Introducing design concepts with Adobe Illustrator tools

The students in my introductory Illustrator class often struggle with basic design elements when they work on their projects, such as the overall composition, negative space, color spaces and the placement of text. The 3-part poster project gave them the opportunity to not only explore their creative talents but also think of a meaningful design output that conveys a strong and clear message to the audience, using all the technical skills they learned in the course of the semester:

This was the final project, "Three in One". The students were required to shoot a photograph of an item that they carry with them throughout the day. Then they needed to design three poster ads showing that product in three different ways: positive, negative, and metaphorical. It was important that they were able to convey their message in a clear and visually compelling way.

An example was provided to serve as a guide.

Of the 11 students, 6 earned an A, one B and one C (three students didn't submit their final project).