Environmental Stewardship Project
In late May to early April, a competition was held to find the logo for tote bags that would be sold by High Tech High. The competition was open to students from all of the High Tech High schools. Sevilla This logo could only be one color and had to be simple enough to be screen printed. The design had to fit in a 6 in. by 6 in. box and relate to the topic of, "High Tech High Environmental Stewardship". Environmental Stewardship is a term that relates to taking care of the environment and being environmentally conscious. In order to create a design that clearly demonstrated how High Tech High is environmentally conscious I had to go through all of the design steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test, in order to create my final product.
First, I had to empathize with my audience. I started thinking about who would actually be buying this tote bag. Most likely, high tech high students and parents would be buying this tote bag. This meant that I could use images and symbols that would be specific to the high tech high experience with environmental stewardship, not just a general experience.
Second, I had to define what it was that I was trying to communicate through my tote bag design. Environmental stewardship was the topic but there were many possible ways to show the way high tech high displayed environmental stewardship. Would I focus on a specific aspect of High Tech High's environmentally conscious practices, like planting gardens for each school, or would I try to capture all of high tech high's efforts to help the environment? I decided that it would be better to "go broad" and try to capture several of the things High Tech High does to help the environment.
Third, I ideated many possible designs, not taking into account my restraints. I drew many design's. You can see them below. You will notice that some focused more on nature, like the one where HTH is spelled out in a tree, while others focused more on the High Tech High experience, like the one where all of the students are standing in front of the school and their shadow says HTH.
First, I had to empathize with my audience. I started thinking about who would actually be buying this tote bag. Most likely, high tech high students and parents would be buying this tote bag. This meant that I could use images and symbols that would be specific to the high tech high experience with environmental stewardship, not just a general experience.
Second, I had to define what it was that I was trying to communicate through my tote bag design. Environmental stewardship was the topic but there were many possible ways to show the way high tech high displayed environmental stewardship. Would I focus on a specific aspect of High Tech High's environmentally conscious practices, like planting gardens for each school, or would I try to capture all of high tech high's efforts to help the environment? I decided that it would be better to "go broad" and try to capture several of the things High Tech High does to help the environment.
Third, I ideated many possible designs, not taking into account my restraints. I drew many design's. You can see them below. You will notice that some focused more on nature, like the one where HTH is spelled out in a tree, while others focused more on the High Tech High experience, like the one where all of the students are standing in front of the school and their shadow says HTH.
The first image was altogether confusing. It has a rotting earth, like an apple, fallen from a tree and it's raining. I was trying to illustrate the negative things happening to the environment but the message was unclear. Additionally, this image had a negative message and had nothing to do with High Tech High.
The second image goes along with the tree idea. It has the letters HTH spelled out by the branches of the tree. Although this image does connect both the ideas of High Tech High with the environment, the connection is unclear. It is hard to read the letters HTH because they look too much like all of the other branches of the tree. This image also portrays a dead tree, not a living one, hinting at a negative connection between high tech high and the environment. It was better than the first image but still not good.
The third image improved upon the tree idea by having HTH written legibly on a healthy tree. However, after getting feedback from peers, I found that people did not think that having HTH written on a tree sufficiently demonstrated High Tech High's environmental stewardship.
As a result, I made the last 2 images. These images are separate ideas that have nothing to do with a tree. These images
Next, I "prototyped" which, for this project, meant doing several versions of the idea I chose to submit. I chose to go with the collage of images that spelled out HTH.
The second image goes along with the tree idea. It has the letters HTH spelled out by the branches of the tree. Although this image does connect both the ideas of High Tech High with the environment, the connection is unclear. It is hard to read the letters HTH because they look too much like all of the other branches of the tree. This image also portrays a dead tree, not a living one, hinting at a negative connection between high tech high and the environment. It was better than the first image but still not good.
The third image improved upon the tree idea by having HTH written legibly on a healthy tree. However, after getting feedback from peers, I found that people did not think that having HTH written on a tree sufficiently demonstrated High Tech High's environmental stewardship.
As a result, I made the last 2 images. These images are separate ideas that have nothing to do with a tree. These images
Next, I "prototyped" which, for this project, meant doing several versions of the idea I chose to submit. I chose to go with the collage of images that spelled out HTH.
As you can see in the progression of drawings above, I revised my original idea until I came up with a clear image that clearly, and interestingly, represented how High Tech High is an environmentally conscious school whose students are the ones who's "conscious creativity" is helping the environment.