On Friday November 13th, 2020, the Talbot County Public Schools Interactive Media Production Career and Technology Pathway hosted its fifth annual ‘Design-In,’ in which students competed in 6 hours of rigorous and fun design challenges. Advisory board members Rayn Colbourne and local animator McKenzie Bugg, both Easton High Interactive Media pathway completers, served as judges for the evening’s event. 

This year’s event was hosted completely virtually, with teams attending via zoom to receive challenges and meet with team members in breakout rooms. The challenges ranged from 10 min to 1 hour, and included creating a “font monster” exclusively out of typography, designing a logo in 10 minutes and then showing how it would apply to two surprise objects (such as a pumpkin and a candy bar), and creating a 10 minute Photoshop or Illustrator icon inspired by a famous Halloween character.

During the final challenge, Design Mad Libs: chaos campaign, students had to apply the ridiculous demands of a fictional client that was invented by completing a “Mad Libs” specially designed for the event by Easton High School’s Interactive Media Teacher, Garnette Hines. Following this year’s “Friday the 13th” theme, students created branding for a Halloween haunted house and had to incorporate ridiculous design constraints including: “Mom: 96 missed calls,” the color burgandy, pinapple pizza, and the “clients” that included Jack Skellington, Wednesday Addams, and Chucky.

Not only did students have to meet the unexpected criteria and tight deadlines of the design challenges, they had to figure out how to brainstorm together and unify their designs as a team. This event gave students the chance to apply their creative problem-solving skills and experience the challenges of the design world. Despite the challenges of an unusual school year, Easton High School’s Interactive Media Production teacher Garnette Hines feels it is more important than ever to celebrate students’ creativity and resiliency. 

All teams competed for the coveted prizes of the evening, which included a gift card to sponsor 10 Perfect Nails in Easton and Vinyl stickers from sponsor Bay Imprint.  The winning team, Heathers (inspired by the 1980’s cult classic film), were Easton High School seniors Haley McMaster, Galen Thomas, and Vlad Rada. All plan on furthering their education in design and pursuing careers in the field of Interactive Media.

1.) Winning team “Heathers” : Haley McMaster, Vlad Rada, and Galen Marquess

2.) Typography Monster 30 min challenge: Haley McMaster

3.) 10 min Branding challenge by the Heathers

4.) 20 min Icon Halloween  challenge: Galen Marquess

5.) Mad Libs “Chaos campaign” by the Heathers, incorporating the color burgundy, client Chucky, and pineapple pizza flavored candy

6.) 30 min Photoshop wars mashup challenge incorporating teacher Garnette Hines with a scene from the Mandalorian.