Each grade needs to create thirty posters and one big poster. The small posters have slogans either supporting themselves or giving friendly banter to the other grades.
When the process first begins, Student Council members design the posters electronically. For example, most sophomores design them on Canva. Then, their design is displayed on a screen in a classroom so they can trace it onto a poster. Once it is traced in pencil, it is taken down to the freshmen cafe to be painted. It usually takes a few days to paint each poster and dry it because it could use multiple layers of paint. After the poster is carefully painted and fully dried, the process continues with the others.
One sophomore Student Council Secretary Olivia Kaplan explained the poster painting process in more detail: “First, we start by cutting out the paper for each poster. We cut 30 small posters and 8 slips of paper for the big poster. Then, for each small poster, we make a digital design, tape it to a wall and project that design on the screen and trace it onto the paper. After that, we paint it. For the big poster, we made a digital design but then used it as a reference to freehand. After we finish drawing it we get people in art classes and everyone helps paint it.”
Some of the small posters have funny slogans or “roasts”. Some people wonder who creates them and how they come up with the sayings. Sophomore Student Council Representative Ali De Blick said that “Olivia Kaplan and Thomas He made a lot of the slogan for the sophomores. Myself and Jasmine Clemente were assigned to make small poster designs that go along with the slogans so we started but it ended up being a group effort and everyone started making designs.”
Since the process is very long, others wonder if the Student Council Members truly enjoy it. Sophomore Student Council Representative Jasmine Clemente said, “After school every day I go to paint the big poster that we are making. I enjoy it and have a lot of fun because I like to do art. I along with a few others hand sketched each panel of the big poster. There are 8 panels on the poster and it takes about two hours to completely paint one panel. Also, each panel is 13 feet long.”
So, although making the posters is a lengthy process, students enjoy making them. Also, once the posters are hung up, students and staff love to see the posters in the gym, making all the hard work student council does worth it.
