The San Diego Supercomputer Center, at the University of California, San Diego, and UCSD Extension launch a new, year-round series of programming courses that focus on digital design and fabrication in collaboration with San Diego's Fab Lab. This exciting new series of workshops is open to middle and high school students in grades 8 - 12.

UCSD Interactive Graphic Arts and Digital Fabrication Series What is the Fab Lab?

The Fab Lab is an advanced digital design and fabrication laboratory that allows community members access to high-tech tools in order to actualize ideas through design and fabrication.

The Fab Lab in San Diego is one of over thirty in the Global Fab Lab Network, and the only on the United States west coast. Around the globe, people have utilized the tools associated with the Fab Lab to create the things that they desire or need. This has ranged from innovations related to communications technologies to arts and handicrafts. Most of these have been created by newcomers to such technologies, many by youth. To learn more about Fab Lab San Diego, please visit: http://www.fablabsd.org/

Interactive Graphic Arts and Digital Fabrication: Vector Art, Product Design and Production

Saturdays - February 26, March 5 and March 19, 2011

This workshop introduces a creative approach to the design process, with a focus on thinking and designing in 2-dimensions as well as 3-dimensional space by leveraging technologies such as computer-aided design programs, vector editing software and computer numerically controlled machines. Topics such as graphic design, stencil making, packaging, product design and production will be explored in a hands-on setting. In addition to creating vinyl decals and stencils for decorating surfaces, students will learn to create vector artwork to that will be cut and folded into 3-dimensional objects. This process can be used to produce interesting and useful 3D forms, as well as understand the ways in which these can be used to promote or package ideas. Through this course, students will learn about the ways in which objects can be designed and constructed, leading to the creation of their own unique final products.

The goal of this course is to create and design a comprehensive project consisting of 3-dimensional folded forms and surface design elements that consider form-making within the context of graphic and industrial design, packaging, and messaging. In the process, you will also learn about the communication of ideas through the presentation of form, as well as the characteristics of complex shapes. The course will take you through observation, documentation, investigation, and creation, and will conclude with the production of a custom project by each student. While this class is fast-paced, it is designed to be accessible and enjoyable for newcomers to these topics, and we will review necessary fundamentals of graphic design, packaging, patterning, and 3D modeling.

This course is open to middle and high school students.

Presented by Sandro Alberti, Instructor, Fab Lab San Diego

Course fee: $115.00 (includes $20.00 materials fee.)

Registration deadline: February 22, 2011. Space is limited to 19 participants.

All workshop correspondence will be conducted via email.

Complete workshop information and an application form can be found at http://education.sdsc.edu/teachertech

For questions or additional information, please contact Ange Mason at 858 534-5064 or amason@ucsd.edu.