknowledgement to Country through linocut prints. The students will also develop technical skills in relief-printing process while enhancing their knowledge about carving into linocut material.

For this activity, students will learn about the Indigenous history of The University of Melbourne's campus by taking a guided tour of Billibellary’s walk. The University of Melbourne is an Aboriginal space and part of Wurundjeri country. Students will be reflecting and observing what they see and feel with their visual diaries. They may also collect and draw upon artefacts along the way which may inspire their linocut piece of work.

To complete their linocut piece students will incorporate elements of Indigenous practices to inform their own cultural interpretations of the landscape into an acknowledgement to Country.

Students may look into the works/resources of the following:

Bukjilaka Aboriginal Culture Centre

Indigenous Printmaking

Wurreka

Kelly Koumalatsos

Noŋgirrŋa Marawili

Kunmanara Williams

Reko Reni

Andrea Lauren

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Building something from nothing —
Mark making stamp self-portraits

This activity is a mark making activity using food and/or found objects as a the imprint for example: lemons, potato, sponges.  This activity is inspired by the Potato Printer.

It is an opportunity for students to introduce themselves to the class. This invites student to get to know each other and explore different connections. It allows students the opportunity to identify and express how they would like others to know who they are. The focus is for students to experiment and play with how they would like to leave a lasting impression on their classmates. They are also building upon their technical skills of colour theory.

The students will present their  portraits to the class. This activity encourages students to reserve judgment, take time to find out more about what they see
and/or hear. It leaves space for students to develop a greater understanding of similarities and differences in the classroom. It also provides an opportunity for students to tell a visual narrative about who they are and how they see the world.

Students may look into the works of the following:

Banksy

Jean Julien

Sebastian Curi

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By developing a printmaking understanding through a mark making lens allows students to familiarise themselves with patterns and imprints through contemporary practices. Students then begin to understand trial and error in a fun way. It also teaches students the value of observational awareness and reflective thinking through different ways of seeing.

This activity could further extend by developing their portraits into stencils through drawing others with the blind contour drawing method and/or embodied drawing experiences. These practices will help students further deepen their knowledge with different mediums such as paint, chalk and pastels. The introduction to monoprinting could also be introduced to students as an extension.

Bigger themes around the topic of identity could be further explored to belonging, community and cultural awareness.

Useful Resource/Materials:

Printmaking Portraits

Lego Dots

David Modler's Visual Journal Workshop

David Modler's Website

Drawing as embodied experience

Drawing the body

Drawing with the body

Moon Chalk Colour Set

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At year 10,  students adapt ideas and practices from selected designers and use them to inform their own use of aesthetics when producing a range of visual communications. At this level students begin to refine their personal aesthetic through their development of knowledge, understanding and skills in making and responding to visual communications (VCAA, 2020). Students also have the skills to manipulate the design elements and principles, materials, methods, media and technologies to realise their concepts and ideas for specific purposes using printmaking knowledges gained in previous years.

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Camille Walala x LEGO — House of Dots, March 2020

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This above activity could be extended further to themes such as landscapes, sustainability and mapping whereby you could frame the unit of work around current themes such as: Australian bushfires, climate change, global pandemic. As an extension to linocuts, students could also be introduced to intaglio printing. For example: etching a finished piece of work.

Alternatively, as a cross-curricular approach, you could also develop your theme connecting with Geography/History/Humanities to help students uterlise their skills across two or more learning areas in reference to colonisation. In addition, together with any of the previously mentioned discipline areas students could co-create a cultural interpretation of the school's landscape, which provides an experience of connection to country. The students could map this out for the entire school as a large mural on the college campus. Through a large project like this students are developing their drawing convention skills through precise measuring and scaling while working together as team.

Useful Resources/Materials:

The Journal Junkies Book

Marking Time — Indigenous Art

The Sociology of Walking

Rise Exhibition

Lino cut Artists

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Lasting Impressions — Digital Printmaking

Students are going to develop their own patterns digitally. To do so they will develop a fictional brief for a dream client in which they will design a pattern for any type of visual communication. The technical skills of pattern will be developed using Adobe Illustrator through the use of the design process. The knowledge of forms will be extended as students may explore 2D and 3D forms of pattern making.

