Pascack Valley High School’s wide array of clubs has a new addition this year: the Graphic Design Club. This club was founded and is run by PV Senior Liam Gaynor and PV technology education teacher Danielle deQuintal.
“Liam came to me and said he wanted to start the Graphic Design Club, and it was perfect timing because I had just talked about doing projects for the school,” deQuintal said. “A lot of times people will ask me, ‘Oh, can you select a few students to work on a task?’ or ‘Can you give [the task] to your graphic design class?, but we’re always doing so many things in…[class] that I didn’t really have a group of kids I could assign extra projects to.”
DeQuintal says that she fully supported Gaynor’s idea from day one.
Gaynor took Graphic Design I and Graphic Design II at PV during his first two years. During this period of time, he had opportunities to do design work for other PV clubs, faculty members, and local businesses.
“While deQuintal always encouraged me to take on these exciting projects, it was difficult to balance them with the class curriculum,” Gaynor said. “So, with the creation of the Graphic Design Club, budding designers are given opportunities to pursue this type of work, allowing them to contribute their art to the wider community.”
The club currently has about 20 members, but deQuintal is hopeful that it will grow as more students take graphic design classes and learn about the club.
“After…[students are] done with Graphics II, right now we don’t have a level three,” deQuintal said. “So, for people who are interested in more graphic design work, they would continue over the next couple of years in the club, which is nice.”
Any student at Valley is able to join the Graphic Design Club.
“While this club does not teach you how to use graphic design platforms…it’s still open to everyone,” Gaynor said. “…If you don’t know how to use graphic design platforms, we welcome you to join and contribute any ideas that you may have.”
The club is brand new and no similar club has existed at PV in prior years.
“[Valley hasn’t] had anything officially graphic-design-club-related,” deQuintal said. “I would say [a] similar style of club would be Yearbook, and that’s not even exactly graphic design. That’s a lot more journalism and recording history of the year, so it’s not exactly the same—graphic design is brand new.”
DeQuintal and Gaynor are both very excited about the future of the club. Gaynor sees graphic design as a passion of his, and he is looking forward to sharing it with his fellow members of the Valley community.
“I’m really excited about [the club],” deQuintal said. “I think being able to have students connect a lot more with the community, the school, and do those kinds of designs that people are really looking for from students, I think it’s going to be a really good bridge between the students and the staff.”
