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A local high school is designing posters and fliers for independent Glendale and Ridgewood businesses.
Andrew Drozd teaches three art and design classes at the Academy of Urban Planning in Bushwick where students work with local businesses in Brooklyn and Queens to apply design techniques to real world applications like advertisement.
“This is something that’s still in its infancy but we’re learning,” Drozd said.
“Students appreciate what they’re learning if there’s a real value attached to it.”
He first started the class this semester in April. The design exercise was meant to only last a couple of weeks.
“And now here we are, nearing the end of the school year and my students are still passionate about it,” Drozd said. “There’s been such an outpouring of support from the local business communities.”
Jesse Ibrahim owns Roma Deli in Glendale. He displays a huge poster at the entrance of his store. The poster has pastel colors that frame a picture of the deli-front in the center. On the bottom right corner it says, “This poster was created by Jocelyn Perez a student at the Academy of Urban Planning.”
“I love it,” said Ibrahim, who has owned the deli for almost 15 years. “Now my entrance is brightened. It’s very presentable.”
Ibrahim was first approached by Drozd two weeks ago and was then given an option of about 15 different poster designs all made by separate students.
“So there’s a level of competition,” Drozd said.
In Ridgewood, Armand Baklajan was expecting his poster any day now when it would be hand-delivered by Drozd.
“This is fantastic work,” he said, holding a sketch of his yet-to-be completed poster. “I wish I had such a motivated and passionate teacher when I was in high school.”
Drozd said that he has about 40 other businesses lined up for future posters. He first came up with the idea when he noticed that so many delis have hand-written signs advertising things like breakfast sandwiches.
“So there’s an element of social justice in this. We’re providing a service to people who could really benefit from it,” he said.
Each class produces about three posters a week using design programs and pictures. Drozd expects the work to continue through the summer and next school year the design exercise will be introduced to another batch of students.
“We’re going to ride this until it crashes,” he said.
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