Next year, senior Haley Turner will be following her passion for art after receiving a talent-based scholarship to attend Chapman University’s highly selective 24-person graphic design program.
Turner has completed numerous arts courses at Redwood: Graphic Design, Senior Projects Graphic Design, two years of AP Art, Photography, and Drawing and Painting, and she is now a teacher’s assistant for the Drawing and Painting class.
Turner said her main source of inspiration comes from her father, David Turner, who works as a brand identity graphic designer.
David is a partner in a visual identity and packaging design company called Turner Duckworth.
“My dad has been nominated for two Grammys, and he’s won one. This summer I’m going with him to a design competition in Cannes, France—he actually designed the design award,” Turner said. “Seeing him and what he does is really inspiring. I listen in on some of his business calls and and he teaches me lots of things about his work. I owe everything to him. I don’t know where I would be without his help.”
Though Turner took both art and graphic design classes at Redwood, she considers the two to be very different from each other.
“I think AP art, compared to graphic design, is really subjective, where graphic design relies on a common understanding from both people,” Turner said.
Turner said her favorite part about graphic design is being able to turn other people’s ideas into a reality in the form of a design. accurately display other people’s’ wishes.
“That’s really my favorite part—turning other peoples’ wants and ideas into a design that’s capable of representing their desires,” Turner said.
When applying to colleges, Turner described the graphic design application process as long.
For Chapman, Turner submitted a series of images that displayed all of her work through a digital portfolio program called SlideRoom. These pieces took form through drawing and painting, mixed media, and videos.
She then wrote two essays, one of which was on a piece she liked the most and the other on design principles. Her digital portfolio took a little over two months to complete.
As for her life after college, Turner hopes to continue to pursue a career in graphic design. Turner said that a degree in graphic design opens many doors to a variety of jobs and career paths.
“You can become an art director, a website designer, an app designer, a package designer, et cetera.,” Turner said. “I was thinking I would probably start out low- maybe at a graphic design firm, then maybe become an art director at a bigger firm or maybe even create my own firm.”
