Tag: Graphic Design Classes

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Graphic Design News

Graphic Design Class Designs Drunk Driving Billboard

A graphic design class was recently awarded a project thanks to a grant by the Illinois Department of Transportation to help the class create billboards that would help drivers remember to slow down, buckle up, and never drink and drive.

The Ottawa Township High School graphic design class was awarded the project, which was spearheaded by the school’s group “OTHS Pirates Displaying Awareness Team”.

OTHS graphic design students designed the billboards with emotions in mind, playing on the natural anxiety that occurs when a patrol car pulls up behind a car and turns on the lights and sirens. The graphic design class listened to the presentation normally given by the OTHS Pirates Displaying Awareness Team to gain inspiration for their project.

The Illinois Department of Transportation awarded the grant to the Pirates Displaying Awareness Team for their efforts to inform and educate teens and other motorists about the dangers of intoxicated and distracted driving. The team also uses a smashed car that was wrecked by one of the school’s former students to make their point about drunk driving.

The team recently won an award for their efforts in the Illinois Operation Teen Safe Driving program, as well. The group won $2,500 through the competition.

The graphic design class at OTHS designed four billboards for the project, but only one was selected. It features the OTHS Pirates logo and the message “Slow Down O-Town”. The billboard depicts a dark night with bright red, yellow, and blue lights (presumably flashing) on the roof of a patrol car.

The design was said to be inspired by the feeling a person gets from being pulled over – an emotional reminder of just one of the many reasons that driving impaired is a bad idea. The billboard was designed by Mackenzie Alderman, senior and student of graphic design classes at the school.

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Graphic Design News

Graphic Design Classes that Inspire

Graphic design classes usually take place in a college curriculum, but as many professionals are discovering they have their place outside of the structured college environment, too.

Independently taken, graphic design classes provide professionals with an edge over the competition and can help teens and adults decide if a career in graphic design is the right choice for them.

Short graphic design classes that are 6-weeks or less are an affordable way to discover hidden talents and make decisions about a pricier college education for those considering a career in the arts. For professionals, art classes can offer exponential growth potential and perhaps inspire a new career path for those struggling in their first career choice. Many graphic design classes are offer online, making it easier than ever to fit professional training into an already hectic professional schedule.

For students who aren’t sure of their future career and think that a career in graphic design might be an interesting option, one of the graphic design classes available through online providers is the ideal way to find out without breaking the bank to do it. Many online graphic design classes are 24 hours in length and cost less than $100. The prerequisite for online graphic design classes is a basic knowledge of computers.

Graphic design classes provide training on some of the industry’s most popular graphic art software programs and teach everything from basic web banner design to advanced print publishing methods. With the internet fast becoming the main way we communicate, professionals need to know how to present themselves online. The days of meet-and-greets with potential clients are swiftly fading away and graphic design classes offer an affordable way to make sure your first impression in the virtual world is as positive as your in-person meetings will be.

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Graphic Design News

College Bound Students Study Graphic Design Classes

Graphic design classes at high schools help young students figure out what they want to do following their high school graduation.

Now more than ever, teens are learning computer-based skills before graduation and many do so before even entering high school.

Computer classes are very beneficial for teens, especially in schools where graphic design classes and other art or multimedia disciplines are covered. Most high school courses focus on the technologies that are used in these fields of study and offer a unique advantage to these students. While much of the country’s schools lag behind in technology, for those who attend a technical high school the graphic design classes can be a game changer in the future.

Graphic design classes in college focus on the fundamentals of graphic design, at first. And part of that education is to familiarize students with the many computer programs that they will use in order to carry out the standard tasks that will be required of them in their field of study. Some technical high schools are enabling students to get the jump on this part of their college education, even if they decide that graphic design isn’t the right field for them in the future.

Whether they go on to become fashion designers, architects, drafting technicians, or marketing professionals, almost all professions related to art and design will make use of many of the same computer programs to get the job done. CADD (computer aided drafting and design) programs are heavily used in the fields of graphic design, architecture, and interior design.

Graphic design classes at some high schools are teaching students the basics in a number of software programs, including Adobe suite programs like inDesign, Photoshop, and Acrobat, to name just a few. These classes will help them to not only make decisions about their future profession, but puts them at a learning advantage when they do enter an art and design college.

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Graphic Design News

Graphic Design College Students Create Learning Designs

A group of graphic design students from Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio recently learned through firsthand experience how fulfilling the job of a graphic designer can be.

The graphic design students coordinated with local teachers in order to create learning aids that were meant to keep lessons fun and educational for middle school students.

In what turned out to be a trip back in time, students from the graphic design college had to reach in to grab their own memories of early education to create the learning materials. Marietta College’s news publication said that senior Sean Kenny was completely satisfied watching nearly twenty eighth graders use a history game he had designed for them. But Kenny said it was a challenge.

“I have learned a lot from this experience. In a way, I was sort of going back to school myself in order to familiarize with the terms that I used for the game,” Kenny said in the school’s news article.

It is a novel idea, to team graphic design colleges with community-based education facilities to enrich the education of the next generation. It’s an idea that this graphic design college took to heart and it seems that it worked out well for both schools.

A Marietta Middle School teacher that worked with the graphic design college, Pamela Hart said, “I think the project should definitely continue. I think so many teachers would appreciate working with students who have these skills. Teachers frequently end up creating things for their schools or classrooms but don’t necessarily have those graphic design skills like the Marietta College students have.”

The credit for coordinating the event goes to Sara Always-Rosenstock, who says that Hart explained why the program is important and that they will continue with this effort in the future.

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Graphic Design News

Graphic Design Students and Others Design a “SQUID” Shirt to Monitor Exercise Performance

Students in training for a career in graphic design took part in creating a unique article of clothing that make studying one’s body during physical activity possible without the aid of expensive medical equipment.

The “SQUID” shirt is a t-shirt outfitted with multiple sensors that are linked to an Android application and website that allows its wearer to study multiple facets of their physiology during exercise.

The SQUID shirt is the brainchild of students from multiple disciplines at Northeastern University in Boston, MA who set out to collaborate with students and experts in physiology and sports medicine to come up with the gadget. The prototype was designed with the help of graphic design school students, the engineering department, and several other applicable disciplines at the university.

The name of the equipment is not incidental according to a report from Northeastern University’s news site. Engineering major and senior Alex Moran is quoted saying, “The box and wires in our prototype looked like a torso and tentacles. We wanted to stay away from the normal engineering naming conventions and instead make something more brandable.”

The graphic design model illustration of the SQUID shows a man standing, facing his “audience”. His black t-shirt is affixed with four square sensors on the chest and four more wires appear to wrap around the shoulders and extend to the back of the torso. A small box where all of the wires convene can be seen on the graphic design, presumably hooked on the waistline of a pair of green shorts.

Graphic design school student Ali Aas was quoted on the school’s website stating that graphic design students had a lot of questions about the scientific side of the project and that they were ultimately able to design a concept that was “both visually impressive and also worked with what the engineers and our team were designing.”