Perpetual Calendar: Collaborative 2D Project

I was inspired to change up the final project for my 2D Foundations Class this year which was to be centered around color, color mixing and utilizing primary, secondary and tertiary colors derived solely by mixing primary colors. In the past I had student develop patterns on a square canvas with specific areas that were designated as primary, secondary and tertiary — but this particular class was highly motivated and exceptionally creative, so I knew that they would be up to the challenge of doing something collaborative and also more intense. So, I engineered a perpetual calendar that would be installed in the department administrator’s office. I worked out how many rows we would need, how many blanks we would need for the year and also how many letters we would need to create the months.

We used chipboard letters and numbers. Students could position the numbers where they wanted to into their designs. The letters for the months and days of the week were positioned in the center of each canvas. I made a template to help student to position the letters in the proper position. The letters were attached with liquid nails.

Additionally, I worked out how we would install the art after all the components were painted. The students picked numbers out of a box to split up the tasks. We used 8×8 canvases. The edges were painted black and we used 1″ female velcro on the back vertical edges to mount on a grid made from 2″ male velcro. Each number in a month was pre-designated as a particular color scheme, but students could decide the design of their square.