Monday, March 2, 2026

Tuesday (3/3)

Hey all! 
Here are your instructions for today's class... 

 1. Finish your "Team/Event Informational Poster". Be sure to make the necessary adjustments incorperating the Design Principles we learned last week: 

- Proximity

-  Alignment

- Repetition

- Contrast

 2. Create another poster of your choice with Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, and Contrast on full display. The Design Principles should be obvious in your work. Here are some ideas for posters if you are having trouble coming up with an idea on your own:

Boys Swimming (Lakeshore Conference Champs)



 Boys Basketball (District Champs)

Spring Sports

Check out the announcements for poster ideas! 

Special Olympics Michigan Polar Plunge!! Be BOLD and Get COLD for the Special Olympics Michigan and our HCHS Unified Sports Program on Wednesday, March 11. Join the HCHS Student Team at Student Registration or the HCS Staff Team at Staff Registration. Email Mrs. Pawloski at apawloski@hollandchristian.org if you have any questions. Go Maroons!

Trap Shooting Club - It's not too late to sign up for the trap shooting club! League registration is open until March 23rd at a cost of $40 for the spring season. The club is open to everyone (girls and guys) in the 9th to 12th grades. We shoot on Tuesday evenings starting at 5:00 beginning in the middle of March through the end of May. No shooting experience required, however you must have access to a 12- or 20-gauge shotgun. A hunter's safety certificate is required. If you are interested contact Scott Spykerman, sspykerman@live.com, (616) 610-9022. 

Living Hope Showcase 2026: Vintage Vibes: Groovy Songs of the '70's on March 13 and 14 @ 7 pm in the HCHS Auditorium. Tickets are on sale now! Join us in celebrating the iconic songs of the '70's. From Disco to Rock, Folk to Funk, Showcase will be a groovy time! Tickets are available at  https://hcs.ludus.com/200517255. $1 of every ticket will benefit the Community Action House.  

The first Bass Club Meeting will be this Tuesday, March 3 from 6:30-8:00pm in the Middle School Media Center.
Meeting Dates for the season are as follows:
Tuesday, March 3
Thursday, March 19
Tuesday, March 31
Thursday, April 16 and 30
Contact Brent Leegwater: Brent.infocus@rocketmail.com or Alec Boeve: Alec.boeve1219@icloud.com with questions.

Spring Show: Wait Until Dark Auditions - Our 2026 Spring Show is Wait Until Dark, a suspenseful thriller about a recently blinded woman living in an apartment who becomes the target of men pretending to be harmless visitors. As their strange behavior escalates, she realizes she’s in danger and must rely on her intelligence and awareness to protect herself.
Spring Show auditions are this Tuesday, March 3, with Callbacks on Wednesday, March 4.
To sign up for General Auditions, please follow this link. To apply to be on a Crew for the Spring Show, please apply using this link. For more information and resources, please visit the Wait Until Dark Google Classroom.
   

Monday, February 23, 2026

Team/Event Informational Poster



Collect

- Pictures
- Dates
- Roster or Cast

Resources

- hollandchristian.org
- hollandchristian.org/athletics
- http://hollandchristian.smugmug.com/browse 


Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Type Posters



Find an event happening at school...

Some ideas:

Spring Play 

District Basketball Tournament

Swimming and Diving Event

MIFA

Student Council (Blood Drive, Spirit Week, House Olympics)

Club (Student Diversity Council, Robotics)

Include info...

Date, Time, Location, Tag Line

Using ONLY type, make an interesting and engaging promotional poster!

Here is one I made for the counselors...

 



Sculptural Typeface Example

Hey all!

Chances are you will need a few more days on your digital and handwritten typefaces, but I wanted to introduce the sculptural typeface. You will have to collect objects to arrange as your letters. It might be a good idea to set this up at home, photograph it, and then upload it to the computers at school. Come prepared to keep working and make good use of your time in class!

