Eileen O’Neill, right, a graduating senior at Oak Lawn Community High School, stands with graphic design teacher Jacqueline Hartmann in a the design studio at the school in Oak Lawn. They’re holding O’Neill’s award-winning poster. It was a school assignment, but one that became personal for Eileen O’Neill, a senior at Oak Lawn Community High School who will graduate Thursday.
The 8.5 x 11 inch poster, shows a girl smoking and mulling drug sales on her phone with the caption, “DRUGS: The leading cause of depression and death.” She and classmates in Graphic Design 2, an elective at OLCHS, created posters for the contest, which included a graphic design category for the first time this year.
“The fact that I got to use a lot more of my artwork than usual for a poster was pretty nice,” she said. Along with O’Neill’s poster, the OLCHS entries included the work of students Aljay Cuntapay, Daniel Mallo, Alex Merchan and Heather Sterling. “Eileen is a super creative and talented student,” the teacher said. “She’s a very talented artist in general but to be able to carry that into the graphic world is impressive.”