REPRESENT!
Creative Art Work's’ graphic design programs challenge students to take what they know, understand, or notice, and give it a form others can understand.
A student at City-as-School creates a collage poster
A student at Manhattan Early College Academy for Marketing & Media Arts displays her work.
This spring, students in Creative Art Works’ graphic design programs explored two questions at the heart of both design and identity: “How do we see ourselves?” and “How do we help others see what we see?”
At City-As-School, students designed art-as-activism posters, turning their concerns into public visual statements. At Manhattan Early College Academy for Marketing & Media Arts (MECA), students took a walking field trip to landmarks and business around the school and then created neighborhood maps that captured the people, places, and stories shaping their community. This was a way of locating themselves within the spaces they call home. At Gotham Tech High School, students turned complex data into infographic posters, learning how design can make information, and their own understanding of it, visible to others.
Each project asked students to do the same essential work: Take what they know, understand, or notice, and give it a form others can understand. That is representation, and it’s one of the most valuable skills a person can develop in school and beyond.
A crucial step for all students and interns came during the culminating event for each program, when our young designers presented their work to their peers and teachers. Presentations are a regular part of any commercial artist's life, and advocating for your designs is a crucial workplace skill.
Form Meets Function
Interns in an after-school workplace challenge at Manhattan Early College School for Marketing and Media Arts (MECA) designed neighborhood maps that reflect their favorite hangouts around the school, including a basketball-themed guide to local courts, a guide to fast food joints in the shape of an open mouth, and a map of healthy eateries in the form of a tree.
Ideas Can Change the World
Students in a CAW graphic design class at City-as-School explored the ways art and design can be used to give shape to abstract ideas and advocate for change. Using typography, color, and composition, these young designers explored how words and images can be combined to persuade or provoke, turning graphic design into a powerful tool for communication. Students began by creating collages inspired by song lyrics. Some students used Canva, a digital layout program, to complete their final projects, while others preferred the more immediate and intuitive act of cutting and pasting paper.
A Moment of Clarity
Gotham Tech’s Career and Technical Education Pathways immerse students in hands-on learning experiences across various fields. One of these pathways is data analytics. In a CAW workplace challenge, Gotham Tech students created posters that combined both descriptive text and visual elements, such as symbols or illustrations, to effectively communicate a data set such as Ivy League acceptance rates or Marvel Film Studio Profits. Each poster had to utilize design concepts of space, including proximity, alignment, contrast, and overlap and layering.
Teaching Staff
Sofia Pujol
CAW Teaching Artist
Isabella Kayle
CAW Teaching Artist
Sean Kelly
CAW Teaching Artist
Kevin Claiborne
Program Manager
Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation
Creative Art Works’ workforce development programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. These programs also receive support from the AEO Better World Foundation, the LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, and the William Talbot Hillman Foundation. Creative Art Works' programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.