My name is Paige Swanson. I am currently a Freshman at College of Lake County and I am interested in pursuing a career in the design field. I have been interested in design for the past six years, and have been studying it in school for the past four. My true passion in the design field is graphic arts and design. While I love graphic art and design, I enjoy many others forms of art as well, such as fashion and interior design, painting, singing, photography, and writing.

Currently at Deerfield High School, I am taking Advanced Placement Art 2D. AP Art offers high school students the opportunity to work at a degree of depth and intensity more commonly found in a university setting. All advanced placement art students are required to keep a journal/sketchbook for idea development and exploration of the work of professional artists. All students are required to complete a portfolio of 24 works following the AP College Board guidelines.

I have also been enrolled in Advanced Graphic Design twice, and I have also been enrolled in Graphic Design I. Advanced Graphic Design is an advanced study in the graphic design and digital arts field.

In class we have an opportunity to focus on Web design, Graphic Design, Hand Drawn and Digital Art, or a combination of all four. Over the past two years, my classes have done many projects including rotoscoping, typography, package design (CD, DVD, advertising, ect.), logo design, Photoshop painting, and many others.

Also in class, we have participated in many competitions. Not only have we designed for in-school competitions (ex. the cover of the school’s telephone book), but also local (ex. Ravinia Festival Poster Design Competition) and national competitions (ex. Doodle 4 Google). While I personally have not yet won any of these competitions, I enjoy competing in them because they challenge not only me but my peers as well to think outside to creative boundaries and push to a higher level of design.

Not only have I worked on developing my Graphic art and design skills in school, but also outside of school. Throughout the year, I work with my Dad, Kurt Swanson of Soulful Impressions Photography, on learning some new skills in the graphic art and design field. My Dad taught me how to take the tools in Photoshop and apply them to photography. I get to work many of his photo's (i.e. raising levels and altering saturation and hues) as well as learning how to crop, resize, and use filters in Photoshop. These opportunities have opened many doors for me. I have been asked to create flyers, tee shirts, and CD covers. All of these experiences, both in and out of class, have raised my awareness of design in the world, as well as teach me all that I know today.

In the future, I hope to study graphic design at Columbia College, or at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. I would then like to study to be a teacher so hopefully one day I could be a graphic design teacher.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.” –Scott Adams
**UPDATED** 10/5/2011
E-Mail: paigeeswanson@aol.com@aol.com
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