What do the League of Legends club and a skateboarding group have in common? Turns out, they both want their very own T-shirts. RMHS offers numerous different clubs and activities, and Graphic Arts classes are receiving an overwhelming amount of requests from groups who want logos, vinyl stickers and beyond designed for them.

“We get emails all the time from teachers, student groups and faculty,”Graphic Arts teacher Kent Dyer said.“We actually have more requests than we can physically complete at the moment, which is a really great problem to have.”

Taught by both Dyer and Patrick Fonsino, the class seeks to prepare students for possible careers in graphic design, implementing a rigorous curriculum with industry standard Adobe software.

Since last year, which saw the introduction of the course, Graphic Arts has seen immense growth, nearly doubling it’s sections. Part of the class’s attraction is that the hands-on nature of the course. Students are invited to create their own posters, images and website components throughout the curriculum, making it inherently engaging to students.

Senior Lesley Garcia was initially surprised about how much creative freedom Graphic Arts class allowed.

“I never expected that graphic design would be this artistic,” Garcia said. “People think that graphic design is commercial, with logos. It’s more than just that. People can make something creative.”

Soon, Garcia started entering virtually every Graphic Arts contest she could, winning first place for designing the logo of a film festival, first place in a Harper college design contest, and third place for her artwork for Illinois Music Education Association (IMEA) music festival.

“[Entering in contests] gives you more opportunities, shows your more creative side, and is good for colleges,” Garcia said. “They see all these amazing artworks that I have.”

Another factor for the growth of Graphic Arts class is how the class engages with the rest of the student body, creating shirts and logos for many different groups. Some of the class’s creations include the Debate Team shirt, the Autos Class shirt and various shirts for seminar classes. This promotes the class throughout RMHS.

There is also an associated Graphic Arts club, where students in the class or not can freely pursue projects and access the software to do so. Often, the club is also involved with larger, school-wide projects, such as the shirt for the Shannon McNamara Memorial 5K Run.

Freshman Kurt Fiedler, Graphic Arts student and member of the League of Legends club, made the shirts for his group with the skills he learned in the class.

“[My experience] has only been good,” Fiedler said. “Mr. Dyer is super easy to work with and always helps.”

New this year is a second level Harper dual-credit class, which helps students who plan on going into the graphic arts.

“Once we get past the basics, [students are] actually producing similar quality to if they worked in a graphic design company or an advertising company, at the same level skill,” Dyer said. “…It is a pretty rigorous class in terms of the production of what students are creating.”