CIT Teaching & Learning Unit

• Use advanced desktop publishing skills in the preparation of newsletters / promotional /advertising material for print media.
• Prepare images for paper-based printing using image editing software.
• Apply Information Processing skills that are essential for document management.

You are required to create a products catalogue for a business of your choice, using publisher. You should give a short background (fictional) scenario to the business involved and describe why you are creating this catalogue for this particular business.   You must create suitable images of your products in this catalogue.

PART 1 - CATALOGUE INSTRUCTIONS

Create a catalogue for your chosen business and ensure that you demonstrate the following using publisher:

• Apply a suitable theme to the catalogue
• Apply a suitable font theme
• Set up suitable business set information, and insert it in specific locations on the catalogue.
• Include a logo in the business set information – resized to 80px by 39px approx.
• Include a suitable order form in the catalogue.
• Follow the guide given in class in relation to what content should appear on which pages.
• You should have at least four pages containing your products.
• You should use at least five publisher features that help to enhance the look of your catalogue.

PART 2 IMAGE INSTRUCTIONS

You are required to source all images for your catalogue online.  Only use images that are marked for reuse.  Edit images (as required) using at least three of following functions in photoshop:

•             crop
•             perspective crop
•            resize
•             spot healing
•             patch tool

Ensure that you retain all original images

SUBMISSION DETAILS

The following files must be submitted to the submission point on Canvas:

•           Catalogue in publisher format
•          All images:
  •          original images
  •          edited images

Client Brief

The Department of Organisation & Professional Development in MTU are your client for this project.  Specifically, the Department Head wishes you to design a poster which will be used to promote the course at various different events during the year.  Generally, MTU run an open day in November which targets fifth and sixth year students, and to some degree mature students.  Around Easter MTU run a Transition Year event, where all departments market their courses to perspective students.  MTU also run events for the recruitment of mature students to their programmes, these usually run in September and then again in January.  There are also one-off events such as the night that the Business Administration team came to the College of Commerce West Cork Campus to promote the Business Administration course as an outreach course.

As well as specifically targeting students for the Business Administration course, there are also other events run throughout the year where this poster may be used to promote the course such as:

•           conferences
•            MTU events
•           this poster may also be displayed in MTU

Description of the Course

The Business Administration programme provides students with a unique blend of technical and business skills that are required for the organisation and management of business tasks. This is a practical, skills-focused programme, exposing students to the most up-to-date technologies that businesses are using. The course is taught through lectures, tutorials and workshops. There is a strong emphasis on practical work. The course is graded by end of module examinations as well as continuous assessment.

TASKS

Phase 1 – Planning & Design

This phase involves planning the design and layout of your poster.  In this phase you must decide what you are going to include, what images you are going to use and what colour scheme you want to apply.

At the end of this phase you should have a sketch of your proposed poster.  The sketch should clearly show:

•                        placing of text, images and other content.
•                       indication of colours/colour scheme to be used
•                      notes to describe the overall ideas/concepts

The sketch should not be any longer than four A4 pages.

Phase 2 – Implementation

The implementation phase will involve putting the poster together.  In this phase you will implement:

•                        your colour schemes
•                        place your content
•                       select and edit suitable images
•                        place your images
•                       produce the final poster

The implementation of the poster should resemble the sketch from phase one in some way.

Phase 3 – Presentation

The presentation of the project will take place in week 11 on the 22nd of April.  The presentations will begin at 6pm sharp.  You will be presenting your poster to the Head of the Department of Organisation and Professional Development, and the Business Administration Course Director.  The Head of the Department of Organisation and Professional Development and the Business Administration Course Director will pick a winner from the posters which will be used to market the course in the future.

Teams will be made up of three or four members.  Each presentation will last 12 minutes.  Please ensure that each team member contributes during the presentation and that you include time for questions and answers.

For record keeping and marking purposes the presentation will be recorded.

Phase 4 – Reflection

Reflection is a fundamental element of your learning and professional development. As part of your DTP/Advanced Document Presentation CA 20% you will be required to submit an individual reflection on your completed Poster CA.  Your reflection is on everything including the process, the choices and discoveries you made, and what didn't go quite as expected. As you go through the process of your project you should make notes which will help you write your final reflection. To support your reflection, you should provide images or any other material that reflect the project process. This includes anything you feel relevant to the project process for example an image of your draft/final poster, image from your presentation day event etc. The following are some examples of areas for discussion (this list is a guide and all questions do not have to be covered) which might help you write your reflection:

• In your own words, restate the essence of the project that you worked on so that any reader could understand what you were asked to do.
• Describe your thinking and reasoning as you worked on the project. Include components that left you unsatisfied.
• What did you learn from working on this project?
• Will your work help you in the future?
• Was this project similar to any other class assignment you’ve completed? How?
• Discuss your collaboration’s during the project. What went well? What didn’t go well? Why?

Student Testimonial

"With excitement on our faces we discovered that we’ll be doing real poster project for this assignment the feeling was indescribable. Everyone was so delighted and because it was a competition everyone wanted to win. After the class had been divided by groups, each group went home with ideas to think about how poster to be created and of course excitement and hope to win was huge and nice the look forward for. I was delighted with team who is really wanted to put all their best and the ideas for the projects started to flow over the e-mails and phone calls between all of us.  Personally, I enjoyed the implementation stage as it was the creative part of the project. I love working with colours and come up or create images from different shapes to put together the images and come up with final product.”  Jennet Toylyeva O' Driscoll (former student)

“At this point of my path to a Business Administration Degree, I got quite used to different assignments, teamwork, deadlines and challenging projects, but A MTU Poster Project assignment was something different. The real thing!  Finally, something meaningful, something that is not just an assignment to be submitted and forgotten.”  Blazenka Herman (former student)