What e-Comm Is To Me

Olathe Northwest High School's e-Communication is incredible. Within this program students get to expand their creative desires and explore their skills through art. It is a place where everybody belongs and expressing yourself comes easily. In your first year of e-Comm you are transported through the different strands. Video, Animation, Graphic Design, and Web Design; one strand for each quarter. When you finish your first year you must decide which two strands you like best for your second year. Then for your third year, you must choose one strand. It is an impressive system, and it allows you to get a real feel for the strand you like best.

Here is a brief explanation for each strand:

Video: Within video there are sub-strands. You could choose broadcast journalism, sports journalism, or entertainment. In video, you create all sorts of projects while learning how to iMovie and FinalCutPro. You add text, effects, etc. It is a great strand and most who graduate the strand move on to studying film in college.

Animation: Animation is seems pretty simple: you create cartoons. Wrong. There is so much more to animation than anyone thinks! You must create pictures and sketches and sketch boards to create animation projects in Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, and Google Sketch Up. These students create things such as 3D houses, cartoon stories, 3D Characters, explosions, etc. It's an impressive strand and these students seem to grasp the concept of technology best in this strand.

Graphic Design: Graphic Design is a strand where you further your interests in logos, print layout, and illustration. You learn different aspects of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. It's a great strand and it really lets you explore yourself through art.

Web Design: Web Design is (in my opinion) one of the hardest strands of e-Comm. In this strand you learn how to code and create websites. It is very interesting to learn how to code because it's almost like a different language. In this class you will create all sorts of different websites in Dreamweaver while also using combined skills of photography and graphic design. Web is essential to all things e-Comm.

If I could recommend one activity to a student entering Olathe Northwest I would tell them to enter this program. It is an awesome way to create art.

Logo Process

How does logo design tell your story?

A personal logo is the best way to represent yourself in an artistic way. When I first started making my logos, I found this color that I loved. I knew that I wanted to use that color no matter what. It is a mix between a blue and green and it is gorgeous. Blue is my favorite color, and the color of my eyes. Another reason I went with this blue/green is because it represents the clear blue sea. I love the ocean, and I love the waves, so this color (the very first step of my process) already represented me in many different ways.

My next step was choosing a shape to base my logo off of. I started with a square; a perfectionist shape (like me), then I tried a circle; a shape that represents unity. I liked them both, but they were too simple, the opposite of me. I tried everything from peace signs to ying-yangs, but nothing was quite right. A combination I really liked were three circles in a row which reminded me of a "..." I messed around with a couple things coming up with two different logos using the "..." shape theme. When I asked for some input from my friends, they suggested that I combined the two versions. When I did, it was clear that was the logo to go with.

When it came to choosing fonts, it was easy. There are certain fonts that I believe completely resemble me in many different aspects. I chose the font Book Antiqua as well as Jellyka Princess. Overall, I'm very happy and very proud of my final product.