Specialist High Skills Major

Merivale HS offers a Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) program in Communication & Design

DESERRES & MERIVALE SHSM COLLABORATION 2022

Merivale SHSM students apply their design skills in a real world context to give back to the community.

With the support of Lydia Hamilton, the SHSM coordinator, DeSerres was able to collaborate with the Merivale Graphic Design students on a special SPE project that provided students with the opportunity to learn new printmaking techniques and apply their design skills to create products to be sold by a community group to raise money for their programs.

To facilitate this project, Merivale's Graphic Design class was pleased to welcome

Thomas Baribault - DeSerres Art Store Manager

Max Black - Professional Artist

Merivale SHSM program has a long history of collaboration with DeSerres. Many of our past students have attended workshops at the store located at St. Laurent, co-op placements and a number of other special design collaboration projects such as this one!!!

THE CLIENT: Ms. Sabina Ali

Sabina Ali is one of the founding members of the Thorncliffe Park Women’s Committee. The Thorncliffe Women’s Committee has spent the last decade revitalizing the park that supports the 30, 000 residents, many new to Canada. Working together they have created a welcoming environment with new playground equipment, and economic opportunities for residents. They manage a wide variety of food, art, fitness, markets and garden programs in their community.

THE TASK: Design Custom Tote Bags to be sold as a fundraiser for the Thorncliffe Women's Committee.

THE DESIGN: Students created a pattern/design that features natural elements that reflect the park and the community served by the Thorncliffe Women’s Committee.

PART ONE: BLOCK PRINTING TECHNIQUE - Students began the project learning the block printing technique using speedy carve block, ideal for printing on fabric . They printed first on paper and then moved to canvas aprons. The technique of printing on fabric is a little different and requires practice to get a good quality print. The canvas apron design allowed student to experiment with their blocks, stamping with different colours to create interesting patterns.

1. Sketching and design stage

2. Carving the design into the block

3. Inking the block

4. Testing the block/stamp

Below are some of the finished canvas aprons students designed using their block printing technique.

Student models their apron design

PART TWO: SCREEN PRINTING TECHNIQUE - The final tote bag design had to include the Thorncliffe Women's Committee logo and slogan screen printed onto each bag. It was important for students to learn Screen Printing techniques and practice before moving to the final design. As a result each student design their own silkscreen design that could potentially be used alongside their block stamps on the final work. These screen prints were completed on paper and later on an apron design.

Thorncliffe Women's Committee logo to be screen printed on to each of the tote bag designs.

Students were encourage to create a screen print design that could be combined with their block print patterns.

Max demonstrating the technique to the students.

Transfer design by painting the screen with drawing fluid.

2. Screen filler to block out the remaining area. Cure screen for 24 hrs.

3. Wash and dry screen. Finally screen print the design with coloured ink.

4. Finished screen print design

"Really awesome to have such a positive new experience around something I love, especially with so much positive feedback and encouragement."Jasper B.

"This has been a great opportunity for me to explore new mediums of art, and working alongside a professional artist for guidance has made it so much more exciting!"Hannah B.

"I really enjoyed being able to produce an image from a carved block, rather then have to hand draw the image."

Jonah S.

PART THREE: DESIGN & PRINT THE TOTE BAGS - The final stage of this project was to take all the skill and printing techniques acquired, along with the materials created (stamps and screens) to design four tote bags. Students were given the choice to design one pattern that could be reused on all four tote bags, or they could design two, three or four different designs for each bag. They were given lots of creative freedom on this final task as they had previously demonstrated and practiced the required skills. The final design parameters included incorporating the screen printed Thorncliffe Women's Committee logo and slogan. Students were reminded of the design elements and principles previously studied and to consider how spacing and/or overlapping, and colour variation can be used to create balance and unity within a design.

Kayla Chung

The completed tote bags will be presented Mrs. Ali and the Thorncliffe Women's Committee next week.

From this very rich Experiential Learning task, SHSM students will receive certificates from Speedball, as well as SHSM certifications in Training in a Technique, Training in an Artform, and the completion of their Sector Partner Experience and ICE.

Maya Mihailovic

Lauren Mortimer

From this very rich Experiential Learning task, SHSM students received certificates from Speedball, as well as SHSM certifications in Training in a Technique, Training in an Artform, and the completion of their Sector Partner Experience and ICE.

Max and Thomas presenting to the class.

THANK YOU!

Thank you Thomas Baribault (DeSerres Manager), Max Black (professional artist) and Lydia Hamilton (OCDSB SHSM Coordinator) for all your work organizing and delivering these wonderful workshops and Sector Partner Experience to the Merivale design class. It was a pleasure working with you all.

Jaclyn CañasGraphic Design TeacherMerivale SHSM Coordinator

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