As a graphic design teacher at Cranston Area Career & Technical Center (CACTC), Regina Hogan looks to provide students with experiential learning opportunities. One of her senior classes recently spent 6 to 8 weeks creating, designing, printing and applying 84 vinyl decals for WaterFire’s 12 trucks at the WaterFire Art Center on Valley Street in Providence.

Before becoming a Cranston educator, Hogan taught at William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School in Lincoln for four years where she met fellow teacher, Jerry Suggs, who was the SkillsUSA advisor.

After 30 years of teaching, Suggs retired in 2017 and went on to become WaterFire’s manager of educational programming and partnerships, where he now acts as a liaison between WaterFire and Rhode Island’s schools. Suggs reached out to graphics teachers across the state about starting partnerships and Hogan jumped at the opportunity. Since then, CACTC students have interned in the marketing and development departments.

The vinyl decal project has been their most recent partnership started two years ago – just before the pandemic. It had been on pause until this past October.

Hogan said when the conversation about this project resumed with WaterFire, she visited the nonprofit to look at the trucks and discuss possible vinyl sizes.

Hogan mentioned that the class gave WaterFire creative input on where they thought best to place the decals as well as their potential sizes. The final decision?

Decals would be placed on the back of the trucks, both sides and on the driver and passenger door. The dimensions of the largest decal was four feet by three and a half feet and would be displayed on the back of the trucks.

Hogan explained the branding project helped WaterFire’s advertising and promotional outreach. Prior to her students’ work, WaterFire’s box trucks had been plain and the nonprofit had some of their trucks previously stolen. WaterFire thought decals would help make the trucks easier to locate if they were stolen in the future.

Students worked with WaterFire’s team via email and Google Meet – sharing their digital mockups that were created using Adobe Illustrator. Laura Duclos, director of creative services, was heavily involved in the project.

Twelfth grader Estinna Dyer said her favorite part of the program was applying decals to the trucks and that the experience piqued her interest in wrapping cars – she would like to get certified in this.

“It was a really cool opportunity and I’d definitely do it again,” said Dyer, mentioning that if she ever drives around and sees a WaterFire truck, she can say ‘she was a part of that.’

Seven students in Hogan’s class spent a total of seven days in early January applying the vinyl to WaterFire’s trucks. Six of those days, students were at the art center for two hours which was during their regular class period. Hogan and her students then spent one full day on site from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

When it came to the application process, Ani Ayanyan explained students were working in class with designs that were ten times smaller than the finished product. One of the surprising elements was the pressure to make sure the design was perfectly straight when it was applied to the trucks.

“It took five people to look at it to get perfectly straight,” said Ayanyan.

Ayanyan explained how people held the vinyl from the top and bottom, with one person standing a few feet back to make sure the decal was straight. To make sure bubbles didn’t appear in the transfer, students used a heat gun to remove the transfer and kept tension in the decal.

The material is weather resistant and the warranty says it lasts up to seven years. Depending on the weather, and if there is continual contact with the vinyl or if it’s cleaned with a brush it might not last as long. Hogan said it could last at least three years without weather damage.

“As a Graphic Communications CTE teacher I strive to provide my students with the most relative hands-on learning experience that I can,” Hogan told WaterFire.

“Being able to give students the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-world design and print production projects is what makes this program successful. Having industry partners like WaterFire is what helps me make these projects a reality.

It really creates a learning environment that challenges and excites my students.

Learning should be fun, relevant and engaging and this Vehicle Vinyl Decal project was all of the above.”

WaterFire has already been getting great response from the decals.

“One of our staff members had to use one of the trucks and he reported that people were honking and waving,” said Suggs.

Suggs went on to explain that the staff member stopped at a gas station and people came up to him asking

if there was an event happening since the truck was out on the road.

“It looks wonderful,” Suggs said. “They did a great job.”

In addition to the WaterFire project, students are working on creating 2022 calendars and are partnering with a culinary class within their school who are creating their own restaurants.

Hogan’s students will be designing the restaurant logos and menus. WaterFire, the non-profit arts organization located in Providence, also partners with two other schools, including Davies High School and the Providence Career and Technical Center.