AIGA comes to a classroom near you

The Memphis chapter of AIGA wanted to create a K-12 curriculum that taught students what a graphic designer is and what they do. I raised my hand and took on this program thinking, well I have been trying to explain that to my kids for years. Now I can dedicate an entire course to it!

Since November 2009 I have been working with AIGA board members, a graphic designer who developed a design course at a local private school and Colonial Middle School. Colonial is one of Memphis' Optional Public Schools focusing on the arts (dance, singing, art and creative writing) and they offered us the opportunity to test our course on their students. Out of all of the art classes at Colonial we singled out Ms. Allen's 7th grade creative writing students because we thought it would be a good match for the AIGA class objectives and because she felt that this class had some real talent and could be challenged by this course.

This April I taught my first class and I have to say this was the most amazing experience. I was so worried about working with 7th graders who were already educated about page layout and creative thinking. I had nightmares the week before that they were going to be "too cool" to participate or get involved, but instead these kids were energetic, warmed up to AIGA volunteers and really got into it.

I had two class days to have students design their own posters about Optional Schools. We wanted them to focus on who they were designing the poster for and make sure that message and the images supported that communication. The first day I spent 15 minutes reviewing some basic design principles and showing examples.

Then we passed out supplies and showed the students how to work the blender pens to transfer type and images from their booklets to their posters.

Thanks to our wonderful AIGA volunteers, these students got some real one on one professional help with their designs.

John and Matt helped students think through their designs and answer any questions they might have.

Jessa used some of the materials provided to help her students think out of the box.

Emily was enjoying the creative energy.

Michael, Memphis AIGA president, was hands on with his group.

How can you not enjoy yourself with such a fun group of students?

I think we might have had more fun than the kids.

The look on Michael's face is priceless. Don't worry, man, they'll get it.

Jen looks so happy working with her group. I must add that after the first day, I think I skipped all the way to work. These students had such great energy.

I can't thank Ms. Allen enough for all of these great photos. She snapped more than 200 images and did a great job of capturing highlights of our first class.

These students are so intense!

The second day was dedicated to letting the students finish up their posters.

They worked so hard, but we just ran out of time. Even though they weren't able to finish their posters in two days, at the end of the class they got to show off how far they had gotten and talk about what they were trying to do with their message and how their posters targeted their audience.

Ms. Allen had the students continue to work on them over the weekend and sent the pictures of the final product. Aren't these great?

Despite the enthusiasm on their faces, I think we have some of these posters really show that they understood what we were trying to teach.

A couple I would like to point out...

I love this poster because the different colors look like puzzle pieces. For students, I think it is a huge plus to show how they get to pick and choose the classes they take at their school.

This poster has so much energy! Even in the group shot, his stands out. I especially love the comments from the audience in the bubbles.

She used the header at the top and the corner borders on the bottom to keep the viewers eyes focused on the center of her poster. Great job!

Look how she used the dancer to divide up the page and make "Colonial Middle School" really pop.

I don't know why she isn't more excited about her poster. Her concept was original and I really loved the attention she put on her fonts.

Here is a close up of the detailed lettering.

For our first class, I am thrilled with the results. I got some feedback from the students and will be sitting down with both the teacher and the volunteers over the next couple of weeks and see what changes they would like to make now that we have actually done the class. Is it intense? Yes. But I have already gotten back ten times what I put in and I can't wait to do it again.