It is startling to think that five years down the line, high school freshmen will enter college, and college freshmen will enter their careers. People will find themselves in totally different situations and their life experiences will broaden.
One such person, a WHHS alumna, found herself pursuing a degree she loved, filled with plans for the future. Aubrey Lauer, ‘22, is currently in her junior year at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) studying graphic design.
“Some of the things that I do are logo design [and] web design, which is more like user experience,” Lauer said. “[And] I really like branding, so taking information from either a company or a product and honestly just making everything look better and relate more to [the] target audience.”
Lauer first discovered art and design when she participated in one of WHHS’ most popular annual events.
“I loved doing the chalk drawing,” Lauer said. “That introduced me to more of a fine arts field, and it was a good way to collaborate with other artists and friends.”
Each year she was at WHHS, Lauer chose to take art classes, but the ones that really sparked her interest were Photography and AP Art (2D Design).
“Those classes were really fun; [AP Art (2D Design) was] more of an elevated art class that got me thinking about more of the deeper meaning and different things I could do with my art,” Lauer said.
Elizabeth Knodle teaches AP Art, encouraging students’ independence in their works. Students spend the majority of the year doing a sustained investigation where they study a topic and submit a portfolio with artwork related to that topic at the end of the year.
“We do some skill-building review, but then the majority of the year is students working on their sustained investigation, so ideas, research and planning [are] all done by them,” Knodle said.
Knodle built a special bond with Lauer during her time in AP Art and assisted her in applying to art schools in her SENIOR year.
“I helped her with some of her applications and organizing her artwork and portfolios,” Knodle said. “[Along with] having wonderful skills and ideas, she’s always really great about wanting to talk about her work and respond to feedback.”
Lauer chose to go into graphic design because it combines all of her artistic interests and will give her widespread career choices after college.
“I was influenced by my love for illustration, just like drawing in general, but I felt like graphic design was a good way to combine that with more of a digital field, and it’s a super general major,” Lauer said. “You can go into a lot of different careers, like advertising, packaging, or branding, which are all things that I love.”
However, even with the many opportunities a graphic design major provides, it is not without its challenges.
“Because graphic design is such a big major and a lot of people are so talented and have all these multi-disciplinary skills in graphic design, it’s hard to set yourself apart from everybody else,” Lauer said.
Despite these challenges, art careers are extremely useful in the real world.