Adteacher

Today I got to view a wonderful video on Vimeo (which will have to be viewed at home, not at school) about the property where LucasFilm and Skywalker Sound and "everything George Lucas" is housed. I got a chance to re-live a wonderful experience from several summers ago while watching this video, and it got me to have a real appreciation one more time for what amazing things have happened to me in recent years at Dale Jackson. Here is the backstory about Skywalker... I had a student in my class a few years back (around 2006) named James. His photo is the black and white photo right above George Lucas there. One day in class, we were having a talk, and I learned from James that his uncle was then the editor-in-chief  and founder of the publication for the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a magazine called EDUTOPIA. It was of great interest to me, because I had been an occasional contributor to that publication in the past, and I read it every time that it c...

This year in the advanced afternoon class, there are more people doing traditional art to complete illustrations than in any year since I have been at DJCC. There are talented students painting and drawing, there are even some really cool mixed media pieces that are being created. Typically, a majority of the projects done for our spring competitions are digitally produced. This year, we have a lot of students intrigued with doing some of their work using non-computer technique mixed with digital. It is a great way to work, and I am glad that the students understand the relevance of all the tools that they have at their disposal. In the studio is a conference table with a nice working surface. Students in the PM class come in around 12:30 or so and sit there for half an hour before we start class and eat lunch together and share conversation. It is a nice time of the day where they can talk about art topics and just spend a little while discussing whatever they would usually discuss ...

Senior designer Nick is one persistent dude. As a beginning design student, Nick was not very good at vector art, by his own admission. One thing that he refused to do though, was give up on improving. He has really made strides this year, and it is very easy to be proud of what he has accomplished. Nick plans to attend Texas Tech University next year, and he had a few things to say about completing the vector illustration above. "The truck illustration was almost an entire semester's project... I only finished it a few weeks before the end of the term. I almost gave up on it several times because I wanted it to be a very realistic vector." Nick is sort of a perfectionist. "One of the hardest parts was teaching myself how to do a metallic blend. Thankfully, it didn't take too long to learn. Another frustrating aspect was trying to vector the lights. I deleted everything I had on them at least twice. I'm glad I stuck with it though because I have learne...

Today I would like to feature one of our advanced class students, Charlotte, a senior who attends Marcus HS. This is a girl who never slows down! She is a very hard worker and never stops thinking of ways to be creative. She visited France over the recent winter break and is always working on some interesting project. Her words regarding her artistic motivation: "Myself as an artist? This is something I really can't quite tell you at this point. I would, of course, tell you about me as an artist if I really knew myself. Art is much less a hobby than it is the way I am and the way I do everything in my life. I have been to foreign places and lived in different countries but my attraction to art has remained the same. My most particular talent is my willingness to venture out of the box. I have gone through lots of different courses in school to always keep my mind going. One genre of art is not enough for me. I have designed theatrical productions and sets and watched my idea...

I promised a look at Conner's logo designs, and as promised... the unveiling. Above is the logo that he designed for the new Career Center East, and below... the new logo for the Dale Jackson Career Center. We are proud of the new slogans as well, "A new direction in Career & Technology" for CCE, and "Paving the Way" for DJCC. The next thing that must be said is a sincere congratulations to the five students who were selected to progress from local competition to District 4 in advertising design skills. The students whose work will be featured later in another entry are: Ryan Brownhill, David Venable, Adam Williams, Amber Jackson and Amy Hillberry. All of these students are from Marcus HS except for Adam Williams, who is from Hebron HS. Good job and good luck as you go on. Competition time is always a little bit stressful as we all prepare projects and process books and get ready for outside critique. There is something validating about it and still, so...

Sometimes people just get on creative hot streaks, and Conner seems to be on one right now. First he created a new logo for the Dale Jackson Career Center. Then he created an awesome motion graphics typography-based piece in After Effects. Then, when asked to create a new logo for the Career Center East, he created a unique and professional logo AGAIN! Conner, we are proud of what you do every day in terms of your relationships with your classmates and your high standards, but now you also deserve serious respect for your professionalism as well. We are very honored to have a talent like yours in our studio every day. Conner designed this motion piece in After Effects that features the logo design that he created in animated form. The logo is a symbolic representation of a pathway to the top of the earth. The slogan is "Paving the Way" and it is capitalizing on the switch to "career pathways" that we are using in Career and T...

As you can plainly see from these lovely iPhone snaps, we ran around and got "provisions" for another week of our lives. We can start the week at school knowing that we have food to cook when we get home from work now, and there's some sort of comfort in knowing that we won't have to go to the store again at least for awhile. It was a busy weekend, because in addition to all of the shopping, there was housecleaning and work to do to prepare for the new week of classes too. Not to mention some other outside work to do for others in the school district. I wish I could say that we have time to be bored, but no. That would not be true, in fact, it is hard some days to find a few minutes to update the blog. I will be doing an entry every day that it is possible to do one though. This one will have to be short because of my need to get some correspondence done and about 5 letters of recommendation written to design schools for students who will be graduating this spring...