Kent ISD — Reagan Janson has discovered there is a lot to consider when designing a logo and packaging for a business.
“You have to consider the typography,” said the Grandville junior as she looked over the logo design of a specialty shop, called Verde Outing, she created with classmate and Northview junior Emily Hilty.
“We wanted it to look expensive but not cluttered. We chose the dark green to indicate that it was outdoors and had the mountains included, as (the shop) was about mountain sports.”
Reagan and Emily are part of the Kent Career Tech Center’s Marketing + Design class, which was introduced this school year to help meet the high interest in the Tech Center’s marketing program.
“It’s kind of bouncing back and forth between the two different (areas), the designing (and) the marketing, so (students) are starting to see how they meld together,” said instructor Brooke Uzarski.
The Fundamentals of Design
Because of the large waiting list for the Tech Center’s Entrepreneurship and Marketing and Graphic Communications programs, the Tech Center team decided to add the Marketing + Design course and offer it to students who were on the waiting list. Uzarski was tapped to teach the class because of her 18 years of work experience in graphic design.
Reagan said she saw the new class as an opportunity to explore both worlds of design and marketing and felt the class provided a way for her to determine which area she enjoyed most.
The yearlong course has two sessions, currently with 18 students in the morning session and 16 students in the afternoon. Uzarski said the numbers have been ideal in helping to develop the course materials.
For the first semester, students spend time learning the design side of marketing, she said. Students learned to use three Adobe programs, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, and had the opportunity to become certified in those programs. The students also learn about typography and design fundamentals.
In the second semester, students focus on the marketing aspect, working in groups of two to both create their own “specialty shop” and also design marketing materials for another group’s shop.
Each group does a swap — acting as a design agency for one team while another group steps in as the design agency for their own specialty shop. As “outside contractors,” students first get to know their classmates’ shop by learning its target audience, location, focus and “vibe,” Uzarski said. They then utilize their newfound design skills to create logos, packaging and promotional materials.
“They don’t just get to create whatever they want, but they have to (create) as if they were servicing someone else,” the teacher said.
Creating a Brand
Students randomly selected their specialty shop themes by drawing from a hat.
Grandville junior Kyleigh Anderson and her partner, Caledonia senior Lauren Collett, drew aromatherapy. Kyleigh said she had to do some research, as she wasn’t initially familiar with what aromatherapy involved.
The two first came up with a star containing the words, “The Aroma Lab,” as their shop’s logo. But it left her classmates confused as to what the business was about, she said.
“When someone hears the word ‘lab,’ they usually think of a tube, like a test tube,” Kyleigh said.
Based on this feedback, Kyleigh and Lauren removed the star and added a test tube with flowers to be The Aroma Lab’s logo. Their “design team” classmates then helped them refine the logo, giving the test tube a broader base, as they prepared it for stickers, tumblers, keychains and other promotional materials.
In their role as design contractors, Emily and Reagan worked with their classmates’ protein chocolate shop, called NuriCoa. The “owners” of NuriCoa wanted their colors to be black and gold and asked Emily and Reagan to use a specific font that had an engraved look.
Emily and Reagan worked on developing packaging for the store’s products along with other promotional materials, Emily said.
Even though the students were all in class together, they would send emails to their clients and schedule meetings just like an agency would do, she said.
A Happy Accident
“Getting into this class was a good thing,” Emily said, adding that she has a passion for graphic design and plans to take advanced graphics next year.
“When I first joined (the class), I wasn’t too crazy about the design (aspect),” Kyleigh said. “I pretty much just joined for the marketing aspect, but … they go hand to hand, and either way, I would have had to do it. So I think if I do get into marketing and entrepreneurship, having this background knowledge is a little bit of an advantage in my opinion.”
“I think another good benefit is how close we are as a class,” Kyleigh added. “We can be honest with each other, critique each other, and it just goes from there.”
Emily said that because the class is hands-on and encourages student interaction, it’s helped them not only build friendships but also develop skills they’ll be able to use in the future.
“You’re still learning, but it’s about something you’re actually passionate about or at least interested in,” Emily said. “That’s why I think (the Tech Center) is such a great opportunity — so many people here have a real passion for what they’re doing, and even if they’re not totally sure yet, they’re still getting out of the regular school routine and trying something new, learning in a different way.
“I feel like almost everyone here has gained something from this experience, one way or another.”
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