Hunterdon County Polytech Career & Technical High School was once again well-represented by its student designers in Cabrini University’s Art + Effect Poster Contest for High School Students.
Hunterdon County Polytech Career & Technical High School was once again well-represented by its student designers in Cabrini University’s Art + Effect Poster Contest for High School Students. Four out of the 15 top poster designs came from Hunterdon County Polytech Graphic Design students.
Cabrini received 126 student entries from among 12 high schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois depicting the theme of finding solutions to the difficulties of promoting community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Student designs focused on the positive impact community has on society as changemakers.
Polytech’s winning graphic designers are all seniors from instructor Cynthia Dailey’s Graphic Design II class:
“I’m very proud of all of them,” Dailey said of her students’ efforts. “It was a difficult topic, and not as cut and dry as most topics.” The students responded by drawing from their own personal experiences. “Everyone has a unique concept of who their community is and how they portray it.
“Aguirre created imagery with typography, using the names of social movements and advocacy groups throughout his poster, and then applied a gradient to the type using color palettes associated with each group to convey the message of “power in community.”
Aguirre said, “I wanted to try to make it all work together in the poster with color and all the movements listed in the background.” He also included websites at the bottom of his poster that correlate to the movements listed on the poster to help people learn more and get involved, if interested.
Gomes is part of a community of photographers from around the world. He said they all started talking to each other and sharing advice on photography during the pandemic. So, to create his poster, he asked his fellow photographers to take a photo of themselves holding their cameras.
“I thought that I could use each of their photos in the different blocks that make up the word community to show that we stayed connected through the pandemic and we helped each other with advice, tips, business ideas and ways to improve our skills,” Gomes, who remains involved in that community today, said.
It took Seibert about three weeks to formulate the idea behind his design and get comfortable with it. “My idea was to promote community through online gaming,” he said. During quarantine, Seibert said he maintained a group of gamers from around the world. “I met quite a few friends during that time, and it reaffirmed that everyone is going through this and no one had it easy.”
The bonds he formed helped him combat the effects of the isolation that came with periods of quarantine and remote learning.
Hanley wanted to capture how powerful the simple act of gathering around a table for a meal can be. It was, perhaps, something most took for granted prior to the pandemic. To have the greatest impact, he looked to his classmates for help. “We did a critique and someone suggested I put the text on the table and make it look like the text was the table,” Hanley said. He did just that, and landed on the finalist list with his design.
“That’s what graphic design is about,” Dailey said. “It’s about collaborating and feeding off each other, helping and nurturing each other and giving each other a realistic perspective once in a while.”
She said the class provided critiques every Friday for two months. The students benefitted from the talents and ideas of their peers in their highly focused design program.
“The feedback was so instrumental in allowing the designers to push away from their comfort zones and try the suggestions and surprise themselves.”
The students’ work was judged on originality, craftsmanship and thematic message. This year’s judges were Michele Cooper, partner at Cooper Graphic Design; Angelina Lippert, chief curator at Poster House; and Frances Yllana, experience director at projekt202.
The work of the finalists will be on display at the Gorevin Gallery at Cabrini University in Radnor, Pennsylvania, until Jan. 12.
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