In our modern age, information can be pushed out in the blink of an eye – but not all of it gets noticed. CG senior artist, Max Burt (whose design work you will likely recognize!) explores how the right graphic design angle can make all the difference when it comes to capturing the audience’s attention. 

“I wrote in my college essays: I’ve been creating since I could hold a pencil, basically,” Burt said. Burt has been highly engaged in the art department throughout high school, having taken 11 art courses and previously been a teaching assistant. He is now in two of the highest-level courses: AP Design Production and AP Studio Art. 

“I always say that I really like to explore everything art has to offer,” Burt said. “I don’t really stick to one medium, but I obviously do a lot of design work in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. As for traditional, I like working with pencil and pen, oil pastel, chalk pastel, and colored pencil – like, anything you can think of.”

In AP Studio Art, students select a unique inquiry or theme to focus on throughout the year. Burt is exploring the benefits of zines being mass-produced, as he began making zines last summer. 

“A zine is basically a little magazine – it’s just one sheet of paper that folds up. But there’s a lot of different formats of zines, and that’s kind of what I’m exploring,” he said. “You think about all the different audiences that your artwork can end up in the hands of. So, I am kind of playing into the idea of versatility, and lots of different themes, messages, and purposes of zines.”

The Mini Show is an annual art display for view in the Fine Arts Gallery featuring students across the entire department. In order for so many students’ pieces to be featured, everything needs to be as the name suggests: miniature. 

In preparation for the show, art teacher Mrs. Guss devised the idea to teach more students how to create tiny versions of zines.

“It was pretty cool because I got to co-teach the Design II lesson with Guss,” Burt said. “I had the idea to make this how-to guide [for zines], and I went into the history a little bit.”

Burt creates many zines digitally on Photoshop, but they can also be made with physical paper. Templates and further information, along with lots of his other personal artwork, can be found on Burt’s portfolio website.

In AP Design and Production, Burt produces on a higher level by collaborating with real-life clients on marketing and design. This year, for instance, he was commissioned to create the publicity for the fall and spring plays by drama director Mrs. Whalen.

“So, she gives me the theme, or the story behind the play, and then I go in and I come up with an idea of how the publicity is gonna look,” he said. “I do all the formatting and the text, and then I also put things into different formats.”  

These designs get featured all over – including on social media, posters, t-shirts, and programs. 

“Being in Design Production, I feel like I get involved with the community a lot, because I’m making projects for teachers, coaches, and everything like that. It’s an in-depth kind of project, but I think it’s really fun.”

This kind of work aligns perfectly with Burt’s future goals, as he aims to become a professional graphic designer.  Next year, he will be attending the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

“My plan is to figure out what discipline I want to go into, whether it’d be working at a design firm, doing logos or posters, or working freelance and doing all types of things,” he said.

Last semester, Burt took a portfolio class at the institute to earn scholarship money, and produced five total pieces over a span of two months. 

“Our last project was supposed to be our biggest and most complete one. So, I made a life-size cardboard cutout with oil pastels.”

The piece is called The Self. 

“The idea for the piece was to be a vulnerable self-portrait. So I thought about what kind of struggles I have with people, and I thought about how opening up was one of them. I thought about the expression, ‘to hold your heart in your hands.’” 

“And then, another idea I had was to have direct eye contact, because that’s something I don’t do very often. I feel like it’s very personal, especially with strangers.”
The piece, as tall as Burt, was highly labor-intensive. It took almost a month to complete, but the effort paid off, as it was selected to be included in the Illinois High School Art Exhibition this year. The exhibit took place at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago. 

As a sendoff before graduation, all senior artists are invited to fashion their own hallway displays to showcase their work. Above is Burt’s, featuring more of his posters, zines, class projects, and personal pieces. To get a closer look, and view even more artwork in the future, you can check out his Instagram account here (https://www.instagram.com/max.mpfart/). 

“It’s really cool and inspiring for me to look back at my old artwork from when I was a kid and see how much I’ve improved, what kinds of things I’ve experimented with, and just my process as both an artist and a human being.”

Thank you for reading! If you would like to learn about more of our student artists, check back on the Trojan Times website next school year for more features like this. You can also visit the CG Art Department’s Instagram page.