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By Design

SJCOE Graphic Arts student creates the right image to help schoolchildren celebrate the environment

 

When Graphic Arts student Raul Gurrola designed the artwork that emblazoned a T-shirt for a local school district’s environmental celebration – he did more than just make a picture.

The 17-year-old high school junior started by coming up with an idea, then he worked with the organizers of Planet Party Day, an environmentally-themed event for sixth-graders in the Manteca Unified School District in spring.

The organizers wanted changes, and Raul made them.

The idea evolved.

When it was all over, Raul’s design was on the T-shirts and badges handed out to the Planet Party Day essay contest winners, declaring them Environmental Ambassadors.

For the Manteca Unified organizers, the resulting graphic was the right image to set the right tone for an integral piece of an important event.

For Raul – a San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) Career Technical Education (CTE) student – it was part of his coursework.

Developing an idea through constant communication with a client is part of what Raul and other Graphic Arts students learn, said teacher Tammy Lovett. “It’s all part of the process,” she said.

But Raul excelled at it, which is why he was given an award. His family members came to watch as he received a certificate from the SJCOE staff. The Manteca Unified organizers came, too, and gave him one, each, of the T-shirts and badges he made possible.

“It was a fun design to make,” Raul said.

He said it was the kind of task that would prepare him in the working world, where a company wanting to highlight its own efforts to go green could call on him to do the work.

 

Posted: 7/6/2015