Digital media class gives students a real world look into design, marketing

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

A new digital media class is giving MFL MarMac high school students a real world perspective into the graphic design and marketing fields.

MFL MarMac teacher librarian Melissa Haberichter co-teaches the class with Cheri Moser, who’s long worked in graphic design, marketing and media production and is instrumental in the district’s marketing and social media efforts.

Haberichter, who also teaches MFL MarMac’s MORE authentic learning class, presented the idea.

“I do a lot of things with work-based learning and trying to give real world classes and projects. Talking with kids about career choices, I thought there were quite a few who were interested in marketing and even design, but we didn’t offer it anywhere,” Haberichter said. “I think this is a really great collaboration between somebody who’s out in the business world, bringing them inside to give a real world perspective. I have a teaching degree, but she brings in these neat, interesting things. Together, we can make this happen.”

The class covers the basic concepts of graphic design and utilizes different projects to put those concepts into place. Students are largely using Adobe products such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

Photo altering was one of the first skills they learned.

“Now they all know how to change the color of anything in a photo or fix someone’s eyes being closed,” explained Moser.

Projects included designing a magazine cover and creating an MFL MarMac template that can be used for the school’s social media. 

“We had them do a template for golf and track and our alumni spotlights and senior spotlights. That’s going to get thrown out there on our social media, and those kids will get recognition for their designs,” Moser said. 

In Adobe Illustrator, students are learning about vector files and the importance of creating a design that, when sent to companies, is in the right format and built so anyone can see its elements and alter it in any way. 

With these skills, students are creating a logo for a fictitious company. They’ll also have their own design printed on a T-shirt thanks to a partnership with Epic Wear.

“It makes it a real project they are going to see,” Haberichter said. 

She and Moser hope to take the students on a field trip to a college graphic design program, in addition to bringing in an Elkader-based graphic designer with world-wide clientele as a guest speaker.

This, added Haberichter, “brings home the idea that these skills are marketable.”

“You can live in our area and do this kind of work for whatever clients you want to market yourself for,” Moser noted.

The digital media class will wrap up with video production and editing in Adobe Premier Pro.

Each new project is intimidating for some of the students, Moser acknowledged, but once they start working, it falls into place.

“It’s really fun to see what they come up with. The different ways they design things and how you can appreciate everybody’s style,” she said.

“And today, she had designs created by somebody else and pulled it apart into its pieces. The students reconstructed the designs,” Haberichter detailed. “It wasn’t so much about being right, but how would you do it and noticing you can approach the same project a lot of different ways.”

For senior Savannah Schaller and sophomore Scott Campbell, collaboration has been one of their favorite parts of the class. They enjoy working in a group environment that includes 10 students ranging from freshmen to seniors.

“You’re able to get critiques and use them or not, but in the end, you realize everyone just wants to help each other out,” Schaller said. “Creatively, you learn to look at things in a new way you wouldn’t have before. It’s super fun, and I’m glad we implemented this into our class curriculum.”

“This is going to help me work with others,” Campbell shared. “It’s a small class, but as a group, we’ve grown as a whole.” 

This is similar to a workplace, where it’s also good to utilize a second set of eyes, said Moser.

“Often a kid gets up to help someone else because there’s such a learning curve in these programs. Once you get it, you feel good about it and want to help others get it too. We’re seeing lots of collaboration,” she remarked.

Campbell also appreciates a behind-the-scenes look at how signs and logos are made.

“They’re a lot more complicated than they look,” he quipped.

“You think it’s just putting words on a shirt, but there’s a lot more that goes into it,” Schaller added. “How many drafts you have to do. It’s not just one and done. You have to continually make improvements.”

According to Haberichter, one of the class goals is to drive home the idea that your first attempt isn’t always your best—and that it’s OK if it’s not.

“In anything, you should take a step back, look at it and improve it in some way. It’s that reflective piece,” she said. “Look at the first projects they did in January, and how they would have done it, and now they have more knowledge and can do it better. Even if you find out this is not something you want to do every day for a career, but just as a hobby, then I still think they learn something about themselves.”

Schaller took the class because her career path is currently undecided. Even if she doesn’t focus on design or marketing, “I thought it was a good skill to learn how to do and that it would benefit me in other classes when we’re doing projects,” she said.

This knowledge can aid any class or field a student goes into, stated Moser.

“Any business will need marketing. Even if you’re not the one doing it, you’ll have a smarter idea of how it should be working and why,” she said. “I’m excited for the freshmen in this class because I feel like they’ll get to use this the next four years.”

“Hopefully those design elements will make their other projects that much better,” Haberichter added. “And even away from the computer, it’s talking about the marketing things and how color influences you and fonts. It’s allowed them to think about how they are swayed by marketing and advertising. They have an awareness.”