The students will use their visual diaries to explore and experiment with different pattern ideas. This will allow them the opportunity to refine their aesthetic quality and be able to justify their decisions to the brief created using critical and creative thinking.

Students may look into the works/resources of the following:

Product/Service Inspiration for developing a fictional brief

How to use the pattern tool is Adobe Illustrator

Print Making Money Gang

Luke Reidy

Molly Mahon Blockprinting

Spencer Harrison

Camille Walala

Marimekko

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From Design to Fashion

To further develop this activity, teachers could invite a textile designer into the classroom or take students on a studio excursion to see how a textile designer works in real life. In addition, the designer could also work together with the students and formulate a mock-brief where students are the designers creating a pattern for a real life client.

As a cross-curricular opportunity, students could work together with the Design Technology/Textiles students. Here the VCD students are given a brief by the fashion design students. They could work together as two clients, co-creating and co-designing a pattern design where the fashion design students have the pattern design screen printed on material for use on a fashion design piece. Together the students then design and curate a runway show to celebrate their collaboration. Both discipline areas would liaise with the Music department and teachers to collaborate putting a runway show together as a team. The VCD students could also take this further and design the communication collateral to market the runway show to the school and to the school community.

Useful Resources/Materials:

Vogue Runway

Melbourne Fashion Festival

Greenhouse Interiors

Creative Textile Designers

Jacky Winter Group

Cassie Burns

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Through the study of printmaking, students will explore a range of big ideas, concepts and materiality. In studying both traditional and contemporary forms of printmaking, affords students to the ability to understand visual communication design through a broader lens. In addition, this type of comparison will help students explore artworks from various cultures, times and places.

The disciplinary schema aims to represent a wide range of artists and designers. The intention is to help students explore and practice how contemporary artists and designers work. Students will also be exploring with multi-disciplinary forms of printmaking through the inclusion of photography, embodied practices, natural environment and digital media. This schema also facilitates cross-curricular priorities combined with transdisciplinary links to other subjects.

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Below I have listed the key resources/references I used to help transform my ideas into this schema timeline.

VCD F-10 Curriculum

Cross-curriculum Priorities

Learning Capabilities

VCD Study Design

Studio Habits of the Mind

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Below is a list of Key Knowledges for students to develop when teaching a disciplinary 7-12 schema for printmaking in VCD.

Observations

Spacial Composition

Annotations

Cultural awareness

Values

Beliefs

Attitudes

Design Elements

Design Principles

Colour Theory

Research

Copyright/ legal obligations

Purpose of visual communications

Conceptual designs/ideas

Design Brief

Clients

Co-design

Collaboration

Design Process

Role of designers

Responsibilities of designers

Contextual Factors

Social Factors

Political Factors

Visual Language

Visual Culture

Design Movements

Creative Thinking

Critical Thinking

Reflective Thinking

Studio Practice

Design Industry

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Below is a list of Key Skills for students to develop when teaching a disciplinary 7-12 schema for printmaking in VCD.

Experimentation

Trial and Error

Exploration

Refinement

Presentation

Annotations

Reflection

Carving

Scoring

Layering

Stamping

Painting

Design Thinking

Design Terminology

Freehand drawings

Digital Methods

Visualisation drawing methods

Referencing images

Research

Investigating

Evaluating

Analysing

Mark Making

Folios

Visual Journals

Concepts/Ideas

Models

Proto-typing

Mock-ups

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Beyonce — Birth of Twins, 2017

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Black Lives Matter Poster — Communicating a Message using propaganda

Students will develop a poster to raise awareness for the Black Lives Matter movement. The design will compose of both image and text. Students will further develop their printmaking technicals skills of screen printing, photography and layering. This will help students understand how to effectively use spacial composition/ layout with a range of mediums. Here students are further developing on their representational knowledge through design.

