SAN DIMAS/LA VERNE – San Dimas High School’s Saint Shop Digital Art Studio has been helping to create and define Saint spirit for more than a decade, assisting students, administrators, teachers, and community groups on their design projects with expert-level technique and affordable prices.

Known as the “fab lab,” the Digital Art Studio is available to all San Dimas students and staff, as well as community partners, to help design and manufacture T-shirts, stickers, banners, logos, and more, using the combined talents of the school’s Visual Communication (VisCom) pathway students, which include traditional artists, graphic artists, and printing specialists.

“Whenever any student or admin group needs a shirt, plaque, or trophy – we get requests for just about everything – they come to the Digital Art Studio,” San Dimas VisCom teacher Jordan Murray said. “We make everybody look good, from ASB to choir to culinary, and with the products created by our own students, it greatly increases the spirit all across campus.”

The Digital Art Studio is run like a business, with clients submitting ideas and contracting with the student management team. The benefits for the students are significant, as they learn how to run a business and perfect a large number of design techniques, both digital and analog. By keeping the process in-house, the school benefits by saving money.

The studio’s clients mainly consist of student groups and administrators looking to complete designs for a wide range of printing projects. A typical job will begin with a traditional artist creating a design, then handing that design off to a digital artist, who incorporates and finalizes the design before sending it to the printing team.

A fixture on campus for years, the Digital Art Studio received a huge boost in the last year with the addition of two state-of-the-art Roland printing machines, to go along with its laser and 3-D printers, an investment initiated by principal Omar Mayen, who is among the studio’s biggest supporters.

The VisCom pathway is made up of two parts: VisCom 1, which focuses on the basics of creating designs and the art of manufacturing product; and VisCom 2, which focuses on acquiring clients, placing orders, and running a print shop. Students can begin the pathway as freshmen, and continue taking the class as many times as they want, paving the way for some students to join the studio’s management team.

The Digital Art Studio and VisCom pathway encourages students to step into management positions such as Classroom Manager, Laser Specialist, and 3-D Specialist. Each year, underclassmen who will be promoted to management positions as seniors are trained by the current year’s management team, ensuring a seamless transition from year to year.

San Dimas senior Abigail Cox has been in the VisCom pathway since her freshman year, and currently serves as the Digital Art Studio’s classroom manager. As manager, she oversees all printing jobs, and knows all her classmate’s specialties, which enables her to step in and take over the project or assign it to someone else if necessary.

“I like being the classroom manager. There are a lot of perks to the job, and I’m learning a trade that can help me work my way through college,” Cox said. “I plan to major in agriculture at college, and most schools have print shops, so I will be fully qualified to work there while I go to school. These are good skills to know.”

The Digital Art Studio and VisCom pathway also gives art students an opportunity to add professional-level work to their portfolio, which Murray said can greatly enhance their chances of getting into an advanced university program or finding a job in the industry.

“Style is important for your personal work, but employers want artists who understand the design and manufacture process from start to finish,” Murray said. “This is why the VisCom pathway and Digital Art Studio are so important. Every student who completes the pathway will be fully trained to produce professional-level design work.”

PHOTOS:

BUSD_VISCOM1: San Dimas High School’s Digital Art Studio helps school groups design and manufacture products with expert-level techniques and affordable prices, using traditional artists, digital artists, and printing specialists.

BUSD_VISCOM2: A San Dimas High School student creates a sticker using the school’s logo as part of San Dimas’ Visual Communication pathway, which gives students the opportunity to work in the school’s popular Digital Arts Studio, where they create and design projects for students, teachers, administrators, and community groups.