blog 09/09-09/13 -- startup
Our primary focus this week has been to expand our skill-set, pass all the safety tests so we have the ability to use all of the machinery/equipment, and establish a name for ourselves as a small business on Foothill's campus. After finalizing our logo, we set out to construct team lanyards and build a presence on social media. We have also reached out to multiple teachers and organizations on this campus and secured several jobs. With back to school night approaching in the coming week, we hope to soon build an inventory of products to sell and further develop our manufacturing abilities and outreach.

blog 09/16-09/20 -- back to school night
This week was a struggle in terms of getting things ready for back to school night. We were working up until the last few minutes before BTSN started, building our inventory, packaging, and figuring out finances. Our booth, with it's sage-green tablecloth, and earthy-style means of packaging product, represented our team's vibe and aesthetic really well in my opinion. We sold laser-cut acrylic key-chains and wooden coasters in promotion of Foothill, as well as decorative candle holders. One difficulty we faced was getting people to come to our booth and develop interest in what we were selling. I found outreach was incredibly important, to go out with a couple products and some business cards in hand to pitch our team, our products, DTech Inc., and Gravity Water. Jackie and I took that responsibility, and I feel like we generated a lot more business from going out and talking to people than if we had just stuck to our booth, especially since we were set up in a such a secluded area.
blog 09/23-09/27 -- shirts!
This week pretty chill in comparison to the panic-stricken hurry of last week preparing for Back To School Night. There wasn't a specific focus or task, but we did get the design for the AVID shirts completed and are ready for the emulsion process that we will hopefully get to work on next week!
blog 10/02-10/04 -- design
This was a uniquely short week, so it was difficult to get much done production wise. My primary focus was based on designing a) the logo and t-shirts for Foothill's Speech and Debate team, as per our job, and b) designs for a potential jewelry line. The logo and shirts for Speech and Debate are coming along, as pictured left, but communication has been a struggle in regards to quantity and sizes. I've been making jewelry since 7th grade, and I have a very unique style when it comes to that. It's been interesting trying out different things and seeing what is possible with the new access to the machinery in the D-Tech lab. I hope to be able to sell jewelry as an aspect of Saaje Designs.
blog 10/07-10/11 -- who are we?
Similar to last week, the majority of this week was not focused on making things, rather we spent our time discussing our vision for Saaje Designs as a small business, what kind of products we want to make, and the vibe we want to impart. Furthermore, our entire team took the DISC assessment in order to learn more about ourselves as individuals in a working environment, and we realized that our team is pretty well rounded in terms of dominance, influence, compliance/ conscientiousness, and steadiness. Personally, I am pretty even when it comes to those 4 characteristics, at relatively 25% each, which I thought was interesting and somewhat unexpected. It's interesting to see how that reflects in my work habits.
blog 10/21-10/24 -- organization and manufacturing
We found that there were a lot adjustments to be made in our team dynamic, so this week we were really working on communication and ensuring that every member feels represented and is meaningfully contributing to the team. Previously, there was a lot of confusion with regards to who was working on which job, which projects, and when, so we had a group discussion and came to the conclusion that Trello needs to be checked more regularly and we made a group calendar in addition. This was also the week that we had to convert to officially convert to using Microsoft Teams for DTech announcements and distance ourselves from discord which we were previously using. We also had a collaborative effort on finishing the chromebook sticker job for Mrs. Ferris, and starting the process of manufacturing AVID's shirts during FIRE/ Lunch/ after school throughout the week, that we will continue and finish after fall break.
blog 10/14-10/18 -- stickers!
Our team spent a lot of time on the vinyl cutter, both for our job for Mrs. Ferris's Chromebooks, and making Saaje Designs themed stickers to mark our designated cabinet in Mr. Li's room. We made a lot of snail stickers and I think those are really cool!
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blog 11/05-11/08 -- finishing avid shirt order and social media presence
We DID it. This week we completed our first major order of over 130 t-shirts for Foothill's AVID program, which was a huge success. There was a lot of troubleshooting in the process, especially when it came to curing temperature and the ink cracking on the shirts, and we learned that for future shirt orders we should get more than 5 backups for each size. ALSO it was a wild time figuring out where the tarp was to cover our work-space when we were working on the shirts! We found a tarp in a bush somewhere, but it was too small to entirely cover the carport, and we ended up using a lot of masking tape and an umbrella to set it up. Shortly after this adventure, however, we found the actual tarp for the carport, so we took it all down and set up the right tarp so that was a fun waste of time! Overall, though, we were able to solve these issues and all of our shirts came out really well and the quality was super durable. We also worked on revamping our social media presence and posting/ vlogging more, which I was mainly spearheading. We hope to gain more awareness of our business and gravity water's cause through Instagram.
blog 11/11-11/14 -- guest speakers!
Most of class time this week was devoted to listening to various guest speakers present to us about their current careers, how they got to that position, and the options that D-Tech has with regards to that. Tuesday a realtor from REMax, Liz Donnelly, came to teach us marketing strategies and provide us with her insight on promotional products that we could make and sell to realtors. She had gave us a lot of good advice on how to promote our own businesses on social media and how to present ourselves in reaching out for jobs. On Thursday an electrical engineer from Nanocellect, Noah Christie, came and spoke to us about the intersection of biological sciences and technology. It was cool to see a new perspective on the role technology can play in people's lives.
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blog 11/18-11/21 -- business babeyy!!
Finishing our hefty AVID shirt order left us in a bit of lull in terms of work to do, so we´ve been focusing on organizing our trello page and calendar, assigning pending jobs to our team members, and even reaching out to finding new potential jobs and clients. As the lead for our order for Foothill Tech Speech and Debate Team merchandise, I have been working on finalizing and digitizing the shirt/sweatshirt and pin designs, as well as obtaining the amount of people for each product. If I've learned anything this week, it's that no matter how short or simple it is, or the amount of times you've announced it, or time you've given people to complete it, it is really, really hard to get everyone to fill out a google form.
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blog 11/26 -- happy turkey day!
We only had a two days of school this week, and one day of class time in D-Tech, so not much could be accomplished. However, I did obtain one new job for our team, and I started drafting an email to several more potential clients. I got us a job for jewelry from one of the staff members on campus, and I'm really excited to design it and start building it. I look forward to get back into making jewelry again and learning how to make this new style! I also started an email I am planning on sending to all of the music departments in VUSD, and we can probably get a lot of orders from that in terms of shirts and pins and the like promotional merchandise. I also look forward to learning emulsion in the following week/s for the Speech and Debate shirts/sweatshirts after we get back from our brief holiday break.
blog 12/02-12/05 -- financial literacy and the solider project
Two of our primary focuses this week (as per the title) were improving our financial literacy as well as preparing for the class Soldier Project House Joust. Tuesday our team spent time dividing current and potential jobs among people and within that discussion Jacq and I were assigned to coming up with the design for the Soldier Project Awards. On Thursday a guest speaker came and lectured us on general finances and how to spot and analyze different techniques used in the advertisement and promotion of products. It was interesting to learn how the value of money and products us based on trust and how that reflects in the habits of consumers. I look forward to learning more about the intricacies of finances next week as well as continuing designing the various Soldier Project Awards.