Graphic Design and Digital Media Facilities
Classroom, Studio, Laboratory
The Graphic Design and Digital Media programs operate in a recently custom configured space in the basement of “E” building on the Niceville campus. All coursework within the program occurs in this 3,250 square foot facility. It is divided into three primary workspaces: the classroom, the studio, and the laboratory.
The Classroom
Lectures and software demonstrations take place in the ergonomically designed classroom space. It is designed to produce the shortest line of sight possible to the projection screen and blackboard for each student. Classes are limited to a maximum of 18 students, so individual attention to every student’s interests and learning style is possible. The seating and worktables are arranged stadium style, and the room is equipped with a high quality digital projector and nine-foot screen.
The Studio
The studio is a 600 square foot space designed to function for photography and videography. It is equipped with a high-powered Speedotron® 4803CX strobe lighting system, and several daylight balanced continuous lights and softboxes for video productions. Students shoot commercial photography work with a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II 16.7MP camera and several professional lenses. Students working with video can shoot with a Sony HDV professional camera, wireless and high-end studio microphones. The walls, ceiling, and floor of this space are all black, allowing for reduced reflections in still photography and the illusion of a much larger space when shooting video. A motorized backdrop system is installed on the north wall of the facility.
The Laboratory
The main design computer laboratory has 18 workstations. Each is equipped with a very powerful Apple Macintosh® computer. Most are new Mac Pro workstation class machines running eight Intel Xeon® processors and 4 to 8GB of RAM. All have a calibrated 23-inch high resolution monitor. The machines are loaded with all of the industry standard software applications including the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Dreamweaver etc.), and Apple’s Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, Soundtrack etc.). The facility is in a software maintenance agreement with Adobe which allows us to always have the most current version of their software applications available.
Each workspace is ergonomically designed to provide students with a large and comfortable work surface that is much larger than the average institutional configuration. The Laboratory areas have neutral grey walls to minimize glare and eyestrain, and soon will have daylight balanced full spectrum lighting for optimal color perception and visual acuity.
