The best-selling, international Review of the year's most innovative works in visual communication, featuring, in full colour, the winners of the toughest competition in the field - the art Directors Club of New York Awards. The book presents, with exceptional clarity and detail, the work of gold and silver medalists and distinctive merit winners in national and international advertising, graphic design and new media.

With more than 1,200 images representing the work of prize-winning creative professionals, this is the definitive overview of the best in advertising, graphic and interactive design, as well as art and photography.

About The Author
Founded in 1920 and based in Manhattan, New York, the art Directors Club is the premier international organization of creative professionals and associates in advertising, graphic design, interactive design, interactive media, photography and illustration. Its annual awards honour visual innovation and excellence in the communication arts.

Part I, The art Program, provides tested guidelines and reproducibles for building the program and making art appreciation and activities fun. Included are tips for writing art lesson plans, creating bulletin boards, and assessing artwork as well as the developmental characteristics of students as they apply to art at each grade level, K through 8, discipline suggestions, safety precautions, and more.

Part II, The art Curriculum, presents more than 100 specially selected art projects organized by medium into nine units. Each project is illustrated, complete and ready for use, and includes adaptations for younger students, alternative project(s) and interdisciplinary and multicultural connection. Here's an overview of the projects you'll find in each curriculum unit:

• Exploring the Elements & Principles of Design. Unit 1 features 12 stimulating projects to help students understand the basic elements and principles of art, such as Costumes & Color (color)Collage Cityscape (space)Mexican Sun (texture)and Black & White Makes It Right (contrast).
• Paper. The 10 projects in Unit 2 include a paper-making activity, Handmade Paper, and introduce various techniques for creating with paper in activities like Story Quilt and Pop-Up Greeting Cards.
• Drawing with Pencil, Pastels, Crayons & Markers. Unit 3 offers 14 projects exploring new ways to work with unfamiliar materials. In The Bestiary, Animal Drawings, for example, students draw an imaginary creature by combining parts of familiar animals.
• Painting. The 15 projects in Unit 4 introduce painting in tempera, acrylics, watercolor, and ink. For example, in Open the Door! Students study different examples of historical doors and arches then paint their own doorway.
• Printmaking. Unit 5 presents 11 methods of printmaking with how-to tips for each process, plus 7 stimulating printmaking projects such as Colorful Tiles, Relief Prints, and Japanese Fish Printing.
• Three-Dimensional Design. In Unit 6, you'll find 16 projects that give students the chance to assemble, carve or create masks with paper, wood, metal, soap and other materials, including Rolled Paper-Tube Sculpture, 3-D sports Heroes, and Assemblage.
• Ceramics. The 8 popular projects in Unit 7 involve students in working with clay. Examples include Double Pinch Pot, Architectural Birdhouse, and Mural: Ceramic, Cement, Marbles, Noodle and Glass.
• Architecture: The Built Environment. Unit 8 features 10 architecture-based research activities, such as City PlanningVictorian HousesDesign a Chairand Paint Your Dream House.
• Technology: Computer, Photography, Video. All 7 projects in Unit 9 utilize a computer. Students learns how to produce different typefaces, add texture, transform black and white copies, manipulate photos and more in activities such as Graphic Design: A Public Service Flyer, Line Drawing with a Flashlight, and Video Production.

Author Jim Charnock does not do much educational philosophizing—although you will see and feel the soundness of his techniques throughout the book. After his short, but compelling, introduction, you are in the thick of learning. One chapter after another tells how to best, in his opinion, go about teaching the language arts of several types of writing, public speaking, researching, book reporting, interviewing, dramatizing, and more.

What he writes in his synoptic Table of Contents about one particular chapter can be said about this entire small but practical volume: "This is not one of those ‘you ought to do this, but I’m not going to lead you by the hand,’" books.

Mr. Charnock’s clarity, energetic style, and practical approaches will make this book a worthy addition to your teaching library, and the ideas an asset to your teaching repertoire. You will be impressed with the simplicity of learning and teaching what others have so onerously complicated. And, after reading and experiencing his ideas, you may, like those in his seminars, feel the urge to stand up and clap.

About The Author
James Charnock, M.ED, is a veteran of thirty years of teaching at the elementary and junior high levels. In addition to creating educationally oriented market products, for several years he was a feature writer/children’s book Reviewer for a national reading journal (The Reading Teacher) and has served on the editorial board of a national English journal (Language Arts).

Former top students have honored him—not once or twice, but four times (less than two percent of teachers are so honored twice) by placing him in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers—"The best teachers in America chosen by the best students." He was "the teacher who made a difference." He has also been listed in Who’s Who in the East.

Mr. Charnock has written one other book, Mt. Horeb: The Little White Schoolhouse on Little Deer Creek, about the history and memories of one of Maryland’s last one-room schoolhouses, where he started his education.

The author lives in a suburb of Philadelphia, where he continues as a freelance writer, often serving as a seminar speaker on the teaching of writing. He also volunteers his time to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and teaches an adult course in paper art.