Students begin to analyse and evaluate the factors that influence design decisions in a range of visual communications from different historical, social and cultural contexts. This achievement will be evident within their final poster designs. However, students will use their visual diaries to begin to unpack conceptual ideas and develop a deeper understanding through analysing a range of contemporary and traditional design works.

The propaganda created in their poster will help with their critical and creative thinking skills. Communicating their piece through visual communication which articulates their own point of view around the theme of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The finished poster will be be presented to class and exhibited in the end of year art and design show.

Students may look into the works/resources of the following:

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter Mural in London

Creative responses to the Holocaust (screen printing outcome)

Blacks who design

Dan Mather Screen print

Becky Mcgillivray

Mona Chalabi

Anthony Burrill

Beyonce

Solange Knowles

Vocal Type

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To develop their poster design students must use propaganda, which is a transdisciplinary link to history, politics and english. This could afford an opportunity to link the theme of your unit to the previously mentioned learning areas. Alternatively, the global movement of Black Lives Matter could take place as a VCD unit theme. In addition, other politically engaged topics which could be further explored are: racism, diversity and inclusion, activism, social justice and women in design.

Useful Resources/Materials:

Anti-Racism Resource Guide

Black Loves Matter Support Resource

Black Lives Matter — Creatives speak up

Tate Museum — Screen print on paper

Billboard illustrated using recycled pollution Air-Ink in London

Gezeever

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At year 12, students will complete Unit 3 and 4 of the VCD Study Design. Students at this level will be able to identify and investigate easily how designers in the industry use printmaking within their design practices. This will also help inspire students when completing Unit 4 as students develop, create and refine their own visual communication designs. At this level, students will apply all their printmaking skills and knowledge in their folio process, design thinking and final presentations. By now, students are comfortable with their own aesthetic style and will have the opportunity in Unit 4 to showcase their techniques and skills through a wide range of materials and mediums.

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Getting to know the Design Industry

This activity allows students to get to know designers and their practices. This will require students to interview a designer from one out of the three design fields: communication design, industrial design or environmental design. A curation of designer details are given to the students provided by the teacher. Students contact the designers via email initially building their networking skills, confidence and professional development required in the workforce. The liaison between the student and designer is up to them to decide. They may to choose to meet with the designer to conduct the interview or send through the questions to be answered via email.

Students are to formulate questions which are specifically related to the designers processes and studio practices. Gaining this knowledge will help students understand the designers role and responsibilities, their clients and how they make important decisions.

Students may look into the works/resources of the following:

The Design Files

It's Nice That

Jacky Winter Group

Dribble

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By this level students are familiar with their own aesthetic style but also need to learn and understand how professionals in the design industry work with printmaking techniques within their practices. Understanding how designers work and their practices may help inspire student's work heading into Unit 4 and future design opportunities into tertiary studies.

Useful Resources/ Materials:

Below are two carefully curated resources to help teachers and students prepare for Unit 3 and 4 Visual Communication Design.

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This resource aids to help all teachers with VCE Visual Communication Design —
UNIT 3 & 4.

More specifically it is designed to help teachers stay up to date with the design practice industry.

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This resource is for students studying and for teachers teaching UNITS 3 & 4 Visual Communication Design.

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If students further developed their infographics digitally,  they may also consider the use of moving graphics such as animation or GIFS to further enhance their designs.

In a broader lens, the activity could be further developed with a theme of historical and cultural practices that influence visual communication design (Unit 1). This could be extended to focus on a social factors such as sustainability and concern for the environment. Students could hypothetically be briefed by the leadership team of the school. The brief requires students to develop a friendly visual language for the school in regards to a specific littering problem during lunch time. The call to action is to ensure all students understand how to recycle and to stop littering on the school grounds. This design solution is to raise awareness and start conversations about sustainability throughout the school.

Useful Resources/ Materials:

Anthropocene

Nike Circular Design

101 Ways to Live Sustainably

Stay sane - stay safe campaign

Mate Act Now Campaign