Showcase

I walked into my sophomore year’s English class and noticed a tall man leaning against a desk in front of the room. It wasn’t his biker outfit that caught my attention, it was what he said afterwards that defined my future. He started his presentation with a slide that had an octopus in front of a dark green background, with “Freestyle Academy” across. That tall man, Mr. Taylor, started talking about Freestyle Academy being a communication arts and technology program that challenge students to be creative and imaginative through projects using multimedia formats. I wasn’t paying much attention until I heard project based learning. He went on to explain how it was a two year upper class program where students take English and Digital Media with an elective in Animation, Design or Film. Freestyle’s curriculum was everything I was looking for in an art class. After his presentation, Mr. Taylor gave out cards with more information about the program. I went home and immediately submitted the application. After a long three months wait, I received the letter that I was accepted into Freestyle Academy of Communications Art and Technology.

One year since, Freestyle has taught me not just becoming a better designer but also unlocked my undiscovered creativity. Most of the projects at Freestyle are prompts that I get to express creatively, with guidance from my teachers. This freedom allows me to challenge myself and invest wholeheartedly into design projects. Freestyle also provided me the tools to succeed in the workplace. The local Foothill National Junior Basketball League, a league that made me realize my love for basketball, reached out to Freestyle Academy and hired three of us to design their 2019 uniform logo this year.  Who would have thought stepping into that English class would help me find my perfect art class. Thanks biker man. 

These past years at Freestyle Academy has included lots of new friends, creative projects, new interests and skills, late nights, and collaborations.

1st Day at Freestyle
Halloween Senior Year

Some of my favorite memories of high school were created in those colorful portables and old couches. Freestyle has helped me create a diverse portfolio, helping me get into some amazing design programs like University of Oregon’s product design. Though I created many projects at Freestyle, I have two favorites: my podcast and my food label design.

Podcast

I collaborated with my friend, Brandon, to create On My Mind, a podcast discussing the answers to Brandon’s late night questions. This project was a lot of fun and definitely not in my normal design comfort zone. It was nice to step away from the Adobe applications and the Wacom tablet to see another way of storytelling, audio. I loved how this project, like a lot of our projects, have us work all the roles of creating a podcast.

Brandon finishing his part of the podcast while I set up the recording station.

Food Label

This project was my favorite design project. From the moment that Ms. P introduced the project, I had a vision in mind and started drawing. I used this project in my portfolio which I believe showed my skills in Illustrator and advertising. We also created mockups and a two page spread advertisement for the product. Below are the honey jar label, the label on three items, and the ad.

Through these are just the two projects that I am most proud of, I feel like Freestyle Academy provided me the skills to be able to design creatively. With the way that Freestyle designed its classes, it was a relaxed environment similar to the real workplace where we could collaborate well with classmates and our teachers became both mentors and friends. It wasn’t easy though, many people think that Freestyle is a joke and just a bunch of art kids screwing around but it was more than that. It’s a bunch of art kids working hard, often to the very last minute, to finish projects that they love and are proud of, complaining every step of the way and a lot of fun. The environment is something that I grew to love, it’s competitive yet supportive, anyone is always willing help you with any project. Beyond just giving us the resources to succeed like Adobe applications, camera equipments, recording studios, and tools that we could use at home, Freestyle Academy also provided an amazing group of teachers that would be your number one fan when you succeeded and would pick you up when your project didn’t turn out like you wanted and an amazing community, some of which I’m proud to say are my best friends. Freestyle, most importantly, taught me about storytelling, a skill that everyone needs. They created resources for us to tell our stories and the stories of other, past, present, or future. I definitely will take the skills that Freestyle has equipped me with in my future as an industrial designer.