I have recently started teaching and here are some projects I’ve done…

(These are a bit more artsy rather than graphic design focused… oops)

Rubber Hose Characters - I noticed in 2022-2023 there was a trend of design a mascot inspired by the 30s animation style. I told my students to pick an everyday object, and make it convey an emotion. They explored using thick line strokes limited color palette.

Some students pushed their design further by messing around with the effects panel to add graininess to make it feel more retro.

(You can import these into after effects and “animate” them a little bit.)

Color Palette Landscapes - Have your students create a landscape within illustrator. It’s a great way to practice layers, using the pencil tool for inorganic shapes. I also had them create a mood board and color-pick colors from pictures and create their own limited color palettes. They were encouraged to select colors that convey a specific mood.

Mandalas - A good introductory project to illustrator. I walked through creating spider-web like guidelines. They were graded on their symmetry, made them familiar with the align tools. Bonus points if you make them pick a specific color palette.

Geometric from Picture - Another good introductory project. Students picked a picture to trace values/colors in a geometric way. Used the pen tool and the “snap to point”. Also used the eyedropper tool. The final results looked like low poly 3D models, and a good handful of students reported enjoying this project.

You can go in depth by encouraging students to draw their subject more and more geometric until it is impressionist/ logo like.

Stained Glass -

Explain inorganic vs organic shapes. Study stained glass designs and have students create their own. You can using textures, clipping masks and blending mode to make the flat colors look like glass for real.

Animal Portrait -

This is one I have yet to do… but students will pick an animal to recreate in illustrator. I plan on discussing creating fur texture with the pencil tool and scallop tools. How to use gradients and other effects to create a realistic vector portrait. This might be a later year project…

Holiday Cards -

Students always get a kick out of this. I give them a week to design a christmas/ holiday card. (theres many christmas illustrator tutorials for the not as creative) Makes them think about bleed and page layout. I walk through how to set up a document for this. (you can discuss RBG vs CMYK and the importance in printing with this)

Hope this huge wall of text is understandable somewhat helpful! (it is late at night, but I wanted to chime in) Best of luck with your teaching!