Fire of 1000 Suns | By Mrs. Blattner
Students in Media Lab 6 started the semester with a Google Slide Theme project. New to using Chromebooks and new to Middle School, this was a wonderful opportunity to accomplish a few goals at the start of the school year.
A Focus on Skills:
- Visual design: composition, balance, color palette, fonts for digital media
- Image manipulation: Cropping, resizing (vs. skewing), lining objects, layering, image resolution
- Color palettes, high visual contrast, and hexadecimal colors
- Google Drawings
- Google Slides
- File Management
- Copyright
- Google Advanced Image Search
- Design with end-user in mind
The Task: Students were asked to create a unique Google Slide theme featuring at least one image (texture/pattern) and a distinct color palette. Design images in Google Drawings and create layouts in Google Slides.
As a class, we explored some principles of visual design, including composition and balance, color palettes, fonts that look best on a screen (sans serifs), and how to manipulate images (cropping, layering, lining, resizing), lines art, and the use of color in a visually pleasing way that communicates a theme across a slide deck. Students were reminded of keeping the end-user or consumer in mind, using empathy to design layouts that are user-friendly and that allow for the easy placement of content.
A Sample Design in Google Drawings:
We explored issues of copyright by learning how to use Google Advanced Image Search to find textures and patterns that are public domain. In addition, we practiced our file management skills by using folders in Google Drive to collect images, design layouts in Google Drawings, export designs from Google Drawings, and design our theme decks.
Student-Created Google Slide Themes
A few of the students’ themes are featured here, but if you would like to access the full collection of student-created Google Slide Themes, open our Google Docs:
- Semester 1: Google Slide Themes, Grade 6 Media Lab
- Semester 2: Google Slide Themes, Grade 6 Media Lab
Gray of Dawn | By Casey P |
Lights on a Dark Night | By Elise F |
Project Resources
- Google Slide Themes – “How To” playlist (videos/screencasts)
- Google’s support page on Google Drawings
- Hex Color Picker