With the launch of The Brand, Graphic Design IV and V students, led by Joe Zimka, are designing and producing BHS merchandise to share with students and staff to promote school spirit.

At the beginning of 2021, Graphic Design students worked to create Barrington-related designs to put on t-shirts, hats, pins and stickers. They are starting to launch their project, The Brand, this semester.

“One semester ago, we spent the semester figuring out the look and the feel of The Brand, and designing logos and concepts. It wasn’t until the end of the semester that we figured out what The Brand was and how we wanted it to be represented,” Zimka said.

Graphic Design student Dominic Nuzzo, ’22, shared some formation about the project launch.

“This semester we’re actually starting to put The Brand out there because we had our first pop up shop for it at the Homecoming Pancake Breakfast [held on Saturday, October 2nd at BHS],” Nuzzo said.

The students are hoping to hold more pop up shops at the school in the future, in places such as the commons, and they can also be found on Instagram @thebrandbhs. They also plan on holding a pop up shop at the upcoming Winter Wonderfest.

On top of the pop up shops, Zimka and the students created a vending machine that is located outside of the Graphic Design classroom at the school. The vending machine holds some of the brand’s most popular designs that were bestsellers at the Pancake Breakfast.

Graphic Design student, Jannah Ahmed, ‘22, spoke about some details of the new vending machine.
“If you want a closer look at some of the designs because they’re folded in the vending machine, on the machine, there is a QR code to a site that has every design, and the full image of what the design looks like,” Ahmed said.

The students spend time dedicated to creating designs and thinking outside of the box to come up with innovative ideas.

“We have an idea in the class where we always want to be answering the question or finishing the sentence ‘wouldn’t it be cool…’” Zimka said.

In terms of the design process, the students are often given a lot of freedom and liberty when it comes to forming their designs.

“When we did our T-shirt designs, we pretty much got our own liberty on what we wanted to do. It was obviously supposed to be school-themed, but that was the only guideline we were given for that project, ” Nuzzo said.
Graphic Design has high hopes and exciting ideas for the project in the future.

“Something that I really want is for us to be able to make sustainable or eco-friendly t-shirts because cotton is terrible for the environment, so I’d like to make an organic line or something that’s more sustainable,” Ahmed said.

The students are excited about the project and hope that it continues to grow and gain success, even as they graduate high school.