Summer Learning: Beginning Concepts in Commercial Arts

For the last several summers I have had the good fortune to be a summer school mentor to middle school and high school students through Education 2020. 

 This summer along with being an ED2020 mentor I took advantage of an opportunity to teach Beginning Concepts in Commercial Arts. 

Over the course of two weeks, I had four shortened session with students entering the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.

The two main programs I introduced to the students during the sessions were Adobe Illustrator CS5 and Adobe Photoshop CS5. 


  
Even though many of the students had never worked with the software before it was exciting to see how quickly they began to pick up the program's secrets and shortcuts. Here are a few of their favorite projects created during the different sessions.
  
The middle school students focused on learning how to manipulate digital photography and create works of art with a strong composition through the Adobe software.

I have personally enjoyed experimenting with the Adobe Design Premium programs on my own for a few years now and it made me happy to have the chance to expose adolescents to an art related field that they could pursue when deciding their career path in the years to come.

The students learned about the history of Commerical and Graphic Arts during the sessions and began to understand just how present these two career fields are in their life each day even down to the advertising designs in the magazines they love to read.
  





Using pages from magazines students created a paper pot with scotch tape and mod podge.

The students loved learning about how to recycle such a common item in their household and also reflected on the designs of the advertisements and layout of the articles in the magazines while they were folding their pages. 




Many of the students found a favorite page and kept it safe in their pile to finish the rim of their pot with style.


The two weeks were full of fun, laughter, and learning about Commercial Arts.  I couldn't have asked for better students and I hope I get the opportunity again next year to instruct Beginning Concepts in Commercial Arts.


-GRich