An Introduction

This blog is to introduce you to the general idea and atmosphere of CPI as a Career and Technical Center. I want people to hear about us, and not in the old “tekker” kind of way. Career and Technical Centers are amazing institutions of learning; students leave here with certifications that adult students pay for. When students graduate they leave skilled workers ready to join the work force, or planning to continue in their field of study through post secondary education. Instructors are skilled and knowledgeable in the fields they teach, and enjoy helping students find a place in the field they have chosen. There is nothing here to make me feel that the old connotation of “tekker” holds true.

So over the next year, I hope you will follow along and see what happens in my classroom, what students are doing, where they are going, and how they plan to get there. I’ll also be allowing students to blog along with me, so you can get their side of the story too. My main goal is to educate and inform the general public about what we do here and how we do it. I hope to be entertaining, and humorous, but most of all I hope to be honest. It’s not always easy, and it’s not always fun, but it is ALWAYS worth it.

Best Regards,

Yana Boyd

Friday, October 8, 2010

Meet Katelyn

My name is Katelyn Bolich. I am currently at CPI for the Graphic Arts program under the instruction of the wonderful, Mrs. Boyd. Being here, I've learned a lot in the past 2 years, and plan to continue to grow. I am one of four kids in my family and have been homeschooled all the way through my academic career. Being given the opportunity to come to CPI has not only taught me about Graphic Arts, but it has sent me into the world of public school classes, getting me ready for college in the near future, as it is my senior year (Woohoo!).

It definitely helps to love what you do for a class like this, because you need to push yourself as much as possible to beat the other designers. During my freshman year I completed a majority of the credits in my general education classes, so there wasn't a whole lot of work for me to do for my junior and senior year. Because of this, I was given the chance to combine the remaining classes I needed and skip my junior year and graduate early. But I felt that 

  1. I didn't want to grow up to early.
  2. There was no way I was going to cut short my time in Graphic Arts.
I really love this class and didn't want to shorten it to two years instead of three. So this year, having just a few credits, I get to spend much more time focusing on my CPI class. It keeps my mom from being driven crazy by my aimless walking around the house, and I enjoy it, so it's a win win! Also, I have free time to do things like this blog. (No, this does not help my grade, but I'm glad to be able to do something like this for the school and for this class.)



I've been lucky to have a great class, teacher, and program. Two years, 15 girls in a classroom, and no cat fights! That's one in a million! We've all been able to learn off of each other and push each other to our potential. 


One of the most important things we do in class is critiques. Many feelings are derived from this word. This is where we put up or work on "the critique board" and we go talk about them one at a time and give our input on what is good in the design and what needs work. This helps you to learn from your mistakes, and see what was good and what wasn't. It also helps us with critiquing, because in this field, you need to be able to present your work and prove why it is a good design and should "get the job." As for me, I enjoy critiques! I'm usually pretty happy with my projects, so it makes critiques much less stressful, and it's fun to be able to give you input about the other designs on the board. 


Our beginning projects are to get used to the Technical pens. They're a bit tricky to be clean and accurate with, so first we just learn how to control the pens. Then we're able to move on to learn to use them for things like positive and negative space, and how to incorporate principles into a design. After we master the technical pen, and learn the basics, it's time to get on the computer. The first program that we're taught is Adobe Illustrator; a program that allows you to create illustrations using vector graphics. These we learn using books with step by step instructions to show you the programs abilities. They're not exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but it's an adequate way to learn the programs and they books are Adobe certified. Then we're able to have fun and do projects, like making zoo signs and such. For our second year we continue to learn more programs like InDesign and Photoshop. Right now, I'm in the process of mastering Photoshop so that I can combine the programs to create page layouts and corporate identities and stuff that has yet to come to my knowledge.

This year, the class dynamics are a bit different. Being seniors, we stay in the afternoon class while last years morning students (now the Juniors) moved up to our class. Initially it was a bit concerning to see how our classes would mesh, but after the first project we all came together and were able to create an even stronger class than before with different personalities and points of views to bring to the table.  So far, it's been a good year and I'm excited to see what is next.I'm looking forward to the rest of the year to see where it goes. As for now, I'm off to work on Adobe Photoshop packets to  prepare for the projects ahead.


 'till then
 Katelyn
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