Zenith Project

How do you ignite your passion and elevate your skills and experiences
to create your ultimate and most successful Freestyle project?

 

The purpose of the Senior Zenith Project is to ignite your passion and elevate your skills and experiences to create your ultimate and most successful Freestyle project!

 

All of our 21st Century goals apply to this project; however, for this Zenith Project, a significant goal is for you to develop Self Direction – the ability to set goals related to learning, plan for the achievement of those goals, independently manage time and effort, and independently assess the quality of learning and any products that result from the learning experience.

 

Zenith Project Description / Requirements:

 

1. What is your project? Why is this particular project a passion for you? Discuss the final media form as well as the content you envision.

 

• I am planning an event. I am going to make games and drinks for it, as well as decorations, costumes and promotional materials. At the end I’m going to compile videos and images from the event, as well as the art I made for the event. My passion is hospitality, which is why I want to integrate an event, and fantasy, which is why I integrated the costuming element.

 

1. How is this project a new challenge (a risk) for you?  If you are in a group, define each of your roles and explain how each role will be a new challenge/risk for you. Also, how will you hold one another accountable for your roles? Note: To encourage and reward you for your risk taking, your process will be worth more of your overall grade than the completed project.

 

• This Zenith project is a new challenge for me because an event like this is a huge undertaking with lots of little individual pieces that need to be perfected, and making every design element work, while also working together is going to be a challenge. I will be interviewing a couple event planners to get some advice.

 

3.  How will you incorporate your production class skills (new or existing) into your

Project?

 

• For my Production Class, Design, I will create promotional and decorative material for the event. I will take photos of the drinks I am going to make, and publish the recipes. I also made and photographed costume pieces and ensambles.

 

Here are the recipes I made for the event:

 

Balder’s Brew was meant to be the light, refreshing drink of the bunch. I also really wanted a pink drink, so who better to dedicate a pink drink to than the god of love? That’s also why I chose rose tea, because Balder’s drink has to have roses in it. The flavor combination of rose and lychee was inspired by a malabi I had at a restaurant. Dirty Vagabond is my take on dirty chai. I created the recipe for a dinner party, but my guests and I loved it so much I decided to include it in the project. I had the idea for Forest Fog quickly after I learned how the steam milk. I really liked steamed milk, so I knew I had to include it in the project. I chose to include jasmine and lavender, because I wanted it to be floral, and honey because it fit the natural theme of the drink. I named the Swamp Witch for its earthy flavor. Originally the drink was primarily based on earl gray tea and butterfly pea tea, because that combination also has a strong earthy natural flavor. But then I made a matcha lavender drink for another dinner party, and I realized that it had the same effect, but better, so I scrapped the original recipe and replaced it. Lastly, Mademoiselle Noir was based off a coffee drink I had when I was traveling. I loved it so much, but the shop I got it from was far from home, so I decided to recreate it based on the menu description, and what I saw the barista doing. However the coffee I used was less harsh, and I think I used more syrup than the barista did (I think they used part syrup part sugar) and instead of a plastic cup with massive square ice cubes, I served it in a tiny teardrop glass, with the tiny shards of ice from the cocktail shaker. Overall it tasted good, but just had a completely different vibe, which reminded me of this song I listened to, which had the same name.

There were some drink recipes that I made that I decided not to include. One of them was Thoth’s Zythum, which was based on the ancient Egyptian drink, Zythum, a beer brewed from safflowers. As a tribute to that, it had some safflower tea I found at a convention, ginger beer and ginger syrup. However, it was a more niche drink, and a little less visually appealing, so it didn’t make the cut. There was also Sea Foam, which was mint and lemon tea, because they are clean and fresh flavors that remind me of the sea, and then a little bit of sugar and salt. However the salt was difficult to dissolve… I would make test batches, and they would look right, and even taste right for the first few sips, until a horde of rogue salt granules would appear and turn things nasty. I didn’t want to challenge my guests to a game of Russian roulette, so I scrapped that drink too.

 

Here is the menu I made for the event

 

Here is a poster I made for the event

 

Here is a sign I made for the merchandise table

 

This is the first style of invitations I made

This is the second style of invitations I made

This is the third style of invitations I made

 

Here are some placemats I made for the event. I decided not to use most of them, however.

 

 

Here is the trivia game I made for my Zenith event.

https://www.freestyleacademy.rocks/~FionaH/zenith/trivia-game/

 

 

Bunny Costume

 

Phantom of the Factory Costume

 

Card Soldier Costume

 

Mardi Goose Mask

 

Pheasant Feather Costume

 

Images From the Event

https://www.freestyleacademy.rocks/~FionaH/images-from-the-event/

 

Zenith Videos

https://www.freestyleacademy.rocks/~FionaH/zenith-videos/

 

Zenith Reflection

My project was an event, with fantasy themed games, drinks, and costume pieces for sale. I also made prizes, promotional materials, and decorations.

I always liked playing the role of hostess, and I always liked fantasy themed things, so I decided to combine those ideas. I was inspired by conventions and fairs I had been to, especially the gaming and vendor areas, which inspired the costume pieces and games I made.

My research paper was on the benefits of daydreaming, because I always linked fantasy and daydreaming together. However, in my research process, I ended up taking a different route. I touched on the escapist function of daydreaming process relatively briefly, and chose to focus more on the function daydreaming serves for the brain, and why our brain naturally wants to “zone out” at least some of the time, so that it can carry out those functions. I knew before my research process what I wanted to do for my Zenith, and although my research project changed, I did not change my mind about what I wanted to do for my Zenith project.

I had friends and classmates model my costume pieces, both to take photos of them, and to have them come to the event to model for the guests. I had issues with scheduling for the photoshoots, however I started work on my Zenith in the summer of junior year, and started the photoshoots the beginning of senior year, so I had all of that time to get photos taken. However getting the models to show up to the event was a challenge, and most of the originals did not, I had to get replacements, and some of them I did not manage to replace in time. I had another Freestyle student, Samantha Levy, who also designed saleable items, run the merchandise table, with both her items and my items. She did very well manning the table, and I am happy I asked her to collaborate with me.

If I could do the project over, I would advertise more, because I would have liked more guests to show up. I had made a lot of material anticipating a lot of guests, so a lot of it didn’t get used, which was a bit of a disappointment. I also would have networked more so that I could have gotten more Freestyle students who wanted to collaborate and enhance the experience.

I think that I developed my visual literacy the most, because I designed both 2D posters, invitations, etc. as well as the 3D costume pieces and ensambles (complete costumes). The ensambles were an important part of my growing experience, because I had to design an entire costume, with piece tying into the other ones, so they had to work together in color, theme and overall design, rather than just standing alone. The 21st century skill I developed the least was social and civic responsibility. Originally, I was going to use the costumes as a way to combat character archetypes, that imply only certain kinds of people can be heroes, or sympathetic protagonists. I wanted my message to be that any type of person could be a compelling character, however, I never got around to that element of the project.

I was originally not sure how to make costume items, but I really wanted to learn, so I just jumped in and taught myself. I have learned that if I have the motivation, I don’t need a class, or a willing expert to learn something new, although feedback from someone experienced is always useful.

I think that this was definitely my biggest and most successful Freestyle project, and definitely the one where I most got to express myself. I think my most meaningful lesson was that every planned event celebrates and draws attention to something, it sends a message. So I think that knowing how to utilize that effect in a beneficial way will really help me, if I do end up entering a career in the hospitality industry.