8th grade: Taking Creative Risks

I am proud to say that my current 8th graders are the FIRST class to have had me as an art teacher since they started middle school in 5th grade! Wow! Time seriously flies! With that in mind I am sincerely hoping that my oldest students really take what they have learned in previous years and apply it ,with their own creativity, in their final year of middle school. They started off the year designing their names in graffiti- (a favorite project for this age,) but then we look more seriously at letterforms as art.

Middle schoolers are all too familiar with the idea that words can make you feel different emotions. Different fonts are often designed to do the same thing. Some are meant to seem playful, some serious, and some dark and moody. We discuss how a saying can become a famous quote when other people agree with the words and might feel the same way even years after the person who said it is gone. Words can have a lasting impact.

The 8th graders are then challenged to use type in a creative way to create their own typographic watercolor poster. They were to find a quote that resonated with them and create a poster that used 3 different font styles and 5 different watercolor techniques. The 8th graders rose to the challenge. Enjoy!