Several Permian High School students will move on to national competition in the national Business and Professionals of America competition in Orlando, Fla., later in the spring.
The national competition is scheduled May 10 through May 14, Permian graphic design and illustration teacher Candy Thompson said. State competition was March 1 through March 5 in Dallas.
The top two in each category in state competition move on to nationals, Thompson said.
Moving on in website are Tate Thompson, Keatyn Armstrong and Kade Davis.
Three testers – Catherine Vaughan, Vickie Tran and Tate Thompson – qualified for nationals. Thompson said those students have an hour to create a marketing plan including items like logos, business cards and invitations.
Tate Thompson and Vaughan qualified for nationals in digital publishing and Tran moved on in fundamentals of desktop publishing. Katelynn Winchell, a tester, got sixth place in state competition and was chosen as a national alternate, Thompson said.
“They did great. Permian’s name was called it seemed like all the time. We had so many in the top eight and if they were in the top eight, they made the stage,” Thompson said. She added that two of her teams got third place, which was “heartbreaking.”
Thompson’s classes are hands-on with students learning how to create logos for local businesses, government entities, like the City of Odessa and Ector County Independent School District, and agencies. They also make posters for Permian; create fatheads for basketball, T-shirts for sports squads, decals and coloring pages for local restaurants, such as Big Daddy’s.
When there is a lull, they look on the DesignCrowd website for graphics jobs, she said.
Students also use after effects software for postproduction where they can animate titles that can be used on web pages.
“What’s cool about that is the kids actually get to see their designs,” Thompson said.
Seventeen-year-old junior O’Ryann Jensen’s had her sign chosen for city’s dog park, Central Bark. She said she was “pretty shocked” her design was selected.
Jensen said she has been interested in graphic design for a few years and has always drawn.
“I like how I can express what I think with design ideas,” Jensen said. “I’m very creative with art and I love expressing it.”
Tate Thompson, Candy Thompson’s son, qualified for nationals in several categories. Tate, Davis and Armstrong make up the website design team. There were four team members, but they lost one.
“I feel like the design has turned out really good,” Davis said. “I like how we’ve incorporated it to make it look kind of like a workshop and how all the icons and stuff all flow together.”
Obed Alvidrez, a 16-year-old junior, is competing in graphic design promotion and website design.
“… We’re working really hard to make it to nationals this year,” Alvidrez said.
Designs created by Alvidrez and Hannah Shafer, also from Permian, were chosen for Odessa College’s mobile Fab Lab. The mobile lab, which provides digital fabrication technologies, will be in Austin March 6 through March 8 as part of the Southwest conference and festivals.
Alvidrez said his favorite part of graphic design is logos.
“It’s … letting your creativity out, but just like a certain aspect. Sometimes we do logos for animal shelters or shops. Building around that theme is pretty fun,” Alvidrez said.
Seventeen-year-old junior Soli Sanchez has created logos, banners and T-shirts for the basketball playoffs and swimming this year.
“… If I’m making a T-shirt for a team, I can give them what they want, but I can put my creativity into it,” Sanchez said. She got her first computer at age 12 and her mom ended up buying PhotoShop for her. Sanchez said she has designed items for her father and brother, as well.
Design is definitely something she wants to pursue.
“I want to get more advanced computers and software so can do everything I want to do,” Sanchez said. “… Some of the stuff I do takes a really long time to create. Once I’ve finally finished … I just look at it and I think, ‘I did this.’ I didn’t copy anybody. I didn’t get influence from anybody. It was my own thoughts. It’s my creation and I turned it into something on a screen and you can put it on a shirt. You can put it on so many different things.”
