Richardson Skateboard Design

J. Clarke Richardson Collegiate boasts a variety of different classes to choose from. Each year, fresh courses are offered to introduce students to new and interesting fields and careers. This allows individuals to explore different interests and take a break from mandatory and sometimes tedious classes. A brand new course being offered this year is the Grade 11 Skateboard Design class (TGG3M1), proposed by our Communications Technology teacher, Mr. Tsigaris.

There will be a focus on the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite throughout the course. Students will learn everything about creating a skateboard design as well as building a business from the ground up. For a $50 course enhancement fee, each person will leave with a custom-designed skateboard, a t-shirt that they print and heat press on their own, a custom logo, an animated logo and a website. All of these skills can be transferred and applied to various future careers.

Mr. Tsigaris plans to introduce the class to the basics of a graphic design business. “It truly is about entrepreneurship and what steps go into creating a small business,” he says. “Even though for this class the focus is on creating your own skateboarding company the skills learned would apply to opening any small business from start to finish. From branding to logo development and design, website design, promotional graphics and advertising the launch of the company’s first product.”

Of course, as a creative class, students should expect to be pushed and challenged. However, this is a course that uses project-based learning, so making mistakes and learning from them is a huge part of it. Students will be discussing ideas and working in groups constantly. They will learn from creating and developing ideas from scratch. Each assignment will let them create projects based on their interests.

Richardson students have made beautiful skateboards in the past. Making a custom skateboard deck is mandatory for co-op students working in ‘Room 3111’. The classroom is filled with skateboard decks made by co-op students. This is the first time however that students can design a skateboard as well as a t-shirt and take it home!

 

The brand new skateboard design class will let students work on their passion for graphic design while learning about other aspects of making a business using their design. They will get to use various machinery as well, like industrial printers to print out vinyl and a heat press to apply the vinyl onto a t-shirt. These opportunities will provide students with transferable skills that they can apply in the future. This course is a must for anyone trying to further develop their media knowledge and skills while designing and producing complex projects that are applicable to the business world.

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