Sports Card Art and Design!

Students at every grade level react strongly to sports card art and design. With a shoebox of card samples from two or three separate years, you can watch this reaction.

Build design vocabulary. With your computer and scanner, you can project each sports card example to aid class discussion of the various components in sports card artwork.
For example, study the five elements of design.
* How is line used to box or highlight information? Why is this useful?

Examine the use of shape -- lesson two. The use of space -- lesson three. The use of texture, color. From cards to curriculum. From curriculum to cards.

What components would you include in a new design?
* For the front?
* For the back?
* What might be the subject of the card?

Examine the design of a sports card uniform.
* What important things do the colors or logo/emblem represent?
* What are the most popular team colors? Use the cards to survey these and arrange them in order from most to least popular color.

Design a sports card featuring YOU!
* List your favorite hobby activities and choose one. This could be dance, checkers, soccer, model making, tennis, dog walking, etc.
* Design front to reflect the activity you choose.
* Draw or photograph yourself in action!
* Fit the image into the border you design.
* Design the back to include statistics, cartoon, riddle, or interesting fact.

Choose a construction material you like to use and fashion a 3-dimensional trading card that can stand on its own. Materials might include paper, plasticene, Styrofoam.

In small groups, choose a design theme. With computer presentation software, create a kiosk slide show to demonstrate features of that sports card art and design.
* What background slide color will best show off the group design theme?
* How will each frame move to the next?
* Will you include labels? Narrative? Sound effects?
* Each student can contribute a frame.
* How many frames will each presentation include?

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