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Lecture slide: a full color palette built from one base color on the 12-color wheel, with its complementary, triad, split-complementary and analogous swatches.

Design Principles: PARC, Type & Color

Five lectures and a hands-on exercise that taught incoming Illinois Tech freshmen to design with intent: proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast, plus type and color fundamentals.

Year
Summer 2026
Role
CS & Design Lead
Audience
Incoming Illinois Tech freshmen
Tools
Google Slides, Google Classroom, Google Drawings, Adobe Color

01 The Context

Week 3 of the Exelon Summer Institute introduced graphic design to incoming Illinois Tech freshmen who would design and publish their own portfolio the following week. They needed a framework they could apply quickly and use to explain their choices, because, as the syllabus puts it, design choices should have a reason. I built the week around the PARC method, after Robin Williams' design principles, then extended it into typography, color theory and visual culture.

The Week 3 schedule from the course syllabus: design principles, typography and legibility, images and color, portfolio moodboard and wireframes, one topic a day.
Week 3 at a glance, from the course syllabus.

02 My Approach

Show bad next to good. Every principle is taught by comparison, like three versions of one warning label, so students see the difference before they hear the rule.

Color is a system, not a favorite. Students build a full palette step by step from one base color, then use color to direct attention and group information.

Research before you design. The exercise asks students to study one era and one designer from it before choosing a single font or color.

Practice for the real thing. The period board is a rehearsal for each student's portfolio design board the following week, using the same process.

03 The Lectures

Five lectures and one exercise. Pick one to see the slides.

Slide: Contrast, three versions of the same product warning label, two marked bad example and one marked good example.Slide: Proximity, the same row of triangles spaced so they read as two worlds apart or as one group.Slide: Contrast, the good warning label annotated to show how size, weight and spacing create hierarchy.

Part 01 · Week 3 · Monday

The PARC method of design

Proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast, taught with side-by-side examples. The same shapes read as one group or two depending on spacing, and three versions of a hazard label go from muddy to unmistakable. Students then analyzed real examples of good and poor design, and talked about when breaking the rules works.

  • Proximity
  • Alignment
  • Repetition
  • Contrast
Make things that should be different very different.

04 The Outcome

Fourteen students submitted a period board, and six included written research on a designer of their era. A selection is below, shared with names blocked out. The research habit carried straight into the next week, when the same students built design boards for their own portfolios.

Student period boards

  • A student's 1970s board with a note on artist Judy Chicago, retro display fonts and a labeled color palette.

    1970s · Judy Chicago note

  • A student's 1970s board with psychedelic posters, four display fonts and a note on Peter Max.

    1970s · Peter Max note

  • A student's 1970s board with a note on illustrator David Klein and bold display fonts.

    1970s · David Klein note

  • A student's 1970s board with fashion photographs and a note on designer Willi Smith. The student's name is blocked out.

    1970s · Willi Smith note

  • A student's 1970s board with patterned linework, swash fonts and an earthy palette.

    1970s

  • A student's 1970s board with funk display type, an orange and brown palette and interiors.

    1970s

  • A student's 1970s board with concert posters, display fonts and a muted palette.

    1970s

  • A student's Mid-century Modern board with a note on Jackson Pollock, architecture sketches and period ads.

    Mid-century Modern

What I'd change: The files show who submitted, but not how well. Next time I'd keep rubric scores and a line of feedback for each board, so I could show how the work improved.

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