School-based business provides creative marketplace

— Trisha Benton

Laurel Advocate

LAUREL — Mikayla Walker had to choose between first period PE or the new digital arts class.

For her, the choice was easy: digital arts.

“I mostly figured that it’d be one of those classes where I just show up and do the work to get an A but it’s actually become one of my favorite classes,” said the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge senior.

River Jelinek foresees some Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator work in his future.

The junior at Laurel-Concord-Coleridge has enjoyed the new Digital Media and Mass Communications class so much that he sees graphic design as a potential career.

“I have enjoyed the ability to express myself artificially through a new medium,” he said.

Jelinek and other students get the chance to “work” in the field prior to graduation with the newly formed school-based business Bear Studios. Students’ original designs and other services will be offered to the community for a donation.

For example, a student-designed 24-inch-by-36-inch poster will be posted and available online through the LCC website for a donation of $15. Other student services and products such as logo and website creation, brochures, videos, T-shirts, social media posts, business cards, senior banners, buttons and so many other items will be available through a set fee or by quote by emailing bearstudios@lccschool.org.

All of the proceeds from Bear Studios will go into a Digital Media Club account and be used to further student education through field trips and supplies.

The class started as an interest among students and an extension of the fine arts into the digital world, said teacher Shasta Hans. The elective class - currently made up of nine high school students - meets every day and works on different design projects from concept to execution, along the way learning design software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Canva, iMovie and others.

Along with hands-on work, the students hear from guest speakers and also do a Design Fail Fridays session each week to critique others’ work.

Along with the work for Bear Studios, students will also be developing the senior video for graduation.

“My goal for this class is to prepare students . . . to be competitive in the ever changing fields of photography, digital media, graphic design, video/audio production, web design, animation and marketing,” Hans said, adding that other skills like collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity are all part of it, too.

It’s a learning process, Jelinek said.

“What has surprised me the most has been how much depth the tools in Photoshop have. You can do so much,” he said.

Freshman Baylie Graf agreed that the software was more difficult to use than she expected. But she’s not one to shy away from learning new and difficult things.

Students recently submitted original graphic design for the Lewis & Clark Conference Art Show held at Wayne State College with favorable results.

Students are excited to take the next step and put their talent on display and up for sale.

“None of the other classes have their own business, so I think it’s just neat that we’re one of the first classes to get to do that,” Walker said.