Can You Get Curds at the Deli Down the Street?

-Name this file, "your_last_name_muffet," and save it as a .pdf... email it to me.

Nursery rhymes are a part of just about every toddler’s learning environment.  The interpretation of common experiences is a part of just about every creative’s learning environment.  Now, the two shall meet!  Your task today is to illustrate the fan favorite “Little Miss Muffet” nursery rhyme using only the following graphical elements: 

The letter A
The letter M
A square
A straight line
A circle
 

You can use the graphical elements as many times as you like to illustrate the story, but you must do it in four frames, and they must be completely black and white, no gradients or other colors.  The letterforms cannot be broken apart; they must stay intact, but all elements can be resized to your heart’s content. 

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a Tuffet
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
 

 
Can You Feel the Love

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In 1784, a man by the name of Valentin Haüy pressed a coin into the hand of a blind boy outside his church.  The boy, feeling the generous gift might have been a mistake, called out the denomination by the feel of the coin.  Haüy had an epiphany.  He could teach the blind to read based on touch.  Haüy used an alphabet based on Roman letters and began a school for the blind.  A boy named Louis Braille attended the school, and had the idea to use a series of dots, which he felt would be more easily discernable by touch—and so braille was born.  While braille uses a series of dots and dashes to communicate letter forms, our task today is to consider other forms of touch-sensitive communication.  If braille didn’t exist, what alternative forms of touch-sensitive communication could you devise for the following items:  water, movie, danger, president, cat.

Remember, it has to be based on touch, so no sounds, smells, or tastes involved!  Consider how the blind could distinguish these items if they opened a book and these words appeared.
 
Can Anyone Direct Me to the Perfume Aisle?

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If there is any one retail outlet more intimidating than the local giant home improvement warehouse hardware mecca, point it out, please.  You can get lost just locating a shopping cart.  One thing is certain:  the target audience of these emporiums is heavily male.  Now imagine you are asked to consult on a new brand of über-spacious hardware paradise, this one targeting women.  List at least twenty ideas to make the local oversized hardware warehouse appeal to a female demographic.
 
Take a Seat

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The park bench really is an under-appreciated ally.  When you’re tired, it’s there.  When you need a place to tie your shoe, it’s there.  When there are pigeons to feed, it’s there.  It deserves its just reward.  A face-lift!  Your task is to come up with a new design or concept for the park bench.  Consider what a park bench is used for, what environment it is typically found in and how to defend it against undesirable visitors.  You can add to it, subtract from it, whatever you’d like.  The only restriction is that it has to maintain its primary purpose… to be sat on!
 
Red and Blue Dogs

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Professional sports leagues all seem to share similar graphic qualities in their logos.  There are typically two or three colors and a negative space shape representing a player or a recognizable object from the game.  Your task is to design a professional sports league logo for these five activities:  Hot Dog Eating, Kite Flying, Tricycle Racing, Painting, Car Washing.

 
Stupid “K”

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Numbers and letters are beautiful artistic forms on their own merit, but we have difficulty seeing them as anything but what they truly mean.  We often don’t see the beauty in the form.  Only after turning the letters inside and out, or flipping the numbers over, can we truly appreciate their design.  Your task today is to do just that.  You will be turning this in from the computer, but can use your sketch book to practice.  Type or write your full name.  Your task is to recreate your full name using letters and numbers.  The only rule is you can’t use the actual letter.  So, if your name starts with an S, you can use any form of any other letter or number, backwards or forwards, upside down or right side up-except an actual S. 
 
What Day Is It?

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The week of seven days was adopted in Rome somewhere about 400 AD and spread into Europe, but it had been recognized long before that in the East.  The names of each of the days are generally associated with Roman mythology.  It’s time they received an updated, contemporary change.  Your task is to rename the days of the week to be more modern.  They can all be associated with a theme, or they can all have different meanings.  They can be as long or as short as you like, but they all must end with the suffix “-day,” like they do now.
 
Pimp My Wagon

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MTV has a ton of original programming these days.  One of these successful shows is called “Pimp My Ride,” where the hosts take an otherwise ordinary vehicle and “pimp it out” by re-engineering it to create a luxurious, often urban-inspired mobile transit device.  Complete with all the fixin’s, these new vehicles keep some characteristics of the original, and in most cases, the result is quite ext4raordinary.  Although some of the original vehicles are rather run-down and plain, none are as simple as, say, a common red wagon.  Your task today is to “Pimp My Wagon.”  Take an ordinary red wagon, a simple toy that most children love, and “pimp it out” with whatever luxuries and additions you can think of.  Create your ultimate urban-inspired pimped-out wagon. 
 
I Could Have Sworn That Sign Means “Walk Stiffly”

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If we took one class in driver’s education, we’re aware of what each of the common road signs mean.  If it’s yellow with a curved arrow pointing right, we know there’s a curve coming up to the right.  But what if we didn’t know what they meant?  Some of those signs might be communicating more than the designers bargained for.  Your task today is to come up with alternate meanings for the following five common road signs.  Draw the signs, and include the meaning below. 
Picture
 
This Exercise Puts So Much Pressure on Me… Hey!

-Complete this in Illustrator, and send me the PDF file

Create a pictogram that describes each of these six words:  Pressure, Delirious, Lucky, Suspense, Dangerous and Joyful.  Use only four straight lines and a circle for each one.  You can arrange the lines and the circle in whatever fashion you desire, but you can only use four lines and one circle.  The lines must be of equal length and not divided in any way, and the circle must be kept whole.