Above is a GREAT example of a sculptural typeface created by a student from last year! Using only books and balance, they came up with this amazing number 8!

With concerns to presentation of your sculpture typeface, you might want to consider clipping or cutting. To do this, you would use the lasso tool. Here is a quick tutorial you can watch with headphones on:


Depending on how your photographs turned out, it might give your typeface a cleaner, more professional look.

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Digital Typefaces

 

1. https://fontstruct.com/

This is a website that allows you to create your own fonts and typefaces!


2. https://www.1001freefonts.com/

Spend some time exploring this site - search different fonts and find some that you like!


3. Rasterizing Type in Photoshop:

Type a letter in Photoshop. On the type Layer, double click and scroll down to "Rasterize Type".

Rasterizing the type will turn the letter into an object you can edit:

Try the eraser tool, lasso tool, and others to change the letter and make your own version!

ABC123 Handwritten Example



Here's the final product! Below are the images I started with...



After taking these pictures on my phone, I e-mailed/air dropped them to myself and opened them in photoshop. From there, my first step was to desaturate the image. That means it was made completely black and white. To do that, go to:

Image>Adjustments>Desaturate


From here, it is time to make the background white and darken our drawn lines. To do this, go to

Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast

and play around with both the brightness and contrast.
Now it's time to color the image! Use brushes and paintbucket to finish the job!
If you worked on your letters or numbers separately, be sure to copy and paste them all together, in the appropriate order and layout.



And here is my final...



Thursday, February 5, 2026

ABC123 Project

Hey all!

For our next project we will be designing our own typefaces! You will be designing a...

- Digital Typeface (think FontStruct or rasterizing type in Photoshop) 

 


- Handwritten Typeface (You will be drawing on paper!)

- Sculptural Typeface (Build it in 3D!)

To start - pick a set of three consecutive letters and three consecutive numbers. Example:

Aa Bb Cc

123

These will be the numbers and letters you design for all three of your approaches. You must do both uppercase and lowercase for your 3 letters. Also, your layout must be letters centered over numbers:

 

 Throughout the project, I will show you different examples and ways to go about designing. This is a big project to take on! Can't wait to see what we come up with!

- Slenk

Monday, February 2, 2026

Compositions



Compositions:

- Using only one letter or one number create an entire composition
- Use any typeface (take some time to explore multiple typefaces and consider if you would like to work with type that is more geometric or more organic)
- Compositions are to be only black and white
- Consider the elements and principles of design.

Emphasis (Where is the focal point?)
Line (Visual line. What path does your eye travel?)
Proportion and Scale (Size relationships)
Rhythm and Repetition
Shape (Positive & Negative, Figure/Ground)
Space (Foreground, Middle ground, Background)
Unity and Variety

- 2 compositions will be turned in...


Compositions- Past Student Examples





Friday, January 30, 2026

Helvetica #Letter


Things to consider when working on your #Letter


- Experiment with uppercase/lowercase
- Use a variety of regular/light/bold type
- Consider your use of Negative Space or Figure/Ground relationship



- Focus on combinations/transitions. Are they seamless?
- Pay attention to cropping/framing

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Helvetica #Letter



Class project. Using only Helvetica type create 10 different combinations of one letter + one number...

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Graphic Design

1st Graphic Design blog entry

As we start this year together, what are some of your expectations for a class named Graphic Design? Another way to think about this question might be to simply ask

What is Graphic Design?

What are some of the different aspects or elements of Graphic Design? Where do you see it in the world? And what designs influence you? (style, brands, art, etc... Provide pictures for this part please. Below are some of my influences)

Please take some time to give some thoughtful feedback to the questions above in your 1st blog entry







WELCOME!

Hey all! Welcome to Graphic Design. I'm excited to be working with all of you. Your first assignment for class will be to create your own blog! This blog will be a great way to document and share your work. It will also give us another way to communicate throughout the semester.