Freestyle Academy proudly presents
2016 Innovator Project by KyraK

The purpose of the Senior Innovator Project is use your own passion to innovate, create, and develop your own project.

Project Proposal

I’m going to make a film on snowboarding culture and talk global warming and the impact it has had on snowboarders. Also, I’m planning on making posters of snowboarders using graphic design elements. I’m excited to make a film that shows my passion for snowboarding.

This is going to be challenging because I need to depend on the weather to film snowboarders and because it real time action I need to be at right spot at the right time. It will be challenge because I have never made a film like this.

Project Productions

Read my research paper

Project Reflection

When given the assignment for the Innovator Project I began reflecting on my interests and wanted to showcase something that was meaningful to me. I started brainstorming ideas that were important to me to share in this project. I knew I wanted to do a project based on outdoor sports and nature. Spending time in nature and observing my surroundings, I get ideas that inspire me to think creatively. The satisfaction I get from snowboarding, hiking and spending time in nature makes me feel content. Through my artwork I wanted to share the feelings I get in nature to others. It was important to me to create a project that brought awareness of protecting our planet so people can take advantage of nature and outdoor sports in the future. The effects of climate change on snowboarding has brought awareness to this issue.

After researching I learned a lot more than I expected I would learn about climate change. In the past when I went snowboarding I never thought the drought or seasons becoming shorter would affect snowboarders. Knowing this has allowed me to share what I learned with others this critical problem. What I found was climate change has already started affecting the environment and snowboarders have had to leave areas because of a lack snow. The relationship between the research and the innovator project was showing how we need to save and be aware nature and the environment changing so that we can continue to enjoy nature and outdoor activities, like snowboarding, in the future. When I made the artwork I wanted each piece to have a different message. For the skier piece I wanted to show the feeling of freedom and what it is like to go on a jump and moving in the air. In my artwork I wanted to use Lake Tahoe as a metaphor relating to beauty and using the sign supporting Protect our winters to raise awareness about climate change. Lastly, I took a picture of a girl fishing and there is a reflection of the rocks over the lake and I added “explore sierra nevadas”. I wanted to not change the picture and edit it because I wanted to show a natural picture that was unedited and add a couple of words to show advertising but leave it simple.

I interviewed my brother who has knowledge about climate change because he spends to most of his time in nature hiking and snowboarding and he has seen the affects of climate change. Also, I interviewed Sasha Zebb, another expert snowboarder, who has knowledge of the effects of climate change on snowboarding. They gave me first hand insight on how they have personally been affected by climate change. Listening to their personal experiences really touched me in a profound way. The importance of climate change and acknowledging the problem needs to be brought to the attention of every individual. I worked with some of my classmates, they helped me when I had questions about different graphic designs tools. Overall I thought I worked well with different people for many aspects of my project.

If I could do this project over again I wouldn’t change much. First I would of made more time for each project. For each graphic design I would work on for three weeks to allow me to perfect the project. In the beginning I thought I could make fifteen to twenty pieces of artwork which I overestimated and I only made nice pieces. Also, I wish moved my due dates out for another two weeks so I could of made one more piece of work. I’m also very happy with the pieces of art I made. Each piece of work is different. My favorite piece of artwork is the picture of Lake Tahoe with the protect our winter logo. I am proud of this piece because it could be in a magazine representing the organization that protects against climate change. I’m most proud of the artwork with the skier going off of the jump and spinning. I spent the most time and effort on this graphic design, it was the most challenging, but I came out the best in my opinion. When I made this piece I changed my idea a lot, finally after a while of decision making I finally came out with something I was proud of.

I improved my skills knowing more about illustrator and tools and shortcuts. This helped me get my pieces of artwork done and kept me on track. I learned how to save and export different pieces of work off different programs like illustrator and photoshop and combine them into one project. Before I started this project I knew how to use all of these programs but this time I’m a lot more confident and didn’t have to ask a lot of questions because I knew more about the software. Also, these skills will help me in the 21 century because a lot of designs and graphic designs are made on these programs. I know how to work these programs and this will help me in college be ahead because I will know how to use these programs.

Overall I’m very happy with the innovator project. I learned a lot from this project and learned some valuable lesson about working with different kinds of people. I hope the new skills I have learned in designing my project and artwork will help me in my major in college and hopefully my job in the future. I’m proud of the work I have made. My favorite part of this project was being able make art that I enjoy and have a passion for and doing whatever inspired me. This was the first time in school where I made my own deadlines and decisions where could create whatever I want. I learned to be better at time management and organizing. I’m glad I got this opportunity to do this and I hope this is the start to my graphic design future.