Adteacher

Today I wasn't in school. Instead it was a rainy, gray, drizzly drive to and then back from Waco. Being the District 4 Technical Chairs, we had a responsibility to set up all of the projects for display today. There were about 52 total Ad Design projects in our district this year, and they are all judged and rated and ribboned now. The blog entry for tomorrow will have a full listing of the students who will be advancing to state for projects, but for now I can say that two DJCC students have won recognition for Best of Show in both Advertising Design and Illustration categories. Nick Hummert's technical illustration of a Saleen F150 was singled out for Best of Show in illustration. Nick is a senior from Hebron HS who plans to attend Texas Tech University next year. For the first time ever, a motion graphics entry was named the Best of Show in advertising design, and that honor goes to Conner Tozier, who was recently accepted to CalArts and hopes to attend if he can get a schol...

I remember at the beginning of this day I anxiously looked out the window and was hoping to see some beautiful drifting snowflakes. That didn't happen. The weather forecast had the snow predicted too far north, and we got nothing here at our house. School went on as usual. As it turns out, I am very glad that it didn't interfere with the school day, because so many great things happened that I would have hated to miss out on it. Number one, I received word of some great news regarding a couple of my students and CalArts. Their early round of letters of acceptance have gone out, and both Conner and Ryan were on the accepted list! I know that Conner has CalArts as his number one school, so I feel that he will attend. I am hopeful that once the scholarship offers go out, he is on that list as well! Ryan has now been accepted by four of the five schools that he has applied to: he was offered a $16,000 per year scholarship by SCAD, and he has been accepted also at CalArts, MICA, a...

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 wonderful as most of my days are, this one had its challenges. I am very glad to see the end of day and my cup of warm coffee as I sit in my nice cozy living room. Another thing that I am happy about today is the wonderful work that has been produced lately by my students. Today we had a large number who competed for a spot on this year's SkillsUSA team. The work that they produced will be reviewed this weekend, and there should be an announcement upcoming on Monday or Tuesday. I will share the work of the top three winners on the blog. I am excited to know who will be chosen to represent DJCC at District 4 competition. Another thrilling thing that was unveiled today in class was the recent motion graphics work being done by Conner... wow. There will eventually be a copy of his work posted to the blog, but for now, just know it is worth waiting for! This weekend I hope to start shopping for my "Mother of the Groom" dress and also a few other clothes to wear to showers,...

A special request came in today from Isaac, Class of '09. He has entered one of his works in a design competition about school bullying. There is $1000 at stake and he would love to claim it! He actually did this poster several years ago in ad design for an anti-bullying assignment in our class, but it fit this design contest perfectly. He would like to ask the ad design students at DJCC and any alumni who may be watching the blog to vote and elevate his piece in the rankings. If you would click through and vote for him, it would be awesome! Create an Anti-Bullying Poster Brickfish The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo . Now, about the two items immediately above...Conner, one of our senior students, was kind enough to share this wonderful video with me. I thought it would be great to share it with you. It is completely computer animated and based on architecture. As you will see when you go to the video (on your home computer... those of you reading this at school...