Following the departure of previous Graphic Design teacher Jeffrey Ball, Fashion and Interior Design teacher Levi Harbeson has started collaborating on projects with newly appointed Graphic Design teacher Jennifer Gonzalez.

“[Gonzalez] has a background in fashion, so it is nice to have a Graphic Design teacher who understands what we are doing in class and can help enhance the curriculum,” Harbeson said. “Anytime the students are working on a project in my class, whether it be a button down shirt, a pencil skirt or pajama pants, she is teaching the fashion students to create technical flats and illustrating those in a digital medium rather than traditional mediums we are used to.”

Skills that students traditionally learn by hand are also being taught digitally to strengthen the learning environment.

“We first looked at the standards and what every student needs to learn, then broke it into projects,” Gonzalez said, “We discussed what he [Harbeson] is doing in the classroom and how I could compliment that. Everything we are doing in the interior and fashion programs compliment each other right now.

Since the industry is rapidly adapting to trends and technology, students have been focusing on the virtual aspect of design.

“It prepares students for their future careers because the world is quickly moving toward a digital way of doing just about everything,” Harbeson said. “All these design fields rely on people being able to know how to do both graphic design as well as the traditional techniques which makes students more marketable down the road.”

With Harbeson and Gonzalez working in tandem, students have preferred the change in pace.

“It feels more cohesive and more like we are actually focusing on our program rather than learning random skills,” junior Collin Chamberlain said. “Compared to last year, we’re correlating it to interior design more which makes it feel relevant, and I am learning skill sets that I actually need to know.”

Students have expressed satisfaction over their results so far and are expecting the collaboration to continue.

“I am excited to see my creations come to life from the digital world to the physical world,” junior Alyssa Hong said. “Something that could hold me back from this would be the physically exhausting part of having to make something 2D into something 3D, but I know that by trusting the process all my hard work will be worth it.”