Three nights a week, we offer classes and workshops to increase the design capactiy of you and your efforts
PDC Clinics and Workshops
All classes and workshops are held at the Public Design Center studio at 7:00pm on the date indicated. Each session is one hour. You are not required to bring any materials. However, if you own a laptop, it is recommended that you bring it along.
The cost per each session is $15.00. If you have received a wooden nickel, that is a free pass to any clinic. Please bring it with you to the workshop.
At this time, registration isn't required but is encouraged to ensure that a seat is available for you. Contact us at workshops@publicdesigncenter.com for more information.
Wooden Nickels
We're trying to reach organizations in the most economically disadvantaged areas of Mississippi. The nickels are being handed out in those areas and act as a free pass to any workshop. They're a personal and tangible connection between the PDC and the person they're handed to.
We use census data to verify which areas in our local region are beneath the poverty line. GIS allows us to determine the areas with the highest concentrations of income below the poverty line, ages 18-64 below the poverty line, with female householders and no husband present, and areas with the lowest median household income. We're able to narrow it down to the city block and specific points in the county (we're rural). In the coming weeks, we'll personally hand out 550 of these free invitations to our workshop clinics. The majority will go to the non profit organizations that serve these areas. The rest will go to small businesses, especially those owned by emerging members of the community.
In addition, the PDC Mobile program packs up our clinics and takes them out to the community centers.
Schedule
April 14th
Pretty Much All You Need to Know About Adobe Illustrator
An introduction to the unique aspects of Illustrator including paths, bezier curves, and the pathfinder palette.
April 16
How Much To Charge: A Workshop for Graphic Designers
Pricing can be one of the most challenging aspects of doing design work. This workshop will examine pricing models of freelance design and provide you with the tools to determine the appropriate amount to charge for your next project.
April 18
The Pathfinder Palette in Illustrator
Everyone has problems with Illustrator's pathfinder palette. You will be a pathfinder master after this clinic.
April 21
Using Coda
Mac users, learn to grow beautiful code with the one window web development application, Coda, at this workshop.
April 22
Indexhibit
Indexhibit is a web application used to build and maintain an archetypal, invisible website format that combines text, image, movie and sound. It's perfect for anyone wanting to build a portfolio site. This clinic will cover the reasons why you might consider Indexhibit, how and where to install it, and of course how to customize it.
April 23
Your Monitor is Not Made of Paper CANCELLED DUE TO CONFLICTING SCHEDULE
This session will examine the divide between screen color versus the printed result. We will focus on using the Pantone color matching system as well as ways to calibrate your monitor for color accuracy.
April 25
Color Correct Like a Pro
Good photography is 20% framing the shot and 80% image correction in the post-production. Come on down to this clinic and learn to color correct like a pro.
April 26
Molding and Casting
In the spirit of making things, local craftsman Bonn Camp will demonstrate the techniques used to carve and cast the custom moldings found in the PDC courtyard.
April 29th
CSS Layouts
This clinic will examine the techniques used to layout websites using only CSS methods. We will discuss floating, clearing, global resets, the box model, and browser rendering issues. You will come away from this session with plenty of templates from which to build your next project.
April 30
Hands-On Screenprinting
Get ink on your hands at our screenprinting workshop. Screenprinter exrtaordinare Will Bryant will lead this workshop. He will walk you through the whole process from screen exposure to printing. Each participant will have the opportunity to try their hand at printing.
Materials cost: $3.00
May 2
Printing Sustainably
This clinic will examine methods to reduce the carbon footprint of your next print print project.
May 5
Open Critique
Bring the print and web projects you're working on down to the PDC for tips, objective critique, and suggestions for improvements.
May 7
Basic CSS
This clinic is for anyone who is just beginning with CSS. If it's all greek to you, you'll find plenty of help at this session.
May 9
Logo & Identity Workshop
Do you feel like your logo or visual identity isn't quite there yet? Bring it to the PDC for this clinic where we will critique each logo / identity and recommend improvements.
May 12
Pimp Your .htaccess
.htaccess files are invisible text documents that can reside in any directory on your server. In this clinic, you will learn to control user access, allow or deny search bots to your directories, redirect users, and customize your error pages using easy customizations to your .htaccess files.
May 14
You Can't Grep Dead Trees: Getting to Know Regular Expressions
grep (Global Regular Expression Print) is a command line utility that was originally written for use with the Unix operating system. Given a list of files or standard input to read, grep searches for lines of text that match one or many regular expressions, and outputs only the matching lines. At this clinic, discover what grep can do for you and your coding efforts.
May 16th
Secret Weapon of Layout: Baselines
In typography, the baseline is the line upon which most letters sit and under which descenders extend. Come to this clinic and learn how to build better layouts upon a foundation of baselines.
May 19
Open Critique
Bring the print and web projects you're working on down to the PDC for tips, objective critique, and suggestions for improvements.
May 21
DIY Branding
Discover the hands-on, low-cost, and fun ways you can bring your company or organization's visual identity to life at this clinic.
May 23
How Much Should We Be Paying For This? Web Pricing for Organizations
This clinic will discuss appropriate price ranges that small businesses and organizations should expect to pay for web services.
May 26
Pretty Much All You Need to Know About Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is the premier publishing platform allowing you to produce compelling page layouts. This clinic is for the beginning user. If you've wanted to get started with InDesign, this is the session for you.
June 2
Why and How to Write Creative Briefs
An effective creative brief is the foundation of successful design project. You will come away from this clinic with new knowledge and with templates you can put to work on your next design project.
June 4
Ticket Systems
A ticket system is an application that manages and maintains lists of issues, as needed by an organization. This clinic will focus on why an organization should implement such a system and what options exisit for doing so.
June 6
PostScript, OpenType, and TrueType
Make sense of these typographic formats at this clinic. Learn when, where, why, and how to use them.
June 9
Spot Color
In offset printing, a spot color is any color generated by an ink (pure or mixed) that is printed using a single run. At this clinic, find out when, where, why, and how to use spot colors.
June 11
Email Newsletters
In recent years, there have been numerous improvements to the way that email newsletters and campaigns are broadcast. Make sure that your organization is up to date by attending this session. You might be surprised at the possibilities.
June 13
Press Checks and Proofs
This clinic is indispensable for anyone who regularly sends jobs to print. You will be provided with a press check checklist and explain how to assess each item on it.
June 20
Imposition in InDesign
In prepress, "imposition" means the arrangement of pages on the press sheet so that, when folded, the pages read consecutively. How one arranges the pages on the sheet depends on the sizes of the press sheet and the pages, and how the job will be folded and bound. This clinic will address imposition in InDesign using InBooklet.
