Graphics

Guest article by students Rosanel R., Dezires O. and Micely C.

In Bob Leibow’s Graphic Design class at the Academy of Visual Arts, which is part of Manhattan's High School of Graphic Communication Arts, seniors use Blender, a free, open-source program for making 3-D objects. As you can see in their on-line slideshow -- http://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dgcn78ch_115d2pg7jj6 -- these students created images they thought were fun and simple. For example, Emely R. chose to create “The Powerpuff Girls," while another student, Andrew G., created the school mascot, a little devil.

We interviewed four students, all seniors, and they all agreed that the program was fun and a great experience. As one student, Dennis, said “If you like comic books or animated things you will pretty much like Blender.”

According to the students, Blender is very tricky, time consuming, and powerful, but with patience you can produce a very promising piece of art work. They recommended that anyone interested in the program should at least have some understanding of Adobe Photoshop. In this program, they said, if you don’t take your time and you make a mistake, you’ll end up having to start ALL over again.

If you would like to leave a comment for us or for these students, please visit our school's blog: http://academyofvisualarts.edublogs.org/.
Please tell us, What are some things that you really like about the work? What did you find interesting about it? What questions do you have about the work or the process? Would you like to try it yourself?

(You can download Blender at: http://www.blender.org/)

A new graphic design textbook from Davis Publications uses web sites and print layouts created by Chelsea CTE High School students as examples of effective design. In Communicating through Graphic Design, co-authors Kevin Gatta and Claire Mowbray Golding provide a comprehensive guide to the skills and techniques covered in a graphics curriculum. They include three examples of student work: e-portfolio web sites designed by Vicky Xu and Suleidy Baez, and a Harlem Week promotional poster created by Erika Loyola...

Ms. Loyola's poster also appears on the back cover of the textbook. The work is familiar to New York graphics educators since it won Second Place in the Annual Citywide Graphic Arts Competition in 2008. Ms. Kiri Bermack, Chelsea Commercial Art teacher, is listed as a senior educational art consultant in the text. Davis Publications is planning a reception to promote the book at Pratt Institute's  Manhattan campus this Spring.

INDUSTRY FOCUS

Graphic design, printing, publishing, advertising production, web development, digital photography,  interactive multimedia, presentation graphics and digital signage